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Buondì.

Towards the end of each week I get an email from EL PAÍS, a Spanish and Spanish language newspaper. I don’t always open it, I confess, but when I do, my Gmail informs me:

It looks like this message is in Spanish

then right below that

Translate to English

then the subject line

Objetivo: matar al periodista

followed by the text

Desde octubre de 2023, Israel ha matado a dos centenares de reporteros palestinos en Gaza, varios de ellos están en la portada de EL PAÍS SEMANAL este domingo. Al mismo tiempo, el Gobierno de Netanyahu prohíbe la entrada de la prensa internacional a la Franja. Es una situación inédita en los conflictos bélicos. Los reporteros palestinos son los ojos y oídos del mundo, los únicos testigos que documentan una masacre que ha causado ya 65.000 muertos.

After which, there’s a link to read the whole article. And once on their website, the inevitable pleas to become a subscriber, and limits on what you can read if you don’t.

I have two points to make here. First off, why would anyone interested in learning languages (and I assume that includes you) click Gmail’s Translate to English link, given that with a little bit of common sense and plenty of guessing they could get the gist of the original?

Insecurity, perhaps. They’re not happy ‘not understanding’, which is a horrible flaw in a language learner.

To learn a foreign language (and your own, when you were Bug’s age – he’s recently turned two) you have to do years and years of deliberate ‘not understanding’. Without the ‘not understanding’ you’ll never get to the ‘understanding’ phase. That’s evident, and obvious.

Or maybe it’s lack of curiosity? “Desde octubre de 2023, Israel ha matado a dos centenares de reporteros palestinos“, where ‘desde’ just has to mean ‘since’, ‘ha madato’ ‘killed’ and ‘dos centenares de reporteros palestinos’ ‘two hundred Palestinian reporters’.

How hard is that? Not hard at all.

But some people, I’d actually hazard most people, have the 100% misguided opinion that FIRST they have to learn a foreign language (meaning ‘study it’) before THEN reading and listening to it.

Whereas it is, of course, entirely the other way around. You read, listen and interact in the language you’re learning, and as a consquence you become familiar with it and confident using it.

Reason four why people might click the ‘translate’ link? Maybe pure laziness, though in my professional endeavours, such as writing this article, I prefer to believe that people just haven’t yet appreciated that they could learn BY reading and listening.

So haven’t tried it. So haven’t realised what a fantastic use of their time it would be.

Could be I’m flogging a dead horse here, but why click Gmail’s Translate to English link?

Don’t.

Of course if you’re not receiving foreign language content in your email inbox you don’t have this issue, nor the opportunity to learn from it.

Which reminds me, EL PAÍS (‘el periódico global’ – guess which word means ‘newspaper’) has a nice website with plenty of articles you can read for free (avoid the ones marked with a capital ‘E’ in a yellow box, which are only accessible if you’re a ‘suscriptor’ (go on, guess what that is, I dare you.)

Ditto with their email newsletters, of which they appear to have a vast range. Browse them here.

The first sections are all ‘Exclusivo para suscriptores Premium’ (‘para’ = ‘for’) then ‘Exclusivo para suscriptores’, but scroll on down and you’ll find plenty that aren’t so marked, such as ‘Internacional’, with an example of each so that you can see what you’ll get in return for entering your email address and damning your soul to email inbox hell (just joking.)

N.b. EL PAÍS has a one-year introductory offer to tempt new ‘subscriptores’, currently just €18, which is pretty generous. If you can’t resist a bargain, be sure to make a note in your diary for twelve months minus a few days hence, so that, if you quit learning Spanish by reading it in the interim, you won’t pay for a second year at the full price.

No, I don’t get a commission for telling you about this. I just mention it because it would be useful, fun, and because it offers excellent value.

How much MORE useful and fun, obviously, if I could say nice things about an Italian ‘giornale’, but sadly…

‘Il Fatto Quotidiano’, for instance, has a pleasant-enough website but bombards potential subscribers with adverts for their one year introductory offer, which costs fully TEN TIMES what EL PAÍS is asking for. Cheeky buggers!

Of course, they have newsletters too (browse them here https://shop.ilfattoquotidiano.it/newsletter/ ) but try clicking on the articles they contain and you’ll soon run up against the message: “Quest’articolo è riservato agli abbonati Partner“. Abbonati = subscriptores, in case you hadn’t guessed.

As far as I’m aware, there are NO good value Italian newspapers, and none that offer significant free content, as EL PAÍS does.

Come mai?

My assumption is that most Italians would never consider reading a newspaper anyway (they’re typically written for educated insiders), while the ones that do can afford to pay through the nose.

So there’s no pool of people like me looking for free content and bargain subscriptions. Shame really, as that blows my ‘learn Italian by reading’ theory right out of the water!

Except, wait a sec, that’s precisely why, back in 2018, or whenever it was, we started EasyItalianNews.com, which is edited by my Italian wife, formatted by one of my daughters, and recorded by my son.

OnlineItalianClub.com has around twenty-five thousand ‘members’ (like EL PAÍS we totally believe in the value of offering free stuff), which is modest for a website, minuscule in comparison with the millions and billions of followers that ‘influencers’ claim, but quite a lot more than EasyItalianNews.com, which has ‘just’ seventeen or eighteen thousand (free) subscribers.

Which means that if you’re a club member and have read this far, and even assuming that ALL EasyItalianNews.com (free) subscribers are also club members, which I bet they’re not, then there’s a fair chance you’re not taking advantage of EasyItalianNews.com to improve your Italian.

Why not?

Why not read/listen to the free thrice-weekly newsletters, each and every week, until you’re ready to move on to ‘real’ newspapers, live TV, Italian radio, and so on?

I expect you have your reasons but – basically – silly you.

Note though that EasyItalianNews.com has no Translate to English link, which is entirely intentional.

Visitors to the shining city of Understanding, which has no airport, must first ‘percorre’ (= travel through) the endless plains that surround it.

There are countless miles of ‘not understanding’ before you reach the city’s suburbs (=partial understanding) and then, eventually, our destination.

Well put like that, why bother? Why not just click the ‘translate’  link? Or stay home?

Beh, the more people who do that, the better for those remaining few of us who 1.) know how to learn, and 2.) put the time in to get results.

It’ll be like we’re doing magic.

We’ll have a super-power.

Children, look at those clever people who can do the Google thing, with no actual Google!

How cool is that!

Alla prossima settimana.

P.S.

Don’t forget to read/listen to Tuesday’s bulletin of news from EasyItalianNews.com, will you?

Reading/listening practice will help you consolidate the Italian you’re studying, expand your vocabulary, and build vital comprehension skills.

EasyItalianNews.com is FREE to read/listen to.

Subscribing, and so receiving all three text + audio bulletins of ‘easy’ news via email each week -on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays – is also FREE.

Just enter your email address on this page and click the confirmation link that will be sent to you.

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