Buondì.
I hear it’s very, very hot in Italy at the moment.
Fortunately, I’m temporarily in cloudy Cornwall, in South West England.
Where we’re not exactly having a heat wave.
The kids don their wet suits to go surfing in the chilly Atlantic waters.
And us wiser heads take sweaters and rain coats when we amble to the pub.
For those of you in Italy right now, with the air-conditioning on maximum, remember socks?
Well I’m wearing some.
That said, next week I’ll be back in Bologna and perspiring with the rest of you!
But let’s move on from the weather.
Today we’ll hear from Carlo, who chose to volunteer in Africa.
Bet it’s hot there, too.
This free Italian listening task is a C2 (top-level) listening text.
But don’t let that freak you out.
All listening is good listening!
Read the questions first, listen to the audio a couple of times, see if you can get down some answers.
Guessing is OK.
Really!
In fact, if you got all the answers the first time, what would have been the point?
Having to guess shows the potential for learning in a given situation.
So don’t be put off.
Give it a try.
When you’ve done as much as you can, check your answers with the solutions at the bottom of the page.
Then, once you know what you’re supposed to have heard, why not have another go to see if you can get any more from it?
Finally, there’s the transcript to exploit.
Read it while listening, read it first then listen, read it then read and listen…
Choose whatever approach appeals to you, or try different things.
There’s no right way, and the only wrong way is to do nothing.
Here’s the link:
Why You Should Leave Reviews
Bought an ebook lately?
Or maybe you’re taking online Italian lessons with a club teacher?
Either way, sooner or later you’ll likely get an email asking you to leave a review.
Lucia, our teaching manager, periodically emails online students asking for feedback.
I do the same for ebooks, typically on Friday afternoons when I’m too tired to do anything complex.
So suppose you get an email from Lucia or me.
Why should you bother to respond?
- Leaving a review is easy and fast (see instructions)
- Other people’s reviews may have helped you decide to buy something that you now value, or avoid something that wouldn’t have worked for you
- Feedback helps us improve our products and services. We pay a lot of attention to negative reviews, while enthusiastic ones help us understand what other club members may want to hear about
- We’re not Amazon. There are no artificial intelligence bots sending out review requests. It’s just us, slaving away evenings and weekends over a hot computer
- We send a hundred emails (manually putting links and addresses in each one) then maybe one person leaves a review…
- If you’ve never left a review before, hey, you’ll be learning a new skill
- That’ll keep your brain young
- Unhappy customer? All reviews are published, good or bad
- Think we’re the bee’s knees? Help spread the word
- Leaving a review is easy and fast (see instructions) – did I already mention that?
N.b. To stop spam, I have to manually approve first time reviewers, which means a delay before you’ll see your words appear on the screen.
If it’s night in Europe, I may be asleep, so be patient.
After that first time, though, it’s automatic and should be instant.
A lunedì!