Do you believe the customer reviews you read when shopping online, booking a hotel, or choosing an Italian language school??

Well perhaps you shouldn’t. Caveat emptor, and all that.

According to this article in The Guardian, in June this year the UK Competition and Marketing Authority opened an investigation into possible widespread abuse of online reviews.

Apparently, deceitful practices include:

• paying for hundreds of fake positive reviews
• hiding or just failing to publish negative reviews
• leaving misleading reviews about competitors

There are some naughty people out there…

That said, it IS useful to know what other people think before you commit your time and money to an Italian course.

Taken with a pinch of salt, comments and reviews can at least give you a flavor of what the experience might be like.

For example, here are a few extracts from genuine client reviews on our site:

• I first visited Madrelingua in 2009, and found the program, the teachers, and the rest of the Madrelingua team to be outstanding, and very friendly.
• I’ve attended five language schools in three cities in Italy in the past 2 1/2 years and Madrelingua is the best of the best.
• I recently did a short beginner’s course at Madrelingua and was very impressed with the structure of the course and the very high standard of teaching. Right from the beginning it was clear to me that I was in good hands.
• Madrelingua is the third language school I’ve attended in Italy and it’s by far the best. I was nervous that it would be above my level but the teachers, Francesca and Giulia and Paulo, made it so much fun than you hardly noticed you were actually having a lesson…

Too good to be true?

Well obviously I’ve picked out some of the best ones. But take a look and decide for yourself!

More Articles About Learning Italian | FAQ

 

Just a quick update from anyone working or studying in Bologna and interested in Italian evening classes this term…

Classes start next week!

Check the level, days & time of your course here:

• A1 lunedì-mercoledì, inizia lunedì 5 ottobre ore 18.00
• A2 martedì-giovedì, inizia martedì 6 ottobre ore 18.00
• B1 lunedì-mercoledì, inizia lunedì 5 ottobre ore 18.00
• B2 martedì-giovedì, inizia martedì 6 ottobre ore 18.00
• C1/C2 lunedì-mercoledì, inizia lunedì 5 ottobre ore 18.00

Don’t know what these levels mean? Here’s a helpful article: What’s my level in Italian?

Find out more about:

• Italian evening classes in Bologna
• Italian courses in the mornings
• Intensive Italian courses
• Personalized Italian courses
• Online Italian lessons

Or contact us.

If you want to speak and understand Italian better, you should give some thought to selecting the approach that will be best-suited to your style of learning and circumstances.

You might, for instance, get on very well ‘teaching yourself’ Italian using materials available on the Internet. If that sounds like you, take a look at OnlineItalianClub.com, which has thousands of pages of grammar and practise exercises.

But perhaps you’d prefer something more structured? Maybe you’d appreciate the chance to learn Italian in Italy? Or need to study online with lessons from an Italian native-speaker teacher?

No matter what your situation, Madrelingua Italian School offers a variety of Italian courses so you can be sure you’ll find something to suit you. Choose between standard or more intensive courses, courses personalized to your specific needs, evening classes in Bologna, or online lessons from your home or office.

Courses in Bologna, Italy

Bologna is the ideal place to study Italian! It’s small enough to get around on foot, but has all the facilities of a city, including an international airport and Europe’s oldest university.

Taking an Italian course at our school is an excellent way to boost your Italian. It’s also totally flexible, as courses can be of any length, the minimum period being just one week.

Most students choose our standard 20-hour-a-week option, which means studying from nine-thirty to one-thirty each morning from Monday to Friday. Afternoons can be spent studying in the school with a tutor, participating in activities organized as part of our social program, or just exploring the city.

A typical student completes a level in four to five weeks. If you’re able to stay away for longer, you could even reach an advanced level. Longer courses bring greater fluency and confidence with Italian, but also offer excellent value for money since each subsequent week costs less!

Find out more about the 20-hour-a-week Italian course

Intensive Italian courses

For more experienced language learners, or for those who wish to cram as many lessons as possible into each day, we offer the 30-hour-a-week ‘intensive course’.

You study with the morning students, but get an extra two hours of lessons each afternoon. You should bear in mind that learning a language can be tiring… this is not an option to be chosen lightly!

More on intensive Italian courses

Courses personalized to your needs

If you have a specific objective, you may prefer individual or semi-individual Italian lessons. Choose how many hours you would like to study, and when. There’s no minimum, but there are discounts for greater numbers of hours.

Your teacher will personalize lessons based on your needs. You might, for example, want to speak as much as possible, or to work on preparing for an exam or a job in which you’ll need to speak or write in Italian.

Details of individual Italian lessons

Evening classes at Madrelingua

For students who are already in Bologna for study, work or family reasons, we offer Italian evening classes during the academic year, from October to December and then again from January to June.

There are two lessons a week, each of three hours duration. So a three-week evening course module is approximately equivalent to one week of our 20-hour-a-week ‘morning’ course.

We’d expect you to be able to improve your Italian by about a level in each of the two ‘terms’.

Dates and times of Italian evening classes

Online lessons from your home or office

Wherever you are in the world, there’s always the option to study online with one of our staff of professional Italian teachers.

For online teaching we use Skype video calling software, which is free to download and easy to use.

All you need is a decent broadband Internet connection and a PC or tablet and you could be taking lessons from your home or office at a time to suit you.

As for our individual courses, online lesson content is personalized according to your needs and preferences.

Book online Italian lessons

More Articles About Learning Italian | FAQ

 

It’s that time of year again.

August’s sticky weather and deserted streets are gone. Now the sidewalks are crowded, and with the milder September climate there’s barely a place to be found at the tables outside bars and restaurants.

Besides being a popular tourist destination, Bologna is home to Europe’s oldest university. With its traditions and vibrant social life, it’s a magnet both for Italian students and for young people from all over the world.

The European Union’s Erasmus program encourages the continent’s youth to spend time in another member state as an exchange student. Needless to say, Italy is one of the most popular choices, and Bologna one of Italy’s premier destinations. So in September young people arrive here in droves, though often without knowing a word of Italian!

Bologna is also ‘capoluogo’ of the Emilia-Romagna region, and as such attracts many a foreign specialist to work in its companies and factories. They bring with them their expertise and skills, but are often only able to communicate with fellow workers in English, which not all Italians know well…

Hence the timing of our evening Italian classes! They’re aimed specifically at students and workers, and run at up to five different levels, two evenings a week, between the end of September and Christmas (and then again from January until the beginning of the summer.)

Italian evening classes are the ideal solution for anyone who finds themselves in Bologna and needs to brush up on their foreign language skills, while leaving the days free for work or for lessons at the university.

The classes are organized in three week modules. That’s two lessons of three hours each week, eighteen hours in total, that being equivalent to approximately a week of studying full-time.

With four modules you could improve an entire level, and over an academic year complete two, or even three levels (similar to studying four, eight or twelve weeks full-time.)

Italian evening classes are also a great way to meet people, especially when you first arrive and don’t know anyone. As Italian is the ‘lingua franca’ of our classes, you’ll get used to using it to communicate.

And who knows? Maybe you’ll stay in touch with the friends you make in your Italian class, and so continue practising the language with them long after your course is over!

Follow this link to find out more about Italian evening classes in Bologna.

Or, if you’re not able to work or study here, visit our Italian courses page to find out about studying Italian full-time or taking online Italian lessons from your home or office.

Got a question? Here’s how to contact us.

• Tel. 00 39 051 267 822
• E-mail: info@madrelinguaitalian.com
• Address: via San Giorgio, 6 – 40121 Bologna (BO), Italy

A quick reminder: today is the LAST DAY of our Summer Offer.

To save 15% on group Italian courses starting by 31st December, pay your deposit NOW!

You’ll find full details of what to do and how to do it here:

https://madrelinguaitalian.com/learn-italian-for-less-summer-offer-begins-today/

Just follow the instructions, or contact us for help.

Have a good weekend!

If you’ve been putting off organising your next Italian course, today is a really good day to make a decision!

That’s because you need to book by this coming Saturday to save 15% on group courses of any length starting by 31st December 2015.

For example:

• 1 week, normally €238 but with the Summer Offer discount, just €202
• 2 weeks with the 15% discount, only €371
• study for 4 weeks to complete an entire level, €678
• or learn Italian to an advanced level with our six-month course: €3207

(The prices quoted here are those on our Prices page, less the 15% Summer Offer discount. They represent the total of your Italian course tuition, but exclude accommodation, which we cannot discount as it is provided by third parties. See accommodation prices to work out the total cost of tuition + accommodation.)

Don’t forget, you have just 48 hours left to save 15% on your next Italian course. Hurry, hurry!

This is what you have to do:

• Pay a deposit by midnight on Saturday 11/07/15
• Use this coupon code: summer_2015_save_15% (copy & paste it in the shopping cart)
• Your course needs to start by 31/12/15 (but can be of any length)
• The deposit payment will be just €128  (the usual €150, minus 15%)
• We’ll then apply the same 15% discount to the balance (which in any case is not due until the first day of your course!)

Now look at these pages…

Visit these pages to choose your Italian course and to see how our simple booking process works:

• Which Italian course?
• Prices
• Easy, fast, safe booking!
• Pay your deposit now!

Need help?

Got a question? Need help choosing or booking your course? Contact us.

Don’t forget, there are just four more days for you to take advantage of the 2015 Summer Offer to save 15% on your next Italian course!

• To get a 15% discount on your next group Italian course…
• Pay a deposit by midnight on Saturday 11/07/15
• Use this coupon code: summer_2015_save_15% (copy & paste it in the shopping cart)
• Your course needs to start by 31/12/15, but can be of any length!
• The deposit payment will be just €128  (the usual €150, minus 15%)
• And we’ll apply the same 15% discount to the balance (not due until the first day of your course!)

What to do next

Click these links to choose your Italian course and to see how our simple booking process works:

• Which Italian course?
• Prices
• Easy, fast, safe booking!
• Pay your deposit now!

Please note that the 2015 Summer Offer applies to group courses (classes) only – not individual lessons. Nor does it apply to accommodation, which is anyway provided by third parties, not by us.

Need help?

Got a question? Need help choosing or booking your course? Contact us.

In 2003 I splashed out on a pair of hand-made leather shoes, from an old-fashioned footwear store just down the road from the school where I was teaching at the time.

Each lunch time, on my way to grab something to eat, I would pass the store’s window display and look in. This was a daily event, as there wasn’t much else to look at on my route from school to sandwich shop.

I never actually entered the store, because the prices displayed were way above what I would normally consider paying.

But come sale time, I began to look more closely. Prices were reduced, first twenty, then thirty percent. And there were some styles I liked a lot, though with two preschoolers and a new baby at home…

The sale lasted a month or more. In Italy, as stock is sold off, staff add little hand-written notes next to each pair of shoes in the window display, showing which sizes remain. That way you don’t waste their time by going in and asking for something that they don’t have.

Naturally, the shop will sell out of the more popular sizes quickly, so by the end of the sale only people with very small or very large feet will be able to find a bargain.

Each lunchtime I stopped to look in the window. But the styles I liked best had either sold out weeks ago at the 20-30% discount or, with the more generous, ‘final days’ discounts, were no longer available in my size.

In fact, there was just one pair of shoes left that wouldn’t squeeze my feet unbearably or make me look like Goofy. They were in plain brown leather, and were half a size too large for me.

No way would I usually pick out a pair of shoes like that.

Still, a sale is a sale, and the shoes were by now reduced 50%, from €280 to €140. I decided I could always wear two pairs of socks, and entered the shop to try them on.

Yes, they did look a little Goofy-ish on me, but I could see that they were of excellent quality: hand-made, with solid-looking leather soles and strong stitching. I pulled out my wallet and bought them.

Walking back to work later, I told myself off for succumbing to the lures of marketing by buying something I didn’t even really like…

Fast-forward.

It’s July 2015. The temperature in Bologna today is 37 degrees centigrade (98.6 Farenheit).

Now I own my own language school (Italian for foreigners, English for the Bolognese), but I still teach and today I’m off to teach the President and Vice President of a major Italian company.

So I’ll need to dress up. I open my wardrobe looking for ‘smart but cool’.

I pick out a short-sleeved shirt, light cotton trousers, brown hand-made leather shoes, with matching brown socks and belt.

How long have I had those shoes? I admit, they ARE looking rather old now, having been worn thousands of times and re-soled again and again.

But they’re still my most comfortable pair, ideal for the office or the classroom. What a great buy! Wish I could get another pair just like them…

But I digress. So, what’s the cheapest way to learn Italian?

You could marry an Italian, and/or go to live in Italy. That works, and you get away with not paying for a course. That was the route I took, though it’s not fast – without a course, it took me nearly ten years learn Italian to a reasonable level.

What about teaching yourself? A couple of exercises a day, every day, for a year or two and you’d definitely make progress. And by using resources on the Internet, such as OnlineItalianClub.com, you’d not have to spend a cent.

That said, teaching yourself is not going to be the right choice for everyone…

OK then, a course? Take a look at adult education provision in your home town. That can be a very affordable option, and will fit in with your busy life.

It’s possible, though, that there may not be many levels. You might find yourself repeating the beginners’ course year after year…

Which brings us to Italy, and professional language schools.

Do you believe you get what you pay for?

Perhaps, it depends, sometimes yes and sometimes no, maybe, probably.

The trick is to know when.

So is it better to go for the cheapest Italian school you can find?

If you’re OK with larger classes of fun-loving young people with limited budgets, taught by equally young teachers, then why not? You may have a fantastic time.

Or you could choose the reassuringly more expensive option, on the theory that splashing out a little more now could make learning easier and faster.

The cheapest options don’t always offer more value. But neither do the more expensive alternatives necessarily guarantee better results…

How to resolve the dilemma of not knowing what’s best?

Two ways:

1. Go for the cheapest Italian course you can find. If it rubs your toes, put on a band aid (sticking plaster in the UK). As you limp along, think of the money you’ve saved.
2. Or wait for one of the more expensive schools to have a sale. That way you can try the hand-made version but without paying the hand-made price!

More Articles About Learning Italian | FAQ

 

Looking for a good deal on Italian courses?

You’ve found it.

Madrelingua’s 2015 Summer Offer starts today!

If you’ve visited our website, you’ll have seen that we publicize a 15% discount on group courses for new clients.

It’s a sort of ‘Welcome to our school. We’re sure you’ve going to love it, but here’s something to encourage you to give us a try’.

You just have to sign up to our mailing list to receive your coupon. Maybe you already did.

It works fine, too. Many people use the coupon, and many of those enjoy our school so much that they decide to come back for more!

But the ‘new client offer’ is just that – a one-off, for new clients only.

Which seems a shame, really.

Why shouldn’t everyone be able to get the same deal??

Especially the old friends we love to see coming back, year after year…

2015 Summer Offer

So pay attention, class! Here’s how you can learn Italian, for less:

• To get a 15% discount on your next group Italian course...
• Pay a deposit by midnight on Saturday 11/07/15
• Use this coupon code: summer_2015_save_15% (copy & paste it in the shopping cart)
• Your course needs to start by 31/12/15, but can be of any length!
• The deposit payment will be just €128  (the usual €150, minus 15%)
• And we’ll apply the same 15% discount to the balance, due on the first day of your course

Summary: to take advantage of the 2015 Summer Offer, all you have to do is pay a deposit of €128 by Saturday 11th July, and then there’s then nothing more to pay until the first day of your course!

Please note that the 2015 Summer Offer applies to group courses (classes) only – not individual lessons. Nor does it apply to accommodation, which is anyway provided by third parties, not by us.

What to do next

Follow these links to choose your Italian course and to see how our simple booking process works:

• Which Italian course?
• Prices
• Easy, fast, safe booking!
• Pay your deposit now!

Need help?

Got a question? Need help choosing or booking your course? Contact us.

Don’t forget…

Click here to pay your course deposit, press the ‘add to cart’ button, then copy/paste this coupon code summer_2015_save_15% in the space where it says coupon code.

Press ‘apply coupon’, then scroll down to verify that the usual €150 deposit payment has been reduced by 15% to just €128.

Press ‘Proceed to checkout’. We recommend you pay via Paypal, which offers world class security and many guarantees for your as a customer. Opening an account is free.