Last day of work for me, as tomorrow I’m off to Rimini for Pasqua.
Lots to eat and drink, plus hopefully some sunshine so we’ll be able to get out on the Adriatic on our boat.
But not to worry. I’ll be continuing to post the new listening material. And reminders about the conversation groups starting after Easter.
So today, here’s the second of our A2 listenings.
If you’re new to this site, or if you’re my mum, pay attention:
1. To listen, just click the embedded audio file below. You don’t need any form of password.
If you don’t see an embedded audio file, it probably means you’re reading this in an e-mail. Click this link to see the article on our website, and try there.
2. You’ll find the tapescript underneath the audio file. But it’s better (for you) to listen at least once without. Life has no sub-titles. Better get used to it here.
Once you’ve listened once (or a couple of times) without the words, that’s the time to listen WITH the tapescript. That’ll help you understand better, and give you a chance to recognise words you couldn’t hear, or don’t actually know.
Ready to listen?
So click the orange button that you see directly under these words…
Or go here to visit the website.
Tapescript
2. PARLARE DI UN EVENTO SUCCESSO A SE STESSI – Il mio viaggio a Parigi
La scorsa estate durante le vacanze estive sono andata a Parigi con il mio fidanzato.
Io non ero mai stata a Parigi, mentre il mio fidanzato c’era già andato due volte.
Siamo partiti dall’aeroporto di Fiumicino molto presto al mattino: infatti l’aereo è partito alle sette e mezzo del mattino.
L’aereo è atterrato all’aeroporto di Parigi alle nove e mezzo. Abbiamo preso un taxi fino all’albergo. Abbiamo lasciato le valigie nella camera dell’albergo e poi siamo usciti a visitare la città.
Abbiamo preso la metropolitana fino al centro e abbiamo fatto una lunga passeggiata. Prima di pranzo abbiamo visitato la cattedrale di Notre Dame. Poi abbiamo pranzato in un ristorante vicino alla cattedrale.
Il pomeriggio invece abbiamo visitato il quartiere latino e abbiamo fatto un giro per i negozi.
Abbiamo cenato nel ristorante all’interno dell’hotel e siamo andati a dormire.
Nei giorni successivi abbiamo visto molti musei, tra cui il Museo del Louvre. Nel museo abbiamo visto la Monna Lisa.
L’ultimo giorno abbiamo anche comprato tanti regali per i nostri amici e parenti.
Il quarto giorno siamo ripartiti. Quando siamo tornati a Roma abbiamo raccontato agli amici della nostra vacanza e abbiamo consegnato i regali.
I nostri amici sono stati molto felici.
Am I good enough to join one of the online conversation groups?
If you’re not a complete beginner, if you can give basic information about your likes and dislikes, if you can use the passato prossimo a bit (like in this listening), then ‘yes’, you’re good enough to benefit from practicing your Italian in one of our online conversation groups.
Think of it like going to Italy and having a conversation in the bar of your hotel with some other guests – people from France, Germany, Japan, Australia – but in Italian.
You wouldn’t worry about your ‘level’. You’d probably just be happy to be able to use the Italian you’ve studied to communicate, in a ‘real life’ situation!
Sure, you’d have your ups and downs. But that’s part of learning a foreign language.
Unless you’re a complete beginner, then, you’re probably good enough to participate in weekly online conversations in Italian.
Of course, if you’re already taking an Italian class, you might not need the extra speaking practice.
But if you’re not…
Well, what’s the point of studying Italian (and practicing your listening…) unless you’re eventually planning to use the language to communicate?
And speaking a foreign language?
Like actually getting the words out of your mouth in a way that makes some sense, without taking all day about it?
Well, that takes some practice.
So, better start now.
Check out the days and times of the online conversation groups in our shop.
Classes start on Tuesday 22nd, assuming we have a minimum of two students in a group (the max is 5…)
For more information, click here.
Karen says
Great , thank you very much for all your work
Daniel says
Thanks for taking the time to leave feedback, Karen!
John Thomson says
Very clever / sneaky Daniel
You have quietly introduced the imperfetto and passato prossimo, it is easier to remember them when they are used in proper sentences.
I am using the technique used by others to listen, then I write down what I clearly hear, then repeat a couple of times ( don’t you just love “a pair of times”)this adds some more gist then I read the transcript
In the level A1 I got around 80% say , in level, A2 maybe 60% so you really are stretching us
Well done
One little thing, I know the Italians love to sprinkle ‘allora’ and ‘quindi’ all over the place, much as they do with parmigiano but why? – in A2.2 “il pomeriggio invece abbiamo visitato….” we would just say “in the afternoon we visited….”
All part of the charm , I suppose
Buona Pasqua
John
Daniel says
Hi John,
Always nice to hear from you. Buona pasqua!
‘Allora’, ‘invece’ and so on are what is known in the trade as ‘discourse markers’. Basically, they orientate the reader or listener to the relationship between the meaning of what is being said or written to other parts of the text, such as things which were mentioned before or will come afterwards.
The function of words like ‘allora’ and ‘invece’ is the same as it is in English. Sometimes, though, (‘though’ is an example of what we’re talking about) the use is different.
‘Invece’ is a flexible, general purpose word which conveys the idea of contrast with other ideas expressed (In the afternoon, instead, we visited Aunt Mable…). It’s often poorly translated as ‘instead’, but is (instead) equivalent to one of many other similar English words (however, although, etc.) according to its position in the sentence.
Listenings and other texts are useful for noticing how Italians use discourse markers. Mimicking what you hear or read is a good way to make your Italian sound, well, more Italian!