As if the class hours aren't enough, those taking Italian courses at the British Institute have the opportunity to supplement their learning by a range of extra activities, such as caffè e giornale, aiuto, culture e parole, and the odd conversation exchange. All of these are ideal accompaniments to the classes which give you that extra bit of language exposure needed to become more confident and proficient.
Cultura e parole takes place on Monday mornings, and teaches you specialised vocabulary relating to a specific cultural area. For example, last week's session was on sport e divertimenti. It is always difficult to keep track of vocab as we learn so much of it during the course, so it's ideal to keep revising these topics when you can, otherwise you'll find yourself literally lost for words in conversation!
Caffè e giornale, which takes place every Thursday morning, is also a great start to an Italian-filled day as it gets you in Italian mode for the class afterwards (and you also get a free hot drink...!). We have the brilliant teacher Massimo, who normally takes the intermediate class, and we essentially look at a selection of the day's newspapers over our coffee. Massimo is really good at helping us decipher the mire that is Italian journalistic writing, full of colourful metaphors and cultural references that are often wasted on the Italian learner. When I went to a session I really didn't know much about the Italian press save for a few names of dailies I would see on the counters in cafes, but he explained really clearly all the different papers, from the (relatively) neutral daily broadsheets such as La repubblica and Corriere della sera to more partisan papers like Il manifesto and Berlusconi's aptly named Il giornale. Essentially, it's a great introduction to reading the paper in Italy, which can seem very daunting, but newspapers are a great way to come across modern, up-to-date Italian and can tell you a great deal about Italy too.
Aiuto is a one-to-one session that is optional and takes place after classes. These are really good if you've been struggling on anything in particular in class, but are also a really good way to bolster your learning as you are forced to speak Italian for an extra hour, which never does any harm! Likewise, the conversation exchanges are extremely useful too, and it is gratifying to know that you are helping people with their English as well as getting great speaking practice. It is also a good way to meet new people; I did it last week and talked to a couple of students from Florence and a training tour guide who happened to live on the same road as me!
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