Basic Italian - Chat Thread

[Flinn]

Hello there people and welcome to the Basic Italian course!

Let's use this thread as general chat, both to discuss about the course and for everyday's trivialities.

Official communications, assignments and all the other bla bla that comes with a course like this, will be posted here.

[Akar]

Ahhhhh it's happening!

[Flinn]

First things first, don't you dare harassing the teacher in any way, or he will be forced to resuscitate Hader, and you won't like that (he stinks, that is).

Also, it's the very first online course I'm running (even though I've run some real life Italian courses and I've been a school teacher for about 4 years, like 19 years ago.. ), so I'm open to suggestions if anyone has them. The purpose of this course is to enjoy our time together first of all, then to learn something basic about Italian and Italian culture (you can't learn a language without understanding those who speak it) and finally to get a new shiny award because of all that we did here. Looks the perfect Silvio's plan to me .

[Kilo11]

First things first, don't you dare harassing the teacher in any way

Really? Not in any way at all? Well, if we can't harass Flinn, I really don't see the point of being in this course. I think I will see myself out

More seriously, teaching digitally can indeed be awkward with regards to some things, so I'll keep my mind open with regards to potential improvements to the course. I've taught English as a second language in person, and taught academic writing and philosophy courses both in person and online, so if I think of something that may be relevant, I'll let you know!


EDIT: One thought/suggestion already: In the talking Italian thread, you already posted a little bit about yourself. (I can't understand it properly, and I withheld the urge to GoogleTranslate it, as per your instructions, but I can still tell it is a "getting to know Flinn" thing.) In that little blurb you said your age (I think), but only put it in there numerically. For me, numbers are often a harder thing to get in another language right away, because we just see the numerals, and then by default interpret them via the language that is most present in our heads. As such, I would find it really helpful if after using numerals we write out the number in a parenthetical immediately following the numerals. For example, I am 31 (thirty-one) years old. Or in ze German: Ich bin 31 (ein und dreißig) Jahre alt. Would that be an okay practice for us to install, at least until we are all comfortable with numbers?

[Flinn]

As such, I would find it really helpful if after using numerals we write out the number in a parenthetical immediately following the numerals. For example, I am 31 (thirty-one) years old. Or in ze German: Ich bin 31 (ein und dreißig) Jahre alt. Would that be an okay practice for us to install, at least until we are all comfortable with numbers?

Yes that's a very sensible suggestion, thanks! I'm going to edit my bit accordingly.

However, the purpose of me writing that was just to leave you something to study for the future, once you will be more confident; it's intentionally written in a colloquial way (the expression "compagni di merende" is very regional, and also has somewhat a negative connotation, depending on how you use it), and it will prove a bit of a challange.

As I'm here, I've got a question: such courses are usually held with only translations (from English to Italian), what do you think if we will have a couple of exercises about version too (from Italian to English). They could be useful especially around the end of the course.

[ELITEOFKINGWARMAN8]

Yay it has begun!

I’m down for whatever you guys think, I’m happy to be able to learn something here, I never took Italian before.

[Flinn]

sooo it looks like we have lost a student but we have gained another one

KA has to step down due to RL commitments, but Brew has decided to join us!

Also, since it looks that there's a bit of confusion about what is expected from you, please see below:

- lesson number 1: after reading the article and the text, you are expected to make some comments about them (something that surprised you or that you didn't expect); you don't have to make an essay, just some comments

- the let's talk Italian thread: there are no deadlines to use it, that's a "get you free exercise here" thread. Once you feel confident enough in the future, you go there and post a couple of sentences about yourself, to begin with; then you can post, if you like, a new short text every week, and I will check and correct it.

[General Brewster]

I better be able to swear in Italian 10 min into the lesson.

[Akar]

Traditionally the first year of any language is introducing yourself and swearing.

[Flinn]

Traditionally the first year of any language is introducing yourself and swearing.

actually its swearing and then introducing yourself, in this precise order

[Flinn]

so, lesson 3 is up; and here ends the easy part, from the next lesson we need to move to grammar, starting with pronouns and verbs. I don't pretend you to study the whole Italian grammar, after all this is a basic course, but we cannot go much further if you don't get at the least the basics of it. Remember that the very purpose of any basic course is to make you to become able to communicate simple concepts in that language, ie. describe yourself, communicate your needs, ask for directions, etc. .and of course to understand the same concepts if communicated by someone else. Some homework will be the norm.

[Kilo11]

Just an FYI, I will be away the coming week. So I might be a bit slow on lesson 4. But I am still with you all.

[Flinn]

No problem

I haven't decided yet when to post lesson 4, it might be either next week or the following one

[Flinn]

So I'm not going to post any new lesson this week, but from the next week I should be posting a series of lessons about grammar, which we cannot avoid I'm afraid.

Starting from the next lesson, as I said, there will be some homework to do, which means that if someone falls behind that could be a problem for them; while I of course want to keep a relaxed environment, this is a course none the less and one day, before I'll die, I want to see this finished and you graduated.. so a certain pace must be kept, so please take this into account and do your considerations about the time you can dedicate to the course, because anyone falling too much behind will be probably removed, mostly to avoid the others to have to wait too long for them.

[Flinn]

And here it begins the ugly part, grammar

We can't avoid studying some, but ofc I don't pretend you to know it in details, see those 3 parts of lesson 4 as a resource for you to study now and keep the in stock, so to say, for future use with some homework and tests.

[Flinn]

Any comment? Is that too easy? or too hard?

Any problem in following up with the pace of the lessons?

Please feel free to comment and to give some feedback, we are here to enjoy our time as a first goal, so your input is important.

ps if you have questions on a specific lesson, please post them on the lesson's thread itself

[Septentrionalis]

Hey, sorry Professore, but I was anxiously waiting for lesson 5 and missed you posting it.

[Akar]

Yep, me too

Any comment? Is that too easy? or too hard?

No, was adequately challenging.

[Flinn]

No problem lads, we don't have a fixed deadline for this course so we can use few weeks more if needed

My concern was to not to have too much work piled up, in order to avoid the risk of having you people to get stressed by it and following consequences

[Flinn]

For the records, next lesson is being posted next week, in order to allow you some more time to send me the PM with the missing homework from lesson 5

However, if any of you has issues in keeping themselves updated, remember that you should be subscribed to this thread.