This is the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page. Everything you wanted to know about OnlineItalianClub.com but were too polite to ask. If you don’t find what you want to know here, e-mail me your query and I’ll get the answer to you ASAP. You’ll find the address at the bottom of the page.
About OnlineItalianClub.com
Who’s behind this site?
OnlineItalianClub.com is operated by Imparareonline Ltd., registered in England at… (check the bottom of the page for all that boring stuff.)
How do I ‘join’?
We tried a ‘free membership site’ but the passwords and log-ins drove you crazy. And we had masses of spam registrations, like literally thousands. Who wants to bother with all that stuff? So OnlineItalianClub.com is now organised around a mailing list. You’re a ‘member’ when you sign up to hear our news. Every time we add new free stuff, or run a promotion, you’ll get an e-mail. We email club members three times a week with materials or study ideas. And run a promotion (e-books, online lessons and so on) whenever we feel like it. ‘Join’ here.
How do I contact you?
There are e-mail addresses at the bottom of every page on the site. If you’re planning to sue, you’ll need to write to the company’s address, also at the bottom of the page. Otherwise email the webmaster with your question.
Questions about the e-mails we send
How do I stop getting all these e-mails?
Every mail we send has an unsubscribe link. Click it, choose ‘unsubscribe’, and you’re gone. You’ll never be troubled by us again.
Why don’t I get your emails anymore?
There are a few reasons why this can happen, and it can be tricky to work out which. First check your spam folder, and if you use Gmail, also the promotions folder – our e-mails can easily end up in either of these places. Still nothing? Visit our site and ‘join’ again, which will solve the problem if you were accidentally removed from the list. In the event the system tells you that you are ‘already subscribed’, which means that emails are being sent but for some reason not arriving, the only solution here is to sign up with a different address. If you don’t have a second email address, open a new free email account and join again with that.
Questions about our free materials
Are your Italian materials really free? Or is this some sort of trick?
Think of a public park, or a beach. You’re free to enjoy either one, right? While you’re there, maybe you’ll buy an ice-cream. You like ice-cream, and it’s a hot day. The ice-cream vendor makes a living, and the rent from his concession contributes to the maintenance costs of the park or beach, so keeping your taxes down. That’s how we work too. You’ll see a link in the menu to our online shop (a separate website run by the same company.) It sells online lessons and ebooks. You’re under no obligation to visit it or to buy anything but if do, we’ll be happy! Revenues from the online shop, such as they are, pay the hosting costs, teachers and writers. But if you just want to enjoy the free stuff, that’s absolutely fine. And don’t forget, we’re adding to it all the time! ‘Join’ here and never miss anything.
Help! I can’t figure out how to play your audio recordings multiple times.
Our free Italian listening materials are hosted on Soundcloud.com so as not to overload our server. When you load any of the pages from our ‘Listenings Index‘, you’ll see a typical page for our site, part of which is a ‘plug-in’ which downloads the audio from Soundcloud.com and includes the ‘Play’ and ‘Pause’ buttons. So far, so good, right? The problem comes when your track finishes. The plug-in screen goes grey and you see a message ‘Explore more tracks like this on Soundcloud.com…’, when what you really want to see is the ‘Play’ command, so you can hear the track again. Look for the little X in the right-hand corner of the plug-in. Click on that, and the grey Soundcloud.com ad will disappear. You’ll then be back where you were before and will see the ‘Play’ command you need to hear the track again as many times as you wish.
Can I download the listenings as .mp3 files?
We get asked this a lot. The official answer is ‘no’. It’s an intellectual property issue, see? You can listen to our recordings free online at Soundcloud.com, but there’s no ‘download’ button, so you can’t, in theory, save them to your computer or pass them off as your own work. The real answer, however, is ‘yes’. All the bad guys know how to get around this sort of security anyway, so why shouldn’t you? As with many things in life these days, you can usually find a solution to your problem if you Google it. Try searching for something like ‘how to download .mp3 from Soundcloud.com’. Google will then show you the sites that naughty people use to make .mp3 files from our online listenings. Problem solved.
I’m an Italian teacher. Can I use your materials in my lessons?
We love to hear from Italian teachers who appreciate our materials and want to use them with their classes. Our answer is always, “Yes, please feel free to use any of our FREE material you like in your lessons.” At OnlineItalianClub.com free MEANS free. We have no objection if you copy and paste texts or exercises to share with others. You may adapt them, photocopy them, and so on, as long as you acknowledge the source, like this: Source: http://onlineitalianclub.com (You can even download .mp3 files and make your own CDs if you know how. There’s a note about this elsewhere in this FAQ.)
Questions about Italian schools
What Italian language schools do you recommend?
There are lots. You’ll probably see ads for Madrelingua Italian Language School in Bologna somewhere on our site. That would be an excellent choice! But any school in Italy which is a member of ASILS is likely to be a safe bet, too, so if you’d rather study in Florence, Rome, Venice or wherever, you’ll find a list of members on their site.
Will you list my Italian school in your School Finder section?
Sure, we’d be happy to. Send us the details and we’ll take a look. There’s no charge.