How can I continue to improve my Italian once I’ve returned home?

You’ll make a lot of progress in the time that you spend studying Italian at our language school in Bologna. But how can you make sure that everything you’ve learnt won’t just slip away once you return home to your usual routine? [Read more…]

What should you do to prepare for your Italian study vacation?

Obviously you’ll get more out of your Italian course in Italy if you are already in the habit of studying, or if you have taken the time to review things which you may have studied previously, for example on other courses.

But many people only study Italian for the duration of their study vacation, not before or after, and that’s just fine too!

Assuming you already know some Italian, there are a number of things that you could do in the weeks or months before your course which will help you get the absolute maximum out of your time in Italy. Here are a few suggestions: [Read more…]

Will taking an Italian study vacation mean I’ll have to do homework?

Your teachers will set homework: it’s a part of their job to give you every chance to get the most out of your time in Italy. But it’s entirely up to you whether you do it or not!

The exercises or other tasks that you do after class will help you to consolidate what you have learnt, identify problems, and participate fully in the next day’s class.

But you may be tired after the morning’s classes, or choose to spend the rest of the day sight-seeing or socialising in Italian with other students. Only you can decide what your priorities are. [Read more…]

How much will your Italian improve during an Italian study vacation? Obviously, the answer will depend on many factors, but the most important one is the length of your course. The longer the course, the more you will improve.

If you take the 20-hour per week class, which is what we normally recommend, the minimum length course of one week will not make a vast difference to your level, though it’s an excellent way to begin and much better than nothing at all! [Read more…]

A common question is: how do you teach using only Italian? I don’t know any Italian! I won’t understand anything!

Clients asking us this may come from a Spanish- or English-speaking country, or be from Germany, or Russia, or Japan. Sometimes there is no way for them even to ask the question, as they know neither English nor Italian, so they bring along a friend, boyfriend, or employer to ask for them.

Change the question around though, and imagine: how could we teach every student effectively if we DIDN’T use only Italian? We could ensure that all of our teachers spoke excellent English (they don’t), but we certainly couldn’t assume that to be true for all of our students. Could we expect the teacher to speak the language of every student in the class (Swedish, French, Portugese, German, Russian and Japanese today…)? Obviously not. [Read more…]

How will the school know what class you need to be in? And what will the other students in your group be like?

Today you’ll find about how we organise your course to ensure that your stay at our school will be as sucessful and effective as possible! [Read more…]

If you’re an experienced traveller, you may not be too concerned about where you stay during your Italian study vacation, but if you don’t travel frequently you could feel anxious about making the right choice of accommodation, in which case, this article is written for you!

You’ll typically find four accommodation options being offered by Italian language schools, which are:

• homestay
• shared appartment
• your own appartment
• hotel [Read more…]

A frequent question: how much will an Italian study vacation cost? The answer? Not as much as you’d imagine.

There are four things that make up the total cost of your Italian study vacation:

• your flight (and any other transport costs)
• your course
• your accommodation
• your food and entertainment

Let’s take a look at each one, in turn. [Read more…]

Want to learn to speak Italian? You have the following options:

• use a self-study course or similar resources
• join an evening class, or similar, in your home town
• take an Italian study vacation
• come to Italy for reasons other than doing a course, and hope you’ll just pick up the language

Any of these could be the right choice for you, and of course, it’s important that the way you choose to study suits your preferences and priorities.

However, if you want to reach a good level in a foreign language, you’re going to have to do a fair amount of work, and the more hours of study you manage, the faster your progress will be. [Read more…]

Do you dream of  speaking a foreign language and traveling or even living abroad but worry that an Italian study vacation could be too difficult or expensive for you?

Over the next few weeks we’ll be publishing the “Italian Study Vacations” series, ten short articles designed to answer the questions you may have about this type of vacation and to help you decide if studying in Italy would work for you.

We’ll be covering these topics: [Read more…]