Buondì. Everyone knows that handwriting is an obsolete skill. Mine has always beeen terrible, but these days I only ever pick up a pen when I need to write something on the shopping list stuck to a fridge with a magnet: “beer” Young people still seem to communicate in text, and extremely rapidly, using only […]

Buondì. I get a lot of silly questions: via email, on the phone, and from students (and staff) at the school. But this one I made up, to illustrate today’s point: “How long will it take until I can understand everything I hear?” Actually, it’s not such a daft thing to ask, assuming that: 1.) […]

Buondì. Some kid came into the school the other day while I was sitting on reception hoping to mind my own business. He wanted to do a course to prepare for a certain English exam – I’ll spare you the details. (We also teach English, though a lot less these days, mostly it’s Italian now.) […]

Buondì. I don’t usually email on Sundays – we all have better things to do, I’m sure. However, this is just a quick reminder that the ‘Free Trial Online Italian Lesson‘ offer ends tonight. The next chance to try a one-to-one lesson with a native-speaker teacher won’t be until February. Why wait? November’s a boring […]

Buondì. Time’s running out to book your free online Italian lesson via Skype. The offer ends on Sunday night. 115 people have already signed up, though if past performance is a guide, not all of them will get around to actually doing the free lesson. We usually figure that if we get 150 people to […]

Buondì. A quick reminder about the ‘Free Online Italian Lesson via Skype’ offer, which began on Monday. Full details are here. 60 people already signed up in the first two days. The offer lasts until Sunday night and the plan is to give away a hundred free lessons… So if you’re interested, better ‘darti una […]

(The articles I’ll be publishing this week are the same as or similar to those published in November 2018 and February 2019, at the time of our previous Free Trial Lesson Offers. They worked well then, so I’ll be taking a break and catching up on other work. Things’ll be back to normal on Monday […]

Buondì. I’ve just been having an online Turkish lesson with my regular teacher, Ayşegül. It’s her ‘name day’, she tells me, the first of November being the day that Italians celebrate anyone who isn’t named after one of the other three hundred and sixty-four saints. I’ve just checked and found that mine is October 10th. […]

Buondì. Next week, starting on Monday, we’ll be having our popular November ‘Free Trial Lesson’ offer. Which means that, FOR NEW STUDENTS ONLY, the price of this: Online Italian lessons: 1 x 30-minute lesson in our online shop will be reduced from £20 to an unbeatable £0! Obviously, the idea is to get people to […]

Buondì. I’m finally reading a book (in English) that’s been gathering dust on a shelf in my bedroom for several years. I managed to buy this particular paperback twice in successive summer holidays in the UK, but not read it on either occasion. I was finally prodded into doing so (and into discovering that I […]