When I wake up in the morning, I open my wardrobe and decide which hat to put on. Yes, I know that not many people wear hats these days, but I’m a busy guy and it helps me remember what I’m supposed to be focusing on at any particular moment of the day! Often it’s […]

Sorry I’m later today. Yesterday was my fiftieth birthday. My kids cooked me a surprise breakfast of bacon and eggs, at six-forty a.m. Later I went to work, but with just two individual students, both of whom seemed happy to see me, it wasn’t exactly stressful. In the evening my wife and I shared a […]

OnlineItalianClub.com ‘members’ range in level from complete beginners, who are just starting out on their journey with the Italian language, to those at the other end of the scale – perhaps college students studying at a high level or Italian enthusiasts who have been with us since the beginning, way back in 2013 (ciao ragazzi!) […]

Buondì. Remember the ‘study checklist’, which I last mentioned back in January, or at the start of February? Well, things being as they are, I haven’t made much progress with it. Just the A1 – Beginner/Elementary version is eleven pages long! But the end of the spring term is looming, and things are getting quieter. […]

Buondì. Today I have two free intermediate-level Italian listening tasks for you. But if you’re just starting out with Italian, don’t (necessarily) let my description of the level as ‘intermediate’ put you off. Free material is, after all, free material and what you can understand when you listen is a function of a lot more […]

Buondì. And a beautiful spring ‘dì’ it is too, here in Bologna. Though it promises to be a busy one, as I have several meetings lined up, and am teaching in the evening. So, to business! First I have three more ‘old listenings with new exercises’ for you. The level is A2 (pre-intermediate) which should […]

Yesterday, besides various customer service emails about ebooks and online lessons, I had a couple of interesting ones about listening. Philip wanted to share his approach, which seems very considered, so I’m sure he won’t mind if I copy and paste what he wrote. He’s talking about how he uses the easy readers: One thing […]

A wise old man once said… When you’re learning a language, you start off on a high. There’s all the excitement of a new project. The possibility of achieving great things! But beware! The ‘up’ can quickly change to a ‘down’. The difficulty of the task becomes impossible to ignore. It’s soon evident that success […]

I’ll be fifty in a few weeks. If you’re of a similar age, or older, you might remember the TV show from the ‘seventies, ‘Mission: Impossible’. “Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to improve your Italian reading and listening skills. Should you or any of your team be caught or killed, OnlineItalianClub.com […]

Yesterday evening I studied Swedish for an hour, as the plan dictates. Tuesdays and Thursdays I don’t teach in the evening, so I schedule an hour for each of those two days. Many thanks, by the way, to my wife, who helps out with my learning by washing the dinner dishes. Friday, Saturday and Sunday […]