How to learn Italian with George Clooney

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Buondì.

Yesterday I paid a rare visit to our Italian school (in Bologna). Rare because my wife prefers to run things her way, so it seems best to leave her to it and do my own work stuff from home, where I’m writing this from an IKEA reclining armchair, adjacent to a window, in a debris field of Bug’s toys and books.

The purpose of my visit, other than to rally the troops, was to ‘salutare’ a regular online student, and occasional email writer, who had decided to take a course at the school.

And I mention this because? Paraphrasing and summarising our conversation, she was doing some online Italian lessons, but then the teacher disappeared so – searching for an alternative – she found us, used our free online resources, bought and read/listened to our ebooks, took lessons online with one of our regular teachers, and now – four or five years later – is taking an actual Italian class in Bologna, at an advanced level.

Four or five years from zero to advanced is good progress, especially self-taught plus online lessons. Though the lady has an excellent knowledge of another Romance language, which helps a lot, and has been learning languages on and off for most of her life.

In her same class, also advanced-level, is a guy from the middle east someplace (I’m being deliberately vague), who I assume gets his course paid for by the government at home, so isn’t in a hurry. He must be getting towards a year of full time study (oil money), six months at another school, then with us.

I chatted with him briefly and told him how much he’d improved since the last time we met, which would have been back in the fall.  Now he’s speaking fluently and confidently with barely an accent – a big change from months back when I observed a lesson he was in.

Two students, one class, approximately the same level, similar abilities. One’s learning part-time and managing her own portfolio of learning activities, the other prefers paying for a course, in a classroom, with a teacher and an ever-changing cast of fellow students.

Both are valid approaches.

Part-time study – whether following a course in your home town, self-teaching, or a combination of the two – will typically get you a level’s worth of progress per year. More if you’re learning a language that’s similar to one that you already know, less if you ignore Daniel’s good advice and obsess about grammar.

Spend the time and money to study full-time and you might make the same progress in months rather than years. Again, you’ll progress more rapidly with an ‘easier’ language and/or if you work hard and make appropriate decisions.

Either way, though, it’s the keeping at it that makes the difference in the long term. No one, and I speak from personal experience here, goes from zero to hero without consistent and prolonged contact with the language they’re trying to learn.

Thirty-two years ago, when the first season of ER was showing, I was just starting a new job (teaching English to Japanese children) in a seaside town in the south of Britain, accompanied by my new (Turkish) wife. She spoke minimal English, and didn’t have a work permit in any case, so spent much of her day at home watching TV.

About half-way through my one-year contract, the long-awaited work permit arrived and my ex went out and talked herself into a job frying chicken at KFC. The role required successful completion of an induction course, with various written tests to pass before she could get oily. But no problem: after six months of full-time English-language TV, she passed her training tests with flying colors and came home stinking of fried chicken and very proud of herself.

Time + contact = progress

There’s no mystery. Billions of people around the world speak more than one language, whether they’re bilingual or speak a second/third/fourth language they’ve learned at school, on a course, or from the TV.

Getting to foreign language competency is just a question of keeping at it, which is of course the hard part.

If you can find hundreds of hours of appropriate, motivating ‘learning content’, as my ex-wife did, it helps a lot. Over the decades I taught English to people who had reached amazing levels already, who could pass as bilingual, all as a result of reading Harry Potter books, immersing themselves in pop-music fandom, or faithfully following TV series which were only available in the language they were learning.

ER was fifteen seasons long, three hundred and thirty-one episodes in total. Imagine, if you could find some entertaining Italian equivalent, what that could mean for your learning? Learn a language from your IKEA recliner, armed with just the remote, and popcorn!

Or, if TV’s not your thing, come take an Italian course in Bologna. Citizens of many countries can spend three months visa-free in the European Union, which is enough to go from beginner to intermediate.

Course prices are here, with apologies for the shameless advertising.

Alla prossima settimana!

What I’m reading/watching this week

Quote from last week: “I’m still reading the second of Robert Graves’s novels about Roman emperor Claudius, ‘Il divo Claudio’ (in italiano).” I’ve a hundred pages to go. The ebook loan runs out in two days. Watch this space.

And as you might have guessed from the above, we started ER (on Netflix, in English), which features a very, very, very young George Clooney. Wow, that first season was thirty-two years ago! Those were the days, huh? Bug likes the ambulances, and occasional helicopter.

Half-Price Italian Easy Reader Ebook ‘Roma città aperta’

This month’s half-price Italian ‘easy reader’ ebook has been chosen because April 25th will be the eighty-first anniversary of Italy’s liberation from Nazi occupation (in World War II, for those who slept through history lessons…)

This one is from our ‘easy reader of the classic Italian movie’ series, so it’s the simplified story of the movie. Read/listen to it first, then find the movie online and watch it in Italian! We don’t promise you’ll understand everything, but our ebook will certainly help, besides being valuable reading/listening practice material itself.

Love movies? We have plenty more ‘film easy readers’. Browse them all here (though the others are not half price, sorry!)

This moving masterpiece of Italian neo-realism, set in WW2 Rome, tells the story of how resistance leader Giorgio, along with his friends, neighbours and family members, fight the Nazi forces occupying their city.

• .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 B1 level and above
• Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)

Remember, this month ‘Roma città aperta‘ is 50% discounted, so just £4.99 rather than the usual ‘easy reader’ ebook price of £9.99!

Buy ‘Roma città aperta‘ just £4.99! | Free Sample Chapter (.pdf) | Italian Movie Easy Readers | Catalog

Find more ebooks, organised by level, then type: A1 | A1/A2 | A2 | A2/B1 | B1 | B1/B2 | B2 | B2/C1 | C1 | C1/C2 | C2

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?

P.S.

And as always, don’t forget to read/listen to Tuesday’s bulletin of news from EasyItalianNews.com, will you?

Reading/listening practice will help you consolidate the Italian you’re studying, expand your vocabulary, and build vital comprehension skills.

EasyItalianNews.com is FREE to read/listen to.

Subscribing, and so receiving all three text + audio bulletins of ‘easy’ news via email each week – on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays – is also FREE.

Just enter your email address on this page and click the confirmation link that will be sent to you.

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