Buondì. Type “learn Italian” into Google and you might find OnlineItalianClub.com on the first page of results (though it varies, Google is fickle.) I tried it with Bing, just out of curiosity, and we were somewhere near the bottom of the second page, which still isn’t bad for what is basically a hobby website. No […]

Buondì. Here’s an observation of how human brains learn foreign languages, using my own brain as an example. Amazingly, considering I’ve spent nearly thirty years teaching what for others is a foreign language, and have learnt several languages, to a reasonable level, it’s really, really rare that I actually notice myself learning. Of course, I’m […]

Buondì. This from Caroline over the weekend: Dear Daniel Something to cheer you up: I’ve finally realised that it doesn’t matter what the translation of a word or a sentence is, it just matters that you understand it! Caroline But, club members will be spluttering into their cornflakes as they read this, how could you […]

Buondì. Useful word, ‘ennesimo’ (‘ennesima’ if the noun is feminine) – literally it means nth, so to the power of a number, that is to say ‘very many’ of something. But you could translate it as ‘umpteenth’, as in, “I’ve told you umpteen times that…!” Anyway, yesterday afternoon I was teaching kids, online, as we’re […]

Buondì. 2 giugno (months aren’t capitalized in Italian) is a ‘giorno festivo’ here in Italy, that is to say a public holiday. It’s La Festa della Repubblica Italiana and the Wikipedia page I linked to there will tell you all about it (in Italian, of course!) For which reason, I have the children here, or […]

Buondì. It’s June tomorrow, and while it’s still spring here in Italy, the summer is ‘coming soon’, which is exciting! Yesterday we were in Rimini, on the Adriatic coast, enjoying a windy but sunny day, with plenty of good clean air to breathe in. Fingers crossed there’ll be more such weekends in the next few […]

Buondì. A while ago, a club member sent me a link to a blog (in English) on learning Swedish, assuming I’d be interested, given that I’m learning Swedish. Actually, I wasn’t really. I’m learning Swedish mostly by listening to the radio, doing conversation with a native speaker and, to a lesser extent, reading the news […]

Buondì. You have to write a letter to your bank manager, which is something you’ve never done before and have no idea how to go about. (Do bank managers even exist now? And letters? But bear with me…) Perhaps you’ll be writing in your own native tongue, as in the video clip I link to […]

Buondì. We all have attitudes, which may be helpful or otherwise. Our attitudes, to many aspects of our lives, including our approaches to language-learning, are likely to affect the outcomes of our actions. Think, for example, about work, about relationships, about bringing up children. What we think about these things affects what we do and […]

Buondì. An interesting emailed question from Karen, who writes: You’ve continually advised to read for the general gist, not word for word. I totally agree with this and have always done so. I read every EasyItalianNews email and without really trying, I believe my vocabulary has increased considerably. However in every Italian class I’ve been […]