Miffed, I am.

June 27, 2007 · Filed Under Work · Comment 

I got the ‘we want to do more speaking’ comment from my students today.

Yet they make no attempt to try using English while working in pairs or groups as they do one of the activities I have set them. This is despite my repeatedly telling them that they need to speak in English.

It’s no good, they just don’t get it. They don’t realize that by simply trying to use English at all times, they will become more fluent, and overcome their lack of self-confidence problems.

Yes, I know there is the Italian fear of making a ‘brutta figura’, but we are all adults, we can be mature about this. Make mistakes and you learn. Clam up for fear of making yourself look stupid, and you will not learn. I’m sorry, but you really don’t have time to play such games. Make an effort, as some have and do, and the English course can make the difference between being offered a 3 month zero pay internship, or being offered a paying position with a company that can offer real future prospects.

The choice is yours. I cannot work miracles.

English, like it or not, is perceived as being an essential skill for those who want to go places.

No English, no party.

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Saturday night’s all right for…….

June 16, 2007 · Filed Under Work · Comment 

….working!  Yes, that’s right.  I’m working.  Other half and little one have gone off down to Genova.  This means that I can get on with preparing for a meeting on Monday.   The meeting will be about a new course I’m cooking up with another guy.  This other guy is an expert on certain things financial - so he can deal with the vocational stuff, while yours truly will concentrate on the best way of getting people to talk about certain aspects of financial data in English.  I’m not going to be any more specific than that.

Anyway, while listening to a bit of Yes and downing a drop or two of red wine, I’m trying to persuade those old creative juices to flow - which, I’m happy to say they are doing.  At least I’ve got some experience at planning workshop type courses now.  Another course which I planned and ran is to be held for the third time down in Rome.  The first time I ran this course it went better than I had hoped for and the second time was even better.  The course participants were most complimentary, or so I heard from my colleague.

I begin my course planning process by thinking about the objective, then I’ll spend some time hopping around the world wide web hunting for information and potential material.  Once I’ve got this, I’ll start drafting a structure which will provide a route towards the final objective.  The activities I’ll come up with could be thought of as being feeding stops on the way towards the destination.   Once I’ve fed all the information  I think is necessary to those doing the course, then I can start them on the final exercise which attempts to tie everything together and thus hits the objective.  That is the theory anyway.

My oh my, this process sounds quite straightforward when put down on ‘digital’ paper, but it can be quite testing.  Once I’m happy with the road and the stops, I can start to build a presentation.  These presentations buck the trend of presentations generally, seeing as I’ll include rather more on my slides than I would if I were presenting to mother tongue speakers.  I find this aids comprehension, which keeps everything going where I need it to go.

Right, back onto the road.  I’m not quite there yet in terms of direction and stops,  but I want to have a reasonable idea before Monday’s meeting.

Just in case you think I’m a work-o-holic, I should add that I spent some of the afternoon wandering around with my camera taking a few pics.  I have not reviewed them yet, some I’m not sure whether I’ve got anything that I really like.

OK, I’m signing off for now.  Back to the grindstone.  Enjoy your Saturday evening!

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Italians and language learning.

May 31, 2007 · Filed Under Italians · 2 Comments 

I’ve heard this comment many times from my Italian students. It basically goes ‘Italians are not very good at/incapable of learning other languages’. Well, I have an appropriate response to this oft made comment: ‘bollocks’ (si equivala approssimante a ‘palle’ in italiano, credo).

Sorry about the slight vulgarity, but sometimes it is one of the best ways to get your message across.

Italians are just as capable as anyone else of learning other languages, indeed, Italy has quite a multi-lingual population.

In Italy, as opposed to the UK, I’ve met loads of people who speak a second or a third language. French and Spanish are common second languages, as are English and German, and that is without mentioning all the various dialects which exist here, some of which are considered to be genuine languages separate from Italian, I should point out.

So come on all you Italian language students, basta negatività, as the Nike ad goes ‘just do it’. All you need is some motivation and application and it can be done. Yes, I know some are more ‘portati’ (gifted/naturally able) than others, but ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way’, to coin an old English saying.

To see what Italian’s are capable of take a look at Rob’s blog Wind Rose Hotel and you will see just how well an Italian can write in English. And Rob is by no means alone, I can assure you.  There is a young lady I know called Caterina who speaks English fantastically well.  There are many others too.

So, saying Italians cannot learn other languages is absolute, total, and utter bollocks.

Climbs down from soap box.

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