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Buondì.
I’ll keep this super-short this morning, as we had a crappy night.
Apart from Bug’s scheduled feeds at eight, midnight and four a.m., he also woke us – howling in rage, hunger or pain, it’s hard to know which – at about three.
We adopted a cat once (Bug is NOT a cat, so don’t write to ask), actually two cats, which my brother-in-law assured us would be no trouble at all to look after, while he took a year-long world tour on his motorbike with a much younger and prettier girl on the back.
Given that we had small children at the time, so taking a world tour on two wheels ourselves wasn’t on the cards, we agreed to take them. Also, we were skint, and he paid us.
This was the only time in the twenty-five years I’ve known the man that he’d opened his wallet. It didn’t take long to find out why.
As soon as the two animals were loaded (in a cardboard box) into the trunk of our car, one of them – we didn’t know which, obviously – started to howl plaintively, and kept it up all the way home. Much to the distress of the children, and the driver.
Never mind, we told the little ones, the cats will be fine when we get there, and they have their new home to explore (we have an old house, with lots of dusty corners) – think how much fun they’ll have! Perhaps they’ll catch the rats, or munch on the roaches, at least.
Instead, no. Within minutes of releasing them from their box, they’d initiated a conflict which resulted in pools of blood and tufts of fur all over the house. Until, at a certain point several days later, it was decided that the black one would control upstairs (the childrens’ bedrooms) while the white one would set up field HQ under our bed downstairs, to reappear only to attack the black one if she dared venture into enemy territory.
OK, that’s not ideal, but no biggie. We could live with food/water bowls and litter trays on both floors.
But the nights! The white one (under our bed, remember) would howl continuously from sunset to dawn.
Sorry cat lovers, but within days she ended up spending nights in the garage, which bears the scratch marks still. Even from there we could hear her howling. All night. Every night.
To cut a long and painful story short, the white one had to go. A kind neighbour, who in those days ran a ‘canile’ (see below), put us in touch with a totally deaf pensioner, who was happy to take on the demonic howler.
Anyway, all this by way of explaining why we lost at least an hour’s sleep last night, so by way of apology for this morning’s fuzzy writing.
Così. So what did I have to tell you this week?
First and foremost, I’ve been working on beautifying the club’s neglected sisters, that’s to say OnlineSpanishClub.com, OnlineFrenchClub.com, and OnlineGermanClub.com.
Their faces have been scrubbed, their hair combed, they’ve put on pretty dresses, but above all, I’ve laboriously removed ALL the intrusive adverts which made them unattractive to discriminating language learners.
They’re not nearly as extensive as OnlineItalianClub.com, of course, to which I’ve devoted more than a decade of my life, but there is some useful content, particularly listening practice material with transcripts.
OnlineSpanishClub.com has the most ample figure, sister OnlineFrenchClub.com is plainer, and poor OnlineGermanClub.com is, for the moment, the runt of the litter.
But I’ll be continuing to work on all three, in particular by using the materials myself then writing about my progress, or lack of it.
Anyone learning those languages, or wanting to – and why not, as Spanish and French aren’t dissimilar to Italian – could do worse than take a look.
Each of the three sites has a ‘Join’ page, like the club, from where you could, if you so chose, get onto the dedicated mailing list, and so hear how I get on with French/Spanish/German.
OnlineSpanishClub.com | OnlineFrenchClub.com | OnlineGermanClub.com
E poi, you’ll recall that I’ve mentioned recently that our ebooks store will no longer be commissioning and publishing new ebooks, after one final, glorious fling?
Well that’s happening this week!
We wanted to go out with a bang (not a howl), promoting something useful, fun to read, and thought-provoking, which this week’s new ‘easy reader’ certainly is.
The title of the new one is ‘La volta buona’, which begs some explaining.
‘Buona’ is good, obviously, and ‘volta’ has various meanings, but the most obvious one is ‘turn’, as in ‘Is it your turn or my turn?’
So, ‘The Good Turn’ then? Yet that’s not right.
I spent ages trying to translate this, and even used online dictionaries and the like, if only to confirm that no one else was having more success than I was.
In the end I gave up, ‘The Good Turn’ it remains, but I warn you, that’s unclear at best.
You know that really, really famous U.S. TV series ‘Breaking Bad‘, the title of which no one on this side of the Atlantic Ocean understood, at least until they’d watched dozens or hundreds of hours of things getting worse and worse and worse for virtually every character?
So without giving too much a way, the meaning of ‘La volta buona’ is sort of like ‘Breaking Good’, but for dogs, which are anyway pictured in the cover image, so that’s not a spoiler either.
I mentioned ‘canile’ above, during my ‘never adopt your brother-in-law’s cats’ annecdote.
‘Kennel’, ‘pound’, ‘shelter’, etc. That one’s much easier to translate.
If you can read/listen at B1 (intermediate) level, or would like to try, and have at your disposal the princely sum of £7.49 (that’s about ten dollars), join us this week in the dog penitentiary. Your guide is inmate Gigio.
Alla prossima settimana!
New B1-level ‘easy reader’ ebook, – 25% this first week!
Improve your Italian reading and listening skills with the newest ‘easy Italian reader’ from EasyReaders.org, La volta buona.
This one is level B1 (intermediate), and perfect for dog lovers who, between walks and treats, manage to find time to learn Italian.
La volta buona (B1) 
“In Italia ci sono circa 1.200 canili e rifugi per cani. In queste strutture vivono circa 120.000 cani. In Italia esiste una legge che impedisce il sacrificio dei cani in canile. Però, solo il 30% dei cani abbandonati viene adottato da una nuova famiglia. Il resto passa la vita in una prigione.”
Gigio is overweight and has skinny legs so, unless there’s food on offer, he moves slowly, or not at all. His cellmate, Pablo, is a ‘cane corso’, a large, powerful and intimidating dog. The human, Carola, who brings their meals often tells Gigio, “Pablo è un cane alfa, tu no… Tu sei un pacifista.” It’s just as well, thinks Gigio!
Only the most heartless students of Italian will read Gigio’s entertaining ‘prison diaries’ without wondering whether they’ve space at home for a dog…
Check the Free Sample Chapter (.pdf) to confirm that the material is appropriate for your current level in Italian.
If it’s too hard, or too easy, there are plenty of other ‘easy reader’ ebooks listed on our Catalog page, organised by language, type and level (all with free sample chapters!)
- .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
- .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
- 8 chapters to read and listen to
- Comprehension questions to check your understanding
- Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
- Suitable for students at pre-intermediate level or above
- Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)
Buy ‘La volta buona‘ (B1) just £7.49 | FREE sample chapter (.pdf) | Catalog
How do I access my ebook?
When your order is ‘completed’ (normally immediately after your payment), a download link will be automatically emailed to you. It’s valid for 7 days and 3 download attempts so please save a copy of the .pdf ebook in a safe place. Other versions of the ebook, where available, cannot be downloaded but will be emailed to people who request them. There’s a space to do that on the order form – where it says Additional information, Order notes (optional). If you forget, or if you have problems downloading the .pdf, don’t worry! Email us at the address on the website and we’ll help. Also, why not check out our FAQ?
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P.S.
And of course, don’t forget to read/listen to yesterday’s FREE bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news from EasyItalianNews.com.
The ‘easy news’ bulletins published on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays each contain simplified articles with an online audio recording. They’re free to access on the website, with no registration required.
But subscribe (also free), and they’ll email you each bulletin as soon as it is published, so a helpful thrice-weekly reminder to work on your Italian reading and listening skills!
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