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Buondì.
Yesterday I deleted a couple of thousand club members who haven’t opened one of my missives for a couple of months. Sorry, ragazzi, but we’ve no space for slackers in our club! An email list with sixteen thousand addresses is expensive to maintain.
And today, invece, the first of what I plan to be several innovations. Look up. The links at the top of the article? Yes, those.
So, the new mailing system’s default template includes a pretty design with the system’s own links at the top, such as ‘Web version’, ‘Update preferences’, and ‘Unsubscribe’.
Personally I can’t see the point of ‘Web version’, but as it’s the first link, lots of people click it – a waste of a click, in my opinion.
I’m good with the ‘Update preferences’ and ‘Unsubscribe’ links, on the grounds that they’ll help get rid of the time-wasters (and reduce spam complaints). People totally should have control over what emails they receive, and why hide the links required to retain that control at the bottom of an email, or in the small print?
But what I’d like to have seen in the mailing system’s template is the option for me to highlight links to the club’s website, and other useful content, right there at the top, also all pretty like.
No can do, apparently. The obligatory links have to be there, and my own can’t. Which is a shame, because there’s a propoprtion of club members, perhaps even you reading this, who forget that they originally signed up on the CLUB WEBSITE, where there are LOADS OF FREE MATERIALS.
I get emails from people all the time wondering why I’m chuntering on about my pets (people like small, furry animals is why), or trying to sell them ebooks, when they had been promised FREE MATERIALS FOR LEARNING ITALIAN. What a scam, they complain!
Well no. There are plenty of FREE MATERIALS FOR LEARNING ITALIAN on the club website. The point of articles like this one is to keep you engaged, and ideally feeling part of something larger than just you, for the longer period that is required for you to actually use the ample FREE MATERIALS FOR LEARNING ITALIAN to improve your Italian. Learning a language takes time, you see.
Also, to let you know about other things you should be doing (see the P.S. for instance), to share my language learning tips and experiences, and indeed, to sell you stuff, so we can pay our bills.
Anyway, regular readers will know that things have been hectic at Club HQ since Bug came to live with us in September, and that before Christmas I therefore cut the article frequency from three times a week to just one. Despite that reduction in workload, I still have fifty unread emails from club members to reply to.
Insomma, what with the daily taxiing Bug around, and the night-time feeds, I’m not coping.
So, innovation no. 1 (or n.1 as Italians do it) is – as explained – to highlight the FREE CONTENT by putting my own links under the obligatory ones, above.
Then, coming soon, I’ll be (reluctantly, after all these years), closing down my club-related email account, and instead encouraging people to ‘chat’ with me, and with each other, on the club website – so a much more sociable experience! Hopefully.
I tried that about a decade or so ago, in fact. It was at about the time that social media like Facebook and Twitter were taking off. But we never really got going as a community. So, instead, I spent more than ten years answering emails personally.
I no longer have the energy or the time, so that has to stop. Sorry. I’ll try again to get you guys doing some of the work, by interacting with me, and with each other in an online space that everyone can read. It’ll be fun!
Really. Watch this space for more details about that. And about other planned changes…
Alla prossima settimana!
New Italian Easy Reader, ‘Dagli antichi romani a noi’, -25%!
Yesterday our ebooks store published ‘Dagli antichi romani a noi’, an ‘easy reader’ ebook for students of Italian.
The level of this one is B2 (upper-intermediate) and as always it comes in .pdf format (the default download), with .epub & .mobi formats available on request at no extra charge.
Use them on your computer or tablet, print the .pdf to study the old-fashioned way, or read the text on your Kindle or other ebook reader.
So, what’s it about?
Well, a while back we published ‘Dagli antichi greci a noi‘, a brief introduction to the influence of Ancient Greek terms on modern Italian.
This one does the same for Latin.
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L’origine latina di 100 parole italiane
Motivating Italian reading and listening practice, memorable insights into Italian vocabulary, and a rich source of triva with which to quiz family, friends, or colleagues!
Many thousands of Italian words originated in Latin, the language of the Romans. This short but fascinating ebook presents a hundred of them, and explains which Latin words they derive from.
Given that a lot of the terms are the same or similar in English, and other modern languages, this brief introduction will open your eyes to our linguistic inheritance.
The eight chapters are organised alphabetically, so in Chapter 1 you’ll find out about the Latin words baculum, bellum, bonus, and captivus.
Baculum (parola italiana: imbecille)
Il termine baculum significa “bastone” e il prefisso “im” indica l’opposto. Il termine “imbecille”, che noi usiamo come insulto sinonimo di “idiota” o “cretino”, significa letteralmente “una persona senza bastone” e, cioè, senza appoggio. Come a dire che gli manca qualcosa, che la testa non lo supporta o non funziona…
So an ‘imbecille’, originally, would have been a ‘stick/staff-less person’, someone with no useful contacts. As Romans might have put it, two thousand years ago, ‘it’s not what you know, but who you know!’
Which Italian words derive from the bellum, bonus, and captivus? You could probably guess some, we’re sure. But take a look at the Free Sample Chapter to check if you’re correct. While improving your Italian reading and listening skills!
- .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
- .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
- 8 chapters to read and listen to
- 8 exercises to check what you’ve learnt!
- Suitable for students at intermediate level or above
- Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)
Don’t forget to check out the Free Sample Chapter (.pdf) before you buy a copy. That way, you’ll know whether the level is suitable for you, and that the format works on the device you intend to use it on.
Remember, this being the first week ‘Dagli antichi romani a noi’ is 25% discounted, so just £7.49 rather than the usual ‘easy reader’ ebook price of £9.99.
Buy ‘Dagli antichi romani a noi’, just £7.49 | Free Sample Chapter (.pdf) | Catalog
How do I access my ebook?
When your order is ‘completed’ (normally immediately after your payment), a download link will be automatically emailed to you. It’s valid for 7 days and 3 download attempts so please save a copy of the .pdf ebook in a safe place. Other versions of the ebook, where available, cannot be downloaded but will be emailed to people who request them. There’s a space to do that on the order form – where it says Additional information, Order notes (optional). If you forget, or if you have problems downloading the .pdf, don’t worry! Email us at the address on the website and we’ll help. Also, why not check out our FAQ?
P.S. Spare a few dollars? For a good cause?
Did you read/listen to Tuesday’s bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news?
If so, you’ll have read/heard that they’ve started their bi-monthly appeal for donations.
EasyItalianNews.com publishes useful, FREE materials for people learning Italian on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Each contains a selection of ‘easy’ articles and an online audio recording, the idea being that regular reading/listening practice will help students build their comprehension skills, as well as consolidating the grammar they’ve studied and helping learn new words.
EasyItalianNews.com is FREE to anyone who wants/needs it, because its users – or some of them, at least – are willing to donate to pay its bills.
See who | Donate | FREE material for learning Italian! | Subscribe (for FREE!)
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