You don’t HAVE TO read this article if you’re TOO BUSY!

Buondì.

This is for the lady who wrote to me overnight pointing out that, what with one thing and another, she was much too busy to even read the articles I send out, let alone have a go at the Dante series.

I won’t publish her email because she genuinely does seem frantically busy, and I sympathise, being massively pushed for time myself.

My day, for example, begins when I switch on the computer and deal with emails and shop orders that have come in since I went to bed nine hours previously. That’s usually before eight a.m. And the computer doesn’t go into standby mode again until around ten in the evening.

During those thirteen or fourteen hours, I might spend a couple writing an article like this one, work at our language school, either quietly in an empty classroom or sitting on reception, shop for food (we currently have six young adults in the house), prepare meals, wash the dishes and, oh yes, deal with incoming orders (ebooks and online lessons) throughout the day.

In quiet moments (ha!), I commission and edit new ebooks. And when I’m too exhausted to do anything else, which tends to be in the afternoon for some reason, I listen to easy news broadcasts in Swedish, or to Turkish CNN.

So yes, sometimes I don’t get around to reading emails that I signed up to receive, either. I currently have several days’ worth of the wonderful ‘Poem of the Day’ newsletter from the Poetry Foundation, for example.

(Subscribe here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/newsletter )

Those’ll have to wait until I’m in the mood – I will be eventually. Or I’ll delete them. But I usually get back into the habit eventually.

All that said, IF someone were sending me emails relating to the languages I’m learning, and/or with free materials, I’d probably find the time to read them.

In fact, I’d make time.

People who are genuinely, actually, really, totally, undisputably too busy to read emails, are also probably too busy to learn a language.

And if you’re too busy to learn a language, why sign up to a website like OnlineItalianClub.com or to receive easy Italian news bulletins?

Often it’s aspirational, I’d say.

We do these things so as to move ourselves along the path to becoming the sort of person we’d prefer to be.

I’d like to know more about poetry, so I sign up for a ‘Poem of the Day’ newsletter.

I’d like to speak another foreign language, so I have a weekly online lesson, try to do an hour’s listening each day, and read the news in Swedish

But wanting to is not always enough.

We have to find the motivation, and that might mean making choices about how we spend your time.

Back to this article, then.

You don’t NEED to read it.

You could do nothing for your Italian today, or you could go use the club website, where you’ll find thousands of pages of free material, WITHOUT reading the article.

JUST use the club website, or another site, or app, or book, or course.

That’s fine with me.

Never read another article about language-learning again, for all I care.

But if you want to be the sort of person who speaks and understands Italian, then do something to make that happen.

And do it regularly.

So why might you read this article, and others like it?

Some people enjoy them – they write to tell me.

Plus, it’s a way to find out what’s new.

For example, I just this minute published our extracts from Canto XIX of Dante’s inferno (see the whole series on the club’s literature page).

And not to forget, we actually sell stuff, so as to pay our bills and to provide work for people who need it – young Italian teachers, writers and so on.

This week’s half-price ‘Book of the Week’ titles are Ciak si gira and La crisi di mezz’età, both level A1/2.

Download the free sample chapters to take a look: Ciak si gira (.pdf) | La crisi di mezz’età (.pdf).

Then, if you like the material, buy the full versions at half the usual price here and here.

Or browse the catalog to find something more suited to your current level.

N.B. If you don’t want to receive articles like this one via email, do me a favor and UNSUBSCRIBE. There’s a link to do so at the very bottom of each article that goes out by bulk-mail.

P.S.

Tuesday’s bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news is here.

Click away from Netflix or your favorite social media account and read/listen to it 2-3 times.

Do the same tomorrow, and on Saturday, and next Tuesday. Repeat.

Wait 3-6 months. Now, is your Italian better?

Told you.

In your gratitude, make a generous donation to help me pay the writers and editors.

A venerdì, allora.