These are personal views of a 76 year old, retired, well travelled, healthy, reasonably wealthy and curious. I have quite good French and German, did Latin and Greek at school, and had a successful senior management career.
I've had many ... Weiterlesen
These are personal views of a 76 year old, retired, well travelled, healthy, reasonably wealthy and curious. I have quite good French and German, did Latin and Greek at school, and had a successful senior management career.
I've had many holidays in Italy and always, wanted to learn Italian, to a conversational/ survival level. For the past 6 months I went to weekly I hour group classes locally, and diligently did the homework, but, other than talking to Google Translate, my spoken Italian was not progressing.....there was just not enough practice.
So I decided to do a one week immersion course, in Rome, staying with a family and using any free time to check out the culture....I'd never been to Rome, but my wife had, so she was happy to let me go alone..
I picked on Leonardo because of its TA reviews
I had 3 concerns, firstly how much could I do in a week, what level of class would I join, and where would I stay?
I judged that the 3hr Intensive course, together with the 1hr 30 Conversation course, would , with breaks, mean around 5 hrs a day, plus the opportunity to do a daily series of complimentary 1 to-2 hr cultural sessions after class.
I duly booked the courses and after enrolling on Day 1, I did a shor'tish written comprehension exam and I was amazed /delighted /pleased to be put into the 2nd week of a level 2 class
And finally, and I had specifically requested half board single accommodation within walking distance of the school, I found myself about 5 minutes away. The accommodation was on the 1st floor of a palazzo (they call all old apartment blocks palazzo....) Breakfast was coffee and a croissant and dinner, around 730, a bruschetta, a pasta dish and then a meat course, with a glass of red wine. There was one other student, a middle aged American teacher doing a 4 week course, having already done a week in both Florence and Siena She was very aimiable and it was good to be able share conversational duties at meal times. The husband and his wife were charming and his English was good,which was helpful, but he kept it to a minimum.
My classes started at 1215 each day, so I had the morning for a bit of culture and then an early panini with a glass of wine to assist in conversation......
And the result....? after 5 days of school, with a quite a bit of self study before and after class, I can read and write quite well, talk OK, even tell a joke, but as always understanding rapid conversation was the hardest. But another week would have been great but, realistically for me and my mental capacity, a week was enough..
I had 2 good teachers, certainly better than I remember from 60 years ago and I had a really good time in class, with some engaging students, mostly 50 years younger...
I summary a great experience for the price of a holiday, viz
£150 for airfares, transfers and buses
£370 for the 2 courses, over 5 days
£370 for 8 nights half board accom (I wanted 3 extra days to explore)
£150 for 8 days of lunches and drinks
£60 for entrance tickets, Villa Borghese, Sistine Chapel etc
Total £1100
And an added bonus was how easy it was to get to alll the sites in Rome, I was averaging about 7k of walking a day, so certainly kept fit, and enjoying an ealy night most evenings.
