Re: The Dude's Classrom
So I might be ready to start to talk about the Basic Italian course
First, those who showed interest in it: Ponti, GB, KA and Skotos; 4 students for a class looks like enough to try to run it; of course it can take quite a lot of time, Italian is not really a simple language due to many irregular forms and in any case I'm expecting to give some (simple) exercises to do every once in a while, in order to help you retain the basics of the language. Therefore if we really want to give it a go, everybody has to be prepared to invest time and patience in it: I'm not being pessimistic when I say that it will most probably need a year before we can actually finish this course (between my forced absences, the time needed to prepare new lessons and that needed for you to complete the exercises and other minor things, I think a year to be a realistic estimation).
I admit I'm a bit in trouble to decide how to effectively run this course; I mean, we are not in a RL classroom where we can interact daily and add a layer of practical exercises to the theory (like conversation or dictation exercises), nor that we really aim at turning you into Italian speakers, rather I believe that the goal is to introduce you to the very basics of the Italian language and to help you understand how to read Italian and how to possibly construct some basic sentences, which you can use for the most common needs of everyday's life for instance; once the course will be over you should be able, with the help of a dictionary, to read and understand an Italian text and possibly to write an essay about yourself.
How that sounds? I'm asking for your direct input gents because I want the course to be usable and interesting for all of you; too many courses ended up in nothing because they were intended or became too complex and articulated; I think that the goal here is both for you to better learn something you are already interested in and to have some good time all together.
Thoughts?