Buondì.
I’ve nothing to sell you this week. Deliberately as there’s far too much teaching and other stuff going on.
Besides my ninety-nine million online classes, it’s also the end of the month, which comes around all too regularly! Anyone who runs or has run a small business will know that the end of the month means extra work: bills to pay, numbers to review, plans to update, and so on.
So, given that we have the week free of, how shall I put it, ‘commercial contstraints’ (and aren’t you already fed up with Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the like? I know I am!), I thought this might be a good time to begin a new ‘content’ project for the club website. Begin, mind. Not attempt to complete, in one crazy marathon effort, between now and next week’s half-priced eBook of the Week offer…
What I’m thinking is a series of short “How to” articles, with suggestions from me, and from any club members who wish to contribute, on topics related to learning Italian and/or learning languages in general.
I’m envisioning people either emailing me ideas (not that I don’t have plenty myself) or commenting on the “How to” pages, once they’re up.
Obviously, there’d be a top-level “How to” page, visible in the website menu, showing a list of topics on which we have something useful to suggest. For example:
- How to improve your Italian pronunciation
- How to speak about the past in Italian
- How to have better conversations in Italian
Those were just a few random suggestions, off the top of my head, but I’d welcome input from club members.
Ideally, we’d want to cover the full spectrum of language-learning topics, from content areas such as grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation, to ‘skills’ (speaking, listening, reading, writing), along with ideas on how to study, measure progress, and so on.
To contribute topic ideas (What about “How to use the congiuntivo”, Daniel?), leave a comment on this article or email in the usual way.
A mercoledì, allora.
P.S.
Did you listen to Saturday’s FREE bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news, yet?
Sally says
How about – Choosing between l’imperfetto e passato prossimo. Just cannot get my head around when to use each – just when I think I’ve got it, I come across an example which proves otherwise! Thanks
Daniel says
Suggestion noted, Sally. Thanks!
Patricia says
How to get the most from your on-line Italian teacher. I don’t quite know how to phrase this. How to express expectations? How to redirect or structure the 30 minute session? How to express problems — for instance there seems to be some glitch in my current connection and the lesson starts 10 minutes late, even though we’re both in place at the appointed hour, resulting in a 20 minute encounter
Daniel says
If this is one of our teachers, Patricia, please urgently take it up with Lucia, our teaching manager. If you are paying for 30-minute classes, you should get that, and not a minute less!
Linda says
I have been studying the language for 5+ years. I am fairly proficient and live in Abruzzo. I had a private instructor here but we are currently in a red zone and most likely will have to continue my studies solo. Glad I found you guys!
Any suggestions? I know this isn’t helping with your “ how to” but maybe it will be something that someone else can relate to.
Daniel says
If you’re unsure about teaching yourself, why not try an online teacher, Linda?
https://easyreaders.org/product-tag/skype-italian-lessons/
Linda says
Thank you and I will look into this. I’m very impressed with your site! Thank you for the abundance that is offers!!
Gerry Smith says
A couple of things which might be helpful:
1. Use of Mancare and Piacere: To achieve the correct Italian usage of these two important verbs, English students require a very different approach from the way our language uses them.
2. Developing the ability to look out for and identify particular Italian constructions such as ‘stare per’, ‘volerci’, and ‘farcela’, which make reading so much easier if they and their particular meanings/usage are recognised.
I hope these are the sort of things that you have in mind Daniel.
Allan says
Perhaps some ideas on how to structure your learning.
I always have trouble with this, always asking myself “what do i do next and for how long?”. Maybe reading or listening or writing or speaking or verb tables, nouns, prepositions or ?????? etc, etc, and sentence building i find very difficult.
Many thanks Daniel, and thanks for a great website.