Buondì. Here’s a copy/paste from an article in February: +++ Next week NativeSpeakerTeachers.com has it’s twice-yearly Free Trial Lesson Offer, a chance for anyone who hasn’t yet tried a free thirty-minute online lesson with a native speaker teacher to do so. For years, the one thing that was missing from my own language learning was […]
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Buondì. Honorary mentions today go to my dad, who’s been in hospital and is now at home recovering, and club member Harold who wrote to object to my rhetorical question: “How can someone NOT know how to download, open, and SAVE a .pdf file?” Having a relative in hospital is alarming at the best of […]
Alla scoperta dell’informatica!
Buondì. A couple of years ago, before artificial intelligence made freelance writers redundant, I was getting a lot of pitches from young people who were keen to write articles, ebooks, basically anything, as long as it was paid. And I always pay. I responded to one or two of them (that’s how I found some […]
Dusty corners to explore, and a public service announcement!
Buondì. The final days of my ‘break’: Monday I’ll be back to the usual routine, plugging a new ebook and taxiing baby Bug around Bologna. Today though, a quick whizz around some dusty corners of the club website which you might have forgotten, or never have explored. What’s left to tell you about? In approximate […]
How not to be one of ‘those’ learners…
Buondì. We slept the whole night through! Probably ten hours or more. But I dreamt of small animals… There’s a blue sky here in south-west England, and the streets are busy with half-term families wearing rubber boots and wind-proof jackets. Today we’re headed for Truro, to look at the shops and eat pasties. Probably while […]
Worn out. Taking a (sort of) break.
Buondì. While driving Bug to the petting zoo this morning, after a particularly disrupted night of not-much-sleep, I had an epiphany. Today I’m supposed to be preparing an ‘eBook of the Week’ offer, then writing an interesting and entertaining article, and then packing for a trip we’re taking this week. During the trip I’d then […]
Do grammar ‘rules’ make you nauseous, too?
Buondì. After more than three weeks of waking up multiple times each night to microwave Bug’s three-hourly meals, you’ll understand that my energy levels are low, and that work has piled up to an absurd height. Today I have to start clearing a path through it, before the weekend when the petting zoo is closed, […]
Two pizzas and two red wines. Grazie!
Buondì. Here’s an exercise for you: 1.) The spaghetti is/are just right this time, not too soft, perfectly salted. Well done! 2.) Can we just have two pizza/pizzas and two wine/wines? Grazie! This provoked by emails received from a variety of Ancient Greek enthusiasts, pointing out that I used the phrase ‘hoi polloi‘ incorrectly while […]
This week why not brush up your Ancient Greek?
Buondì. British club members will know that certain odious recent prime ministers have been the products of the ‘public school’ system, ‘public’ in the British context actually meaning ‘private and very costly’. ‘State’ schools are for the hoi polloi, ‘public’ schools in the UK being reserved for the sort of elite who will be ‘first […]
How do you know?
Buondì. Our miniature new house guest, Bug, and I were sitting outside, enjoying a little late-afternoon sunshine, and chatting with neighours as they passed by, mostly on their way home from work. Bug was awake, which he is more and more each day, and telling me loud and clear that he’d like to eat, and […]