As a Brit living in Italy, I’ve been through the experience of having to learn Italian from absolute zero to a level of ‘working-proficiency’.

And each day I work with others struggling to achieve the same thing. I’m a language teacher myself – I teach English to Italian clients.

But I’m also the co-owner of an Italian language school here in Bologna, and so employer and manager of a team of full-time and part-time teachers, some of whom have been with us for nearly 10 years.

Guess that means I should have some insight when it comes to understanding the quality or qualities that make an Italian teacher truly great at her job…

But first, what do YOU think?

Assuming you’ve taken an Italian course in the past, or are learning Italian at the moment, or are planning to start studying the language, what do YOU consider to be the essential qualities of an effective Italian language teacher?

Don’t worry if you’ve never given it much thought before (that is, after all, part of MY job.)

But it’s worth mulling over – especially if you’re in the market for an Italian course or online Italian lessons, in which case you’ll be wanting to have at least a general idea of what to look out for.

So below are a few ideas to get you thinking (in no particular order…)

• has an in-depth knowledge of Italian grammar
• speaks Italian fluently and with an appropriate accent
• is good at explaining new concepts
• is happy to answer your questions
• makes lessons interesting and fun
• plans lessons so they combine practice and input
• is well-organised and well-prepared
• is flexible in responding to changing priorities
• uses different approaches and methodologies according to the situation
• also teaches her students HOW to learn (so makes them better, more autonomous, learners)
• is empathetic (understands how her students are feeling, can put herself in their position)
• sets and corrects homework
• organizes regular revision and progress tests
• knows how to motivate her class
• doesn’t waste time…
• but doesn’t go too quickly

It’s quite a long list, isn’t it? And there’s plenty I’ve missed out!

But take a look at it again. Pick out a few points which seem to you to be the most important. Add your own ideas, if you wish.

Done that?

Now put them in order of importance. Number one, number two, number three…

There you have it: your answer to what makes an Italian teacher truly great at her job!

I’d hazard a guess, though, that other people reading this article will prioritize different things.

Their situations and preferences are unlikely to match yours.

Some of them might prefer a teacher who is great at explaining grammar clearly, and sets regular tests which help them feel a sense of progress.

Others might love lessons in which they can chat away in Italian with the teacher and classmates.

Clients of some nationalities expect ‘learning’ to be a serious thing, and so turn up 30 minutes early for class with a pristine notebook, a dictionary and an array of different colored pens.

While their classmates from more fun-loving places may have been up all night practicing their Italian in a disco, and so will often stroll into class, looking exhausted but very pleased with themselves, just in time for the mid-morning break.

Mutual incomprehension is likely to ensue.

Which brings me to MY answer. What DOES make an Italian teacher truly great at her job?

It’s not the method or the course book they choose. Neither is it the fact that they are, or are not, a native-speaker of the language.

Experience is vital, of course.

But so is a love of working with people, and that can be found in teachers of any age or background.

As a student, my ideal teacher has buckets of empathy, and so manages both a personal and professional understanding that no two students have precisely the same needs or preferences.

She’ll SEE me, and I don’t mean that in the sense of ‘looking at’.

I’d go for a teacher who listens. And based on what she hears, is able to successfully adapt her approach to the situation and to the students she has in front of her.

I’d rather not study with a teacher who thinks they know it all, or with someone who has a ‘one size fits all’ approach to preparing and delivering lessons.

Life’s too short.

And if I take off my learner hat and put on my owner/manager hat?

Imagine I’ve picked one CV/resume out of a pile of hundreds, made the hire before someone else managed to, and here we are on Day 1 of the course.

So, perfect teacher, welcome to Madrelingua!

Here’s your class register, and these are your instructions…

First, make sure everyone is learning something new, and that no one feels lost or left behind.

Then, organize your activities in such a way that the whole class get lots of chances to speak in Italian, but that nobody is ever bored or frustrated.

Oh and one other thing, if you can?

Teach in such a way that the four hours pass before they know it.

That way, they’ll be bouncing out of bed tomorrow morning, ready for another lesson!

More Articles About Learning Italian | FAQ

 

When I re-did the website for our Italian school a couple of years ago, part of the job was to reproduce our rather long and complicated booking form.

All language schools must have a long and complicated booking form (maybe you’ve noticed.) It’s a matter of credibility.

Sometimes it’s online, and crashes mid-way through, so you lose all your data and have to start again.

Often there are those dreadful messages informing you, in a polite but infuriating way, that you forgot to fill in a ‘required field’.

Then you have to scroll back, and back, and back, to find the bit you missed, which if you’re lucky might be identified with a little red asterisk. Shame you won’t see it unless you have your reading glasses on.

More traditional language schools might even make you print the damn thing, fill it out by hand, sign it, and fax it back to them. (And if you don’t have a printer? Or a fax?)

I remember, back in the day, making ours as comprehensive and professional-looking as possible. Lots and lots of questions to cover every eventuality.

‘What’s your mother tongue?’, ‘What’s your level in Italian?’, ‘What other languages do you speak?’, ‘Do you need help finding accommodation?’ ‘If yes, do you smoke?’, and even ‘Are you allergic to cats / dogs / children?’

People filled it in, though. Must have taken them ages, but hopefully they thought it made us look professional. (They were wrong, it’s the teaching/learning that does that.)

Anyway, so there I was, a couple of years ago, having to re-do the site using a new content management system, with which I was less familiar than the old HTML.

To cut a long story short, I got to the point when I realized that the only way I could create a suitably impressive and functioning booking form was by using a ‘plugin’, which is a sort of extra bit of code you can install in your system to do something that it otherwise refuses to do.

After some head-scratching and plenty of trial-and-error, the plugin was finally installed and I was able to get started re-creating the saga that was our old booking form.

Not until I’d laboriously completed the first section (of five) – ‘name’, ‘surname’, ‘nationality’, ‘home address’, ‘phone number’, ‘e-mail’, ‘date of birth’ – did I realize that, oops, I’d run out of fields!

The new plugin had a limit to the amount of data you could collect.

Guess I should have chosen the ‘paid for’ version, but by that point I’d wasted so much time there was no option but to shrink the form radically so that it wouldn’t exceed the maximum allowed number of fields.

This was not going to look good, I thought.

But then, thinking how I would explain the new-look booking form to Stefi (my wife, and co-owner of the school), I reasoned that the only REALLY essential bit is the e-mail, right?

Stefi’s anyway going to mail them straight back to sort out the details… People always have plenty of questions, so she gets right in touch to reassure them, and to deal with anything that’s not clear.

Less for you to read, darling. Think of the time you’ll save!

I’d just finished a copywriting course, so I decided I would give the booking form a fancy name. To make up for it being so short.

I deleted the first draft title, ‘Italian Course Booking Form’, and replaced it with something more… aspirational.

Job done.

‘Bye bye’ old, saga-style booking form.

‘Hello’ radical, slim-line redesign!

That’s a true story, albeit not a very interesting one.

But go take a look for yourself at ‘Your dream of speaking Italian starts here!‘

Bet you could fill it out in under 60 seconds!

P.S.

Talking of plugins, we also have one that creates those irritating pop-up thingies.

People hate those.

But fill it in and you’ll get a voucher to save 15% off any group Italian course at our school in Bologna.

Find out more about:

Italian courses at Madrelingua | How to book your Italian course

(If you miss the pop-up, you’ll find a static version of the ‘save 15%’ form on our home page…)

It seems like just about everyone wants to know how long it will take them to learn Italian, and if Italian is a difficult language to learn.

Google sends us dozens of visitors each day because of two articles we published in 2013:

“How long will it take me to learn Italian?”

and

“Is Italian a hard language to learn?”

Click the links above to read them.

But as they say, ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.’

Which could be self-study… Check out, for example, OnlineItalianClub.com for masses of free materials for learning Italian.

Or what about taking an Italian course at our language school in Bologna?

Let the experts take the strain, why not?

For more information about Italian courses follow these links:

Italian courses in Bologna | Prices | How to book

A presto!

 

Remember exams at school?

Probably most of your fellow pupils claimed to be dreading the end of year exams. Certainly that was the attitude at the school I went to.

But then… for those of us willing to prepare, exam time enlivened a dull routine with the thrill of success and achievement!

And as it was at school so many years ago, so it is with learning Italian.

Signing yourself up now for one of the six levels of CILS Italian language exams in June is a bit like agreeing to take part in a marathon some months hence.

You can’t just go and DO the marathon on the day. No, you’re going to have to train, which of course is the point.

By training regularly in the time between now and June, you’ll shed a few pounds, get fitter and have more self-respect.

Ditto for your Italian language exam. It doesn’t have to be a marathon: choose as your goal a level you’re comfortable with, anything from A1 (the easiest) to C2 (the most difficult).

But once you’ve decided, you’ll have a real goal, which will make organising your studies and motivating yourself so much easier.

Plus you’ll be able to look foward to the moment you get your results!

Just remember, it’s not cool to brag in front of the other kids…

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The next session of CILS exams at our Italian language school in Bologna is on June 11th 2015.

Click here for more information.

Enrolments and payments can be completed directly from our online shop.

Or contact us with your question.

Ciao, e auguri di Buon Natale!

I’m Daniel, director at Madrelingua Italian School in Bologna.

For a week or more, I’ve been posting daily articles about our 20% discount offer.

You’ve probably noticed.

Articles published on our site are automatically sent out to our mailing list, which some of you have chosen to be on.

But I also manually send them to a separate list of the email addresses of everyone who has studied at our Italian school or who has asked for information about our Italian courses.

If your email is in both of these databases, you might even be getting each email twice. (Sorry about that!)

We assume that people who ask for information about Italian courses, or take an Italian course at our school, are interested in offers for Italian courses.

Logical, right?

But if that’s not the case, I encourage you to click the ‘unsubscribe link’.

That’s an automatic piece of code, which can always be found either at the top or bottom of every email and which will take you to a page where you can ensure your details are deleted.

It’s a simple process, so why not give it a try?

Click the link and follow the simple instructions, which will ensure your email address is permanently removed from the database.

That said… if you ARE interested in taking an Italian course at our school, be aware that the 20% discount offer ends at midnight on Christmas Day.

That’s tomorrow.

And it’s the best offer of our 12-month marketing cycle, so won’t be repeated until NEXT Christmas…

Statistics show that people leave things to the last minute (which is why there’ll be a ‘final reminder’ tomorrow.)

Don’t be one of them.

Snap up your 20% discount today, before you’re distracted by the turkey or nut roast.

The offer is good for any length of group Italian course (not individual lessons), starting at any time in 2015.

You don’t even have to decide the dates now – just let us know when you know.

How not to miss this?

Pay a small deposit today, to save a FIFTH on the cost of your 2015 Italian course.

Click here for details.

Then go here to pay your deposit.

(Or look for the unsubscribe link at the top or bottom of this email. It’s probably in the small print. Click it and I won’t be bothering you next Christmas…)

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

A two-week Italian course, which normally costs EUR 437, is just EUR 350 with the 20% discount.

What’s EUR 350 in real money?

• USD 429
• GBP 274
• CAD 498
• AUD 526

Naturally you’ll have to add in the cost of accommodation (not much) 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 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 your 20% discount.

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

More information on this offer.