Buondì. Bet you didn’t know that the drive-by shooting was invented by the Ukrainian anarchist-revolutionary, Nestor Makhno. Wikipedia’s helpful page puts it like this: He combined horse and carriage with a machine gun in order to quickly assault targets then flee before they could properly react. Once motorised transport became ubiquitous, the tactic was widely […]
Elliot the moose has come home!
Buondì. On the bus to work yesterday morning, as is my habit, I was listening to the Swedish news headlines on an app on my phone – bluetooth headphones jammed in my ears to squeeze the extra thirty minutes or so of listening practice into my day. When one of the app’s headlines caught my […]
“the information on the net was not well-explained.”
Buondì. This from Leigh, via email, overnight: Hi there I was wondering if you had an article on the verbs trattare and trattarsi? I don’t know how and when to use them and the information on the net was not well explained. Your lessons are well written and easy to understand and then the follow […]
Un tris di zuppe toscane
Buondì. Stefi and I went to Florence on Saturday to visit our daughter, who’s in the first year of ‘medicina’ and has recently moved into an apartment with two other girls. It was the first time I’d been to ‘Firenze’ (other than for a business meeting) since she showed me around when we were ‘courting’, […]
I should go to jail, apparently
Buondì. Before today’s rant, here’s a quick reminder about this week’s new Italian ‘easy reader’ ebook, Natale a sorpresa. Until Sunday night, it’s priced at just £5.99, thereafter the usual easy reader price of £7.99, which is about the price of a large beer in the pub we were in last night. As a language-learner […]
Who knows what the F (Function) keys on a computer actually do?
Buondì. I’m a little delayed this morning, as my Windows 10 laptop wanted an update, which means switching off all the things I usually keep handy on my desktop (email accounts, the shop interface, payment processors) and letting the machine get on with renewing itself while I scrub last night’s dinner dishes and clear up […]
New Italian easy reader ebook: Natale a sorpresa
Buondì. As mentioned last week, today we have a new, and very Christmassy, ‘easy Italian reader’ ebook. It’s called Natale a sorpresa, the level is B2 (upper-intermediate) and this week it costs just £5.99. As always, you can check out the free sample chapter (.pdf) to get an idea of the level, length and format […]
What’s an ‘easy reader’? What’s a ‘parallel text’?
Buondì. Here’s a clarification about two of the types of ebook we sell in our online shop, revenues from which go to maintain the free material on the club website and support the development of EasyItalianNews.com, which so far is only partially-funded by donations (many thanks to those who help!) So, there are two types […]
Why you should quit studying
Buondì. Sometimes I feel guilty about not ‘studying’. That’s to say, not sitting down with my Swedish course book or Turkish grammar book and working my way through a pre-planned syllabus of material that should, in theory, improve my level in the languages I’m learning. But then I say to myself, hey, I’m improving anyway, […]
The limits of technology
Buondì. It’s grey and raining where I am this morning, but at least it’s no longer November. I can’t stand that month, and long for it to pass. And now it has! I expect you’ve also been bombarded with Black Friday/Cyber Monday emails over the weekend? I won’t say I’m fed up with it – […]