Buondì.
This morning I’m posting from Milan, where Stefi and I are spending a couple of days at the annual meeting of ASILS, the Association of Schools of Italian as a Second Language.
It’s a chance to get together with other language school owners from around Italy to talk about common issues, and eat a good dinner!
Besides our school in Bologna, some of Italy’s largest and most prestigious Italian schools are members of ASILS.
So if you’re planning to study Italian in Italy at any point, and for whatever strange reason prefer NOT to come to Bologna, check out the list of member schools on their site.
It’s organised by region, so if you already know you want to go to, say Tuscany or Sicily, check out the ASILS school options in that area.
If you don’t have any idea, feel free to write to me with whatever sketchy ideas you do have about what you’d like, and I’ll be happy to recommend some place suitable.
Poi, yesterday I had a helpful email from Sherry, who wrote in some detail about things that have helped her improve her Italian.
Now my Italian, while not perfect, is pretty good so I figured these tips would be wasted on me.
I therefore wrote back to Sherry asking if she’d mind if I shared them with you.
She agreed.
So, the plan is to put up a page, called something like ‘Members Learning Tips’, and post the various ideas that people send me about learning, materials and so on there.
But before I get that done, I’d like to invite contributions.
Do you have a killing ‘how to…’ tip to share with club members?
Email me your ideas, which could be as brief as a line or two outlining what you do and why, or as long as you wish.
Make it clear that it’s for publication. I plan to post tips along with the contributor’s first name only.
I’ll edit for length, spelling (though it’s not my strong point), and general coherence.
If there are repetitions, I’ll choose one to publish, but write to thank everyone anyway.
You already know how to contact me. My email address is at the bottom of each page on the club website.
Or just reply to any email you get from me.
And finally, here are two more old listenings with NEW tasks, lovingly prepared by my assistant of the moment, Matt:
Alieni | Amore ai tempi di internet
(New around here? Maybe you don’t know that, by clicking the ‘Listening icon‘ in the menu of our website, you can access hundreds more listenings. The quality of the recordings is variable, but there are loads of them, and they’re FREE!)
P.S.
Like movies?
Since the success of our Eighteen Italian Easy Readers – HALF PRICE! bundle, I’ve been meaning to put together something similar for our ‘Book of the Classic Italian Movie’ series.
So here it is:
Nine ‘Book Of The Film’ Easy Readers – Save 50%!
Read our ‘easy reader’ versions of these classic Italian movies to understand the plot and get to know the characters.
Then go find the movie and watch it.
You’ll be amazed how much the easy readers help.
I know, because I’ve tried it myself!
Work your way up, level by level, from A2 (the easiest) to B1/B2 (the hardest).
In doing so, you’ll boost your Italian (grammar, vocabulary, reading and listening skills.)
While at the same time getting to know some of the classics of Italian cinema!!
Nine ebooks, normally £7.99 each, total €71.91.
Yours for just £35.95!
Sid Gray says
Each week members of my U3A Italian class write a small passage in Italian . It could be about a book they’ve read, a film they’ve seen, or simply what they ‘ve been doing through the week. Sometimes it could be a Who Am I ? where clues are given and the rest of the class try to guess who the mystery subject is. The class member also hazards a guess as to which words or phrases may prove to be unfamiliar to the rest of the class and these are listed on the white board. The passage is then read out to the class .
It is surprising how much new vocabulary you can be exposed to in this way.
Sid ( Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia.
Daniel says
Thanks for the tip, Sid!