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Si chiude una porta e si apre un portone! You have almost the same saying in English, but, ours is more drammatic, obviously: as a door closes, the entrance door (portone) opens. This was my answer when the lovely girl at the beach bar told me that she broke up with her boyfriend… si chiude una porta e si apre un portone → meaning→ a better boyfriend or ‘The one’ is on the way;-)
Italian Beginners classes have been running online for over a year and have been very successful: small groups, a conversational approach in a fun and relax environment are the keys for this success. Finally you can learn and enjoy our classes from everywhere in the world from the comfort of your home!
Full course description:
Fancy learning Italian? Whether you are planning a trip to Italy or you have decided to learn this beautiful, musical and colorful language for fun, let’s start with our Beginners course. In fact, we will learn how to introduce ourselves, to talk about ourselves, to order our breakfast in a café, and so much more. Grammar is immediately implemented in practical and useful conversational tasks, such as booking a table at a restaurant, placing an order and talking about likes and dislikes. It will also give you good foundations if you decide to progress with your Italian and join our next course. Booking your place is essential, and remember that this course is for a small group in order to allow students to fully participate and get the best learning experience.
Today I was talking to a lovely girl who works in a beach bar near our house. She told me that she broke up with her boyfriend and she told me (and reminded me) of a lovely Italian saying: ‘Fatto un papa se ne fa un altro!’ (when a pope dies, another one is made)! Meaning that nobody is irreplaceable, especially her ex boyfriend 😊
Italian Beginners classes have been running online for over a year and have been very successful: small groups, a conversational approach in a fun and relax environment are the keys for this success. Finally you can learn and enjoy our classes from everywhere in the world from the comfort of your home!
Full course description:
Fancy learning Italian? Whether you are planning a trip to Italy or you have decided to learn this beautiful, musical and colorful language for fun, let’s start with our Beginners course. In fact, we will learn how to introduce ourselves, to talk about ourselves, to order our breakfast in a café, and so much more. Grammar is immediately implemented in practical and useful conversational tasks, such as booking a table at a restaurant and placing an order. It will also give you good foundations if you decide to progress with your Italian and join our next course. Booking your place is essential, and remember that this course is for a small group in order to allow students to fully participate and get the best learning experience.
Friday 25th of August 2023, a very important day for all Irish students who were waiting for their Leaving Certificate results. But an important day for me, too. I have been preparing students for their Italian Leaving Cert for thirteen years. Working with them every school week, teaching, seeing their improvement and boosting their confidence. On call 24-7 in March (oral part of the exam) and June (exam papers). Waiting and waiting for their results in August. It is a cycle and a rollercoaster of emotions!
The secret for success really shouldn’t be a secret at all: start early! We cannot cram excellence in a language and be able to use it proficiently in a year. If students start studying Italian at 12 or 13 years of age and they keep it up every week and every day with games, watching Italian cartoons and books, they will have most of the work done early and effortlessly.
Students don’t need to be Italian in order to get H1 as long as they start early. One of my Irish students (no Italian relations whatsoever) texted me on Friday about her H1 in ITALIAN “Carolina, we are so extremely delighted.” She wrote it in capital letters. She hoped, we hoped, but we know that it is hard to get H1. She started studying with me when she was in first class of secondary school. We had a class per week with some homework for 6 years. As soon as she consolidated enough grammar and vocabulary we started working on the Leaving Cert itself. As we had so many years ahead, her oral preparation was completely stress free and fun. Her oral had been ready since she started her 5th year. We just perfected her grammar, enriched her vocabulary and got her even more confident and natural. By then, our lessons were mostly in Italian. During the last two years we worked on the prescribed book, all the possible subjects for a possible essay and very hard comprehension texts… We worked in person and online (very convenient, especially when we know each other so well).
And now here we are with such a fantastic reward for all her work and time. She is ready to go to the University of Oxford to study architecture this September. I have also arranged for her to do an internship with an architect I know in Lake Como, Italy. Which will be ideal as she is now completely fluent in Italian.
All my students did very well this year as they have in all the previous years. Almost all have gotten either a H2 or a H1!
The other advantage of starting early is that when it comes time for the exams, these students can concentrate on their other subjects and just maintain and fine tune Italian. They can also take the Italian exam with little stress because they have been ready for so long and I make sure they know how ready they are going in full of confidence.
What about students who are a little older, what can be done for them? I do sometimes take students who are going into 4th or 5th year also who have already studied Italian in school or independently (or are already fluent in a romance language). However, in these cases, the student needs to have a reasonable level of Italian already and the willingness to work to prepare on a shorter schedule. But I have had great success with these later arrivals too.
In both cases, the importance of working with a qualified Italian teacher like myself (Irish teaching council number: 224790) who understands the exam process and how to maximise results while teaching the language and fluency at the same time is vital to success in the leaving cert. But also in giving these young people the fluency to be able to converse fluently enough to travel in Italy for studying, culture or fun!
Well done to all my students, I am very proud of you all…
And now it’s time to go again 😉
Here some messages from this year:
I just got my results a few minutes ago and I got a H2 in Italian! I cannot thank you enough for all of your help over the past few months!! I.
Grazie mille!!! You were an amazing teacher! 🙂 M.
Ciao Carolina, spero che tu stia bene! Ho preso H1 in Italiano, grazie per il tuo aiuto 😉 A.
H1 in Italiano per E.;-) E.
Hi Carolina, very happy with my results overall! I got the H2…. Thanks so much again for all your help. A.
‘Formaggio vaccino, caprino, pecorino, venite alla macchina dei latticini locali (come to the car of our local milk products)…’ shouts the man in the white van around Botricello’s lanes, our small Calabrian village. What a great idea: here in the south of Italy shops are on wheels and they come to your house!
Negozi ambulanti, shops on whiles in the South of Italy!
Ma, cosa significa formaggio (what does formaggio mean)? You all know, of course: cheese!
Surely, all of you love formaggio italiano, so let’s get ready to approach the man in the white van or the bancone del formaggio (cheese counter;-) in the supermarket.
I am almost sure that you all know about Pecorino. You can easily find it in Irish supermarkets nowaday. In Ireland, it is known as a hard type of cheese and it’s often grated on pasta. Ma (but), what does formaggio pecorino mean?
In order to fully understand the meaning, we have to go back to the word (la) pecora. Pecora significa (means) sheep. Therefore, formaggio pecorino is cheese made using sheep’s milk! And there are hundreds of types of it with different texture, consistency and taste: from the softest ricotta to the hard Pecorino cheese.
La pecora (sheep), la capra (goat) e la vacca (cow)
Back to the man in the white man: Formaggio vaccino, what does vaccino mean?
Let’s go back to the word (la) vacca. Vacca significa (means) cow. Therefore, formaggio vaccino is cheese made using cow’s milk! And there are thousands of types of it around the world.
You might know that we do have another word for cow in Italian: (la) mucca. This is a newer word and probably comes from the sound that the cow makes (mu) or from the verb mungere (to milk).
Finally, the man in the white van or in the ‘Macchina dei latticini locali’ (car of the milk products) advertises also ‘Formaggio Caprino’. We already know the drill
Capra significa (means) goat. Therefore, formaggio caprino is cheese made using goat’s milk! We also have several types of formaggio caprino.
Now we are ready to get our formaggio priorities in order when we approach the man in the white van. Just be sure that the back of the van is a refrigerator full of great cheese (vaccino, pecorino or caprino) like the one in the picture ;-)))) and enjoy!
Cosa significa (what does this popular Italian saying mean) ‘Volere la botte piena e la moglie ubriaca’?
Literally, this Italian proverb is telling us that we cannot have the barrel full (of wine) and the wife drunk! In fact, if the barrel is full, the wife is sober and probably alert and watchful for her husband’s mischief… But, if the wife is drunk, the husband is free to make trouble without her under his foot… But, he won’t have any wine to drink because the barrel is empty as the wine has been all drunk by his wife…
Osvaldo arrived very late, but his wife isn’t sleeping!
The corresponding English saying would be: You can’t have your cake and eat it too!
Of course, they mean that we cannot have all we want and that every choice precludes some others.
Just wondering: maybe the wife and the husband of the Italian saying could share the wine barrel and enjoying it together. If it is true that ‘Mal comune mezzo gaudio’ (A burden shared is a burden halved), the day after they would have only half a hangover each. As usual: la virtù sta nel mezzo (as always: virtue is in the middle)!
Italian Beginners classes have been running online for over a year and have been very successful: small groups, a conversational approach in a fun and relax environment are the keys for this success. Finally you can learn and enjoy our classes from everywhere in the world from the comfort of your home!
Full course description:
Fancy learning Italian? Whether you are planning a trip to Italy or you have decided to learn this beautiful, musical and colourful language for fun, let’s start with our Beginners course. In fact, we will learn how to introduce ourselves, to talk about ourselves, our likes and dislikes, and so much more. Grammar is immediately implemented in practical and useful conversational tasks, such as booking a table at a restaurant and placing an order. It will also give you good foundations if you decide to progress with your Italian and join our next course. Booking your place is essential, and remember that this course is for a small group in order to allow students to fully participate and get the best learning experience.
Italian Beginners classes have been running online for over a year and have been very successful: small groups, a conversational approach in a fun and relax environment are the keys for this success. Finally you can learn and enjoy our classes from everywhere in the world from the comfort of your home!
Full course description:
Fancy learning Italian? Whether you are planning a trip to Italy or you have decided to learn this beautiful, musical and colourful language for fun, let’s start with our Beginners course. Practical conversation is included from our first class and, during our lessons, we will learn how to introduce ourselves, place an order at the restaurant, ask for information and so much more. Grammar is immediately implemented in practical and useful conversational tasks, but it will also give you good foundations if you decide to progress with your Italian and join our next course. Booking your place is essential, and remember that this course is for a small group in order to allow students to fully participate and get the best learning experience.
