Buondì. I got an email from Jenny this morning, which I thought would be of general interest. It’s a follow up to the recent post on learning languages by watching TV. She wrote: You mentioned in your email that you listen to the news on Swedish TV, and even to a simplified version of the […]
How fast do fingernails grow? Faster than you think.
I was going to write about how fast my beard has grown since I stopped shaving before Christmas. Think not quite Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant, but well on the way. Then I remembered that 70 percent of people reading this are female, and I’m politely assuming you ladies don’t have facial hair. So today […]
“What do you want to study today?”
“What do you want to study today?” asked my online teacher this morning. Actually, I was hoping she’d have an idea. “Jag vet inte”, I replied. “What do you suggest?” “Let’s start a circus!” she said. Must be some sort of Swedish idiom… But it wasn’t a problem to find stuff to talk about – […]
Caravaggio in the alleyways of Rome
Buondì. I’m late today as I had an online lesson this morning, then spent a couple of hours preparing our new easy reader for publication. This one’s a B2 (upper-intermediate) level, so probably on the hard side if you’re just starting out with Italian. But ideal for all you old hands! It’s called ‘Caravaggio nei […]
“How you are managing to improve your vocabulary?”
Buondì. I’m massively early today, as my wife had to get up at five-something to catch the train to Roma, for the annual general meeting of ASILS, to which our Italian school in Bologna proudly belongs. Beh, that’s the commercial break done for the day. So on to business! Thanks to those of you who […]
Studying Italian? What’s important, and what’s less so
Never be afraid to argue with your teacher (some of us talk such nonsense!) This morning I had an interesting conversation with my online Swedish teacher, in Swedish mostly, which was good. She wanted me to study a certain area of grammar, again. It’s important, she said. I’ve already studied that particular perversity at least […]
‘I’ is for ‘indicazioni’, that’s to say ‘directions’
A classic false friend for Italians learning English (and vice versa) is ‘indicazioni’, which means ‘directions’ in Italian, but is often translated badly: Excuse me. Could you give me indications for the railroad station, please? If you got lost in Italy these days, you’d probably just pull out your smartphone and fire up Google Maps. […]
A riff on the value of memorizing vocabulary…
Buondì. Today’s tidied-up page from the vocabulary section of the club website is ‘Giorni / Days‘, a classic beginner topic! If you actually ARE a beginner, take this as your cue to learn these seven words. The hardest part about memorizing a set of vocabulary such as days, months, numbers, or anything that will inevitably […]
Giochiamo a carte?
Buondì. Fancy a game of chess? No? Allora, giochiamo a carte! Dai!* Still no? You’re busy with the PlayStation® 4? Oh well, that’s modern parenting. I’ll just go back to studying languages. Talking of which, today’s free material for learning Italian is the latest of my rewrites of the tatty and error-filled pages in the […]
Women don’t know anything about politics
Buondì. I’m late again today, sorry! It’s because I spent part of the morning listening to the news and weather forecast in Swedish (someone got shot, it’s snowing). And the other part reading and listening to our newest Italian easy reader. And then publishing it, over at our new shop. This one is rather good, […]