Buondì. Every thought of writing your autobiography? The reason I ask is that on Monday we’ll be publishing the fourth in our series of ‘easy reader ebook’ versions of classics from the canon of Italian literature. We did the mad puppet, Pinocchio, the even madder spoilt rich kid, Moscarda (Uno, nessuno e cento mila) and […]
“Join the conversation!”
Buondì. Today will be my third day back at ‘work’, in the sense of actually having to go to a place, stay there for a while, and interact with flesh and blood people in a physical space (while wearing a mask, of course!) And it makes a nice change, to be honest. On the flip […]
I expect you knew that. It seems everyone did except me
Buondì. My neighbour – I’ve probably mentioned him before, the bodybuilder, married to a lady fitness instructor, they live opposite and are always ready for a chat, especially during the lockdown – yep, that’s the one, you remember! Anyway, over the weekend his elderly father came to visit, as you do on a Sunday: show […]
I dreamt of students ‘learning’ new words
Buondì. I don’t normally dream about teaching. Perhaps it’s knowing that I’ll have some courses starting soon and so will be back in the saddle. Or maybe it’s witnessing my daughter’s misery as she spends the entire week waiting for an oral exam at university (online, of course.) The poor girl is number fifty-seven on […]
Back to work after a public holiday (and a 3 month lockdown)
Buondì. Gotta be quick today (no, really!) as it’s back to work for the first time since March ninth! Which means the familiar, but actually now quite unfamiliar, routine of packing my office bag with laptop, cable and lunch, doing the dishes from the evening before, leaving lunch instructions for the kids, choosing something to […]
New Easy Reader / Mini-Book Club: I Malavoglia
Buondì. As mentioned on Friday, today we have a new, B1 (intermediate) -level ‘easy Italian reader’ ebook, the third in our series of simplified versions of classic Italian literature. Once more we find ourselves back in the nineteenth-century, this time in a Sicilian fishing village… ‘I Malavoglia’, literally ‘the Unwillings’ (an ironic nickname coined, in […]
What makes a text ‘easy’ or ‘hard’?
Buondì. A quickie today, as I promised my wife I’d be ready for coffee with her in an hour, and I’ve spent the past 55 minutes doing my weekly Turkish conversation lesson. Yesterday I started on next week’s new Mini-Book Club choice (see our Literature page if you have no idea what I’m talking about), […]
And yet…
Buondì. In reply to Monday’s article About self-teaching, this from Anne in Chicago: Well, I couldn’t work my way all the way through this email, but it seems to me that the best way to learn a foreign language is to go live somewhere they speak it. Yes, well, those of us who are, or […]
About self-teaching
Buondì. “Don’t do it like that, do it like this!” you might have heard from a teacher. Or perhaps, “THIS is how you should be organising your notes / reading / pronouncing that word.” Assuming your teacher was/is competent (I normally don’t), and that you choose to follow their advice, then you should be, more […]
How to achieve something BIG!
Buondì. I’m utterly fed up with arguing with club members about why they should ‘just read’ and not use a dictionary while doing so. And yes, I know there are lots of times when, actually, you SHOULD use a dictionary – for example, when you are ‘studying’ rather than ‘just reading’, or if you’re being […]