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Try a Franglish Language Exchange

If you are looking for an opportunity to practice your Italian and you live or work in Milan, Italy, or if you are Italian and you want to improve your English, then a Franglish language exchange may be just what you are looking for. I was invited to try a Franglish language exchange and it was […]

How Italy Could Improve Its English

Two out of three Italians still do not speak half decent English according to a report compiled by Italian news website Linkiesta using Isfol Plus 2010 data. I teach English and from personal experience can confirm that in general the vast majority, around 80%, of young Italians I see do not know English well enough to […]

Surreal Legal Writing

Yes, I know it’s odd to say it, but today’s (it was still ‘today’ when I started writing this!) encounter with the advocates was a little bit on the surreal side.

Did You Know?

In Italian, the word for ‘cat’ is ‘gatto’, whereas in Latin, or rather, ancient Italian, the word for ‘cat’ was ‘cattus’. This means that the English language word for ‘cat’ is closer to Latin than the modern Italian word ‘gatto’. Curious what you come across whilst researching the differences between civil and common law legal […]

A Curious Inconsistency

Don’t ask me why my odd little mind ended up considering this, but the fact remains that in Italian the word ‘giorno’ – day, is a ‘male’ word, whereas the word for week – ‘settimana’ is female. I’m sorry, but I don’t understand why this is the case. Italian is one of those languages, that, […]

Pasticceria Scarpato – Nice cakes, shame about the website

I won’t say how I found out about the site of Italian biscuit and cake maker, Scarpato, but I decided to check it out. Well, I do like Italian food and one of the aims of this blog is to do a little promotion of all things Italian. So, off I went to have a […]

Italy from the Inside

Whilst hunting about on Technorati, I came across this blog – Italy from the Inside, and there is some interesting stuff there. It’s also written by an Italian Microsoft employee, in English. Yet more proof that a) Italian’s go places and b) they certainly can, and do, learn English. I shall be pointing my Media […]

Just Plain Weird

I caught myself at it today, and I realised that I always do it. I live in Italy. I work in Italy. I speak to my other half in Italian. I speak to my son in English. I speak Italian. So, why oh why do I speak to our dog in English? It’s just plain […]