The first day of anything can be pretty scary, can’t it?

A new job, a new school, a new language.

Or perhaps a new way of studying, new classmates, and a new teacher.

But first days can also be stimulating!

So what should you expect on the first day of your Italian course at Madrelingua in Bologna?

Classes start at nine-thirty in the morning.

The school is easy to reach on foot from anywhere in the historic center of the city.

It’s a good idea to arrive 15 minutes or so early on the first Monday. That way you will have time to ask any questions, borrow a course book, and take a tour of the school with one of our teachers.

Your first class lasts until around 11.30, at which point the teachers gather everyone together and we all walk in a group to one of the local coffee bars.

To save time, and confusion, the tutor will take orders (in Italian, of course) for drinks and snacks. Your teacher, or the tutor, will explain what’s good to eat and drink, and how to ask for it.

In the bar you’ll be interacting with our staff and with other students, from your own class and/or from other groups.

The break is really a part of the lesson. It’s also your best chance to meet people and to make friends to practice your Italian with, so take advantage of it. Please don’t be tempted to wait in the classroom and catch up on your emails, or you’ll be missing out on an important element of the course.

When everyone is ready, we head back to the school where you’ll go back to your classroom, this time with a different teacher.

Whereas the focus for the first two hours is usually on ‘input’ (new grammar & vocabulary), the part after the break is intended for practice, in particular, speaking.

Lessons normally end at half-past one. Time for lunch, and Bologna is certainly the place for that!

Often there’ll be something organised for the afternoon or evening – for example, lunch together, a visit to a museum, or a drink. Events of this kind are publicised at the coffee break, and there’s a notice board in the reception area where you can sign up.

Don’t forget, most days there’ll be a tutor available in the library to help you with your homework and to offer extra explanations or speaking practice. That’s from two-thirty to four-thirty each afternoon, except on Fridays.

The school is centrally-located, minutes from the central piazza and close to the main shopping street. All of the sights worth seeing in Bologna (churches, museums, monuments, etc.) are within easy reach on foot, so be sure to save some time and energy for exploring the city. Your teacher, or our reception staff, will be more than happy to suggest places for you to visit.

So that was Monday. We hope you enjoyed it, spoke lots of Italian, and felt you’ve started to settle in! Tuesday will be easier, as you’ll already know the routine and who everyone is.

And after that, the days will just fly by!

More Articles About Learning Italian | FAQ

 

You’ll learn Italian more easily if you study in a group with other students who know approximately as much of the language as you do.

That’s one good reason to choose a professional, open-all-year-round Italian language school – you can be confident of studying in a class at the right level, and so get better results!

But given that you may be booking your Italian study vacation many months ahead of time, how will the school know your level in Italian?

How do they know in which class you’ll study, without even having met you?

Simple.

When we receive a confirmed booking, whether it’s for a course starting next Monday, or one beginning eleven months from now, we’ll e-mail you a level test.

There are 44 multiple-choice questions – you read each question and choose A, B, C or D.

The first set of questions tests things that we’d expect you to know at the end of an A1-Beginner/Elementary course.

The second set covers the things you’d learn at A2.

And so on.

The test ends with two short texts to read, with two comprehension questions about each one.

When you e-mail us back your results, we print them out, check your answers and analyse the result.

As well as the total score, the distribution of the correct and wrong answers tells us a lot.

Using the level test, it’s usually fairly easy to work out if you’ve studied Italian before, and if so, to what level.

Besides the test, we consider other information you’ve given us.

It’s helpful to know your mother tongue, for example.

Spanish, French and Portuguese speakers will have an easier time with Italian, because of the similarities with their own language, compared to, say, English-speakers or students from Asian countries.

We also like to know if you’ve studied other foreign languages successfully – an English-speaker with a knowledge of Spanish would typically do better on the test than one without.

Knowledge of one language often helps with another. But it’s also a question of experience with language learning. We try to be extra attentive with clients who we know have no prior experience of learning any foreign language!

But what if things change between the time you book your course and take our test, and the date you begin studying at our school?

Perhaps, in the meantime, you’ve been busy taking evening classes in Italian, or learning online?

Not to worry! We’re always alert to the possibility that the test you completed could give a false impression of your real level.

You might, for example, be stronger or weaker at actually speaking and understanding Italian.

For this reason, we’ll be looking to confirm our estimate of your level when we meet you on the first morning of your course.

We have teachers, as well as admin staff, standing by before classes start, for exactly that purpose.

To chat to you in Italian, show you around the school, while at the same time, double-checking that we’ve placed you in the correct group…

So, that’s how we know your level before you even arrive in Italy.

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In a word, “No.”

Four hours a day of learning Italian is more than enough for most people.

There is, after all, a limit to how much Italian your brain will be able to absorb on any given day.

And there’s more to life than studying, no?

In the afternoon you could do tourist stuff, or hang out with new friends from your class and speak Italian.

If that doesn’t sound serious enough, there’s also a tutor available a couple of hours each afternoon (not Fridays) to help you with your homework, or to give extra speaking practice.

So why pay extra for a couple more hours of lessons in the afternoon?

Unless, maybe, you’re swotting for an up-coming exam.

Or you’re a diplomat, brushing up on your Italian before taking up a new post at your country’s embassy in Rome.

In which case, they answer would be, “Well, if you really must.”

Most people, though, are best off signing up for our standard 20-hour per week, Italian course.

That’s four hours of lessons each morning, from Monday to Friday.

More than enough to keep you busy and ensure you make excellent progress with your Italian.

Up to you, though.

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There is no ideal length for an Italian course.

The longer you study, the more you’ll learn, obviously.

You could go from zero to advanced in around six months, which is a pretty long language course (though less expensive than you might imagine.)

But most people will start with a week or two, to see if they like it.

Very wise.

Language learning isn’t for everyone. It requires a certain attitude, some motivation.

It’s not a bad idea to start with a short course to see how it works for you, whether you like the school and the teachers, and so on.

There’s no rush, is there?

Assuming that you find your Italian course in Bologna enjoyable and productive, there’s nothing to stop you from coming back for an extended period in the future.

Three weeks is a nice length of course – long enough to settle in and make some serious progress.

But not so long that your partner and your boss will forget who you are.

That said, in four weeks, you could complete a level, which is satisfying.

What about the cost, though?

Check out the prices page of any Italian school website and you’ll see how the cost per week falls dramatically for longer courses.

The marketing costs are the same to attract a student for a short course as for a longer course. So prices per week are far lower for longer periods.

Accommodation prices don’t fall for longer periods though, unless you’re prepared to go out and find yourself student digs…

A homestay (a room with an Italian host) organised by the school costs €120 a week and covers a single room and the use of the kitchen.

Multiply that by the number of weeks you plan to stay in Bologna.

It should come to less than €20 per day, which won’t break the bank for most people.

So a four-week Italian course will cost you €480 for your room and €798 for tuition.

That’s €1278.

But with the current -20% offer, you’ll save around €160 and so pay just over €1100.

Naturally, you’ll need to add the cost of travelling to Bologna, and a budget for food and entertainment. How much you set aside for that will depend on where you live and what your tastes are.

But the whole package – four weeks in Bologna, Italy, and an improvement of around a level in your Italian, looks pretty good value compared to a more traditional beach vacation.

A month in Italy + professional language training = an unforgettable experience, and an excellent investment in your education!

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I studied French at school.

Several times a week, for what always seemed like forever.

Remember that cliched scene of a surging crowd of noisy children finally released from the tedium of school work?

That was us.

I started at the age of around nine, and endured studying a foreign language for eternity, until I was permitted to give up at the age of sixteen.

Do I speak French now?

Of course not.

But I have fond memories of our French teacher, who once grabbed my ear and twisted it painfully.

She regularly lamented my horrible French pronunciation in front of the class.

Thirty years have passed, and now I own an Italian language school, which specialises in courses for adult learners.

Clients include university students and young people, but also professionals – business people, teachers, the occasional diplomat or sports star – and many, many retired people.

They choose to study Italian at our school in Bologna because Italian is a great language and Bologna is the ideal place to study it.

But mostly because someone who has already learnt Italian with us told them they should try it.

Clients who’ve learnt a lot of Italian come back again and again.

And they tell their friends!

For this to happen, we ensure that our Italian courses for adults are absolutely NOT like my French lessons at high school!

Here are some thoughts on that:

• Our success depends on your positive response to what we do and how we do it. And on the improvement in your Italian as a result of the time and money you invest. Obviously, not every student will easiy reach their goals, and we won’t be able to please everyone all of the time. But we do our best!
• Your teacher is trained to teach adults. She (it’s usually a she) does that every working day of her career, so there’s no reason for her to talk down to you, and every reason for her to be encouraging and supportive.
• Your Italian classs will have a maximum 10 students, so you can count on plenty of opportunities to speak, and you can expect feedback on the mistakes you make (but in a positive, encouraging way!) The other students will be from various countries and should have approximately the same level in Italian. Hopefully, you’ll make friends, and so have people to practice speaking Italian with, both inside and outside class.
• Grammar’s important in Italian, but we don’t fill class time with boring, repetitive exercises. Homework is optional – we set it because it may help you consolidate your learning and progress faster. Whether you do it or not is completely up to you. Oh, and we understand you want to learn to SPEAK and UNDERSTAND Italian, which means you’ll need plenty of opportunities to interact in Italian during class time. We’re on to that.
• Speaking of speaking, the ‘lingua-franca’ of our school is Italian, not English. We don’t do English-language medium Italian lessons because we believe they’re counter-productive (and because not all our students even speak English.) You’ll be studying in Italian from the first minute of the first lesson.
• Learning happens outside of class too. For example, the ‘coffee break’ is not just a break but a chance to chat in Italian with students and teachers from other classes, all together in the local coffee bar. The same is true for the regular social activities we organise – you and your class can see the city, drink wine, visit a museum, eat out – but it should always be in Italian!
• Finding your class hard-going, or way too easy? Talk to your teacher first. And if you get no joy with her, try the Director of Studies (the teacher’s boss), who’s there to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible. One or the other of them will be able to help you. We might, for example, suggest changing to an easier/harder class.
• Most days there’ll be a tutor available in our library to help you with your homework (you’re not expected to sweat over it alone!) You can also ask the tutor for extra speaking practice, or to go over things you didn’t quite understand from your lessons. He/she is usually a university student or teacher-trainee gaining the experience needed to graduate.

And if your Italian pronunication is not up to scratch?

Don’t worry – we won’t twist your ear!

More Articles About Learning Italian | FAQ

 

The ‘best offer of the year‘ on group Italian courses at our school in Bologna begins today.

What this means:

• you save 20% on the price of any group Italian course in 2015
• the saving is good for courses of any length (the longer you study, the more you save)
• start your course on any date in 2015 (you don’t even have to tell us now when you plan to study)

Summary: you pay just €120 deposit now to make big savings on your 2015 Italian course!

Click here to lock in your 20% discount while the offer lasts.

You too could learn Italian in Bologna, Italy in 2015!

Want to speak and understand Italian better?

Each year hundreds of people from all over the world take courses at our Italian language school in the historic center of Bologna.

Many of them are so satisfied at their progress that they return again and again! (See testimonials.)

2015 could be the year you join them.

Make it the year you really begin to speak and understand Italian!

OK, here’s where you can find the information you’ll need to choose and book your Italian course:

• information about Italian courses in Bologna
• Italian course prices
• information about accommodation
• how to book your Italian course
• more about Bologna
• contact us with your question or for help booking
• pay the special ‘Save 20%’ deposit now!

Act now: the ‘best offer of the year’ ends on 25th December!

The ‘save 20%’ offer is valid only until Christmas day.

That’s just 10 days.

And the offer won’t be repeated for an entire year – if at all.

So you’d be well advised to pay your special -20% course deposit now, before the preparations for Christmas get too hectic!

Take a few minutes today to lock in your 20% saving. Go here.

Pay the (€120 not €150) course deposit so we know you’re entitled to 20% off whenever you choose to study in 2015.

Save 20% on 2015 Italian courses

Learning a new foreign language, such as Italian, is exciting at first. You begin with boundless enthusiasm, full of good intentions.

Your Italian course, or self-study program, is stimulating and enjoyable. Each new learning experience reinforces your determination to make progress.

And then, suddenly, it all starts to seeem like an impossible task!

The endless new words, the perverse grammar, that impossible pronunication…

The progress you’ve made is dwarfed by what still lies ahead.

Already you seem to be forgetting what you’ve already studied faster than you can remember the new lessons.

It’s as if each step forward comes at the cost of two steps back!

It feels like you’ve ‘hit a wall’ in your learning.

A wall that brings your progress to a dead stop, and prevents you from moving forward.

If that happens to you, you’ll recognise how your enthusiasm plummets compared to what it was before.

Learning Italian becomes a chore not a pleasure.

It’s increasingly hard to motivate yourself to study.

You might even give up completely. Sadly, lots of people do.

Perhaps you weren’t meant to speak a foreign language?

Could it be you ‘don’t have the right sort of brain’?

Maybe you should just chalk it up to experience?

Go find an easier, less ambitious pastime?

If this ‘language-learning’ wall sounds familiar, know that you’re in good company!

Everyone (or at least, a lot of people) go through this. Even people who have already mastered other foreign languages. Even language teachers.

It’s absolutely normal.

Know also that there ARE things you can do which will help you get back on track.

But first of all, you need to reassure yourself that there’s probably nothing wrong with your brain.

You’re not incapable, or doomed to failure.

You have just as good a chance of learning Italian as anyone.

Next, consider your expectations.

When you begin a new language, naturally it’s going to be interesting and motivating (remember?)

Later though, the more you study, the more there will be to remember.

So when you focus on something new, the things you’ve already studied start to slide out of reach.

A ‘beginner’ mindset is great when you’re just starting out and know little or nothing of the language. But it’s not easy to maintain as your study becomes more routine.

To continue making progress with your Italian requires sustained effort in the medium-term. Months not weeks. Years even.

So you’ll absolutely need to adopt a slower, more regular pace.

Planning in progress tests and reviews will help you see just how much you’ve achieved, so countering those negative feelings of de-motivation.

Giving yourself time off can work too. Like a ‘break-day’ on a diet.

Above all, don’t expect too much, too soon.

Successful language learners are distance runners, not sprinters!

OK, so you’re now thinking medium-term and you’ve set a pace that you’re sure you’ll be able to maintain.

But what if things are STILL not working out?

Could be you’re ‘stuck’ on a particular area of grammar, or your dedicated study of new Italian words is no-longer bearing fruit.

You’re putting in the work, but you’re not seeing the growth in your Italian that you have come to expect.

Likely then, something is wrong.

For example, perhaps your choice of what to study is inappropriate for the stage you’ve reached?

What you did before got you this far.

But it might be the wrong thing to allow you to progress to the next stage.

Or perhaps you’re not doing anything actively wrong, just not doing some of the obviously right things?

Are you including regular review activities?

Are you consolidating what you’ve studied with reading and listening practice activities?

If you’re an inexperienced language learner, it’s possible your Italian study plan includes activities which add little value.

Eliminating those, and replacing them with more appropriate alternatives, may be enough to speed up your progress!

To break through the wall, shake things up a little and see what happens.

Vary your mix of study activities.

Then observe what works for you, and what doesn’t.

For example, perhaps a change of emphasis would help?

Why not put away the grammar book for a while and try working on a simplified audio book?

Or sign up for an Italian course, and so let the teacher take the strain when it comes to deciding what to next.

Syllabus design and lesson-planning are what language teachers get paid for, after all.

Conversely, if you’re already doing a course, but feel it isn’t working out, why not take on some more of the responsibility for your learning, rather than leaving every decision to the teacher?

You could, for instance, draw up a self-study plan to supplement what you’re doing on the course.

In short, if what you’ve tried isn’t working any more, don’t give up – try a different way!

‘Hitting the wall’ is a common experience for learners of Italian, but breaking through that wall is absolutely possible.

Think medium-term, have realistic expectations, and above all, keep trying out different language-learning activities and approaches until you find a combination that works to drive you forward!

More Articles About Learning Italian | FAQ

 

So you’ve decided to learn Italian. (Why Learn Italian, anyway?)

Naturally, you want some idea of how long it’ll be before you can actually manage to communicate in the language.

You obviously don’t expect to immediately reach the same level of proficency that you have with your mother tongue.

But to be able to hold a normal conversation seems like a reasonable objective, doesn’t it?

So how long, you ask, will it take me to get to the point when I can join in conversations, make myself understood, and figure out what people are trying to tell me?

Good question.

In part the answer will depend on what you define as a ‘normal conversation’.

There’s a world of difference between a brief exchange about the weather while waiting for the bus, and a heated political discussion in a pub.

But mostly what you’ll be able to say and understand in Italian depends on how much time you allow yourself, and how much practice you get.

So, let’s suppose you’re taking a 20-hour per week Italian course at a language school here in Bologna, and that you’ll be starting right from the beginning with ‘Ciao!’ and ‘uno, due, tre’.

By the Friday of the first week, you’ll have covered some of the basics and might be beginning to find your way around Bologna, but basically you’ll still be pretty lost!

The second week (hours 21-40) will see you settling better into the routine of learning, and so gradually becoming more able to follow classes taught only in Italian.

You’ll have started Week 2 with a lot more Italian than you had on the Monday of Week 1, and will finish it with a more in-depth knowledge of Italian grammar and vocabulary than you had seven days earlier.

Progress then, but no miracles.

Your third week (hours 41-60) is where the difference really starts to show.

You’ll have made some friends by then, and hopefully will be communicating with them in basic Italian.

Ordering a coffee or a meal in Italian will have become routine, and you’ll be a lot more confident working out what the teacher is saying and knowing how to respond.

Grammar-wise, you’ll be studying the second half of the A1 (beginner) syllabus. Perhaps you’ll have already encountered a past tense, which inevitably opens a lot of conversational doors!

Week four (hours 61-80) will see you approaching the end of the A1/Beginner’s syllabus.

You’ll feel more confident with the basic grammar that is essential to speaking and understanding Italian, and you’ll have covered a lot of new words (which, after 80 hours of practice, you should now be able to remember!)

By this point, most students will recognise themselves in the A1 level description:

Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type. Can introduce him/herself and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has. Can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.

Disappointingly, even after four weeks of studying each morning, you’ll still be quite limited in what you can say and understand…

On the positive side, you’ll be way, way better than when you began!

But what if you decide to progress further?

The A2/Pre-Intermediate descriptor (another four weeks/80 hours) will give you an idea of what you can achieve with more time:

Can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment). Can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters. Can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need.

That still doesn’t seeem quite what most people would define as ‘holding a normal conversation’, though…

So, if you have the time and energy, a good target to aim for would be a B1/Intermediate level.

For most people, a B1/Intermediate level is reachable in a total of 12 weeks / 240 hours of study:

Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes & ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.

Now THAT sounds more like it, doesn’t it?

Imagine being able to ‘understand the main points’, ‘deal with most situations’, ‘describe hopes and ambitions’ and ‘give reasons and explanations’ – in Italian!

That would indeed be a normal conversation, and then some!

It’s achievable in around 12 weeks of study.

An extended summer holiday, for example.

Or a sabbatical period…

More Articles About Learning Italian | FAQ

 

Why study a foreign language?

It’s hard work, time-consuming and potentially expensive.

And if you’re going to bother at all, why choose Italian, rather than say Spanish, French, German, or something more ambitious like Chinese?

There are many excellent reasons to learn a foreign language, none the least that it’s an infinitely better use of your time than sitting in front of trash reality TV programs.

Learning a foreign language will boost your self-confidence, give you the chance to develop new skills, and open your mind.

Imagine you manage to reach a reasonable communicative level in Italian or another foreign language – think what a psychological boost that will give you, how much more confident you will feel about tackling other complex and difficult projects in the future.

In Turkey they have a saying, something like this:

If you speak one language, you are one person. But if you speak more than one language, you become more than one person.

Being multilingual brings freedom and opportunity.

Having the ability to express yourself in another language, and to understand what others say to you, really will open the door to new worlds and new ways of being you!

Convinced?

Excellent!

But why then choose to learn Italian?

Many students of Italian have obvious family reasons for learning the language – parents or grandparents born in Italy, or like me, an Italian partner.

But if that’s not the case for you, Italian could still be an excellent choice, if for no other reason than the fact that Italian is closely related to other ‘Latin-origin’ languages like Spanish, French and Portuguese.

So?

Well, I studied French at school, but felt I had made little progress with it.

Since learning Italian, however, I find myself able to make sense of a French newspaper or novel, such are the similarities between the two languages.

And I know no Spanish at all, but regularly hold conversations with young Spanish or South-American students who come to Bologna to learn Italian.

Imagine the scene: they’re speaking Spanish, I’m replying in Italian…

But due to the similarities between the two languages, we’re actually managing to communicate with no real problem!

Choose Italian as your foreign language and, as an extra, you’ll gain some ability to understand three or more OTHER languages.

But study Italian and you’ll also be learning the language of fashion and design, of art and opera, of Italy’s much-loved cuisine and fine wines, of Dante Alighieri and renaissance Florence.

What’s more, with some knowledge of the Italian language, visiting some of Europe’s oldest monuments or getting to know Italy’s magnificent and varied landscapes and coastline will be a richer and more satisfying experience.

But why take my word for it?

Google ‘most studied languages’ and you’ll find that according to the latest statistics, Italian is in fourth place after English, French and Spanish (all ‘colonial’ languages).

Master Italian, and you won’t be short of people to talk to!

More Articles About Learning Italian | FAQ

 

If you’re living in Italy or learning Italian, one word you simply must know is ‘proroga‘.

Why?

Well, when for example the Italian government sets a deadline for, say, tax returns, or introduces a new ‘simplified’ system for doing this or that, the result tends to be confusion and delay.

Lobby groups get to work pointing out that more time is needed. No WAY will Joe Public be able to file by then…

And so, as if this had never happened before and couldn’t possibly have been predicted, a ‘proroga’ is announced. No need to pay your taxes just yet. You now have until…

Anyway, the deadline for enrolling for a CILS Italian language exam was yesterday (24th October).

But then, yesterday, an e-mail arrived from the organisers announcing a ‘proroga’ (extension).

Obviously, this plays hell with our marketing.

But it does mean that if you’re interested in certifying your knowledge of Italian, but hadn’t gotten around to organising a trip to Bologna in December, you now have seven more days.

So, make a note on your To-Do list:

– the new latest enrollment date for the December CILS exams is now 31st October!

There’s something spooky about that, isn’t there?

(For more information on adding an Italian language qualification to your resume, go here. Sign up in person at our Italian language school in Bologna, or do it online in our ‘shop‘.)

P.S.

A second proroga is extremely rare, so act now!