‘I viaggi lowcost‘ is the theme, though not the title, of today’s free Italian listening comprehension task.
Cheap flights have made up quite a big part of my summer.
Yours too, I suppose.
But now ‘Ferragosto’ is done, it’ll soon be back to the old routine.
Sigh!
The level of today’s free audio is B2, that is to say the fourth out of six (counting from the bottom, from where we all must begin.)
But beginners or near-beginners, don’t let that put you off!
All listening is good listening, and with the accompanying transcript, and the rather simple questions, you’ll surely get something from it.
Click here to give it a go!
(By the way, if you’re not very sure about the concept of levels, and which one you’re currently at, read this article and/or take our level test.
Then, armed with your level, find masses of free material to study on the club website, starting here!)
‘Book of the Week’ reminder
Don’t forget that this week we have one of our ‘book of the classic Italian movie’ easy readers, Accatone , at half the usual price!
One of our regular online Italian teachers, Giovanni Galavotti, is also an award-winning scriptwriter (look him up!), so he was the obvious choice when I had the idea of adapting the milestones of Italian cinema into simplified texts for learners.
Because of the writer’s background and ongoing professional involvement in the sector, the whole ‘movie’ series is done expertly and with a loving eye.
Giovanni tells me he enjoys having the opportunity to watch the films again.
He takes copious notes, breaking them down, scene-by-scene, before putting the essential elements of the story back together to create a text which is both faithful to the original movie and suitable for learners to read and listen to.
The end product is not just a fine piece of reading/listening comprehension material, but also a valid support for anyone intending to see the movie itself in the original language.
Others in this series are listed below, with the corresponding levels.
Each one, individually, costs £7.99, but note that for film enthusiasts there’s a bundle of all nine titles available at half price!
- Il sorpasso (A2)
- Amarcord (A2/B1)
- La dolce vita (A2/B1)
- Ladri di biciclette (A2/B1)
- Nuovo cinema paradiso (A2/B1)
- Divorzio all’italiana (B1)
- I soliti ignoti (B1)
- Roma città aperta (B1)
- Ieri, oggi, domani (B1/B2)
So Accatone, plus the other nine, makes ten movies you could be planning to watch as part of your ‘learn Italian’ study program!
Which reminds me of when I was first in Italy.
My (Italian) wife was pregnant with our first child and insisted on dragging me along to the movie theater around the corner from our miniscule flat.
I wasn’t enthusiastic and protested that I wouldn’t understand a word.
But she reassured me that she’d help me understand what was going on.
All I had to do was ask when something was unclear…
In the darkened auditorium, as expected, I soon got rather lost and whispered questions.
“Sssh!” was the response.
I tried again.
“Sssh!” “Sssh!” “Sssh!”
Not the done thing to speak in the movie theater, apparently.
So I sat through the remainder of the film in silence.
The protagonists were two girls. One of them killed herself in the final scene.
I had no idea why.
Which further reminds me, one of the films I saw in those days was ‘La dolce vita‘, which is borderline incomprehensible whether you speak the language perfectly or not.
It’s another of Giovanni’s rewrites, but don’t start with that one, even if it IS the only Italian film you’ve heard of…
A final thing about movies – by popular request we’ve been working on a MODERN Italian movie classic – ‘La vita è bella’.
I have the text and audio ready, and so just need to get the cover sorted before I can publish it.
It should be ready in September, so watch this space!
In the meantime, here are those links again:
Accattone – free sample chapter
Accattone – full version – half price this week only
NINE other ‘Book of the Film’ easy readers – half price!
A venerdì.