Buondì. “To translate or not to translate, that is the question.” Or rather, that is A question. But really, not one you should be asking yourself. For the answer is, or should be, obvious. Don’t translate. A caveat to that: if you’re training to be a translator, or someone is paying you to translate something, […]
Useful things you could do today (and the rest of the week!)
Buondì. It rained overnight in Bologna, so was cloudy and cooler this morning when I woke. I hadn’t slept at all well, due to corona virus-related worrying, possibly aggravated by a rather-too-rich homemade pizza (con salame piccante e molto gorgonzola!) and a bottle of strong Spanish red (Lidl has an ‘all things Spanish’ offer on, […]
About ‘speaking’ better in Italian (or any language)
Buondì. An email came in from Shelley, who, when I suggested her issues would be of general interest, agreed that I could use her name and quote her: I was wondering if you have any [ways of measuring progress] for the spoken word instead of the written one? I came to Italy with my better […]
Oggi prendo due piccioni con una fava!
Buondì. I have to be quick, as I already spent way too long answering emails from club members and commenting in the mini-book club! So I thought that today, to save time, I’d try and catch two pigeons with one bean, as Italians say. (The equivalent English expression also has a pair of birds but […]
The Great Escape!
Buondì. I started writing later today as, beard-trimmed, hair-combed, and clad in clean shorts and a new polo shirt, I made my dash for freedom (like Steve McQueen in this famous scene.) Stefi and I, clutching a fresh face mask each, and carefully-completed copies of the new ‘modello autodichiarazione’, headed OUT, to our local park […]
What I say to myself when I feel guilty about not studying
Buondì. The ‘Mini-Book Club‘ is off to a flying start. Thanks to everyone who has joined us to read ‘Pinocchio’, either in the original version (available free online) or using our simplified ‘easy reader’ version. The former is free (there are tips on where to find it on the ‘Mini-Book Club‘ page). The latter is […]
New ‘easy reader’ ebook & ‘Mini-Book Club’ to go with it
Buondì. As mentioned on Monday, we have a new, beginner/elementary-level (A1/2) ‘easy Italian reader’ ebook, the first in a series of simplified versions of classic Italian literature. It’s ‘Le avventure di Pinocchio‘, Carlo Collodi’s classic children’s story of a talking puppet running riot, now rewritten for students of Italian! Pinocchio is a wooden puppet but […]
A quick article about nothing much
Buondì. Ever had one of those days? So far it’s been a litany of things going wrong. My wife has been muttering in Italian about a series of plagues and all we need now being the crickets (I think she meant locusts) and we’ll have had them all. But ‘coraggio’ I told myself, tackle the […]
Before, during or after?
Buondì. Two brief ‘segnalazioni’: 1.) The ‘Book Club’ project, reading Umberto Eco’s Il nome della rosa together, has reached the ‘eat cakes and chat about the book’ stage. You’re all invited to my place to discuss your reading experience, and the book itself. No, not really. That wouldn’t be practical, and besides, ‘social-distancing’. However, we […]
Another pedant kamikazes in the Battle of the Apostrophe
Buondì. Before the traditional Wednesday morning lockdown moan, here’s something uplifting from Manoel in Brasil: Soggetto: Grazie mille Contenuti: La ragione per cui sto scrivendo questo e-mail è perché ho voglia di ringraziarte pelo il tuo sito, ho imparato abbastanza studianto atravverso le lezione di Listening e oggi già sono capace di communicarmi senza dificoltà, […]