Archives for December 2015

Best Offer On 2016 Italian Courses – Starts Today!

December 14, 2015 by Daniel

As I mentioned several times last week, December is the month when we run our popular ‘Best Offer Of The Year’ on Italian courses over the coming twelve-month period.

And the waiting is over! Starting today you can save a full 20% on group Italian courses of any length starting in 2016 at our school in Bologna, Italy.

This is what you need to know:

Pay the ‘Winter Offer – 20%’ course deposit (just €120 instead of the usual €150)
You’ll save 20%, not just on the deposit, but on the whole cost of your course
The offer applies to group courses only, not to individual or online lessons
Your course can be of any length: the longer you study, the more you learn

No time or money to learn Italian? What you really need is..

December 12, 2015 by Daniel

“Oh if I only had the time to learn Italian…”

We hear that all the time.

Equally common is:

“I’d love to, but I can’t afford it.”

Perhaps you find yourself saying one or both of these things…

But are you sure they’re not just excuses?

I’d know all about that, as I’ve been putting off perfecting my Italian for nearly two decades!

I came to live here in Bologna in 1998, which is (OMG!) eighteen years ago.

And yet I still don’t speak Italian perfectly.

Reasonably well, yes. I read effectively, understand most of what I hear, and can write some.

But I have a terrible accent and make plenty of grammar mistakes. Our Italian teachers (my employees) cringe visibly when I speak to them.

Admittedly, time has been the enemy. Since we’ve lived here, I’ve always worked. We’ve got married, bought a house and had three children. Not to mention building two businesses.

But I confess, I did have at least SOME free time during those eighteen years. I just spent it doing other things: writing books, cooking, listening to jazz, drinking wine, learning to sail and so on.

There was money too. Doing an MBA at Bologna Business School ‘cost me an eye’ as Italians say. And took up several years of evenings and weekends.

So I guess I have no excuse for my terrible grammar.

Or at least, it wasn’t a case of ‘didn’t have the time’ or ‘didn’t have the money’.

For me, what was missing was another essential ingredient…

The ‘Time/Money/Motivation’ Triangle

I have this theory.

It’s sort of triangular. Or flat, maybe.

Let me explain: there are three elements to achieving something big but worthwhile like learning a language.

They are ‘time’, ‘money’ and ‘motivation’.

But you only NEED two of them to succeed (it helps if one of these is motivation).

The reasoning goes like this:

If you’re motivated, you need to find either the time or the money.

If you have the motivation to do something, you should be able to find the time for it.

And if you have the time, you don’t really need the money, as there are so many wonderful resources on the Internet for learning Italian, it’s now perfectly feasible to learn Italian without ever spending a cent.

Or if your situation is that you’re time-poor but motivated, you can probably find the money. It’s just a question of spending what you would have splurged on something else. Cut out a treat or two, skip a holiday, and over a year you’ll easily save enough for a good Italian course.

It’s neat. If you don’t have much time, spend more money. If you don’t have much money, spend more time.

Taking a course costs, but is a lot faster and arguably more effective for many people than doing self study.

But if you have no cash to spare, you pare down your routine so as to free up some self-study time.

That way you could read the newspaper in Italian each day, or do some online exercises. There’s no doubt that, with language learning, a little at a time will get you there in the end!

I see people using one or the other of these approaches successfully every day – at our language school in Bologna, and through my online activities.

Both approaches work just fine.

The problem is that too many people choose neither.

You wouldn’t believe how many of my Italian students learning English claim to have no time to study – none – but then take an hour-long lunch break each day to relax and socialize.

Neither do they seem to have much of a budget for lessons, but it doesn’t stop them driving shiny German automobiles and dressing in branded clothes.

The result? Many of them improve less than they’d like to.

You DO have at least some time. You probably have at least some money too. Possibly, like me, not much of either one.

But then you don’t need plenty of both.

What you need is the drive to reach your goal, which is much, much more important!

So, it’s your call: learn Italian faster but spend more with a full-time course, or do it gradually but spending little or nothing with self-study materials.

The problem is never the time or the money. The problem is ALWAYS the motivation.

Back to me.

Over the years, I guess I’ve gotten used to not speaking Italian that well, and get by just fine with what I have.

But imagine the return on investment if I’d taken a couple of months out of my life to do a decent Italian course way back in 1998…

If I’d realized the long-term pay-off.

If I’d invested then some of what I’d been putting by for the future.

If I’d put off starting work for a few months longer so as to get the basics sorted first.

I’d have spent, what, a couple of thousand dollars (this was before euros existed.)

Plus a similar amount that I wouldn’t have earned.

Total cost maybe a couple of months earnings at the time.

I’d have felt it, sure. But I’d have speeded up my learning massively, made new friends, become more self-confident…

It would have changed my life.

Sigh.

Anyway, as I say to my kids: “Don’t do what I did, do what I say!”

It’s obviously self-serving in this case, given that I’m marketing language courses right now.

But it’s also 100% true.

If you really want, or need, to learn Italian, you have to find the motivation to do one of two things: allocate some time or spend some money.

Do either one and you’ll be moving forward towards your goal.

And doing so much faster than I did.

(Do both, and you’ll be flying!)

What does ‘I want to learn Italian’ really mean?

December 10, 2015 by Daniel

Following on from Tuesday’s article ‘Still interested in learning Italian? Three options for you‘, today I’d like to ask you another question.

You’d probably agree with one of these two statements, right?

“I want to learn Italian”

“I want to improve my Italian.”

Fine. Italian is a great language to learn, and we’re here to help you improve your knowledge and develop your ability to speak and understand it.

But today we’ll be examining a little more closely your dream of learning Italian, with the aim of helping you better understand how to proceed, how long it could take, and what it might cost you.

So what exactly do you mean by ‘learn’ or ‘improve’?

If you try to answer that, you might find it a little harder than you thought to come up with a clear, objective answer.

A typical reply is:

“I’d like to speak Italian as well as I speak (your own mother tongue).”

But if you think about it, that could take a lifetime…

After all, you’ve been working on your ability to speak and understand (your own mother tongue) since you were in the cradle!

‘Perfect knowledge’ is likely to be an unrealistic aim, at least in the short to medium term, though if you stick at it for long enough you might get there in the end.

Having appreciated this, you might redefine your goal as something like:

“Well, I’d like to speak/understand Italian a lot better that I can now!”

Excellent, that’s the spirit!

But remember, you might have other priorities… Perhaps you work, support a family, or spend time on other interests. Maybe you’re studying other languages at the same time, as many college students have to.

So to allocate the right amount of time (and money) to your goal, I’d suggest you narrow down exactly where you want to get to next.

The idea is to set a sort of ‘waypoint’ to aim for, as you might if you were planning a journey:

“Let’s take the ‘autostrada’ to Milan, then stop for a coffee before we come off the interstate. Then, while we’re drinking our espressos, we’ll figure out how to get from the rest stop to the hotel. OK?”

I’d always advise that sort of ‘one step at a time approach’. But it doesn’t have to be unambitious. You can always fix a more demanding goal once you’ve reached the first of your waypoints.

To help with this idea of planning language-learning, universities, schools and language teachers in Europe mostly use a standard set of descriptions for measuring what students can expect to be able to do at the end of their course.

The idea is that if a typical person spends a given number of hours working on their Italian, they should expect to be able to do certain things.

Thinking about it like this helps us choose appropriate materials and activities for each course, as well as providing a way of organizing classes in which participants have similar goals and needs.

The system I’m referring to is called the ‘Common European Framework’.

But it’s NOT a list of grammar points or vocabulary topics such as you might see in the index of an Italian course. Instead, it’s made up of descriptions of what students should be able to DO at each of its six levels.

The ‘framework’ contains two descriptions for those of you just starting out with Italian, two for those of you who are already fairly autonomous in the language, and two for students who have an advanced knowledge but want to keep improving.

The levels are designated A1/A2, B1/B2, and C1/C2.

A good rule of thumb is that it should take you around 80-100 hours of study (four to five weeks of a 20-hour a week course, or roughly an academic year of an evening course) to learn to do the things in each level band.

This stuff isn’t a secret. You can easily use the ‘Common European Framework’ to identify where you are with your Italian right now, where you’d like to get to next, and where you’d ideally like to end up.

Waypoints, like I said.

Working on the basis of 4-5 weeks per level, you’ll have no trouble figuring out how long each stage should take you and deciding what sort of course or courses you’ll need to take.

If you’re with me so far, that’s great! To help you further, I’ve summarized the descriptions for each level here below.

So the next time someone asks you what “I want to learn Italian” really means, you’ll have a ready answer!

+++

A1 – Beginner or Elementary

I want to be able to understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of my day-to-day needs.

I’d like to introduce myself and others and be able to ask and answer questions about personal details such as where people live, people they know and things they have.

My aim is to interact in a simple way, provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.

A2 – Pre-Intermediate

I want to understand sentences and frequently-used expressions related to areas that are most immediately relevant to me, such as very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography and employment.

I’d expect to be successful at simple tasks that require a direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters, such as describing aspects of my background, immediate environment and matters that relate to my immediate needs.

B1 – Intermediate

My aim is to understand the main points of clear standard speech and written texts on familiar topics that I regularly encounter at work, at school, or in leisure activities.

I’d expect to be able to deal with most situations that are likely to arise while I’m traveling in Italy, and I’d want to be able to write Italian on topics which are familiar or of personal interest.

I’d be capable of describing, in a simple but coherent way, experiences and events, my dreams, hopes and ambitions, and of giving brief reasons and explanations for my opinions and plans.

B2 – Upper-intermediate

I want to be able to understand the main ideas of complex texts on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in my field of specialization.

I’d expect to be capable of interacting with a degree of fluency and spontaneity, which would make regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for me or for the person I’m speaking or writing to.

At this level I’d need to produce clear, detailed spoken and written texts on a wide range of subjects and explain my viewpoint on topical issues, giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.

C1 – Advanced

My goal is to understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and to be able to recognize implicit meaning. I’d be capable of expressing myself fluently and spontaneously without having to obviously search for the right expressions.

I’d expect to use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes and to produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects.

C2 – Proficiency

I’m aiming to easily understand virtually everything I hear or read.

I’d expect to be able to summarize information from different spoken and written sources, and to reconstruct the arguments and accounts of others in a coherent presentation.

I want to be able to express myself spontaneously, fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations!

+++

Using the above, you should find it simple to identify what your next step needs to be and how long that will take you. But if not, don’t hesitate to ask us for help!

If you choose to study at our school in Bologna, we’ll send you a level test by email when we receive your enrollment. The idea is check your current knowledge of Italian so we’ll have a good idea of which class to place you in on your arrival.

If the test result is misleading, which can happen, we’ll know very soon after you begin your course and so can arrange to move you to a class which will be more suitable and will better help you reach your goal.

Still interested in learning Italian? Three options for you.

December 8, 2015 by Daniel

This is a list-clearing exercise, as we’re just about to start a major promotion on Italian courses at our school in Bologna, Italy.

Whether you’re interested in learning Italian or not, we want to make it easy for you to choose to stay on our list, or to get right off it and so receive fewer emails.

So we’ve laid out three options for you to pick from.

Option 1: “I don’t want to learn Italian”

If you’re not interested in learning Italian at all, you’d probably prefer not to have received this information.

Fair enough. Let’s see that it doesn’t happen again.

At the top or bottom of this text, depending on which of our systems sends it, you should see an ‘unsubscribe’ link. Click it and follow the simple instructions to remove your details from our mailing list.

Sorry to have troubled you. You won’t be contacted again (unless you’re on both of our lists, in which case just repeat the process.)

Option 2: “I might be interested in courses at your school”

Cool.

And we have a major offer coming up next week, the biggest discount of the year! Stay on the list to get details hot off the press, straight to your in-box. That’ll be on Monday next week, once we’ve finished the ‘list-clearing’.

In the meantime, check out our new FAQ, which contains everything you ever wanted to know about Italian courses at Madrelingua.

Option 3: “I study Italian, but won’t be coming to your school”

Thank you for your honesty.

We’d still suggest you click the ‘unsubscribe’ link, as most of the content sent to this list won’t be relevant to you, and we don’t want to spam anyone.

But if you’re still interested in learning Italian, why not check out these FREE resources?

OnlineItalianClub.com (thousands of pages of FREE exercises and resources)
DontSpeakItalian.com (FREE beginners’ course – 50 or so exercises, very easy to follow!)

Saluti!

So, ‘addio‘ to you Option 1 people. No hard feelings we hope. Enjoy your emptier in-boxes.

Instead, we’ll say ‘a presto‘ to you Option 2’s. Thanks for staying on our list for news of the up-coming offer (and don’t forget to check out our FAQ!)

We hope ‘arrivederci‘ might be appropriate for those of you who still want to learn Italian but not at our school. Hope to see you over at the other place!

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