Archives for 2022

Hope you had/are having a very enjoyable Christmas Day.

This is just a quick, last-minute reminder that the 20% discount offer on 2023 Italian courses in Bologna ends in just a few hours.

At midnight Italian time.

That’s 9 a.m. on Boxing Day in Sydney, Australia but 11 p.m. this evening in London, 6 in the afternoon in New York, 3 p.m. on the U.S. west coast, and so on.

Wherever you are, it’s soon.

To take advantage of the year’s biggest savings, click here

You have been reminded.

Save 20% now!

Then, no more emails for a while!

Buon Natale!

Contact us | Prices | Italian Courses | How To Book | FAQ | Save 20%!

P.S.

Make 2023 the year you get serious about learning Italian…

Go here to get your 20% discount!

Stefi and Daniel, along with all of the teachers at Madrelingua Italian Language School, join to wish you, your family and your community:

‘Auguri di Buon Natale!’

We hope to see you at our school in Bologna in 2023, in particular all our old friends, but also many, many new faces!

‘Mille grazie’ to the many people who’ve already taken advantage of our ‘best offer of the year’ to save 20% on their next course.

The offer ends at midnight tonight (25th Dec.), so it’s still not too late to secure this great discount on your 2023 Italian course.

• Save a fifth on any group Italian course, of any length, starting in 2023!
• No need to decide the dates now – just let us know the period you want to study when you’ve decided
• TODAY IS THE LAST DAY to get your 20% discount by paying a deposit of just €120
• No more to pay until the first day of your course

CLICK THIS LINK NOW – it takes just seconds to pay your course deposit with a credit card or Paypal account.

Lock in your discount before the offer expires at midnight tonight. Go here to pay your €120 deposit.

Questions? Need more info?

Full details of this offer are here: 2023 Italian Course Offer: Save 20% From Today!

Stefi and I will be eating lunch with her Italian extended family in a cousin’s restaurant, as in pre-pandemic times.

But thanks to the wonders of smartphones, she’ll still be able to answer any questions you might have.

Contact her any time up until midnight tonight: info@madrelinguabologna.com

Or go here, now, to complete your deposit payment.

Contact us | Prices | Italian Courses | How To Book | FAQ | Save 20%!

There are just thirty-six hours left to take advantage of the ‘best offer of the year’!

So, in case you’ve been too busy to read your emails, here’s a summary of what you’re missing:

• save 20% on your next Italian course at our school in Bologna
• the discount is good for any GROUP course (not for individual lessons)
• you can start your Italian course on any date in 2023
• your saving applies to courses of any length – the longer you study, the more you save!
• you DON’T need to decide the dates, or the length of your course, right now
• just let us know once you’ve finalized your plans
• secure your 20% discount by sending a deposit, via Paypal or bank transfer, by midnight on Dec. 25th!

And here’s the summary summary:

• take two minutes to pay a small deposit by midnight on Christmas Day & save €€ on your 2023 Italian course!

As the kids say, this is a no-brainer.

But you’re probably pretty busy right now, right?

So here are step-by-step instructions on exactly what you have to do.

It’s a low-stress process that’ll take just minutes, promise.

Ready to go?

1. Click this link to visit our ‘How to book your Italian course’ page
2. If you’re not sure when in 2023 you’ll be coming, skip the booking form and go directly here
3. Click ‘Add to Cart’, then ‘Proceed to Checkout’
4. Fill in the form with your details
5. Choose your payment method – the ‘Paypal’ option includes credit and debit card payments
6. That’s it – see you in Bologna in 2023!

P.S.

We have real people ready to help you, or answer your questions about our Italian courses.

Just e-mail Stefi on info@madrelinguabologna.com – she’ll sort you out with whatever help you need!

Even on Christmas Eve – try us!

Save 20% Now!

Contact us | Prices | Italian Courses | How To Book | FAQ | Save 20%!

The ‘best offer of the year’ on 2023 Italian courses at our school in Bologna, Italy ends in 48 hours or so.

A two-week Italian course, which normally costs EUR 495, is just EUR 396 with the 20% discount.

What’s EUR 396 in real money?

• USD 421
• GBP 349
• AUD 626

*I worked these out myself using the most recent Euro foreign exchange rates listed on the European Central Bank site. But hey, I teach languages not math, so do double-check. And the rate your credit card provider, or Paypal, gives you is GUARANTEED to be worse…

Naturally you’ll have to add in the cost of accommodation and your flight (depends where you start from..)

But when all is said and done, you could be giving your Italian a major boost, and enjoying a great holiday in Bologna (home of Europe’s oldest university) for relatively little.

And to confirm your 20% discount, all that’s required is a deposit of EUR 120!

By midnight on Christmas Day.

No need to decide the dates of your course yet – just let us know when you know…

But don’t miss this chance to lock in the best saving of 2023!

Pay the EUR 120 deposit NOW to confirm your 20% discount.

More information on this offer.

Contact us | Prices | Italian Courses | How To Book | FAQ | Save 20%!

Have you saved 20% on your 2023 Italian course, yet?

If not, well perhaps you still have some questions?

Our FAQ should deal with a lot of them – read Frequently Asked Questions.

And do check out these reviews from former students.

Our Tripadvisor page is also worth a look.

What if you STILL have doubts?

Why not email, phone or even visit us?

Our reception staff speak excellent English.

We’ll be happy to take your call and/or respond to questions in an email.

Contact us

All questions answered?

All doubts resolved?

Then it’s time to…

Save 20% on your 2023 Italian course!

Thirty-seven Italian-learners from around the world have already saved €€€ with the ‘Best Offer of the Year’ promotion!

Why shouldn’t you be the thirty-eighth???

Full details can be found in this article: 2023 Italian Course Offer: Save 20% From Today!

The deadline to save 20% on your course is midnight on Dec. 25th.

That’s Sunday night.

But why wait?

Get it done today, while you think about it.

It’ll take just a minute or two!

No need, even, to decide when, or for how long, you’ll be studying.

Let us know the dates later, once you’ve finalised your plans.

Today, all you need to do is to lock in your saving with a small deposit.

And you’re done!

Save 20% on your 2023 Italian Course

A domani!

Contact us | Prices | Italian Courses | How To Book | FAQ | Save 20%!

(Seen this email before? I send on the same day every year. But nothing much has changed, so I keep uisng it!)

Since our seasonal offer began, I’ve published articles about ‘Why learn Italian?‘, ‘Why Study Italian in Bologna?‘ and ‘Why Study Italian at Madrelingua?‘

Today then, I’m assuming that you’ve already decided to learn Italian, that you’ve picked out Bologna as an appropriate destination, and that you’ve selected Madrelingua as your choice of Italian language school.

Brava!

Or ‘Bravo!’ if you’re a guy.

If there’s two of you, and one’s male, that would be ‘Bravi!’

‘Brave!’ if you’re twin sisters and make this type of decision together.

Anyway, having decided to study and where, naturally you might be wondering what to expect from your Italian course.

So that’s today’s topic.

But, as it’s been a busy week, I’m planning to cheat a little and, rather than try to cover everything in one article, link to lots of things on the school website that you might find helpful.

For example, this article from way back in 2014:

‘What should I expect on my first day at your Italian school?‘

Liked that?

There are LOADS of articles in a similar vein in our archive ‘Best Articles About Learning Italian‘.

Suppose you’ve done your background reading but still can’t quite visualise yourself, sitting in a language classroom in the center of historic Bologna?

Check out this webpage with pictures of our school and its immediate surroundings.

Still got questions?

Hah! That’s why we have a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page.

Personally I’ll always read the FAQ when I buy something, though perhaps that’s just me.

Plenty of people just email us with their questions.

Yesterday (actually ‘yesterday’ several years ago when I originally wrote this) somone from Israel phoned. Yes, we speak English. No, not Hebrew, sorry!

Here’s how to contact us.

That’s it for today – short and sweet, as the kids are back from college and I’ve meals to prepare and dishes to wash.

A domani.

2023 Italian Course Offer – Save 20%!

Act this week to save 20% on 2023 group Italian courses in Bologna!

• The ‘Winter Offer – 20%’ course deposit is just €120 instead of the usual €150…
• … which ‘locks in’ a saving of 20% on the whole price of your course!
• N.b. This offer is good for group courses, not individual or online lessons
• Your course can be of any length, from a week to a year!
• No need to decide the dates now – email us when you know
• As every year, this offer ends at midnight on Christmas Day. But why wait?

For more information:

Italian Courses | Prices | How To Book | FAQ | Contact us | Save 20%!

(Seen this email before? I send it on the same day every year. But it’s still true now, perhaps more so, so I keep using it!)

The 2023 Italian Course ‘Save 20%!” offer proceeds, with a good number of people from around the world having already paid a small deposit to lock in a great saving on their next Italian course!

The more optimistic ones, I suppose.

On Friday I wrote about why Bologna is a great place (maybe the best!) to study Italian.

So today, in all modesty, let’s consider which school to choose in Bologna.

Madrelingua is a member of the national association of Italian Schools, ASILS, as you can verify by clicking through to their website.

And as you will see there, two other Bologna schools are also members.

Both are respected and valid associates.

Either is worthy of your consideration.

So what makes OUR school, the newest of the three, actually, the final choice for a lot of students?

Perhaps it’s the price?

We’re neither the most expensive, nor the cheapest.

Though from a marketing point of view, that’s a perilous position to be in.

Maybe it’s the fact that we have the ugliest website?

I’m a great believer in home-made marketing tools.

ANYONE can have a nice-looking website – just throw enough money at a graphic designer – but it takes time and patience to put together something that looks like it’s run by a bunch of (sniff) ‘language teachers’.

Besides the website, one reason people sign up to study Italian at Madrelingua is because my wife, Stefania, valiantly answers the phone and responds to emails seven days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year.

On any given Sunday afternoon, a potential student might be pondering the search results chucked up by Google and, at a loss as to which to choose, decide to shoot off an email to all of the schools they see in Bologna.

An hour or so later, despite it being the weekend, they get a reply, patiently answering their questions. (Try it!)

What else?

Friday, by the way, was our staff Christmas lunch.

It was at the end of the morning, a week before the Christmas/New Year holiday, which is the only period of the year when we close (though Stefi still answers the phone and replies to emails!)

It’s traditional at these events for the boss (that’s me) to stand up and make a speech, the contents of which must include heartfelt thanks to everyone for their hard work, self-sacrifice, and so on.

We’ll all drink too much wine, Secret Santa gifts are exchanged, and the company credit card takes a hit when it’s time to pay the bill.

Everyone then winds their way home to sleep it off – another Christmas lunch over and done with, nothing very remarkable having happened, little being different from similar events attended in many previous years.

Mostly it’s the same faces each time – Stefi and I, and our team of permanent Italian teachers: Francesca, who’s in charge, Paola, Giula and Angela, but also whichever of the regular or more-occasional freelancers happens to be available and up for a free pizza – Giovanni, for instance.

Many of them have been with us since the early days.

Paola was, I recall, the first ever ‘permanent’ employee we hired (a daunting and complex process under Italian law). Francesca came not much later, a refugee from a competitor, then Giulia, all fresh-faced and just starting out after uni (now she’s a mum, and complaining about a mid-life crisis!)

And freelancer Giovanni was MY Italian teacher (at a competitor school) twenty years back, before we’d even considered opening Madrelingua, which was started in 2005.

And here we all still are!

Between you and me, the staff certainly have SOMETHING to do with the school’s success.

It can’t be just the fantastic marketing…

I’m just not sure what it is, exactly.

It’s not so much that we have permanent teachers, which in theory should lock in experience and lead to ‘better’ teaching.

Neither is it that the teachers have decades of experience – and not between them, either – each!

I’ve worked in other schools with permanent staff who’ve been there for years, and many of them haven’t given a fig (so to speak) about their clients.

It’s not so much that the teachers are particularly talented, compared, say, with other Italian teachers in other schools.

Nor that they are necessarily any kinder, or more interesting.

I just think it’s that each and every one of them, in some small way, views their job as to actually CARE about the students who study with us.

So they know their names, where they’re from, and why they’re learning Italian.

And they DO THEIR BEST to help clients reach their goals, whatever those may be.

This work of ‘caring’ goes on week after week, year after year.

And as a consequence, time after time, former clients come back to study with us again – a second, third, fourth, or fifth time!

Other reasons to choose Madrelingua for your Italian course?

Here’s a list – some points are trivial, but anyway:

• Check on Google Maps and you’ll see that we’re absolutely the most CENTRALLY-LOCATED
• Madrelingua is on the first floor of a historic building, right alongside the cathedral
• Every classroom has air-conditioning, which is vital in the summer
• We all speak English (though it’s better for you if we communicate in Italian)
• The school is a family business, run by an English/Italian husband and wife team. Got a problem? Talk to the owners
• And no, we DON’T offer ‘third age’ courses. We have a good mix of ages and nationalites and everyone gets along just fine

What else can I add?

People really do learn Italian, and to a good level, at that!

Assuming they stick with it long enough, of course.

In the end, it’s just a question of time – the human brain is programed to learn foreign languages, given the need and the opportunity.

The important thing is that you feel SAFE, comfortable and interested enough to keep at it, until the magic happens!

We want you to feel at home, but more stimulated, if you see what I mean…

(Read what students say about Madrelingua: Tripadvisor | Reviews on the school site )

2023 Italian Course Offer!

Just a reminder: this week, save 20% on group Italian courses of any length beginning in 2023 at our school in Bologna!

• Pay the ‘Winter Offer – 20%’ course deposit (€120 instead of the usual €150)
• That ‘locks in’ a saving of 20% on your whole course!
• This promotion is valid for group courses only, not individual or online lessons
• Courses can be of any length: the more you study, the more you learn!
• Don’t worry about deciding the dates of your course now – just email us when you know
• The offer ends at midnight on Christmas Day – 25th December 2022

Pay the €120 deposit / Save 20%!

For more information, check out these pages on the school website:

Italian Courses | Prices | How To Book | FAQ | Contact us | Save 20%!

(Seen this email before? I send it each year. But Bologna doesn’t change much, so I keep using it!)

It must be said that Italy has a lot of language-travel destinations to choose from.

So why study Italian in Bologna?

Here are some reasons…

1.) History – 3000 years of it!

Ok, most of Italy has history going back millenia, not just Bologna.

But look at a map, look at the ‘Pianura Padana‘ (the rich, flat sediment of the River Po’s flood plain).

At a glance, it’s obvious that this place will have been inhabited since the earliest days of agriculture.

Before the modern era, in the middle ages, Bologna was one of Europe’s largest cities.

It’s said (depending on who you ask) that we have the world’s oldest university. Students have been coming here to study law, then medicine, for almost a thousand years.

Before that, Bologna was the Roman city of Bononia.

And back even further, to around a thousand years before the Christian era (so three thousand years ago!) this place was an Etruscan city, known as Felsina.

Suffice it to say, Bologna is a very OLD city, and one that people have been coming to to learn for a good chunk of recorded history.

(Find out more about Bologna on Wikipedia.)

2.) Easy to get to

OK, here’s a little quiz for you.

On Tuesday 18th December (years ago, this is an old article…), Bologna Marconi ‘Aeroporto di Bologna’ was expecting arrivals from these international airports (excuse the occasional Italian spellings):

Alicante, Amman, Amsterdam, Bacau, Barcelona, Berlin, Budapest, Brussels, Casablanca, Chisinau, Copenhagen, Craiova, Dubai, Eindhoven, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Kiev, Krakow, Lisbon, London, Lyon, Madrid, Marrakech, Moscow, Munich, Paris, Prague, Seville Sofia, Suceava, Tenerife, Timisoara, Tirana, Valencia, Vienna

Bet you can’t tell me (without checking on the Internet, as I had to) which countries ALL those places are in??

There were also flights arriving from these rather far-flung Italian destinations:

Bari, Brindisi, Cagliari, Catania, Lamezia Terme, Palermo, Roma, Trapani

A bonus point if you know where all of those are. I didn’t.

You’ll notice there are no international arrivals from the USA or Australia?

That’ll be because the really long distance flights arrive at the hub airports of Milan and Rome.

But not to worry – there are fast (and inexpensive) trains to Bologna from just about everywhere.

And travel times, in these days of high-speed trains, are amazing!

Milan (1.01) is just an hour and a minute away, for example, while Rome (2.15) is only two and a quarter hours these days.

Talking of trains, once you’re here, if you fancy a day trip to Florence (0.34), Venice (1.27) or even Naples (3.15) – well, why not?

In short, Bologna is an excellent base for exploring Italy. Read this article I wrote years back: Psst! Wanna see Italy? Start here!

Or this one: 6 (cheap) day-trips from Bologna by train

(The train times quoted are from the Trenitalia website. Use it to plan your weekends!)

But maybe trains aren’t your thing?

So rent a car!

Interstates (U.S.A.), motorways (U.K.) – Italians call them ‘autostrade’ – leave Bologna in all possible directions.

3.) Not too big, not too small!

Bologna is Italy’s seventh largest city.

Which, in my opinion, makes it just about right.

Not too big, and yet not to small, either.

Students stay within walking distance of the school, which is nice.

And you can get around easily on foot, or hop on a bus, or rent a bicyle.

Green hills are visible from many places in the city. The countryside is just a few minutes walk away.

And yet it IS a city, still, with more or less everything that you might need…

4.) Lots to do (and eat!)

We run a language school, not a tourist information service.

But if I ever change role, I won’t be short of things to promote.

There’s Bologna’s world famous gastronomy, dozens of museums, a modern art gallery, a choice of theaters and movie houses, live music venues, street markets, and luxury shops.

Plus churches, piazzas, porticoes, and so on.

This is a medieval walled city, though the walls are mostly gone now. It’s laid out like a wheel, with spokes going out from the central piazza.

If you have an idle moment, just follow one of the spokes and gaze around you as you walk.

When you get out to the city gate (which marks the boundry of the old town), walk around the main road and come back in on a different ‘spoke’.

Each quarter is different and there’s so much to discover. Plus, walking is cheaper and more fun than going to the gym!

Monday: Why Study Italian at Madrelingua?

2023 Italian Course Offer!

Until 25th December 2022, you can save 20% on group Italian courses of any length beginning in 2023 at our school in Bologna!

• All you need to do is to pay the ‘Winter Offer – 20%’ course deposit (€120 instead of the usual €150)
• The deposit guarantees you a saving of 20% on your whole course!
• This offer applies to group courses only, not to individual or online lessons
• Your course can be of any length: the more you study, the more you learn!
• There’s no need to decide the dates of your course now – just email us when you know
• This promotion ends at midnight on Christmas Day – 25th December 2022

Click here to Save 20%!

Or visit the school website:

Italian Courses | Prices | How To Book | FAQ | Contact us

Pay the €120 deposit / Save 20%!

(Seen this email before? I sent it each year at this time!)

But WHY do you want to learn Italian, rather than, say, wasting away your days in front of Netflix?

It’s not such a silly question.

Learning a language is, after all, a major undertaking. It can take months, or even years, to get to a level at which you can hold your own in a conversation.

And you’ll need to wrap your head around all sorts of unexpected complexities – irregular verbs, gender, unpronounceable words, and many more – all waiting to snag you and impede your progress.

So why bother? Why learn Italian at all?

There’s the obvious answer, and then there are the not-so-obvious reasons.

For a lot of students of Italian, it’s probably a combination of things that drives them to keep studying and improving.

The obvious reason is that people speak Italian to be able to understand others and to express themselves in that language.

At Madrelingua we have students who have, for example, bought a holiday home in Italy, or have an Italian partner, or who simply love to visit or travel here.

There may be connected reasons, such as a love of art or opera, or plans to work or retire in Italy.

One common one is having Italian grandparents or more distant relatives, so therefore the desire to better understand your (linguistic) heritage.

But everyone in this category (and not everyone IS in this category) has some sort of recognisable NEED to learn the language.

If I improve my Italian, I’ll be able to understand people when they speak to me, and express my ideas in turn.

But there are a host of OTHER reasons for taking Italian courses.

There are, for example, people who enter retirement and realise they have additional time to fill.

Taking an Italian course is a way to meet people, sometimes no more than that. Perhaps you start a class simply because your friend is doing it and has suggested you come along.

That might be the (rather trivial) initial reason. But as I mentioned, mastering a language is a major undertaking.

It requires sustained effort, strong motivation, and decision-making.

It’s a little like climbing a mountain.

Which brings to mind the famous quote from early Everest climber, George Mallory, who took part in three expeditions but died on the mountain (decades before it was finally successfully summitted…)

Asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, he replied:

“Because it’s there.” (Wikiquote.org)

So for the sense of achievement, then.

To prove something to yourself?

Because it’s a challenge (unlike watching Netflix…)

I bet that’s a big part of it for a lot of people, even if it’s not always acknowledged.

You might start out with a beginners’ course before a holiday in Italy, but there’s a real danger (as with scaling a Himalaya) that you’ll get hooked and end up spending years on your quest!

And as you learn, something interesting happens.

Decades back I worked in Turkey as an English teacher and started to pick up Turkish, in bars mostly.

People I met used to tell me something like “If you speak one language you are just one person, but when you learn a new language, you become a new person”.

As well, presumably, rather than instead.

I guess the idea is that you gain new knowledge, but also different points of view, fresh perspectives on the world.

As you study grammar, learn to read, listen to new sources of information about the world, you gain another dimension to your self, along with everything that goes with that: friends who speak the new language, a sense of ‘belonging’, and so on.

It’s true: you really do become ‘someone new’.

Sort of.

There’s a final reason people learn languages, unrelated to any obvious ‘need’, and beyond the satisfaction of opening doors to the world outside your own head.

It’s got to do with the pleasure that can be had from achieving mastery of something.

Think, for example, of that corny ‘Kung Fu‘ TV series from the ‘seventies, featuring a monk called Caine with amazing martial art skills.

To get good at Kung Fu (presumably), you’d need to make effective use of your time, exercise self-discipline, and become more AWARE:

Master Po: Close your eyes. What do you hear?
Young Caine: I hear the water, I hear the birds.
Po: Do you hear your own heartbeat?
Caine: No.
Po: Do you hear the grasshopper which is at your feet?
Caine: Old man, how is it that you hear these things?
Po: Young man, how is it that you do not?

In short, first you have to learn to learn, whatever it is, whether a martial art or a foreign language.

Only then can you really begin to master the new skill.

And that process of learning that you CAN acquire new skills – and learning to do so more effectively – is liberating.

After much time, and much effort, you’ll finally figure out just how much you’re capable of.

2023 Italian Course Offer!

Save 20% on group Italian courses of any length starting in 2023 at our school in Bologna, Italy!

• Just pay the ‘Winter Offer – 20%’ course deposit (€120 instead of the usual €150)
• That guarantees you a saving of 20%, not just on the deposit, but on the whole course
• This promotion 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 need to decide the dates of your course now – just email us when you know
• Offer ends at midnight on Christmas Day – 25th December 2022

Save 20% today!

Or visit our the school website to find out more:

Contact us | Prices | Italian Courses | How To Book | FAQ

Pay the €120 deposit / Save 20%!

As I mentioned 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 2023 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

Read more in our online shop.

This promotion runs from today until Christmas Day (25th December 2022).

But why wait? Start making your plans today!

1. Choose your Italian course and check the price
2. Check out flights to Bologna and accommodation
3. Read about our simple booking process
4. Then over to our online shop to pay your course / accommodation deposit
5. That’s it – you’ve saved 20% on your 2023 Italian course!

Of course, you may not yet know when exactly in 2023 you’ll be able to devote some time to improving your Italian…

No problem!

There’s no need to decide the details of your course right now. Pay the deposit to lock in your discount (this offer won’t be repeated for another twelve months.)

Then just send us an email with the start and finish dates when you’ve finalized your plans.

So, you’ll have some questions, I expect.

Write to Stefania, who’ll be happy to help you! Her email is: info@madrelinguabologna.com (or reply to any email you receive from us.)

Here are some links to pages on our site where you can find out more.

Contact us | Prices | Italian Courses | How To Book | FAQ | Pay the 20% discount deposit now!