For those of you facing a lot of hanging around this Easter weekend, here’s something useful you can be getting on with while waiting for the relatives to arrive and the lamb to roast (or vice versa.)
This is the third of our series of A2 Italian listening practice exercises. (To find the others, just scroll back through recent articles here.)
If you’re new to language-learning (or to this site), there’s an explanation of what A2 means (and in general, how to evaluate your level in Italian) here.
So, ready to go with the listening practice?
To hear the track, scroll down this page and click the white arrow in the orange button in the top left corner of the ’embedded’ audio player box thingy.
And if you don’t see an embedded audio box thingy (it should have our logo in it), an orange button, or a white arrow?
That’ll be because you’re reading this in an e-mail, or on a smartphone or other device which doesn’t permit the audio plugin to display. In which case, all is not lost, click here to view this article on our website.
Wait… Just one more thing!
Listening practice materials are precious. They’re expensive to produce, and it’s not always easy to find stuff at just the right level for you.
So, it’s important to get as much out of each track as you can. We advise:
- Listen at least once without the transcript (it’s harder, but it’s doing you good)
- Listen again multiple times with the transcript
- Finally, try the track again without the words…
- Leave any study of grammar or vocabulary issues until AFTER you’ve gone through points 1-3 – just focus on the listening.
Va bene. NOW you can click on the white arrow in the orange button in the embedded audio plugin with our logo as a background. Or throw your tablet out of the window and power up your old desktop…. (Click here to view this article on our website…)
3.INDICAZIONI STRADALI – CASA DI CARLO
Carlo vive in un quartiere di periferia. Per fortuna però l’ufficio dove lavora non è molto lontano. Per arrivarci infatti Carlo esce di casa e prosegue dritto per circa duecento metri e poi gira alla prima a destra. Prosegue dritto per altri trecento metri e poi all’incrocio svolta a sinistra. Il suo ufficio si trova sulla destra in un palazzo di recente costruzione.
Anche per andare al supermercato a fare la spesa Carlo impiega circa venti minuti a piedi. Infatti Carlo esce di casa e prosegue dritto fino al primo incrocio. Lì attraversa la strada e gira a sinistra.
Dopo trecento metri svolta a sinistra in Via Garibaldi . Il supermercato si trova sul lato sinistro della strada, di fronte al semaforo.
Purtroppo però la casa di Carlo è lontana dalla piscina che frequenta due volte alla settimana e che si trova in centro.
Per arrivarci Carlo prende il motorino e impiega mezz’ora. Prima prosegue dritto sulla via principale per un kilometro, poi alla rotatoria svolta a destra. La strada poi fa una grande curva. Dopo la curva Carlo gira a sinistra ed entra nel parcheggio della piscina.
Anche se abita in periferia Carlo non vuole cambiare casa, perché la trova molto comoda.
Online Conversation Groups Re-Start Next Week!
“I’m not sure if my Internet connection is good enough to benefit from one of the Online Conversation Groups. What can I do?”
I’m glad you asked me that.
The online Italian conversation groups work with a commercial ‘meeting’/videoconferencing system. It’s simple to use and doesn’t require you to install any software on your computer.
But any form of sharing of audio or video will require you to have a reasonable data connection, or the experience will be less-than-satisfactory for you and for other participants in your group.
If you’re not sure that your connection is up to it, we can help you find out. Just write to us (info@onlineitalianclub.com) and we can arrange a technical test. The conversation teacher (Paolo) will set it up for you at a convenient day/time. He’ll show you how the system works, and if there are connection issues, you can decide together whether this is a good choice for you.
More details about our online Italian conversation groups (starting next week… enroll now!!)
Feeling flush? Take individual online Italian lessons instead with one of our expert teachers.
Or just generally got the urge to send us some money to thank us for the wonderful listening materials and helpful articles?
Karen says
Another beautifully enunciated piece. The speed is perfect for a learner and the topic extremely useful. I am beginning to get a bit more confident giving and taking directions and this exercise is perfect. It is so easy to feel nervous if you thing you are not going to understand. Usually that means it will be harder to understand. The beauty of these listening exercises is that they are so calm. Not always my experience when trying to follow a real, excitable, high speed conversation.
Daniel says
Thanks for the feedback, Karen.
Yes, it’s true that ‘real-life listening’ can be much more stressful!
But what I’m hoping is that, by building people up gradually, level by level, their confidence will improve along with the ability to actually hear stuff. The result should be a greater ability to understand what others say, and to manage conversations ‘in the field’, so to speak.
But we’ll see! There are still four and a half levels to go…