Italian Cork

Pronti a partire con Piccolitalia!

By admin on September 5, 2018 in PiccolItalia

GRUPPO SCUOLA (English below)

Stiamo per ripartire con le nostre lezioni del Gruppo Scuola. Dopo le nostre lunghe vacanze estive faremo un bel ripasso della grammatica che abbiamo studiato l’anno scorso: i nomi, il maschile ed il femminile, il singolare ed il plurale, i nomi in e (la neve, il sole, etc.) gli articoli determinativi (il, lo, la, etc.), il verbo essere ed il verbo avere ed introdurremo gli articoli indeterminativi (un, uno, una, etc.). Ci saranno anche delle novità: inseriremo anche un po’ di geografia sulle regioni italiane, che ci permetterà di scoprire posti italiani bellissimi, lavorare sulla nostra comprensione orale e scritta e di arricchire il nostro vocabolario. Impariamo divertendoci ed impariamo in modo efficace con un approccio olistico che include l’aspetto cinestetico e visuale molto importanti nei bambini. Impariamo continuamente, non solo attraverso giochi, ma anche attraverso video divertenti e canzoni che i bambini potranno rivedere e cantare a casa! Le lezioni del Gruppo Scuola si terranno ogni due sabati e saranno di un’ora e mezza… ci sarà tempo per imparare, divertirsi e festeggiare il Natale, tutto in italiano (ovviamente)!

Dettagli per il Gruppo Scuola

Numero di lezioni: 7

Date delle lezioni:

1) sabato 22 settembre

2) sabato 6 ottobre

3) sabato 20 ottobre

4) sabato 3 novembre

5) sabato 17 novembre

6) sabato 1′ dicembre

7) sabato 15 dicembre

Orario: 12.00-13.30 am

Prezzo: € 80 per 7 lezioni

Discount: €75 per ogni fratello o sorella (di bambini già iscritti)

Numero massimo per bambini per lezione: 10

Per maggiori informazioni su metodologie ed obiettivi andate al link https://www.italiancork.com/metodologie-obiettivi/

Per maggiori informazioni mandate una e-mail a carolina@italiancork.com o telefonate a 087 9588375.

GRUPPO SCUOLA (School Group)

We are about to start with our Gruppo Scuola lessons. After our long summer holidays we will extensively revise what we learned last year: Italian nouns, masculine, feminine, singular and plural, definite articles (the), nouns finishing in e, the Essere verb (to be) and Avere (to have). We will introduce the indefinite articles (a/an). We also have some news: we will introduce geography about Italian regions. This will allow us to discover beautiful Italian places, work on our comprehension and enrich our vocabulary. We won’t get bored at all! We’re learning while having fun using a holistic approach which includes kinaesthetic and visual elements so important for children. We constantly learn, not only through games, but also through video and songs that students will be able to watch and sing at home. The Gruppo Scuola will be held every two weeks and will be 1.5 hours long… plenty of time to learn, have fun and celebrate Natale (Christmas)… all in Italian!

Details of the Gruppo Scuola

Number of lessons: 7

Dates:

1) Saturday 22nd of September

2) Saturday 6th of October

3) Saturday 20th of October

4) Saturday 3rd of November

5) Saturday 17th of November

6) Saturday 1st of December

7) Saturday 15th of December

Time: 12.00-13.30

Price: € 80 for 7 lessons

Discount: € 75 for brothers and sisters (of attending children)

Maximum number of children per class: 10

Time: 12.00-13.30

Price: € 80 for 7 lessons

Discount: € 75 for brothers and sisters (of attending children)

Maximum number of children per class: 10

For more info you can send us an email at carolina@italiancork.com or ring on 087 9588375.

Gioca e Impara (English below)

Stiamo per cominciare il nostro Gioca e Impara! Per tutti i bambini che vogliono imparare l’italiano o per quelli che già lo parlano un po’ e vogliono impararlo meglio in modo attivo, divertente e soprattutto in compagnia di altri bambini. Faremo un piccolo ripasso sui colori, sui numeri e sul tempo, lavoreremo sui suoni italiani più facili e ci divertiremo parlando delle parti del corpo, della casa e degli animali. Quest’anno, inoltre, cominceremo a leggere ed a lavorare sul nostro nuovo libro ‘Raccontami 1’ corso di lingua italiana per bambini (Luca Cortis-Elisa Giuliani Pancheri). Insomma, non ci annoieremo di sicuro! Impariamo divertendoci ed impariamo in modo efficace con un approccio olistico che include l’aspetto cinestetico e visuale molto importanti nei bambini. Lavoriamo continuamente sul nostro vocabolario, non solo attraverso giochi e storytelling, ma anche attraverso video divertenti e canzoni che i bambini potranno rivedere e cantare a casa! Le lezioni di Gioca e Impara si terranno ogni due sabati (eccetto per Pasqua dove avremo 2 settimane di vacanza) e saranno di un’ora e mezza… ci sarà tempo per imparare, divertirsi e festeggiare il Natale e la Befana… tutto in italiano, ovviamente!

Dettagli per Gioca & Impara

Numero di lezioni: 7

Date delle lezioni:

1) sabato 22 settembre

2) sabato 6 ottobre

3) sabato 20 ottobre

4) sabato 3 novembre

5) sabato 17 novembre

6) sabato 1′ dicembre

7) sabato 15 dicembre

Orario: 13.30-15.00 am

Prezzo: € 80 per 8 lezioni

Discount: € 75 per ogni fratello o sorella (di bambini già iscritti)

Numero massimo per bambini per lezione: 10

Per maggiori informazioni mandate una e-mail a carolina@italiancork.com o telefonate a 087 9588375.

Gioca e Impara (Play & Learn)

We are about to start our Gioca e Impara class! For all children who want to learn Italian or for those who already speak a little Italian and would like to improve it in an active and fun way with other children. We will revise our colours, numbers and weather. We will learn about Italian sounds and we will have fun while learning about the house, the animals and the parts of our bodies. We will also start reading and working on our new book ‘Raccontami 1’ corso di lingua italiana per bambini (Luca Cortis- Elisa Pancheri). We won’t get bored at all! We’re learning while having fun through the holistic approach which includes kinaesthetic and visual elements so important for children. We constantly learn new vocabulary, not only through games and storytelling, but also through videos and songs that students will be able to watch and sing at home. The Gioca e Impara group will be held every two weeks and it will be 1.5 hours long… plenty of time to learn, have fun and celebrate Natale (Christmas) and Befana… all in Italian!

Details of the Gioca & Impara

Number of lessons: 7

Dates:

1) Saturday 22nd of September

2) Saturday 6th of October

3) Saturday 20th of October

4) Saturday 3rd of November

5) Saturday 17th of November

6) Saturday 1st of December

7) Saturday 15th of December

Time: 13.30-15.00

Price: € 80 for 7 lessons

Discount: € 75 for brothers and sisters (of attending children)

Brand New Italian Beginners Course

By admin on August 28, 2018 in Uncategorized

Italian for Beginners Cork

Fancy learning Italian? Whether you are going to Italy for your holidays or you have decided to learn this beautiful, musical and colourful language, 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 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 the next course. Booking your place is essential, but remember that this course is for a small group in order to allow students to fully participate and get the best learning experience. Therefore, I would recommend that you book as soon as possible by email (carolina@italiancork.com) or by text (087 9588375) ONLY 2 PLACES LEFT!!

Course details

Starting date: Monday 10th of September

Last lesson: 3rd December

Time: 6.30-8.00 pm

Number of lessons: 12

Max number of students: 10

Location: Blackrock (parking available), 202, 215, 219 bus route

Price: €120

There won’t be a lesson on Monday the 29th of October as it is Bank Holiday week end.

NB: Students who miss class will receive an email with the course material, summary of what was covered and audio files/video (if used during lesson) so that they won’t fall behind.

Fluency Classes? Caffè italiano!

By admin on July 11, 2018 in Cultural, Food

During our Fluency classes we talk a lot, ONLY in Italian, of course. We talk about Italian regions, Italian food, Italian dialects, Italian traditions, Italian holidays, Italian good and bad habits, Italian gestures and many more topics. Right now we are talking about ‘Caffè italiano’ and, believe it or not, there is so much to say.

First of all, I have a question for you. Please, take a look at these 2 pictures and tell me which one is the caffè.

Solution: the caffè is the one in the tazzina (small cup).

The other one is a café (French word for bar).

In fact, in Italy we go to a bar to have our colazione (breakfast) or pranzo (lunch). Many bars in Italy close at 7pm, so they are not to be confused with pubs. We do have some bars or ‘birrerie’ that are open, but many bars are opened only during the day.

Now that we know what Italians mean by ‘caffè’… let’s see how many kinds of caffè they have. I’m telling you, they are so many that it will take us hours to talk about them… for now, let’s take a look at some pictures: do you know all the names of these caffè? Next week, after our lesson, you’ll know all about them!

Brand new Italian Summer Class for Complete Beginners

By admin on June 12, 2018 in Uncategorized

Course details

Starting date: 9th of July

Last lesson: 3rd of September

Time: 6.30-8.30 pm

Number of lessons: 8

Max number of students: 10

Location: Blackrock

Price: €120

NB: Students who miss class will receive an email with the course material, summary of what was covered and audio files/video (if used during lesson) so that they won’t fall behind.

There won’t be a lesson on Monday the 6th of August as it is Bank Holiday week end.

Raising a bilingual child, our seventh year

By admin on May 28, 2018 in PiccolItalia

Here we are, with 30 new classmates in Mila

Wow, time flies… Kevin’s about to finish first class and here are the updates on our bilingual/multilingual experience.

I am Italian and my husband is Irish and we live in Cork, an English speaking town located in the south of Ireland. We have a son, Kevin, and during his first months of life, we decided to raise him bilingual. Therefore, I started to study about bilingualism and I found out that the most important, fundamental and irreplaceable practice I had to implement in order to pursue our mission was to speak Italian and only Italian to my son. At the time I was also working on my English in order to sound more like an English speaker, so I had avoided speaking Italian or listening to Italian or even meeting Italian people… what a blow it was to go back on my plan, but I knew that bilingualism was a great gift for my son… a key for more languages in the future, a brain that has more connections between the right and the left side and all the advantages that come with this.

In our previous post we talked about our 3 first years of experience in raising our son Kevin bilingual (Italian/English). We talked about the reasons behind our choice, our fears and the strategies we implemented to overcome several hurdles. If you are about to undertake this journey and you feel discouraged by so many hindering factors, please read my previous post and feel free to contact me if you have any questions about how we got on.

I am happy to say that Kevin is still speaking only Italian to me and that we have no problems when we go to Italy and this year Kevin even went to an Italian school in Milan and attended the second class for 3 days (his first Erasmus!). BUT… all this doesn’t come without a bit of work!

As I already wrote about all the obstacles and the way we overcame them during Kevin’s first three years, I will start now from the start of his primary school, almost 4 years ago.

Before starting school Kevin was bilingual and his Italian was his dominant language. He was spending a lot of time with me (he went to a Montessori school for three hours a day) and he was attending our Italian school on Saturday. He knew the Italian alphabet and the sound of most syllables.

I was aware that being in an English environment the dominant language (English) would eventually prevail over Italian… so I used all my resources to keep him interested and attached to Italian while his dad would speak to him in English and started working on his English reading skills.

When he started attending junior infants he also started to use more and more English words with me and I started worrying… all my efforts, all my hard work, all my time! No panic mamma, no panic. I ‘fought a battle on two fronts’. First of all and it is very important, I kindly refused to understand Kevin any time he would use an English word. This was very frustrating for him as he genuinely couldn’t remember some words after speaking in English for 5 hours in a row. To give you a concrete example, he would say an Italian sentence with the word ‘instead’ (invece in Italian). I remember telling him ‘Come si dice instead in italiano?’ (how do you say instead in italiano?). We would get frustrated and say ‘non lo so mamma, non ricordo!’ (I don’t know mamma, I don’t remember!). So I’ve started helping him to retrieve the ‘lost words’. In this way I helped him consolidate his Italian. In fact, retrieving or recalling is an important step to consolidate vocabulary. I used to start the word ‘si dice in, inv…’ (we say in, inv…) and Kevin would happily finish the word, with a great sense of achievement. This process also taps into our dopamine system giving us a great sense of reward and we feel we want more of it. Therefore, Kevin became used to this process and shortly afterwards he stopped forgetting Italian words.

Secondly, we banned English cartoons and movies all together. They got replaced with… French cartoons, movies and even songs. I know it sounds bizarre, but it worked! As I can speak French fluently, I’ve started playing games in French with Kevin when he was about 3, reading him short stories and every now and then we would watch a French cartoon. Therefore, he just started watching French cartoons every evening, his French got much better very soon and the English interference during our conversations disappeared entirely.

This is going on for more than 2 years and now my son speaks 3 languages and he is even learning Irish in school… and teaching me!

Piccolitalia, our Italian school is also playing a very important role for his Italian language, his Italian culture and Italian socialisation. This year we are learning about masculine and feminine, singular and plural nouns, definite articles and verbs and he is very happy, interested and proud of his Italian in his Italian class with his Italian speaking friends!

Starting 4 new classes in the College of Commerce! Andiamo!

By admin on January 23, 2018 in Uncategorized

Ciao from Piccolitalia

By admin on January 21, 2018 in PiccolItalia

We are having a great time here in Piccolitalia and, above all, we are having an Italian time. With our Gruppo Scuola we are having fun, learning and enjoying Italian grammar fundamentals such as feminine and masculine , articles and verbs. With our Gioca e Impara group (Play and Learn) we are having fun with weather, seasons, and the days of the week… we always learn so much through songs, fun activities and games with both groups as this is the best way to learn! With both groups we really loved celebrating Natale, talking about our Italian customs, traditions and folklore… The favoured topics this year were la Befana, la Tombola di Natale (bingo) and, obviously, the Pandoro (our Italian Christmas cake). Take a look at the pictures… you can see it for yourselves!

We are ready to restart again next week (Saturday 27 January) and we cannot wait to celebrate Carnevale! If you are interested in your children to join us… hurry, as we have only 2 places left!

To learn more about Piccolitalia courses https://www.italiancork.com/155-2/

Interested in Learning Italian in Cork? Starting soon in the College of Commerce

By admin on January 16, 2018 in College of Commerce Homework, Teaching

Good reasons to visit Italy… good reason to learn Italian

If someone asked me why they should visit Italy… I would say that there are so many good reasons. I would even recommend that they spend some time over there and speak Italian in order to have a better understanding of Italian culture, traditions and people, of course. As a picture says much more than thousands words, let’s enjoy these very eloquently photos, just to get a sense of what we are talking about.

Why are so many people in Cork learning Italian?

Wonderful pictures, aren’t they? But now let’s see why people in Cork take up Italian. I run a quick survey at every Beginners course we start (in order to tailor our class to our students needs), so we do have a fair idea about why Cork people study Italian… Do you have any ideas yourselves? You probably guessed it right. The main reason is that they like going to Italy for their holidays, they love the culture, the food and Italian places. Many people take up Italian because they like the sound of this language and they would like to go to Italy, too. Some of my students start learning Italian because they have Italian origins and others have to because of their job. A good few do it because their loved ones are Italian… and among them is my husband! As they say… one for everybody in the audience.

Who is learning Italian?

There are Italian learners of all ages, nationalities and cultural backgrounds here in Cork. In fact, learning a language has been scientifically proved to be one of the best ways to keep illnesses such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases at bay. This is because our neurons have to work in a different way to learn and speak a new language and they have to build new neural networks. On the other hand, we have very young learners (not here in the College of Commerce, though). In fact, quite a few parents want their children to learn a language as this is the best way to turbocharge their brain. Bilingual or multilingual children have more neural connections between the right and the left part of their brain, they develop a positive attitude towards languages and they have fun learning without any effort… so it’s a win win!

Why is the College of Commerce the best place to learn Italian in Cork?

There are many reasons, but I would say that the most important is that, in our courses, we implement the Italian we are learning immediately from day one… we, in fact, use our Italian in real life situation role playing and this is engaging, fun and above all useful. Many students come to our classes as they want ‘to speak’. There is no point in learning lots of grammar and vocabulary and doing lots of homework if we do not speak the language we are learning.

For these reasons classes take a great deal of preparation, props, flash cards and the like, but having a masters degree in Educational sciences and many years of experience in both Italy and Ireland helps quite a lot… To be an effective teacher takes much more than just being a native speaker. The teacher must also be a trained, experienced and dedicated person to be truly effective. Which, luckily, I am 😉

We also take a great advantage of our dedicated language room with special language programs and headsets on every student’s computer to work harder on our listening skills, especially with our Continuation and Intermediate groups.

Very importantly, we do not leave any students behind. Students who cannot attend a lesson (and those who do) receive an email after class with notes, pdfs of the pages handed out and homework… it takes a bit of time, but it makes a big difference and ensures that students always have all the materials they need to keep up even if life has conspired to make them miss a class.

A few weeks before starting our courses, students receive an email with the programme for the courses they may like to attend and some advice regarding the best choice for them. We have four courses now and sometimes students are unsure of their level or their ability to go to the next step.

The programmes for the 4 courses are available online and, as we don’t want anyone to get bored, the programmes change every semester.

It seems that our students have appreciated our work so far. I started teaching Italian in the College of Commerce in September 2009 to a single Beginners class… the year after I had a Beginners and a Continuation class, the following year I had 3 classes: Beginners, Continuation and Intermediate and a couple of years ago we finally added the Advanced course. This progression means that you can go from absolute beginner to fluent all right here at the College.

What do students achieve attending the Beginners course in the College of Commerce?

As we were previously saying, students are implementing their new learned sentences in real life situations and role playing them immediately. Therefore, they will be able to place an order at the restaurant, to book a room and to talk about themselves after a few weeks. They will also gain a good foundation in Italian grammar basics and they will be able to progress with their Italian, if they wish.

What do students achieve attending the Continuation course in the College of Commerce?

They will be encouraged to speak even more! In fact, half of our lesson is dedicated to develop their fluency and this means a full hour every week. New vocabulary and grammar are immediately implemented in new situations such as bargaining at the market, talking about family, weather, holidays and so on. Writing skills are also developed to consolidate students newly learned sentence structures. Therefore, after this course, students will be more confident in their Italian and they will be definitely be able to go to a market (no English speakers in Italian markets, sorry!) or shops, talk about the weather and their past holidays.

What do students achieve attending the Intermediate course in the College of Commerce?

“Parliamo Italiano” is the motto of this course, as we will alternate a grammar class (held in English) and a fluency class held completely in Italian with different topics and some listening (we will sometimes use a language room with headsets). Students will develop their language skills through discussion, exercises and role playing while new Italian idioms and expressions will help students to sound more Italian in conversation. A few of my students who completed this course are actually living in Italy at the moment, to give you an idea of the level.

What do students achieve attending the Advanced course in the College of Commerce?

‘Solo in Italiano, per favore’ (only in Italian, please) is the motto of this class. Many of these students started with me years ago, some of them have come from other schools and they all enjoy speaking only Italian. In fact, even our grammar lessons are in Italian. Many of them are fluent, others are almost fluent and they all love learning, studying and having fun in Italian, so much that a few of them live in Italy for few months a year and few of them have even bought a house there… lucky them!

Il Presepio a casa di Kevin

By admin on December 21, 2017 in Cultural

Our presepio is getting better and better. My son adores this Italian tradition and this year we shared it with his schoolmates who were very impressed. Every year we add some new features, improvements and ideas for the following Christmas. As you might already know in Italy we have the tradition of building a nativity scene called Presepio (or Presepe) during advent in the weeks leading up to Christmas. The birthplace of cribs and nativity scenes, both alive and not, was Italy in 1223. It was, in fact, San Francesco d’Assisi who invented them. His first presepio was in a grotto where he reproduced the nativity scene with real people, except for Baby Jesus who had been replaced by a doll… but the doll, legend says, became a real baby at midnight, 24^th of December. This is, in fact, the time of the real Christmas for Italian people, to go to mass, to toast and exchange our presents.

Fluency Classes in Cork

By admin on September 29, 2017 in Cultural

Fluency Classes

We talk a lot here during our Fluency classes… in Italian of course… ONLY in italiano!

When we study grammar rules in the grammar book they seem clear enough, but to implement them FLUENTLY in a real conversational context, is another story. This is why Fluency classes are so useful. Here some practical examples. When we go to buy some clothes we ask simple questions such as ‘how do I look?’ or ‘do I look OK?’ or ‘do I look smart?’. Trust me that if we translated these expressions into Italian… they wouldn’t make any sense! Therefore, in our Fluency Classes we are learning the Italian ways to say the same things and… at the start these don’t sound familiar to English speaker’s ears, but through using them in fun activities, real life situations, role playing and listening to Italian dialogues we get the hang of it.

In order to get the best out of our Fluency classes we use topics that are fun, useful and that allow us to talk about our interests, experiences or things that matter to us. Tasks are challenging in order to engage us but also practical and fun. In fact, it has been scientifically proven that we do our best and learn the most when we’re having fun. This is because cognition and emotion affect each other in the oldest part of our brain (the Amygdala). This part of our brain reacts to fear and happiness and this reaction strongly affects our ability to learn and memorise. On top of that, we shouldn’t forget that being in a good mood helps the production of ‘serotonin which plays an important role in learning, memorisation other important areas such as social abilities’ (‘Learning how to learn’ Dr. Barbara Oakley, University of California, San Diego).

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