Buondì. Today, some advice on how to choose the right study materials for your level in Italian. But first, a problem. ‘Level’ is a slippery concept. The idea of ‘knowing’ a language is itself problematic. Let’s imagine you walk into a university department in the capital city of your country. Walking down the corridor, there’s […]

Buondì. Over the summer I managed to read a few books, which shamefully I don’t usually find time to do. One of which was on diet (not dieting). The theme was the importance, to our intestinal microbes, of eating a range of different foods. So as to ensure a balance of nutritional elements, and therefore […]

As I mentioned in Friday’s article ‘How to end the summer language-learning hiatus‘, the trick to getting started again with self-study is to make a specific decision to study, and then to actually do so! Making the initial commitment takes just seconds, and so isn’t hard. I decided to spend an hour studying Swedish on […]

Buondì. Doesn’t September just fly? In Bologna, Italy, the kids are going back to school today (or tomorrow, as each school seems to be different). Which will make things quieter at our house. And statistics for the club website show that more and more people are coming back after the holidays, determined to get started […]

Buondì. Some naked commercialism today, as the Club has bills to pay! Yesterday I published three new Italian-English parallel texts, at different levels. Do take a look. The details are below. Each has a free sample chapter. Download it to get the Italian original text along with a line-by-line English translation. They’re good reading practice, even […]

Buondì. As you might know, I’m married to an Italian, which explains why I live in Italy. Before meeting her, I’d visited Italy precisely once, hadn’t liked it very much, and had no plans to ever return. But there you go. Life’s funny like that. My wife’s Italian father married a woman from Sweden, so […]

Buondì. Today I have an intermediate-level listening task (with transcript) for you. The grammar focus is ‘i pronomi diretti‘. I confess I find pronouns confusing, so I’ll say nothing more. But if you enjoy Italian grammar, this’ll be right up your street. The topic of the audio text is ‘Italian weddings‘, something else that isn’t […]

I’m going to have to get my act together and commission some new material for the club site. My cupboard, of new or modified exercises to promote in these thrice-weekly articles, is almost bare. Here’s one of the remaining, shrivelled morsels: I pronomi indefiniti It’s from an old series of ‘grammar listenings’, each audio text […]

Buondì. It’s been raining here in Bologna. Which is very welcome, as everything had got very dry. And last night’s stormy weather has brought cooler air, which is also welcome. Though it messes up my plans for the weekend. Oh well, I’ll stay home and spend the time writing something useful! +++ So, you’re learning […]