Buon weekend, Madeleine!

Ciao Daniel
Thanks so much for your reply.
The school was in Via Santo Stefano – and was semi British Council. I’d already taught at the British School in Ferrara but nonetheless it was a steep learning curve for someone who – in those days could get an EFL job without any qualification other than a B.A. Nothing like learning on the job + we had one old textbook and no ‘resources’ other than an aged tape recorder. In spite of all the online stuff now available, there’s rather a dearth of good Italian material in the UK at least – Espresso having been the most successful. Italian is rarely studied in either state or private schools so there’s not that great a market. As do you clearly, I write a lot of my own material. I’ve recently toiled over lists of movement verbs, sound verbs etc. The problem arises in getting my clients to use them. Hence I’ve written passages for translation into Italian. I don’t think you have a section on that, do you?
After a year or so I introduced them to Cinzia Medaglia’s books (she needs a decent proofreader!). Moving on from that they read Marco Vichi and Carofiglio – better than trying to toil through the classics..(and the much hyped Ferrante didn’t work). Perhaps you can suggest other writers of gialli – or anything really – that might appeal. We have also of course read Tobias Jones’ books – I think the ‘Dark Heart’ was a bit of a shock for them.
I recently disposed of my website (Renaissance Languages) so can’t offer a link but will continue to assiduously promote you.
Good luck with it all, buon weekend.
Madeleine

Ciao Madeleine,
grazie per l’aiuto a promuovere il nuovo sito!
Ci sono varie scuole di inglese a Bologna, tutti con nome ‘British’ qualcosa!
La mia si chiama, invece, Madrelingua!
A presto,
Daniel