Buondì.
A quick message for Patricia, who left a comment on the website, politely wondering why she hadn’t heard from me about her prize for entering the translation competition a couple of weeks back. This is what I wrote about that in last week’s article:
“But everyone who entered deserves a prize… If they email me, I’ll send a voucher for a free ‘easy reader’ from our ebooks store!”
Clear now, Pat? There were many of you. I have a lot to do. The email address you need is on the club website, or just reply to any emailed article.
Bene, allora.
“Why are we doing this, teacher?” is a question that’s rarely asked, if my fifty-odd years in education is anything to go by.
As a school pupil in Britain in the ‘seventies and early ‘eighties, any such query would have been regarded as impertinence.
Then, after eleven years of doing what we were told in compulsory education, during the successive two years of further education and three years at university I no longer thought to enquire about the whys and wherefores.
Even in later on-the-job training it was evident that the instructors intended to follow the syllabus in the same way they always did, and we would cooperate, if we knew what was good for us.
When I eventually, reluctantly, became a teacher myself (in 1990, when there was a white collar recession in the UK, so few other options), my first job was in Ankara, in Türkiye. It was a very patriarchal place at the time – probably still is – so even adult students wouldn’t question the organisation or purpose of a lesson.
After that there was a year spent teaching Japanese teenagers, who would turn up to lessons in their pyjamas, and even go to sleep, heads slumped on their desks, but would othewise do what they were told. Curiosity about the pedagogical approach would have been welcome, but was never forthcoming. Let’s just get it done, then go back to bed!
Eventually I moved to Bologna, Italy.
Now Italians might be homicidal morons when behind the wheels of their automobiles, but in most other situations they’re respectful of authority (too much so, if you ask me) and wary about anything that might be perceived as rocking the boat.
Getting anything done here requires that everyone buys into the group decision. Questioning the teacher is not an option, and risks getting you a punitive bad grade.
And yet, perhaps my experiences haven’t been typical. For instance, this week on Swedish radio I’ve been listening to a developing scandal about a state-school teacher who was fired for scotch-taping small children’s mouths closed. To punish them for making a row / teach them to be quiet, I assume, though it wasn’t spelled out.
The children weren’t hurt, and being very young didn’t think to mention it to their parents, though eventually someone must have done. At which point, Swedes threw up their hands in horror!
Why? Because in Sweden children are EXPECTED to question things. Isn’t that the whole point of school, they’d argue? To learn? Not just to learn to obey.
“Why are we doing this, teacher?” would likely be seen as a praiseworthy question from a Swedish elementary school pupil, and though it might seem extreme if you’re not used to it, well, why shouldn’t the teacher be able and required to explain the logic of their decisions?
Turning to my own learning, I myself am the teacher, so the question is even more valid. If “Why are we doing this, teacher?” results in a coherent answer, then great! If not, then it should provoke me to rethink.
Strategy.
There are lots of possible language-learning strategies, of course, and which one or ones are chosen will depend on what our objectives are.
If you have no idea what your Italian-learning objectives are, even less so what your ‘strategy’ might be, then not to worry.
Likely you’re following the example of most other of the world’s learners – the British elementary school pupils, the Japanese teenagers, the Turkish and Italian adult learners – and doing what the teacher advises, or insists on.
There’s nothing bad about trusting the experts, nothing bad at all (as long as they actually ARE experts…)
But it is rather passive, don’t you think? And certainly isn’t very ‘Swedish’. You won’t learn to think for yourself that way, will you?
Indeed. So take a moment today, or moments over the next week or so, to ask yourself about your language learning: “Why are we doing this, teacher?”
If you actually have a teacher, ask them. You could even forward them this article. Don’t be surprised if you don’t get an intelligent answer, though. The syllabus (specifying objectives etc.) is often above the pay grade of front line educators, the cannon-fodder of the education system.
This train of thought was provoked as I walked down to the local gas station this morning, to the PUDO (pick up, drop off) to collect some parcels.
Getting an SMS that informs me there’s a package waiting helps get me out of the armchair and away from the laptop. The walk constitutes the day’s minimum exercise (gyms are not for me!)
As I trudged, I had my earbuds in so I could listen to the news highlights in Swedish, which amounts to 20-25 minutes of listening practice most days. If I take a longer route – via the park and around the lake, perhaps – I’ll usually add some French rolling-news radio.
“Why are we doing this, teacher?”
The strategy, small Swedish person, is to listen as much as possible, ideally daily, and to achieve this more easily by doing it while I am busy with other things, such as collecting packages or washing the dishes.
And you will note that we are using the same approach with written texts, so reading Swedish, French and Spanish (as well as Italian, obviously) to keep up with what’s going on in the world. Instead of English. Mostly.
And yet, “Why are we doing this, teacher?”
Kids can be insistent, can’t they?
We have chosen this strategy for various reasons, little one. Because we dislike studying, because we are busy, but above all because our objective is to be able to UNDERSTAND (and so, ideally, interact in) these languages.
So we need to be familiar with the sounds, vocabulary and structures of the languages we’re interested in. Very familiar, in fact, which will take hundreds, even thousands of hours.
And we need to know, at least in outline, what people who speak those languages talk about, understand their attitudes (taping small children’s mouths shut is BAD), follow the day-day-events in their countries (PSG beat Liverpool yesterday), and so on.
“Why are we doing this, teacher?”, I ask myself again.
Because, little lad, while it’s improbable we’ll ever be 100% in any foreign language, with lots of listening and reading practice – and at least a minimum of speaking practice, too – we will, hopefully, be able to hold our ends up when in conversation with native speakers.
That’s why.
Objective: reasonably competent interactions with native speakers
Strategy: maximise listening/reading in the target languages (instead of English), plus speaking practice when available. And let the grammar go hang
“Why not take a course?”
Because I have Bug to look after. When I no longer do, I might, who knows?
Alla prossima settimana.
P.S. Spring Ebook Sale Next Week, Save 25%!
(Copied/pasted from our ebooks store website)
Next week we’re having our 2025 Spring Sale, which means that everything at our ebook store EasyReaders.org can be had a quarter cheaper than usual.
On Tuesday 25th March 2025 we’ll be emailing a coupon code so students of Italian, French, Spanish or German can save 25% on ebooks for learning foreign languages.
Reading and listening practice is essential to building and maintaining comprehension skills, so take the chance next week to pop 4 ebooks into your shopping cart, yet pay for just three of them!
Watch out for the email with the coupon code on Tuesday 25th March 2025!
In the meantime, make your selections from our extensive range of ebooks for learning Italian:
Italian Easy Readers | History/Historical | A Day in the Life of… | Italian Literature | World Literature | Italian Cinema | Opera
Easy Reader Multi-Packs! | Italian-English Parallel Texts | Self-Study Workbooks
And/or other languages:
The Catalog page also has links to free samples for all the languages and for virtually all of the ebook titles. Download a few at different levels and read/listen to them – it’s a good way to verify your reading/listening comprehension level in the language or languages you’re studying!
Our ebooks are .pdf by default (everyone is familiar with those), but for some types of text we also offer other formats that are compatible with Kindles and other ebook readers, .epub for instance. Both the Catalog page and the product information pages for each individual ebook should make it clear which format or formats are available, and how to get them!
Italian | Spanish | French | German
P.P.S.
And here’s the usual reminder to read/listen to Tuesday’s FREE bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news. I already did.
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 get all three text + audio bulletins of ‘easy’ news emailed to you each week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, subscribe (they really are FREE) by entering your email address on this page and clicking the confirmation link that will be sent to you.
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