Buondì. When you learn, and use, a foreign language, there are always things that will floor you. Sometimes it’s the same thing, again and again! For example, when I have heard, over the decades, my Italian wife talking about Donkey shot. First I thought she was going crazy, or that I’d misheard. What did donkeys […]
About understanding, tra virgolette
Buondì. Driving our small guest to her kindergarten on the other side of our city each weekday morning is an opportunity to listen to the radio, a station that combines monologues on political themes with ‘rock’, so the Rolling Stones, Bruce, and plenty of newer stuff that I’m not familiar with, but enjoy anyway. Music […]
“Ho già dato!”
Buondì. Someone wrote to me this week asking if I had plans to offer EasyItalianNews.com also for other languages – he provided a list of those he’s learning. It would be great if we could do the same thing, that is to say, produce 150-odd FREE bulletins each and every year, for this language, and […]
Half-price ‘Ebook of the Week’ (and 25% off history titles!)
Buondì. I’m going to keep this extremely short today, as it’s the end of the month and I have teachers, writers, editors, and various other people to pay – an important but time-consuming and tiresome job! E poi, the weekend was chock full of parks, swings, slides, things to fall off or into, things that […]
Tiè!
Buondì. We’re going out tonight, a rare event, and the first time that we’re taking Roomie anywhere. It’s dinner at some friends’ downtown attic apartment, and polenta e ragù is on the menu apparently, so end-of-winter comfort food, both traditional enough to be chic, and filling to boot. We’ve known this couple since we first […]
Beach body ready already
Buondì. At this time of the year, people might become more assiduous about gym attendance, more attentive to toning up muscles wasted by winter months, and perhaps even book a couple of sessions under the sun lamp, why not? This with a view to having our ‘beach body’ ready for when summer begins. We’ll be […]
Needs must
Buondì. We were five around the pizzas yesterday evening, one of my adult daughters having coming back from college briefly. All our kids’ lives, we’ve spoken English at home, or at least I have. They’ll speak Italian to their mother, and to each other, but never to me. Often that means I’m left on the […]
An obvious life-hack for language learners who drive crappy cars
Buondì. Still ill, still suffering from lack of sleep, and still short of time, so I’ll keep this short, and apologies if it’s so banal that it doesn’t help anyone. I write about language-learning three times a week, every week, so over a hundred and fifty times a year. It’s not always easy to think […]
A rant, and reminders
Buondì. My roomie and I have both got horrible coughs, so I was awake more times last night than the total number of hours I was in bed. About double that number, I’d estimate. My wife had taken herself off to the spare bedroom, and so slept well, she reported. I’ve checked with a rapid […]
My bread-machine pizza dough recipe /- 50% eBook of the Week
Buondì. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that on Saturday mornings I use my bread machine to prepare pizza dough for Sunday evening. Several people wrote to say they did the same thing, to complain that this was sacrilege, or just to ask: “Can you share your recipe for bread machine pizza dough?” Well […]