Absolutely true. It has really helped me . Listen and read each piece once Then retrace my steps just reading.. my last step is to copy and paste onto Google Translate app. Using split screen on my Tablet. Thank you for your good work.

Ciao Danielle,

Our approach to ‘easy’ rests on two principles:

1. There’s a text to go with the audio (so that’s potentially easier than say watching or listening to the ‘normal’ news)

2. The articles
are formatted
in such a way
as to highlight
which words go together
(collocate or are grammatically-linked)
with other words.
Some of our writers
are rubbish at this
but our editor
checks everything
before she publishes
the final version.)

What we don’t do is rely on our writers (all freelancers, some very young, many not language teachers) to ‘simplify’ their texts.

Some of the content IS very complex, not only grammatically but also in terms of infrequently-used lexis and, in particular, terms which may be in daily use in Italy but are unfamiliar outside (TAV, for example).

The way sport or politics is reported can be very difficult at first but our objective is that the broadcast AS A WHOLE should make some general sense.

It’s normal that some parts of each bulletin will be easier and some harder but we think that listening/reading to this type of material will, over a period of months or years, be a useful transition stage to real media (which also varies considerably in its complexity).

Hope that helps!