Got you some flowers! (And how to avoid the Easter Sale…)

Buondì.

Spring has sprung here in Bologna.

The cherry trees in the courtyard in front of our house have that lovely pink blossom that lasts just a few days before it’s gone.

From my bedroom window, I can see a rash of little blue flowers (no idea what type) popping up from every inch of soggy earth.

Talking of blossoming and blooming, today’s free Italian lesson is on ‘Il fiore‘ (the flower).

Click here to get right on with it.

The format is the same as the four previous ones, which seem to have been very popular

Or click here to view the whole series (five nouns done, five to come, then some verbs…)

But wait, don’t go yet!

I wanted to warn you about the Easter Sale, which starts tomorrow, Thursday 29th of March.

Each day until Sunday April 8th (not just on the Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) I’ll be pestering your about saving £££ on online lessons and ebooks for learning Italian.

Why?

In part, because several hundred of you take online lessons with club teachers and depend on the regular promotions to make that more affordable. We have a sale four times a year, so anyone who makes the effort can permanently avoid paying the full price (the next sale is in June…)

But it’s also because, besides the online lessons, our online shop has simply masses of useful ebooks for learning Italian. They’re written by Italian teachers for students at different levels, are designed to develop different skills, and offer a choice of learning styles.

The range of material is so impressive it’s potentially off-putting. Where on earth should you begin?

Not to worry: included in the Easter Sale emails will be plenty of ideas and recommendations, to get you and keep you on the right track.

And finally, of course, we’re having a sale because the club has bills to say.

This is my hobby, I don’t get paid.

But the cost of the club website and the system that sends out the emails comes to hundreds of dollars each and every month, so several thousand each year.

Unlike me, many of  our online teachers, materials writers and various other willing hands rely on the club for an income.

Think about it like that and marketing isn’t such a slimy job after all.

I have the vital role of connecting club members who might benefit from a given product or service with the professionals who can provide it.

It’s win-win, really.

But supposing you’d rather NOT hear from me every day over the Easter period?

Difficult though that is to imagine.

Well, you could ‘unsubscribe’.

People do, each day, and I don’t take offence.

The opposite – the fewer people on the mailing list, the less it costs me to run.

Hence, each email our system sends out has an ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom.

Go ahead, make my day!

Click the link and you’ll see details of the lists you’re on (it could be more than one, as I use the same system for our Italian school list.)

You’ll see two ‘radio buttons’ for each list: Subscribed & Unsubscribed.

Click to change from one to the other.

Then press the ‘Save my subscriber settings’ button and you’re done.

Every week or two I go into the system and delete all the data for the people who have chosen to unsubscribe, and that is the end of that.

Or you could stay on the list and just make a mental note to ignore emails from the club until Monday 9th of April, when things will get back to normal.

So you’ve three options:

1.) Read ’em and weep

2. ‘Unsubscribe’

3.) Just ignore me while I attempt to prise your pension/salary from your clenched fists

Up to you.

If you ARE leaving us, or intend to put your fingers in your ears and go ‘la, la, la!’ for the next twelve emails, let me wish you ‘Buona Pasqua!’ first.

Go easy on the lamb, chocolate eggs and wine. But not TOO easy.

For the rest of you, ‘a domani!’