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Buondì.
Out of over twenty-thousand club ‘members’, probably the largest group are beginners at Italian, or what we in the business call ‘near-beginners’.
Next up are the elementary-level students, then pre-intermediate, then intermediate, then upper-intermediate, then advanced, then proficiency, and so on.
The higher the level, the fewer of us there are, which is obvious really.
Firstly because the better you are at a foreign language, the less you need materials and advice aimed at lower-level learners.
But then there’s what cellphone companies used to call ‘churn’, that’s to say the rate at which people sign up for a service but then quit for an alternative.
We don’t (can’t) measure ‘churn’ for club members, but given that we’re on the first page of Google and that maybe five hundred people ‘join’ each month, I’d estimate that it’s quite a big percentage.
When I was starting out with Swedish, some years ago now, I remember trying out various materials, websites, apps, and so on, very few of which I now still use.
Some of them I did regularly for a while, and profited from, for instance https://8sidor.se/ (easy Swedish news broadcast, which gave me the idea for our own https://easyitaliannews.com/).
Others I used for a while but didn’t really profit from: Duolingo kept me busy – and gave me the illusion of learning something – for months, I remember.
I also bought costly course books, which remain unopened on a shelf in my office.
‘Churn’ is inevitable with self-study, and to some extent is to be encouraged, as we independent learners have to find our own way, there often being no one better to direct what we do.
Your aims and objectives are likely to be different from mine, as might your preferred ways of learning, the time you have available, and so on.
What works for me, might not therefore be best for you. You’ll need to experiment to find how best to proceed.
And as you improve, month by month, level by level, your goals and so your needs will change. Your approach, and the materials you employ, will therefore need to, too. So more experimentation, more risk!
‘Churn’ is inevitable, ‘churn’ is desirable, and for the club ‘churn’ introduces us to people who might, but probably won’t, become long-term members, and perhaps even happy customers.
We have a few hundred regular ebook buyers, for instance, plus a similar number of online lesson clients, and several hundred students at our school, though they tend not to be the same people.
The ‘readers and listeners’ may have different objectives, and perhaps a lower budget, compared to the online students or those who come to Italy to learn.
I listen to and read French regularly, for instance, but haven’t actually spoken the language since the second Covid lockdown, and I’ve never done a French course in France (though I’d like to!)
When we start out with a new foreign language – I’ve been considering beginning German – there are so many unknowns, so so many things that might or might not work out well.
Ideally we would immediately embark on an optimised approach which would make best use of our time and so produce the maximum result for the minimum investment of time, energy, and money.
Right? In effect, that’s what the marketing promises us. Do this, buy that, listen to me, and you’ll get there quicker, full 30-day money-back guarantee!
It’s what people have in mind when they join – for instance – a beginners’ evening class, that the teacher will magically know the best way to get them from A to B, with the least hassle.
And sometimes, for some students, the teachers really do know exactly what will help, and how to avoid the pitfalls and time traps. The teacher may know, the students may listen. But often neither.
For those who can afford it, the appeal of individual lessons, whether in person or online, is exactly that. The teacher will know how to help me, will focus on my needs, and my needs only, which will be better, faster, etc. Like driving a Ferrari instead of a Fiat.
Having been a language teacher for decades, I remain unconvinced that either route is sufficient for most people.
In a group class, inevitably, there’ll be compromise, inevitably other people will get to talk while you sit and fidget impatiently, inevitably the class will focus on things you might already know, or which are still too advanced for you.
With individual lessons, while the best teachers might really know what you need better than you do, it might not be what you think you need.
And anyway, it’s far from guaranteed that the teacher can read your mind, especially if you don’t match the profile of their typical student.
An Italian teacher who’s used to teaching Spanish-speaking twenty-somethings might not make the best choices for you if you’re an American retiree beginning with your first foreign language.
And if you quit after the first lesson and ask for your money back (someone did this recently…) the teacher will have no second chance.
Group classes are great for other reasons. The pressure’s not always on you, as it is with individual lessons, there’s a peer group to learn and practice with, and someone else (the teacher) is making the hard decisions.
Individual lessons are great if what you really want is uninterrupted chat, or to focus on topics which are specific to your situation, though perhaps of no interest to others. And while they cost more, they’re not a Ferrari.
Who knows which is the best way for you? Unless you luck on an experienced professional who is selfless enough to point you to materials and techniques that might not earn them a cent, probably no one.
Not even you. In most cases, especially not you.
The solution is to try different things, perhaps lots of different things, then hopefully, sooner or later, you’ll know much better what works, and what doesn’t.
Things will go wrong, I guarantee.
You’ll buy books and apps you don’t use, you’ll meet teachers who don’t know their arses from their elbows (as we say in Britain), you’ll waste time studying stuff that will have no short or medium-term benefit – it happens all the time, I swear.
Screwing up is inevitable, though also potentially profitable, as if I do start with German at some point, I’ll remember the mistakes I made with Swedish and so, perhaps, be guided by them.
Back to club members and ‘churn’. It’s great that hundreds of you sign up each month, I’m delighted.
Many of you are beginners or near-beginners, many of you are here by chance, most of you will be gone soon, and that’s ABSOLUTELY FINE.
Go try stuff, go fail, go learn what actually works for you, with my blessing.
Those of us who have met or exceeded our language-learning goals, perhaps to our surprise, have probably gone through the exact same process of trial and error.
What can go wrong, will go wrong!
But that’s OK, actually, especially if you expect it, and have realistic goals.
For German, for instance, if I aim to reach a basic conversational level in, say, a year, with a superficial but very limited ability to read/listen to authentic texts, and some basic competences in interacting with native speakers?
Well there’s every chance of me achieving that, no matter that some of the decisions I make will be poor ones. Doesn’t matter.
The most likely thing to go wrong is the thing that most often goes wrong when I have some lofty goal.
Either I don’t begin at all (there might be perfectly good reasons, such as our house guest Bug), or I begin but don’t stick at it, whatever the it may be.
Many are called, few are chosen.
Jack of all trades, master of none (that’s me to a tee!)
Etc.
Try stuff, fail, keep at it, or learn that it’s the wrong path for you so quit.
All of that is fine.
You might not have learnt this, but by not learning this, at least you’ll have learnt something. If you see what I mean.
I’ve not learnt lots of languages, so have learnt much from my failures!
The most likely thing to go wrong is not accepting that things can go wrong, so responding in counter-productive ways when they do.
For instance: you join a class, don’t like it (for whatever good or bad reason), so quit. End of.
Ditto with an ebook, online conversation lessons with native speakers, a course in Bologna, och så vidare.
You have to find what works for you personally, and not take it too hard when one thing or another doesn’t.
I repeat: the most likely thing to go wrong is that we’ll be fearful of things going wrong.
So we stick with things that are wrong for us because we don’t want to admit we’ve wasted our money or time.
So we avoid what might turn out to be the ‘right’ things, but which could be just another error which would make us feel bad.
Alla prossima settimana!
P.S.
Don’t forget to read/listen to Tuesday’s FREE bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news, will you?
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.
Not tried this, yet?
Take a look at their website (it’s FREE!)
You can get all three text + audio bulletins of ‘easy’ news emailed to you each week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. That’s also FREE!
Just enter your email address on this page then click the confirmation link that’s sent to you.
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