Buondì.
Who makes the decisions about how you learn Italian?
By which I mean what the learning objectives are, what activites are included, in what order, in what percentage of the time available, with what mechanism to evaluate progress, and with which remedial activities, when your progress is not what was hoped for.
Is it your teacher, or teachers?
Was it the author that wrote the book you’re studying from?
Perhaps it’s the team behind the app you’re addicted to?
Maybe it was whoever designed the syllabus that you and your class are following?
In a ‘real’ Italian language school it would be a combination of those: the course book writer, the Director of Studies who selected the book from a range of alternatives, and prepared a syllabus around it, and the teachers who use the book in their lessons, broadly following the syllabus, making changes as and when necessary, so as to help you get the most out of your course.
Or here’s a thought – is it YOU?
Or some combination of the above, and you?
It’s not you?
That’s a shame.
If you aren’t making the decisions, at least some of the time, then you aren’t going to make BAD decisions.
And if you don’t make bad decisions, you won’t ever learn to make better ones, will you?
Which leaves you depending on others to plan your learning.
That might be fine with you, for now.
But what happens when the course ends, when you finish the app, when there’s no more teacher to tell you what to do next?
For me, when it comes to learning languages and much besides, far better that I captain my own ship.
A venerdì.
P.S.
The Summer Sale preparations are beginning! From July 5th to July 11th there’ll be a coupon code that will get you 20% off everything in our shop.
So if you were thinking of buying some ebooks, or lessons with a native-speaker Italian teacher, maybe hold off a few weeks?
Spend the time browsing our Catalog page, looking at free sample chapters, making a wish list, maybe?
N.b. Don’t forget, there’s loads of FREE material on the club website…
Gillian King says
At first I followed the course, structured around the book. Lots of good things there. But after a while, the new stuff just kept coming and I saw that I needed to consolidate the old stuff. So I got a Skype teacher. Now I spend MUCH more time prepping for Skype lessons than regular class work.
That’s mostly because Serena follows my interests. She gives me articles to read, and we share my writings about life events, or my attempt to put Billy Goats Gruff into Italian.
Being able to read and write are important to me. I feel like I’m in the wild, foraging in the forest turning up gems. And SO, SO, limited. Ah crap. Which doesn’t really matter when I am enjoying the process.
Thanks for your recent point about finding things you LIKE to do. It’s central for me.
Anyway, my main point is that I was happy to go along with the excellent course, till I saw I needed more. Then I was off to forage more widely.