1. How Italian became the language of love (1500 w.)
“In Italy, beauty is paramount. And Italian is no different.” - Breena Kerr | Travel Writer
At Speak we bring Learners from all over Italy together for a week of English, and focus heavily on the differences between English and Italian. Our Learners are often from different corners of the country though, and so inevitably our Anglos get an education in the differences between Calabrese and Piemontese or Emiliano and Salentino.
It’s often surprising for our Italian Learners to hear Anglos request a Speak programme for Italian too, but the attraction to Italian and its title as the language of love seem as strong as ever. This article, an opinion piece from the BBC Travel section, explains how the different dialects of Italian existed and why the Tuscan dialect became the modern Italian we have today.
STRATEGY: Read the article one paragraph at a time. At the end of the first paragraph, ask yourself if you understand the main points or not. If you do not understand it, identify the vocabulary you need to check. If you understand the paragraph, continue to the next one. Try to build a habit of reading even when you do not understand all the words.
2. I like words (34o w.)
“I like crunchy, brittle, crackly words” - Robert Pirosh | Screenwriter
One of the obvious benefits of spending 15-hours a day speaking English is the boost to your vocabulary. It is impossible to leave a Speak programme with the same vocabulary level as when you arrived. Not only do you leave with a notebook full of words and phrases discovered in your one-to-one or group discussions, you also benefit from hearing differences in vocabulary between British English, Irish and Australian and north-American speakers (and their disagreements about the words too!).
Appreciation for English vocabulary is at the heart of this next text, a short job application written by an enthusiastic screenwriter in 1934. In Pirosh’s letter, he celebrates the variety of English words and their various shapes and sounds. Even though a lot of these words are not very useful in our day to day English, the letter is an interesting read and a unique approach to job applications.
STRATEGY: The letter is part of a collection on Letters of Note, an excellent website for reading short texts in English. This site collects interesting – or noteworthy – letters, memos or notes from throughout history. Read the letter in the same way as the BBC article (above) – paragraph by paragraph checking your own understanding as you read. When you’ve finished, use the “Search” option to find letters from your favourite authors, philosophers or politicians, or icons from music, film or literature. Some are long and some are short, but all of them give you incredible insights into the lives of their writers.
