Buondì.
A rare Sunday post, as our 2019 January Sale ends tonight and I thought you might like to know what other club members have been spending their ‘learn Italian’ budgets on.
Also because, every time I run a sale (which is four times a year – now, at Easter, in June or July, and in September/October), there’s always someone who writes to me AFTER the sale ends to ask:
“Can I still get the discount?”
The answer will be no.
Once the sale ends, the sale ends.
Officially that’s tonight, say at midnight, though it’s academic given that we have members in every time zone.
So in practice it’ll be while I’m having breakfast tomorrow (I live in Italy – work out the time difference from where you are).
While chewing on my museli and yoghurt, I’ll log in to the online shop site and switch off the coupon code.
And that will be that, back to normal life, on a normal January Monday…
So what about those Top 10 January Sale Bestsellers?
In absolute first place is the massively popular ‘Online Italian lessons:10 x 30-minute lessons‘.
Which makes me happy – for the teachers, who need the work, for Lucia (our teaching manager), but above all, for all the club members who’ve taken the plunge and are now, or will soon be, working with a club teacher.
Here’s a tip – Italian teachers can be a little, well, ‘teachery’.
And, in particular, they can be obsessed with grammar, which regular readers will know, is not my thing at all.
If grammar, and being told what to do, ring your bell, then you’ll be just fine.
But if what you want is to build your speaking and listening skills, then make sure you make best use of your lessons by actually SPEAKING!
Time spent checking homework, in my humble opinion, is time wasted.
Ask your teacher questions about their weekend, their job, their likes and dislikes, what’s happening in their lives, where they live, and so on.
And tell them what’s happening in YOUR life, too.
Make friends. You’ll learn more, and you’ll have a much better time!
Insist that at least part of the lesson is speaking.
I do.
And if you don’t get what you want, TELL your teacher that the balance isn’t right.
I don’t suppose she’s telepathic, or she’d be doing something that pays better, like ripping of casinos.
We have lots of free conversation materials on the club site, by the way, so no one has the excuse that they don’t know what to talk about.
E poi, there’s Lucia, who’s our teaching manager and your point of contact for everything lesson-related.
She’ll be happy to give any help that’s needed.
Back to the best-sellers, then.
In distant second, third and fourth places are the ‘middle’ levels of our ‘Italian Workout!’ series of self-study workbooks.
Italian Workout! B1 | Italian Workout! A2 | Italian Workout! B2
Those are in order of the number of sales made, not the level.
The level system, for anyone new around here, goes (from easiest to hardest) like this:
A1 & A2 (the elementary levels), B1 & B2 (the ‘autonomous’ levels), C1 & C2 (the advanced’) levels.
Get more information about levels on the club website, here. Or Google CEFR and read up.
Where was I?
Number six is the popular The Tenses You Need To Speak Italian.
What’s it about?
Um…
To find out more, click the link and download the free sample chapter, which is, in fact, the first quarter of the book, if I remember correctly.
Seven and eight are the other two Italian Workout! levels, the easiest and then the hardest:
Italian Workout! A1 | Italian Workout! C1/2
That doesn’t suprise me – the fledglings are all over at Duolingo, and good luck to them.
Whilst the black belts have their sophisticated heads stuck in ‘Il sole 24 ore’ or ‘I promessi sposi’.
The final two in the Top 10 are both ‘bundles’ of ‘easy reader’ ebooks, at different levels:
Italian Easy Readers ‘Three For Two’ – Level A2/B1
and
Italian Easy Readers ‘Three For Two’ – Level B1/2.
Middle levels again…
We have six ‘half-levels’ of these, so as to offer a more gradual progression and to allow students to develop their reading and listening skills over time.
Not on the ‘best sellers’ list is the excellent value Eighteen Italian Easy Readers – HALF PRICE!, which gets you all six half-levels in one bundle, three titles per half-level, going from easy to hard.
I’ve said in the past that a good project would be to buy the whole pack and, starting from the easiest, read and listen to one ebook a week (approximately a chapter a day).
By the summer, you’d be a black belt too!
So then, buona domenica a tutti.
The offer information is below, in case you’ve been meaning to but haven’t quite gotten around to it yet…
2019 January Sale – Final Day!
Today only, everything at the ‘club shop’, EasyReaders.org, is 20% off.
Use coupon code:
january_sale_2019_save_20%
Browse our Catalog page to make your selection of ebooks and online lesson credits.
The offer ends tonight, Jan 6th 2019!