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It’s Love That Counts Posted by Geoff on Feb 12, 2016
Italian music has the tendency to be very conservative, but search for a love song for Saint Valentine’s day and you’ll be overwhelmed by the millions of results. Now, out of that mass of results, at least 90% are going to be embarrassing clichés or just horribly tacky. But here’s a song about love that…
Spot The Italian Accent Posted by Geoff on Feb 8, 2016
As a student of the Italian language, do you have trouble rolling your ‘r‘s? What about you aiuole and aerei … how are they? Yes, Italian has a few tricky points of pronunciation, but things aren’t exactly easy for Italians when they try to speak English. In my experience of teaching conversational English to Italians…
La Pennichella Italiana Posted by Geoff on Feb 3, 2016
The first time that I heard the English/American expression ‘power nap’ I was curious to know how it differed from the traditional Italian pennichella. But let’s begin from the beginning shall we, what exactly is a pennichella? Etimologia di Pennichella: Pennichella is a Roman/Neapolitan word now widely used all over Italy to describe il riposino pomeridiano (the…
Carmela’s Plan Posted by Geoff on Feb 1, 2016
Dear Readers, last October I began writing the chapters of Carmela’s story. The idea was to present you with the main body of the narrative in English and the dialogue in colloquial Italian, thus rendering it easier to read and comprehend. According to your feedback via the comments section, this format seemed to work well…
I Don’t Feel Italian Posted by Geoff on Jan 25, 2016
… well I’m not! By birth I’m English, but I don’t feel English either, I never really did. However, one thing that I do remember about my English upbringing was the sense of patriotism that we had instilled in us from quite an early age. Maybe that’s changed now, I really wouldn’t know as I’ve…
A Huge Italian Bonfire – Part 2 Posted by Geoff on Jan 21, 2016
Previously in A Huge Italian Bonfire: Geoff and Serena are waiting on the bridge for the Falò di San Nicolò to be lit when … … all’improvviso, succede una cosa completamente inaspettata … suddenly, something completely unexpected happens … … out of the blackness behind the crowd looms a mysterious tubular object illuminated by a…
A Huge Italian Bonfire – Part 1 Posted by Geoff on Jan 20, 2016
Here’s an opportunity for you to practice your colloquial conversational vocabulary. A typical Geoff and Serena dialogue (with the arguments edited out of course!) Serena: Stasera c’è il falò di San Nicolò a Pontremoli, lo sapevi? Serena: did you know that this evening in Pontremoli there’s the falò of San Nicolò? Geoff: che cavolo è…