If you are interested in your child attending Italian classes in a peer group during the school year 2022/2023 let me know. 

I am putting together a small group of students who already speak and understand Italian. They don’t need to be accurate or fluent, but they have to understand and be able to ask for explanations in Italian (the explanation can be given in English if necessary). 

The aim of the class is to work on Italian grammar (starting from the foundations), writing and reading in Italian. This is being done to give students a good foundation in Italian that will be valuable for them if they wish to take the Junior or Leaving cert or visit, live or work in Italy at some point where being able to read and write in Italian (not just speak and listen) is crucial.

Classes will be carried out by myself (I am a qualified Italian teacher, with a masters degree in education and am certified with the Irish Teaching Council and fully garda vetted). 

Topics will be approached in visual, interactive and practical ways through presentations, role playing and songs (whenever possible), but students will have to work and do some homework to consolidate what they learn between classes. We will also be using a Grammar school book. Classes will be held in person in our classroom in Blackrock.

Please let me know if you are interested as soon as possible and let me know which weekdays/times would suit (we will do our best to accommodate). These classes will be held once a week and lessons are an hour long. As I mentioned above, these classes are aimed at a small group of students and not a full sized class.

I prepare students for Italian in the Junior Cert and Leaving Cert several afternoons a week, while after 6 pm I have online classes for adults. So I will do my best to accommodate people’s availability requests but as my availability is limited and each of you may have different availability, I cannot guarantee everyone can be accomodated

If some of them are asking about their children who don’t have the requirement to take part in this group

I know some of your children/teens had attended Piccolitalia’s classes in the past and some of you have been asking about them. At the moment I am working with very small groups of children and That seems to be working very well. Let me know if you are interested and I might be able to put you in contact with other parents who have children with the same level of Italian to create a small group (time permitting). 

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.

Therefore, I would recommend that you book as soon as possible to avoid disappointment www.italiancork.com/italian-beginners-italiancork

Details

Beginning August 24th
Wednesday from 7.30 – 9.00 pm (Irish time)
Online classes (ZOOM)
A 10 lesson course: €120

If you are interested, or if you have a friend or a relative interested in learning this beautiful and musical language for your next holiday or for fun, we are starting a New Beginners Online Class on the 23rd of March.

Italian Beginners Classes have been running online for over two years and have been very successful: small groups, a conversational approach in a fun and relaxed environment are the key to their success. In fact, students speak Italian from their first day of class and we have a lot of fun, fantastico!
You can learn and have fun from everywhere in the world from the comfort of your favourite couch! 

Ecco qui il nostro presepio! Here is our presepio and this year, we really worked very hard!

You probably already know about the Italian Christmas tradition called Presepio or Presepe. It is the nativity scene that we build at Christmas’ time all over Italy. The first Presepio was ‘invented’ by San Francesco d’Assisi and it was a ‘Living Presepio’ (using actual people). In 1223 he gathered a few people in Greggio (a rural village in Umbria) and they reenacted the ‘nativity scene’. San Francesco celebrated mass on the makeshift altar by the manger. 

Nowadays, we do have living presepio/presepe in Italy, especially in small villages (they are called ‘borgo’ or ‘borgo medievale’ as they are usually of mediaeval origin), but in most houses we build our own presepio with figurines, houses and all the possible items to recreate the nativity scene. Usually, our figurines and a few other pieces, such as the grotto, come from our great grandparents or even older ancestors. But, tradition demands that every year something new must appear and give a ‘boost’ or a new ‘shine’ to the nativity scene of the previous year. 

Allora, here is my challenge for you. Ecco (here) last year’s presepio. 

And at the top of the page is the new one… could you tell me what’s new?

This wonderful Italian tradition is also spreading through Ireland. In fact, you can admire a beautiful presepio in Saint Peter’s and Paul’s church and the other one in Galway!

And here is a first year presepio from my mother in law’s house: she worked very hard with my nephews Dave, Peter and even Jacob helped with the stained glass church window!

Allora, what are you waiting for? You better start now, you better work hard, and let me know if you need any help with it;-)

Great news for students who want to boost their Leaving Cert outcome, be more relaxed during their leaving cert time and learn a beautiful language of great use to their future either for work or holiday.

I have been preparing students for their Italian Leaving Cert for 11 years and, thanks to my students committment and my teaching they all passed with either an A1/H1 or A2/H2, grazie a Dio! I usually prepare between 2 and 4 students a year.  

Italian is not a difficult language to learn and I am not saying this just because I am Italian, but because I can compare it with English, French and Spanish that I studied in the past and with Gaeilge which I started learning a couple of years ago (for my sins as many of my Irish students say;-)!

Most of my students are English speakers and they find Italian easier in comparison to French, Spanish and Irish especially because Italian pronunciation is very easy. A student is able to read and have perfect pronunciation in 2 hours. In fact, unlike the other languages I mentioned above, we pronounce words exactly as they are written. The name of each vowel is identical to its sound and vowels never change their sounds, even when they are clustered together! This is an amazing feature, trust me!

The most important or, should I say, the crucial requirement about taking Italian for the Leaving Cert is to start early. A language needs time to consolidate and daily practice:  we are talking about 15 minutes a day. All this preparation will reward the student who will be well prepared in advance and have more time to dedicate to other subjects. 

To give you an example: I prepared E. and A. recently. Two English speakers who didn’t have any second language or Italian. They started attending two years before their Leaving Cert for an hour a week. About 9 months before their oral exam, for a short period of time they attended 2 hours a week; but I hardly saw them after their oral in April, until a couple of weeks before their exam in August. They just kept it up with 15 minutes practice a day and they had plenty of time for their other subjects. They both passed with H2. 

If students start earlier (during their second or third year of secondary school), if they have some Italian already or if one of their parents is Italian, there is no reason why they can’t get an H1 as over 35% of my students have done. 

If you or your child are thinking of taking Italian in the Leaving Cert and you’d like to help them maximise their potential, please don’t hesitate to get in touch for an informative chat. 

Allora (so), hai capito? Did you understand? 

Andiamo! Let’s go!

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.

Therefore, I would recommend that you book as soon as possible to avoid disappointment www.italiancork.com/italian-beginners-italiancork

Details

Beginning August 9th
Monday from 6.30 – 8.30 pm (Irish time)
Online classes (ZOOM)
A 10 lesson course: €130

Finally we have the time to learn Italian and we don’t even have to travel, but we can attend and from the comfort of our own homes! 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.

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.

Therefore, I would recommend that you book as soon as possible to avoid disappointment www.italiancork.com/italian-beginners-italiancork

Details

Beginning April 20th
Tuesday from 6.00 – 8.00 pm
Online classes (ZOOM)
A 10 lesson course: €130

Again this year, the 6th of January has arrived… the time to take down our presepio (nativity scene) and put all our little buildings, figurines and lights in our big box, and up they go to the attic.

Every year our creation gets new pieces… this year we added a few mountains and a well. New materials are always welcome and they can be provided by all sorts of things: new packaging from a delivery (all the houses in the picture), boxes (the mountains) or clay (the well). Some items such as grass and bushes are from professional shops such as Marks model in town. In theory they sell all that’s necessary for model trains, but their grass sheets and bushes are just perfect in our presepio. 

Kevin and I always keep an eye out during the year for new materials that can spark new ideas for our presepio. It is a great tradition that has been passed down to me from my family. In fact, all the figures, the stable and the shooting star were the same I used to put in my own presepio as a little girl. It is great that my son enjoys this tradition… in fact he said that <<Fare il presepio è una delle cose che amo di più del Natale (making the presepio is one of the things I love the most about Christmas)>>. And he became very good at it!

Of course, I didn’t invent the Presepio (or Presepe), but Francesco d’Assisi (Saint Frances d’Assisi) did: the first Presepio in the world took place in Greggio town in 1223 and it was a living nativity scene with real animals and people. And the ‘Presepio vivente’ (living nativity scene) is still a tradition in many small Italian towns at Christmas time. 

Benvenuta Befana!

But, last night at midnight, I Re Magi (Three Wise Men) arrived to pay homage to Gesù Bambino in our Presepio and the Befana visited our house, too. In fact, today we found our stockings filled with small and lovely presents that the Befana brought for us. And tomorrow we’ll say goodbye to our presepio… It is really true what we say in Italy ‘L’Epifania tutte le feste porta via (the Epiphany takes away all the holidays)’, but this time kids are not back to school, yet… Mamma mia!

PS: If you’d like to know more about our unique Befana, just check it here