Buondì.
Over the summer I managed to read a few books, which shamefully I don’t usually find time to do.
One of which was on diet (not dieting).
The theme was the importance, to our intestinal microbes, of eating a range of different foods.
So as to ensure a balance of nutritional elements, and therefore good health.
Since I finished the book, I’ve been pushing vegetables and hi-fibre pasta at my kids, while trying to cut down on red meats and the like.
More recently, still having some free time before the teaching year gets into gear, I’ve made a start again on my ‘hobby’, which this year has been learning Swedish.
I’m due a session today, though Wednesday is looking fairly busy…
Anyway, for some reason the two concepts have come together in my head!
Just as, for example, eating too much processed white pasta might perhaps be sub-optimal when it comes to my own and my family’s health, perhaps too much of any particular type of studying may also be counter-productive?
Mostly I’ve done text-based work: reading, new grammar and vocabulary, some listening practice.
I’ve certainly neglected other areas, including speaking (none at all), pronunciation (ditto) and writing.
I’ve also based my study program on just the one course book, the accompanying workbook (when I can be bothered), and a couple of our own simplified readers, as localised into Swedish by my wife and mother-in-law.
Texts, texts and more texts!
It doesn’t sound very healthy, does it?
The result is that I have some ability to read and understand the language I’m trying to learn, but little or no capacity to actually speak it.
While I’ve studied half of the elementary-level text book, the number of things I can actually say could be counted on the fingers of one hand: my name, my job, where I live, how many children I have, and so on.
Oops!
So, as I ponder what to do for the second of my Swedish study sessions, I’m thinking again about finding the time to take some online lessons.
Months back I did a free trial lesson, but didn’t like the teacher and so let the idea lapse…
With hindsight that was probably a bad idea.
Back to you guys learning Italian, and it occurs that a checklist might come in handy, so you can be sure you’ll end up with a ‘beach body’, so to speak.
Here’s an initial draft, in no particular order. Skim down the list and mentally tick off the things you’re already doing.
The links are to the relevant section on the club website or to our online shop, so you can take a look at what we have that might supplement an impoverished diet!
- Grammar and verb conjugations
- Vocabulary
- Listening practice and situation-based dialogues
- Reading (link to our new online shop, for easy readers and parallel texts)
- Speaking (link to online lesson options, one-to-one with a club teacher)
- Pronunciation – which would be part of activities involving listening and speaking
- and the always neglected Writing (link to an email course in our shop)
Got all those covered?
If so, well done to you!
If not, a good Italian course should do it.
But for those who prefer self-study, check out those links.
Language learning is an investment. Mostly of time, but usually also of money.
In any case, you’ll want to make sure that what you eventually get back is worth what you’ve put in!
N.B. But don’t go spending your hard-earned dollars, euros or pounds in our shop today…
Next week is our Autumn Sale.
Which means that from Monday there’ll be a coupon worth 20% off everything – lessons, ebooks, writing course, the works!
A venerdì.