Some of you may of read my earlier, introductory post that I was planning with my husband and dog to go to Italy.

I started researching language courses, those that taught Italian and also courses that train TEFL teachers.

My preferred course would be the Cambridge course as it is internationally recognised. I work full time so I cannot do the full time 4 week course. Anyway there is one part time course in Ireland, it only runs once a year, with just 12 spaces and it starts tonight. It was full, but as of last Thursday someone had to pull out. I was next on the waiting list. So I raced over Thursday afternoon and had the interview and I start tonight.

As my mother in law says 'If it is for you, it wont go by you.'

So on Saturday I bought my books and as another sign I found a few books on Italy one on the Roman Empire, a 3 volume set on Garibaldi and the formation of the Italian state and a book on Mussolini and Sicily, €5.00 each. What a bargain!

So I am feeling very very lucky at the moment.

Also my husband went through my bank account (ever a woman's worst nightmare!!) and he believes that if I follow his savings regime he can save me about €1000.00 a month.

So when I finish the course in TEFL teaching, I will start my Italian course. Until then I have my Teach Yourself Italian book and CD and when I figure out how to download the electronic books that Villa keeps recommending, I will have those as well. (help me Villa!)

So if you are interested I will keep you all up to date on my TEFL teacher training, my efforts at the Italian language, getting pet passports, planning the route by car from Ireland to Italy, getting there and getting a job.

By the way, my husband was e-mailing someone in Ireland about teaching English in Italy and he also asked him about gigging part time and he said the ex-pat places would be interested.

So despite all the doom and gloom, all our news has been good.

Will this year be our primo buon natale in Italia?

So what do you think people? Brilliant eh?

Must dash have to go learn about gerunds and perfect past participles.

Cheers]

I hope things will keep going well for you,,

Sounds wonderful. I think your mother-in-law is correct. Please keep us posted on your progress. It will be very helpful to others that would like to do the same thing.

Many thanks,
Rebecca

Really good news! buono fortuna!

Wow, that's fantastic! I hope to move to Italy in a couple of years! Its great to know that it can happen and I find work there as well! Buon fortuna!

[QUOTE=Melbournegirl;20828]Some of you may of read my earlier, introductory post that I was planning with my husband and dog to go to Italy.

So what do you think people? Brilliant eh?

Bravo! Complimenti! I lived for two years in Italy and loved it!

When I first started learning Italian I noticed that these words kept coming up over and over. Put them on flash cards.
Sometimes we waste a lot of time studying this and that about Italian and miss these importantissimo core words.

Adverbs of quality or manner:

bene- well, (BAY-nay)
meglio- better,(MEL-yo)
peggio- worse (PEG-gee-oh)
male- badly, (MAH-lay_
anche- also (ON-kay
cosi- as, like (coe-SEE)
pure- also, too, (POO-ray)
insieme- together (in-see-EH-may)
come- as, like
invece di - instead of


Adverbs of time:

Quando?- When?
sempre- always,
mai- never, (my)
oggi- today,
domani- tomorrow,
ieri- yesterday, (YEER-ree)
adesso- now, ora-now,
allora- then, (owl-OH-rah)
poi-then, (poy)
dopo- after,
dopo domani, the day after tomorrow
prima(di)- before,
ancora- still,yet, non ancora-not yet (an-CORE-rah)
spesso(frequentemente)- often,
stasera- tonight,
presto- early,soon,
tardi- late,
a tempo- on time,
gia- already, (jah) (An importantissimo little word!)
subito & immediatamente- immediately, (SUE-be-toe)
di quando in quando- from time to time,
di solito- usually (dee SO-lee-toh)
fa-ago, tre giorni fa- 3 days ago,
fino a- until, (FEE-no)
frattanto- meanwhile,
raramente- rarely,seldom,
recentemente- recently, (ray-chin-tay-MINT-tay)
ultimo- last,
una volta- once,

Adverbs of Place:

Dove?-Where?,
Dov'e? Where is?
lontano-far, (loan-TAH-no)
vicino-near, (vee-CHEE-no)
dietro-behind, (dee-EH-tro)
davanti-in front of,
avanti-forward, (ah-VAHN-tee)
indietro-backward,
dentro-inside,
fuori-outside,
qua,qui-here,
li,la-there
giu-down (jew)
laggiu-down there (lah-JEW)
lassu-up there (lah-SUE)
accanto a - beside
sopra-above
sotto-below
tra,fra-between
via-away (vada via!-get out of here!)
attraverso- through
intorno,attorno - around
da nessuna parte - nowhere
da qualche parte - somewhere
dappertutto- everywhere
a destra - to the right
a sinistra to the left

Adverbs of quantity:

Quanto?- How much?
molto-much
troppo-too much
poco-little
tanto-so much
abbastanza-enough
quasi-almost
piu-more (pew)
meno-less
circa-nearly, about (CHEER-kah)
soltanto, solo, solamente-only (soul-TAHN-toh)
assai-much
piuttosto- rather Piuttosto caro. - Rather expensive.
probabilmente- probably (pro-bah-bill-MINT-teh)
piu o meno- more or less
veramente- indeed, really
purtroppo- unfortunately (purr-TROP-poh)

Le Domande - Questions

Come?- How
Quanto? How much
Quanti? Quante? How many?
Come mai?- How come? (Very common expression.)
Che? What? (Kay?)
Che cosa? What? Che? and Che cosa? are basically the samething.)
Quale? Which?
Chi?(key) Who?
Perche? Why?
Perche -because
Che tipo di...? What kind of...?
Dove? Where
Dov'e? Where is?
Dove ci vediamo? Where shall we meet?

Aggettivi importante

buono- good
buffo- funny
caldo- hot
fredo- cold
caro- costly
cattivo- bad
celibe (CHAY-lee-bay) single male
aperto- open
chniuso- closed
corto- short
debole- weak
forte- strong
difficile- difficult
facile- easy
gentile- nice
giovane- young (JOH-vah-knee)
grande- big
piccolo- little
grasso- fat
magro- skinny
innocente
lento- slow
libero- free, availiable
malato- sick
meschio- mean
morbido- soft
nubile- single female (NEW-bee-lay)
nuovo- new
occupato- busy
pesante- heavy
piacevole- pleasant
piccante- spicy hot
pieno- full
pigro- lazy
primo - first
profondo- deep
sbagliato- mistaken
scuro- dark
secco- dry
sordo- deaf
sporco- dirty
pulito- clean
umido- humid
vecchio- old
vivace- active
vuoto- empty
zitto- quiet

Prepositions - Don't forget to make flash cards!!!

a- to, at
da- from, by, sometimes at
di- of sometimes from, about
in- in into sometimes by, on
su- on sometimes upon
con- with
per- for, through sometimes in order to + verb

As we say in online gaming HF&GL (Have Fun and Good Luck).
Given your attitude I suppose all the little difficulties that can appear cannot ruin your time in Italy

__________________

Good luck with everything. keep your positive attitude!! Here is one of my favorite affirmations i use to continue to attract good things like that to me: "The Universe waits in amused repose to bring to me now all blessings beyond my wildest dreams, filling my cup to overflowing onto and over the edges of the table, onto the floor and out the door." LOLOL it's a long one but it's powerful!
I don't know if you have ever seen any of my previous posts, but I am awaiting my Italian dual citizenship and will be moving to Siena which is a 30 minute drive from Florence on July 20th. I too am getting my TEFL certification. I plan to have a translator here in the U.S. make an Italian resume for me before I go to Italy as she is Italian and familiar with Italy's preference for how resumes are done. another Forum member and his family Giovanni da Roma just by coincidence is also moving to Siena in July!!! We have become friends so it will be nice to all be there together. They just got their citizenship about a month ago. I am hoping that when i get settled in I can start a blog so that I can share my experiences and hopefully help others. i wish you and husband happiness. Tangobunny

Hi Everyone

Thanks for your interest. Tangobunny, I think I am going to put that on the fridge, my new job is unusally awful and for the first time I cannot move on so I need to think that they are paying for me to go to Italy!

Anyway I had my first week of the CELTA course. I have to say, it is excellent, I have my first class next Thursday, they offer people who want to learn English very cheap classes and we get to practice on them!

It is interesting particularly as I plan to learn Italian, to see the challenges those have in learning English, most of us learn a language as a hobby but it is important to remember that people learn English as they beleive it will help them with work and generally to get ahead in life, so it is quite responsible, as the CELTA allows you six lessons and endless feedback on yourself and the other 11 students you are constanly evaluating yourself, Even a week in, I would say that if you plan to teach, you really have to learn to do that. I will let you know how my first lesson goes.

Anyway I have been reading that the Codice Fiscale can be picked up before we go to Italy so I will start making phone calls this week to the Embassy and get the Irish passport started (which I have not done yet as I am very attached to my aussie passport, but needs must!)

Villa, I am going to start those flashcards. They really are words that allow for natural conversation. For those that doubt flashcards, as an English tracher I will be making some for my students as they are meant to be very effective!

Thanks again guys for your encouragement, I will keep you posted!

Ciao

So I have started my course and it goes from 6-9:15pm 3 nghts a week and there is lots of reading in between (a book on grammer and a book called 'learning teaching') So it is bit difficult to cater to my Italian forum addiction.

Anyway on the Cambridge CELTA course you have to do a certain amount of teaching time. So I had my first seeion on Thursday night. All I can say is that teaching is hard!!! Anyway I had to teach a reading lesson with some new vocabulary the words were as follwows:

Gentle
Thumb
Opponent
To get rid of stress

So I explained the words we pronounced them, the clas told me whether they were verbs, nouns etc, so they read the passage and in pairs ahd to answer some questions. The two young Italian boys finished very quickly and were talking (distracting my class!) so I said have you finished and they told me they were very clever and were the smartest in the class and I told them in that case I would ask them all the questions. And do you know what one of the cheeky buggers said back to me? 'We will be very gentle with you'. O Mio Dio as Villa would say. I take from this that my explanation of the word was successful.

To get rid of stress was difficult to expalin but I got there. My husband said I should of used the example of what teenage boys to remove stress, but I think we had enough rudeness in my class as it was.

Anyway I am looking into this:

http://www.linguesenzafrontiere.org/ the pay is not great but the sccommodation and food is paid for and I hope to make contacts and gain experience for the new school year and I do not think you can put a price on that.

So I have to learn some activities so I visited a friend last night and she taught me papier mache so I can make money boxes and pinatas with the children so they have asked me to send my CV, so I may be in Italy by early June, so cross your fingers for me!!

So roll on the next teaching session!