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Buondì.
If you saw last Wednesday’s article First job: find your communities, and/or if you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that the club is a place for language-learning ‘teach yourselfers’.
With the wealth of resources the internet offers us – for instance online media (NOT the endless Youtube videos and the infinite social media posts) – I strongly believe an interested, motivated person could learn more or less any language they wanted to, given a modicum of common sense and a willingness to figure out how. Which really isn’t that hard.
I’ve been writing ‘how to learn a language’ articles for more than ten years, for example this one from January 2014: Why you should just ignore Italian words you don’t understand. There are loads more like that (along with tales of road trips and house guests) on the “Best of” OnlineItalianClub.com page.
Of the world’s 8.2 billion people, it seems likely that most of the ones who speak multiple languages in their day-to-day lives (let’s guess and say a quarter, so 2 billion people) learnt their second and subsequent tongues ‘in the community’ (see last week’s article), so from family, friends, work, TV, etc.
Take a hypothetical Arabic-speaking ten year old. She lives in a north-African country, speaks a variant of Arabic at home, might be exposed to other variants of Arabic at the mosque and in the media, plus French and English from the TV and the Internet, French and English at school, and so on.
By the time she’s an older teenager, she’ll likely have her own interests, which could range much more widely than the limits of the family and suburb she was raised in. As her interests require them, over time her language competences grow.
My not-at-all-hypothetical eldest daughter is bingual Italian/English, having spoken both languages at home (hence my lousy Italian).
She studied English and French at school, went to university in Scotland, studied law in London, and is now interning at the very multilingual European Court of Justice, in Luxembourg. Where? Luxembourg, a wealthy, European mini-state with a population of less than Alaska. Public transport (trains, buses, etc.) is free there, she tells me.
In neither case did formal language courses make a significant difference to the girls. That’s because given the interest, the opportunity, and the time, the human brain is more than capable of picking up foreign language skills by itself, without professional assistance, thank you very much.
All that said, there are more obvious ways to learn a foreign language. Some of them are quicker than teaching yourself, and require far less independent thinking. For instance, taking a course at a professional language school.
More than thirty years ago, when I was a young English teacher living in Ankara, the capital of what was then called Turkey, I used to regularly walk past one such institution, a Turkish language school called Tömer.
Back in the day their students were mostly diplomats and the like, so people with money and time. In my mid-twenties I had neither, so picked up my Turkish the fun (though slower) way, in bars, and with girls.
I’m pleased to see the place still exists. Perhaps I’ll go and do a course there, now I finally do have money and time. For it might surprise you to hear that, after more than three decades in the language-teaching business, I’ve never actually done a course myself!
Sure, I’ve taught thousands of them, managed multiple schools, trained teachers, and run language learning businesses.
I’ve taken a handful of private Italian lessons, and done many hundreds of hours of online Swedish conversation practice. But sign up as a student at an actual language school? Nope.
Actually, I was planning to, before then pandemic, when we had a holiday in Spain booked. I figured that, if nothing else, it would be good market research, that I could pick up tips that we could apply in our own school (see below) and get a student’s-eye perspective of what goes on. Couldn’t hurt.
But then the lockdown, after which I had another stroke, so didn’t feel much like traveling alone. And then we started hosting small animals of various sizes, so couldn’t travel, for want of pet passports.
That’s kept us busy ever since. Our latest pup, Bug, weighed in at 13 kilos (nearly 29lbs) this very morning, for those who are interested. When he bounces around the place, he does it with MASS. But also he appears to be on the very verge of learning to speak, which is very exciting from a language-learning point of view!
But anyway, a more obvious way to learn a language: take a course at a professional Italian language school. Well why the hell not, if you have the time and the money?
There are hundreds of them in Italy to choose from. Typically students can expect to progress approximately a CEFR ‘level’ (there are six) per month of full-time study.
I mention all this as next week our Italian school in Bologna is having its annual 20% discount promotion (starts Wednesday Dec. 18th, ends at midnight on Christmas Day). Some of Madrelingua’s students are also club members, so I’m using multiple channels to get the word out, to make sure that nobody misses the offer!
Could taking a course in Bologna work for you, too?
Well, are you a happy self-studier, busily immersed in multiple online and offline Italian language communities, or are you more the sort of person who’d enjoy learning in a classroom with a teacher and other students? Or perhaps both?
That, only you can say. But to get a flavor of how a school works, check out Madrelingua’s Frequently Asked Questions page.
The school website also has a collection of Best Articles About Learning Italian, mostly dating from way back when, but still worth a look.
Così. I’ll link to details of the ‘save 20%’ promotion next Wednesday, when the offer has begun.
Intanto, do check out the three ‘half-price’ seasonal Italian ‘easy reader’ ebooks linked to below.
And/or go read/listen to EasyItalianNews.com, which is FREE, and also linked to below.
Alla prossima settimana.
Final Festive ‘Easy Italian Reader’ Ebook – an easier one!
The last couple of weeks we’ve been promoting a selection of seasonal Italian ‘easy reader’ ebooks, first ‘Natale a sorpresa‘ (about Christmas), then ‘Giallo a Capodanno‘ (New Year). They’re both still half-price, if you missed them. See the P.S. below for more details and links.
But attenzione! ‘Natale a sorpresa‘ and ‘Giallo a Capodanno‘ are both for upper-intermediate or advanced students, so might be too much of a challenge for many of our readers.
To remedy that, this week’s (final) seasonal ‘easy reader’ ebook choice is the A2/B1 (pre-intermediate/intermediate) -level ‘Il calendario di Laura‘.
Laura finds weekdays a bore but loves public holidays! And Italy has plenty to enjoy, each with its own traditions.
Read how she and her husband like to spend each ‘giorno festivo’, from Epiphany on January 6th, through the spring, summer, fall and winter months, to the climax of the Christmas holidays, New Year, and then, to begin all over again!
- .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
- 14 chapters to read and listen to
- 14 exercises to check your understanding
- Italian/English glossaries of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
- Suitable for students at elementary level and above
- Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)
Remember, this week ‘Il calendario di Laura‘ is 50% discounted, so just £4.99 rather than the usual ‘easy reader’ ebook price of £9.99!
Buy ‘Il calendario di Laura‘ just £4.99! | Free Sample Chapter (.pdf) | Catalog
Find more ebooks, organised by level, then type: A1 | A1/A2 | A2 | A2/B1 | B1 | B1/B2 | B2 | B2/C1 | C1 | C1/C2 | C2
P.S. Two More Half-Price Italian Easy Readers!
Two weeks ago our ‘Half-Price Ebook of the Week’ was the very seasonal B2 (upper-intermediate)-level ‘Natale a sorpresa‘.
Because we’re still feeling Christmassy, we’ve left it at half-price until the holidays, to give you a chance to grab your copy at a discount: ‘Natale a sorpresa‘.
Ditto with last week’s seasonal Italian ‘easy reader’, the B2/C1-level ‘easy reader’, ‘Giallo a Capodanno‘, a New-Year murder mystery, perfect for improving your Italian reading/listening skills over the holidays.
N.b. Both of those are for more advanced/confident learners of Italian. If that sounds like you, check out the free sample chapters (don’t forget to try the online audio, too – the link is in the free sample):
- https://easyreaders.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Natale-a-sorpresa-SAMPLE.pdf
- https://easyreaders.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Giallo-a-Capodanno-SAMPLE.pdf
Read/listen to one or both of these over the next week or two and you’ll improve your Italian comprehension skills, consolidate the grammar and vocabulary you’ve studied, and get into the festive mood.
Get them while they’re still half-price!
Natale a sorpresa | Giallo a Capodanno
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.P.S.
And here’s the usual reminder to read/listen to yesterday’s FREE bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news.
The regular text + audio bulletins are a fantastic, FREE way to consolidate the grammar and vocabulary you’ve studied, as well as being fun and motivating!
Take a look at their website to get started on improving your Italian immediately!
And/or to get all three text + audio bulletins of ‘easy’ news emailed to you each week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, subscribe (also FREE) by entering your email address on this page then clicking the confirmation link that will be sent to you.
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