Welcome to London!

Welcome to Italian Class! I’m an experienced private language tutor operating in the London, UK area, offering lessons in your own home or here on site.

• Read about my qualifications and background.
• Check out services and prices for private and group tutoring.
• Browse the collection of links to learn more about Italian language and culture.
• Write to me at SpringfieldItalian@gmail.com with any questions or feedback.

Benvenuti a London for 2014!

Italian Class 101 has a new casa! We’ve moved to London, and we’re setting up shop here! The città is great, the people sono wonderful and the weather is . . . quasi perfetto. We’re now accepting new clients for private and group lessons, or individuals currently studying the language for tutoring. We teach to all levels, and you can read about some of the perks of studying with us here.

For 2014, lessons are available Sat-Sun, 9am-10pmm, and week nights after 6pm.

Any questions, or to talk about tailoring an Italian language plan that’s best for you, contact us at SpringfieldItalian@gmail.com.

Ci sono and C’e’. . . .because it’s snowing!

Welcome to Italian Class! I’m an experienced private language tutor operating in the London, UK area, offering lessons in your own home or here on site.

• Read about my qualifications and background here.
• Check out services and prices for private and group tutoring.
• Browse the collection of links to learn more about Italian language and culture.
• Write to me at SpringfieldItalian@gmail.com with any questions or feedback!

Ci sono and C’e’. . .and some wintery, snowy Italian!

My lesson for this afternoon called and canceled, because here in Chicago we’ve got a good bit of snow on the ground, and the driving is more or less. . .what’s the word. . . . .ridiculously impossible . . . on a normal day, so when there’s snow and I’ve got a 1.5 hour commute to the lesson site, a pausa is totally okay.

Dobbiaco, Italy – Italian Alps, near Austrain border. (We ate lunch here right before I face-planted all the way down a ski run) 🙂

So,  in honor of the falling neve, I thought I’d do a post about Italian snow, winter and fabulous (if you’re not a klutz like me) skiing opportunities in Italy. And, to be educational, throw in a quick explanation of “Ci Sono” and “C’e'” for those who want to say “There is no death wish quite like taking on a black diamond run with four hours of ski lessons under your belt!”

Ci Sono: There are

C’e’: There is

There is semi-complicated grammar behind why these phrases mean what they do, but if you ask me, it’s easiest to understand and use in conversation if you don’t even worry about the grammar and just think of them like vocab words you memorzie. Casa means house, Ci sono just simply means “there are” and C’e’ means “there is.” Done.

Ci sono due lividi gigante sulla mia gamba.
(There are two giant bruises on my leg.)
C’e’ una ragione per questo: non puoi sciare.
(There is a reason for this: you can’t ski.)

Sometimes I think students of Italian stress out too much over the grammar and the reason behind certain words.  Yes, sono is a verb meaning “I am” or “They are” and “Ci” is a reflexive pronouns most often meaning “we”. . .so how the Bologna do you get “Ci Sono” meaning “There are”?  My advice:  don’t worry about. Just remember it like any other vocabulary word, and use it as such.

What’s great about both “Ci sono” and “C’e’” is that they don’t change – you don’t need to conjugate them. So don’t worry about the grammar behind it. They are static, immovable words with a fixed meaning. Rare enough in Italian, so during this holiday season, take the presents when they come.

Yep, they have reindeer in Italy. Seriously! I swear! This was taken in Alto Adiage, near the Austrain border. Maybe it was a runway, but it was on the Italian side, no doubts.

Now, for some great Italian snow/winter facts and figures:

• “Neve” means snow in Italian – but that “snow” you see on your TV after a blizzard has knocked out your cable? It’s called “nebbia” in Italian, or fog.
• Yep, flurry or flurries, are real English words and you bet they’ve got great Italian counterparts: “turbini” means flurries, and “turbini di neve” might be even more adorable to say than “snow flurries”.
• Italians celebrate “Settimana bianca” or “white week” during the winter; it’s a ski holiday! Baustelle’s got a pretty terrible song about it, and lot’s of Italians have posted their skiing videos and pictures snapped during this not-quite-spring-break week online.
• Italy celebrations for winter include Christmas (Buon Natatle!) and one of my favorites, La Befana. As Natale gets closer, I’ll post more about these traditions and some awesome Befana witch pictures

Rome, in it’s delicious warm weather glory, on Jan 1, 2007.

*

*

*

The inverno (winter) in Italy varies dramatically, depending on where you are. This is a picture of blooming Rome on Capodanno (New Year’s Day) 2007, with blue skies, green grass and about 60 degrees. I don’t think I was even wearing a coat that day.

However, if you’re up in Trento, the average inverno temperature in January is around 28 degrees Farenheit, while in Palermo (down in Sicily) you’re practically tropical with an average 63 degrees in February.

So, it’s still snowing here in Chicago, although it’s let up a bit. I don’t feel too bad though, because it snows in Italy – they’ve got great skiing and sledding (andare in slitta) and it get’s cold there too. So I’m going to make a cup of hot chocolate (latte con cacao) and pretend I’m in Trentino, among the Alps and icicles.

-Aimee

_______________________________________________

Interested in Learning Italian? Live in the Chicago area?

Contact Aimee!

• Read about my qualifications here.
• Check out services and prices for private and group tutoring.
• Browse the collection of links to learn more about Italian language and culture.
• Write to me at SpringfieldItalian@gmail.com with any questions or feedback!
• Call me at(217) 299 – 9199 to speak personally about setting up your perfect lesson.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user James Cridland.

Sicily May Have The Weather, But Milan has the Foreigners

Welcome to Italian Class! I’m an experienced private language tutor operating in the Chicago area, offering lessons in your own home or here on site.

• Read about my qualifications and background here.
• Check out services and prices for private and group tutoring.
• Browse the collection of links to learn more about Italian language and culture.
• Write to me at SpringfieldItalian@gmail.com with any questions or feedback!
• Call me at (217) 299 – 9199 to speak personally about setting up your perfect lesson.  ________________________________________________________________________________

Influx of Foreigners Help Boost Italian Populations – Majority Are Staying Up North

– Thinking of heading to Italy? Join the club. A new report out this week from the Italian National Statistics Board ISTAT cites the number of foreigners who just this year have permanently settled in the country to be at almost half a million for 2009 alone.

Okay, so streets in Milan don't quite look like this. . .but a bad economy and an influx of foreigners are making finding a job in anywhere in Italy even tougher.

According to ISTAT, this new load of 458,644 new residents brings the total numbers of foreigners living in the country to 3.8 million, or just over 6% of their population. Compared to some places like Dubai, which has over 75% of it’s population non-native, this may seem to be small potatoes.

But when you start to consider the living and working restrictions for Americans in Europe, any competition isn’t great news. (COMING to the blog SOON: Getting a work visa for Italy – real possibility? What you need to know about making the jump.)

ISTAT states that 29% of foreign residents in Italy are citizens of other European Union countries, meaning they’ll get first shot after Italians for any jobs. American’s tend to rest far down the totem pole in the visa hierarchy, getting slots after Italian, EU citizens and any other countries that have special relationship with the European Union; countries like Canada, Australia and New Zealand all offer a precious ‘working holiday visa’ arrangement that allows them job slots before Americans.

Despite their leg up over their American counterparts in finding Italian employment, these foreigners seem to be playing it safe in these tough economic times, opting to live in the less climate-controlled but more job-heavy northern regions, with 62% putting down roots in the industrialized North and only 4% choosing to stake their luck on the warm weathered, but economically battered islands of Sicily and Sardinia. Only a fraction, 9%, of foreigners live anywhere in the South, where jobs are more scare and English heard less frequently.

So while Sicily may have the weather (and, in my opinion, the food – just eat with my friend Maria), Milan has the foreigners, and it looks like, for now, the jobs.

UPCOMING:  Check back tomorrow for notes on the long-standing North/South divide from an expat’s point of view and later in the week a 2-part post on the real deal on getting an Italian work visa.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Interested in Learning Italian? Live in the Chicago area?

Contact Aimee!

• Read about my qualifications here.
• Check out services and prices for private and group tutoring.
• Browse the collection of links to learn more about Italian language and culture.
• Write to me at SpringfieldItalian@gmail.com with any questions or feedback!
• Call me at (217) 299 – 9199 to speak personally about setting up your perfect lesson.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user James Cridland.

Italy Combats Swine Flu With . . .Holy Water

Welcome to Italian Class! I’m a private language tutor operating in the Chicago area.

• Read about my qualifications here.
• Check out services and prices for private and group tutoring.
• Browse the collection of links to learn more about Italian language and culture.
• Write to me at SpringfieldItalian@gmail.com with any questions or feedback!
• Call me at (217) 971 – 4546 to speak personally about setting up your perfect lesson.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Italy’s New Swine-Flu Defense:

High-Tech Holy Water Dispenser

Posted in Discover Magazine earlier this week comes this little gem of a story – the Italians seem to be taking the sanitary approach to the highest level – heavenly. Water blessed by God (or his anointed mortals) is apparently something more than just holy – it’s a big bowl of germs.

Many Italians are apparently afraid of dipping their hands into the communal bowl of water – holy or not – for fear of picking up the rapidly spreading and deadly H1-N1 virus.  Near 75 Italians have died as a result of the flu and it seems the Vatican is doing it’s part to combat its spread.

Holy water dispensers, like this push-button model seen here, are flying off the shelves as churches around the world look for ways to keep their patrons germ-free.

Discover Magazine reports that “Catholic churches around Italy are scrapping their traditional water fonts in favor of new automatic, motion-activated holy water dispensers invented by Luciano Marabese.”

“The design of the dispenser is similar to a traditional water font, but with an infra-red light that reads the presence of a hand and squirts holy water onto the person’s fingers.” – BBC News

These dispensers are high-tech indeed, motion-censored and dishing out the holy liquid germ-free when an awaiting hand is placed in front of the spigot.

Luciano Marabese, the high-tech creator of the latest line, says churches are clamoring for the devices and he can barely keep up with demand.

According to BBC News, “Mr Marabese says he is receiving hundreds of emails from all over the world requesting information about the product.

“Some people had stopped dipping their hand into the holy water font as they were afraid of infections,” he told Reuters.

“Some people even pretended to touch the water but they just touched the marble edge of the font.”

So, if you’ve been worried about catching a even a cold at the holy watering hole, rest assured. Help is on the way.

Do you think it’s possible to get germs from a bowl of holy water? Are the Italian right on or off the wall? Leave a comment below and contact me at SpringfieldItalian@gmail.com to schedule your private Italian lessons in the Chicago area.

Read about my qualifications here.
Check out services and prices for private and group tutoring.
Browse the collection of links to learn more about Italian language and culture.

Full story here: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2009/11/12/italys-new-swine-flu-defense-high-tech-holy-water-dispenser/

________________________________________________________________________________________

Welcome to Italian Class 101!

Ciao tutti! Welcome to the site! I’m a private language tutor operating in the Chicago area.

• Read about my qualifications here.
• Check out services and prices for private and group tutoring.
• Browse the collection of links to learn more about Italian language and culture.
• Write to me at SpringfieldItalian@gmail.com with any questions, comments or feedback!
  

  Puglia, Italy

I’ll be posting every day, so let me know in the comment section what you’d like to see, hear and read about.

Also, feel free to post grammar or language questions here and I’ll write back with answers as soon as I can.

A presto!