Subscribing/Subscriber issues
ATTENTION BT EMAIL USERS!
Not getting the promised three bulletins a week any longer? We get lots of complaints that our emails have simply stopped coming. Mostly from BT Email users… A recent correspondent found a solution, which is explained on the website linked to below. What you have to do is to add the EasyItalianNews.com email server’s send address to your ‘Safe Senders List’. Sounds complicated, but it isn’t.
EasyItalianNews.com email server’s send address is donotreply@wordpress.com – copy and paste that, and follow the instructions here https://www.whitelist.guide/bt-email/ , where it says ‘Adding an email address to the safe senders list’. And do let us know if that solves your problem!
How exactly do we sign up for this news?
On EasyItalianNews.com there’s a signup form in the sidebar, the top-left of every page.
Just fill it in and you should directly receive future editions.
I would like to unsubscribe but cannot find how to do it.
All bulk email contains an unsubscribe link. At the bottom. Mine looks like this:
Manage your email settings or unsubscribe
My email address that Worldpress are using is wrong and therefore all easyItalianNews that I receive are ending up in junk. I tried to change it but was unable to do so.
If the emails are ending up in your junk folder, then the email address must be correct… Your email provider, however, is unreliable (we get lots of complaints from people who use it), so why not get a better one? Gmail, Apple and Microsoft all offer free email accounts, and they invest in their spam filters, meaning that emails you’ve chosen to receive, like those from EasyItalianNews.com for instance, are less likely to end up there.
I seem to have stopped receiving Easy Italian News in the last month or so. I have tried to re-subscribe on the website but the bulletins are still not coming through. Has anyone else had the same problem?
Yes, it happens all the time, but always with ‘weak’ email providers which don’t invest in their spam filters.
Assuming you’ve checked your spam/junk folder, and there’s nothing there, then your email provider is blocking the ‘bulk’ mail, deliberately, to ‘protect’ you, before it ever gets to you.
There are three or four around the world that do this. You can’t sign up again with the same email address (as you are already on our list), so the only solution is to sign up again with a decent email address. Gmail, Microsoft and Apple all offer them free, and they don’t block emails that their customers have asked for and want to see!
Most people these days have smartphones and tablets, so having multiple email accounts, perhaps for different purposes, shouldn’t be a problem.
Content questions
I have found EIN to be very helpful and useful in my study of the Italian language. I’m wondering what language level the news articles (overall) are written at. What would be your educated guess?
We don’t aim at a particular level. The ‘easy’ part is a function of the formatting, the support that the text provides to the audio, and vice versa, and how a person uses those.
Listen to the audio without the text and it’ll be harder than listening with the text, for instance. Use this material regularly and your familiarity with the format and topics covered will make it easier than it would be for someone using it for the first time.
Even in coursebooks aimed at a specific level, such as A1 (the easiest), or C2 (the hardest), the difficulty depends on the chosen task, not on the text itself. Potentially a course book designer could use the same text at every level, choosing tasks which are suitable for different types of student.
Insomma, EIN is probably suitable for everyone who follows the advice we give about how to use it (different ways for different levels, see our Advice page), and keeps at it for long enough for the effects to be noticeable.
The level is sadly above my ability but I am persevering at understanding one or two of the items.
Listen all the way through. The understanding will come, espcially if you give it time and don’t force it.
The big question is how to let things you don’t understand go, so you can listen to the next bit rather than losing it all! Is there a big answer? Any top tips welcome. Grazie.
Sure, there’s a fool-proof way. It’s my TOP tip, though many people won’t like it. Set yourself the goal of reading/listening to the end. Repeat at least once, ideally twice. Then stop. Go do something else (drinking beer is a good option). While listening, concentrate as well as you can, but think of it as listening/reading practice NOT as a source of unknown words and additional complexity/stress. You do the listening. You let the parts that you don’t understand flow over you. You stop. Repeat often, you’ll find there are fewer and fewer gaps in the puzzle and you’ll become really good at piecing together meaning, which is exactly what you need for real life!
Please stop with the political articles!
When national newspapers cease publishing articles about politics, so will this site. If you don’t think the content is appropriate, you should feel free to ignore any future articles you disapprove of.
The picture, used in the article “ Incidente Ferroviario in Baviera “ belongs in reality to an accident with the metro (RET) in Rotterdam in 2020.
Yes, we’re Italian teachers and language learners, not ‘real’ publishers, so often use photos that symbolise the story rather than show the actual event or its aftermath. For instance, stock pictures of emergency vehicles or airplanes. It’s hard enough just to find a picture for each story that doesn’t infringe someone’s copyright. I’m sure you understand.
Site design and format
Could you tell me how to get the voice and words at the same time? Clicking the link doesn”t work for me.
It depends on the device you’re using, how you are using it, and whether you are reading/listening from an emailed bulletin or directly on the website.
On a computer, looking at the website itself, if you click the .mp3 audio link, a separate browser window will open. If it doesn’t start playing by itself, click the play button, then go back to the tab showing the website and read as you listen. Two browser tabs, one playing the audio, one showing you the text.
That works the same way when I open the emailed bulletin on my computer, using Gmail and Chrome. It should be simple.
On smartphones or tablets though, while the principle is the same, it very much depends on the device and the apps. Apple devices are famously poor at basic computing functions (the IT equivalent of chewing gum and scratching your nose at the same time), so it’s quite possible that the browser or email app you’re using will throw up obstacles, hoping you’ll go buy something from Apple’s store instead of using upstart free content like ours.
The best solution is probably to find a teenager or child and ask them to show you how to do it. Or go into an Apple store and moan at them.
Why can I not hear and be able to follow along on the printed version below each story? I had an Android phone before and was able to hear and follow along each story. Not now with my Apple phone. I can hear, but not be able to follow the story which allows me to learn better.
We’re sorry, but Apple design decisions are beyond us. If you still have the Android device, you could use that. Or a real computer. Listening to an online audio while viewing a webpage isn’t rocket science, after all.
Or ask Apple to help, maybe, but we suspect they do this sort of thing deliberately, so their users will only be able to use resources that they approve of, that is to say those they can profit from.
Could there perhaps be a way to slow down the audio a little bit? I am still a beginner, and I’m sure my comprehension would be even better if I could listen the first time or two at a slower speed.
There’s a website called ‘News in Slow Italian‘. It’s nothing to do with us, but I’ve heard positive things about it. We’re ‘easy’ Italian, invece. But you know? Italians don’t speak slowly. So the idea is that, with ‘easy’ content, people will gradually get used to ‘not so slow’ Italian, and thus be better prepared for real life conversations. Well, it worked for me learning Swedish! But other people have commented (read the comments) that certain web browsers offer ways to slow down our content. Anche se per me, non è un buon idea…
Is it possible for the recording/play/pause bar to remain visible as you scroll down the text. Sometimes I need a little bit of time to listen to/digest a phrase e.g. numbers, and being able to quickly pause and replay the recording is very useful. At the moment I have to scroll right to the top of the page, press pause, find my place again and read/digest, then go to the top to press play, then find my place again.
I’d strongly recommend that you treat the audio as ‘extensive’ listening practice and so listen to it all the way through, rather than trying to understand everything. Listening to hear ‘detail’ as you are doing is not the purpose of this material (we have plenty of that elsewhere). Also your approach is less effective as preparation for real life listening – say TV or conversation – in which you are processing input in real time and with no pause button…
I agree about the ‘pause’ button and scroll bar being accessible along with the transcript during the transmission, rather than having to scroll back to the beginning. I have to write down the times each section commence. It becomes more difficult as the news lengthens. I am finding it difficult to understand, but want to persevere as my listening skills are pretty woeful.
Your listening skills might be woeful precisely BECAUSE you’re pausing all the time, had you thought of that? Don’t pause the audio, just listen the whole way through. https://easyitaliannews.com/how-to-use-easyitaliannews-com/
Would it be possible to construct the transcript so there were more words on a line as it would be easier to read?
You seem to want more or less the opposite of what we’re trying to do… By breaking sentences down into very short ‘chunks’, the idea is to make it ‘easy’ to read. It’s unusual, but seems to work. The feedback so far has been almost 100% positive. Bear in mind, that this is basically a LISTENING exercise. The text support is supposed to help you follow the audio.
Why is the text of Easy Italian News again all in English?
Well of course it isn’t.
You have your browser set to translate Italian content, in all likelihood. Perhaps you clicked that by mistake while viewing a different, Italian language page? So now your browser, following what it assumes to be your preference, translates all Italian.
Visit the EasyItalianNews.com website using a different browser, and/or a different device, to see that our content is, in fact, in Italian, as always. Then go to your browser settings and change them…
Donating
Volevo donare, ma non voglio usare carta da credito. Non c’e la possibilita versare un importo sul vostro conto corrente?
Certainly that’s possible. On our donate page there are bank details for sending us different currencies bank-to-bank, so to speak. Set up a bank payment directly to our account in GBP, EUR, USD, AUD, or NZD. Our account details are here: https://easyitaliannews.com/support-easyitaliannews-com/#bank_account
I don’t want a PayPal account and it seems that I can’t avoid it. I am willing to pay via my debit card.
You absolutely can avoid it, though Paypal actively encourage people to open an account. If you see our instructions, with pictures, we show you how to do it without an account. Look at this page, scroll down to the bottom and read the steps.
You need to look at Step 2, the trick being to choose the ‘Donate with a card’ button, not the more visible, blue, ‘Donate with Paypal’ button. Hope that helps!
Why do we have to go through Paypal even if we wish to donate via a credit card or a standing order/direct debit with a bank, whether a regular or a one-off donation? I don’t use Paypal.
Paypal processes payments on our behalf, and takes a commission, as would a bank or similar. Other companies offer exactly the same service, but as we are a micro-business, we have little choice. Paypal is basically the only option.
You CAN use your credit card, however, you DON’T NEED a Paypal account. There are instructions with pictures on our Donate page. Scroll down to where it says ‘HOW TO DO THIS, WITH PICTURES!’ Step two shows exactly how to donate using a credit card without opening a Paypal account.
Worth noting, too, that as donations are processed for us by Paypal, we never see your bank details etc. That saves us a lot of time and trouble, but is also a guarantee to people that their data is safely managed by a huge multinational, not by a few teachers working on laptops.
I have not been able to donate (in euros). Each time I receive the message :”Your card issuer declined this payment”. I don’t understand why, because I often make payments on the Internet. Any idea how i could proceed? I value your work and feel sorry I can’t help.
Well, it’s the thought that counts, James. Thanks anyway! We can’t know what the problem is, but it could be:
– maybe the currency you used doesn’t match the currency of your card/account (probably not this…)
– maybe the details you entered in the Paypal interface don’t match the details your bank has for you i.e. a different address (this is quite likely)
– perhaps you’re missing a critical stage in the bank’s verification process, designed to be sure that the payment is legitimate? i.e. they send you an SMS notification or a message on the bank app, which you have to approve or respond to? (Also common.)
Hope those suggestions help. It is a problem at your end though, as things seem to be working normally for us.
I would like to subscribe and did try to but in the end felt I had to give too much personal information. It asked for my address, phone number and email address. Why should I have to give my phone number or even my address?I have sent subscriptions to other worthy causes without having to give all these details .I would still like to subscribe but not to give all my details with the subscription.
You are confusing ‘subscribing’, which means entering ONLY your email address and receiving three FREE emailed bulletins each week, with ‘donating’, which is entirely voluntary.
If you choose to donate to EasyItalianNews.com, you will need a payment card or other means of payment, for instance a Paypal account (optional). When you use a payment card, security protocols designed to protect you require you to identify yourself. The phone number, for instance, may be required so that the payment processor can SMS you to ask you to confirm the payment.
We do not ask for any data, other than an email address, and only that from people who wish to receive the bulletins via email. People who choose to donate will be asked by the payment processor, not us, for information as with any online payment.