The PLIDA Exams: Our students’ Certification Ceremony

Posted on December 2, 2012 by italian_admin

Left, Prof.Maria Cristiano - Language Coordinator; in the middle Prof.Cecilia Mattii - Education Committee; on the right Prof. Carmen Merolla Language Examinator and Former Plida Language Coord.; behind, Laura Clerici

CIAO!

Here are the pictures of the PLIDA certification ceremony for the students that passed the May 2012 session.

M.Cristiano and Rose M.Adamo who passed the Level A1 Plida

M.Cristiano and Peter Czarnecki who passed the Levels A1 in November 2011 and Level A2 in May 2012

M.Cristiano and Caterina Rao who passed the Level A2

Prof. Spencer DiScala, President, and Megan Cuocco Hempstead who passed the level A1

M.Cristiano and Henry DeBenedetto who passed the Level A1

M.Cristiano and John Cannon who passed the Level A1

President Prof. DiScala, M.Cristiano and Thomas Barbar who passed the Level A1

Congratulations also to Brigitte Anelli who wasn’t present at the party, but she passed the Level A1 in May 2012, too. Last but not least, we don’t forget the “brava” Allison Longley who passed the level A2 and now she won a scholarship to study in Italy.

Thank you also to Comm. Lino Rullo, President of Education Committee for his efforts.

President Prof. DiScala, Prof. Maria Cristiano and Prof. Carmen Merolla

Thank you also to our President Comm. Spencer Di Scala, PhD, and Prof. Cecilia Mattii for going ahead with PLIDA certification project

In addition, we asked our students why you should learn Italian. We chose the following response as the best one. It is explains why studying Italian can make all the difference.

I grew up listening to the sounds of the Italian language spoken by my grandparents and my mother, but I never learned to speak Italian. As teenagers, all four of my grandparents emigrated from Sicily to Boston. As first generation Americans, my parents were determined to raise me as an “American”. Assimilation, not multiculturalism, was the driving force of the day. Therefore, although the Italian ladies of the neighborhood would visit and speak Italian with my mother, only English was spoken to me. It is my dream to learn Italian, perhaps live for a period of time In Italy, and finally understand those beautiful sounds from my childhood. (R.M.Adamo)

50 songs learning Italian

Posted on October 25, 2012 by italian_admin

How can you learn a language with music? The new communicative method is an even better way to remember words, lexicon, and accents.

Click here for 50 songs to listen (with lyrics) to hear some tunes for Italian language learners of many different levels.

Today, we chose this favorite by Paolo Conte (click to see his bio).

Did you like it? We already talked about tarantella (because our teachers in NonPlida classes are also musician, did you know?) and other old Italian folk music. But Conte, a famous blues singer, wrote other well known songs for Adriano Celentano. One became a famous anthem for sports games: AZZURRO, like the color of national team soccer.

Music had an important role in social changes during the last 50 years, didn’t?

C’era una volta: Once upon a time…

Posted on October 23, 2012 by italian_admin

I used to: Usavo fare, facevo, andavo, ero, avevo… tutti imperfetti indicativi.

Se volete ascoltare una favola (fairy tail) ascoltate questa vecchia canzone degli anni Sessanta. Potete esercitarvi con l’imperfetto indicativo, leggendo qualsiasi fiaba.

In basso al video trovate anche il testo in italiano.

Indicativo presente: Io lavoro…e penso a te

Posted on October 18, 2012 by italian_admin

The Fall started a while ago, and our Italian lessons every week have been going very well since September. The foliage is out in full force, so it’s a good time to listen to a romantic song called “magari” (hopefully) under “un albero rosso” (a red tree). Discover this famous song that was a hit in the Seventies, sang by the famous Lucio Battisti

We can practice some verbs of Indicativo presente, too. Can you recognize them in this song?

Congratulations to Jennifer Luoma and Allison Longley: they won a scholarship to study in Italy

Posted on August 3, 2012 by italian_admin

We knew it! Bostoniano.info had already written here about the fact that this fall Allison Longley could be the first of a long series of Dante Alighieri School fellows.

Click to watch this video (30 seconds long) to see what Longley said when she won one month of intensive Italian language courses offered in November by Scuola Dante Alighieri di Camerino

Now Dante Alighieri of Camerino in the Marche region of Italy donated another grant to allow a student to have a wonderful Italian language and culture experience. Her name is Jennifer Luoma, another one of our students. Congratulations!!!

The fellowship is awarded to a student who has shown special interest in Italian language and has successfully completed level A1 by November 2011.

Allison Longley completed class 106 for level A2 and passed the PLIDA examination. Allison works now, but she attended BU and during her college courses she studied at Universita’ of Padova, Italy, for a summer project. Our teacher Maria Cristiano said this about her: “Allison is a very motivated student and it was a pleasure to have her in class”.

Jennifer Luoma won a grant at 50%, after Allison. Jennifer has followed our Plida courses since they have started. She wants to study Italian language until PLIDA level C2, the most advanced. During her time in the Army, she was in Italy for a couple of years. Last year she retired, but now she wants to continue her studies at Lassell Colloge in MA. All of her teachers said that Jennifer is a student with a lot of vitality.

Italian podcast

Posted on July 26, 2012 by italian_admin

A lot of students asked me which podcast they should listen to in order to practice their listening skills. I always suggest our terrific Italian public radio, since it has a lot of programs available.

First, IL COMUNICATTIVO: a program that talks about communication in society in a cynical way, and also warns how communication problems can result in confusion and mistakes (In fact, “cattivo” means “bad”). The speaker spells every word so it is very clear.

ALCATRAZ: A deejay on death row. This is a program about how society can be changed by rebellion against hypocrisy. It sounds very serious, but it is actually a fun program followed by many Italian radio fans. The host also dubs Italian for actors such as Jim Carrey, Kevin Spacey, Javier Bardem in American movies shown in Italy.

TRA IL DIRE E IL MARE: This is a new program about what happens in a lighthouse (“Faro”). It’s really fun – it’s all about a man who lives in a “faro” and what he sees. The title is a play on the proverb is “tra il dire e il fare c’è di mezzo il mare” that means literally “Between saying and acting there is the sea.” Figuratively it means “All talk and no action”.

COSÌ PARLÒ ZAP MANGUSTA: In this program Nietsche’s book Thus spoke Zarathustra is changed into a funny situation: a man tries to explain a philosophical theory of a philosopher in each episode, in only 10 minutes. Unfortunately there are always language misunderstandings with modern politics. The speaker speaks very fast in this one.

MEDITERRONI: This is a new entry in Radio RAI’s programming. We know “Mediterraneo”, the sea. But who does it know the word “terroni”? It is an offensive term for people from Southern Italy, because they love their land, the “terra”. This program is a pretext to talk about emigration and immigration.

OGGETTI DEL 2000: The famous journalist Beppe Severgnini talks about objects that Italians love in each episode.

Here the complete list of podcasts available on Radio RAI. There are sport and news programs, religious and cultural ones and so on. You can also check out games and news reports… like DECANTER or CATERPILLAR (“sono molto divertenti“), and stories about RIFIUTI (trash and the environment) in the show CHIODO FISSO… but in the meantime we can start with the ones I listed above: they could be a good challenge for your listening practice.

BUON ASCOLTO!

Just an occasion to learn ancient Italian music

Posted on July 9, 2012 by italian_admin

We would like to introduce some upcoming Italian things to do. What better occasion to learn some ancient words and to discuss their evolution in modern Italian in class?

WHEN: 07/29/2012

WHERE: http://www.nps.gov/long/planyourvisit/event-details.htm?eventID=389205-232573

Location: Longfellow House – Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site Time: 4:00 PM Fee Information: Free and open to the public. Contact Name: Longfellow House – Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site Contact Phone Number:(617) 876-4491

As a tribute to Dante Alighieri, Newpoli performs music from Italy. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow greatly admired the poetry of Dante and translated Dante’s masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, published in 1867. Newpoli is a group of musicians specializing in southern Italian folk music from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century

Beyond soccer, there is not only a meaning of sport

Posted on June 28, 2012 by italian_admin

We won the last soccer match ITALIA vs ENGLAND, but now ITALIA vs GERMANY is a historic match that reminds us of how many Italians have emigrated to Germany

For this reason, our word of the day is ACCETTATO: past participle of ACCETTARE (TO ACCEPT, TO ADMIT). In this case BE ACCEPTED BY… society.

In fact, in this great old movie, famous actor Nino Manfredi played a brilliant role as an Immigrant in Switzerland with a lot of job problems in the Seventies.

FORZA ITALIA!

Means of Transport

Posted on June 27, 2012 by italian_admin

I MEZZI DI TRASPORTO

A lot of people know the old famous Neapolitan song “Funiculi Funicula“, but just a few know that this song was written when the Funiculare (Funicular) was built at the end of XIX century. Here a video by a foreign turists that enjoyed this mezzo di trasporto in the Capri Island.

But have you ever seen this beautiful poliziesco movie so loved by American director Quentin Tarantino? We call “Film d’inseguimento” (in pursuit of).