12 Full immersion courses in Italy

Hi!

This summer I attended a full-immersion course at Scuola Mulino in Padova and I really learned a lot and also had a great time while learning.

I think full immersion courses are very effective because when I started I really knew nothing but by the time I was finished I was able to communicate with others (of course not that well but I learned enough grammer and vocab to understand and express myself).

Another thing that I think is important is to get the opportunity to talk with as many Italians as possible. The town where I studied is small and there aren't any tourists, so when I went out to go shopping or to the market, I had to speak Italian. Plus, the school arranged dinners and parties in the town where the school is, both of which I really think helped me. Good luck choosing a school! I hope you like yours as much as I liked mine!!

Sarah

Category
General chat about Italy

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 02/08/2005 - 08:11

Hi Sarah,

The course you were on sounds very interesting. Could you tell me how long you were on the course for?

I am interested in a full immersion course in Italy but could not get more than a week or two over there to do it.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 02/09/2005 - 05:21

Me too, I would love to spend a week or two fully convering in italian, my italian is very basic, but travelling to Puglia every few months helps except the locals don't speak classic italian.

So I would rather pick up classic italian than Pugliese.

Grazie mille!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 02/16/2005 - 06:06

Hi Sano and Deanlad!

I took my course for a month, but I know you can do it for as long or as short of a time as you want. I did 4 hours per day which I think is enough, becasue I was tired of lessons after 4, but I know that people have also done a super intense course of 8 hours a day and others who have done only 2 per day.

I know Scuola Mulino, where I went, was great for the fact that it was a small school and the classes were tiny, so I was able to learn more in a short amount of time. They also give you individual lessons for the same price. I did 20 hours a week with 5 of the hours being individual lessons.

Let me know if you want to know more!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 02/16/2005 - 08:27

[quote=Sarah]Hi Sano and Deanlad!

I took my course for a month, but I know you can do it for as long or as short of a time as you want. I did 4 hours per day which I think is enough, becasue I was tired of lessons after 4, but I know that people have also done a super intense course of 8 hours a day and others who have done only 2 per day.

I know Scuola Mulino, where I went, was great for the fact that it was a small school and the classes were tiny, so I was able to learn more in a short amount of time. They also give you individual lessons for the same price. I did 20 hours a week with 5 of the hours being individual lessons.

Let me know if you want to know more!

Melanie[/quote]

Hi Sarah,

What you described sounds perfect. Would you have contact details for the school?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 02/16/2005 - 10:06

Hey Sano!

The web page is [url]www.scuolamulino.it[/url]. If you go to the web page it has all of the information listed. [email]scuolamulino@scuolamulino.it[/email] is the email. The director (Silvio) is really good about writing back quickly and you can ask him for more indepth info about the course because I forget exactly how much it cost me. If you're interested, you can see if he needs any mother tongue english conversation partners. If you do conversation lessons in English you get a discount on the course. I did it this summer and got a good discount and it was really easy, maybe 2 times a week for an hour. A nice way to meet people and chat chat in English.
Hope it works out for you!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 02/16/2005 - 11:37

Hi,
We are also interested in something like this. Anything like it in Puglia, near Brindisi ???

I can speak a bit as I lived in Florence for a year many, many moons ago, but need brushing up......but Alex needs to start from scratch...he can order a beer ( but what man can't !!!) and as he will be retired he will have all the time in the world .......I can just see him trotting off with his satchel every day !!!!

Actually Dean, I didn't seem to have any problem in Puglia with being understood...or were they just being polite ///!!!!
Alex and Lyn

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 02/16/2005 - 12:23

They can understand Italian alright, they just don't speak it themselves.

I reckon my italian is Basic to Intermediate, they can understand 'Classic Tuscan italian' No problem.

But I struggle with understanding them when they get going, they are fine once i explain I can't speak the dialect & ask them to speak clearly, but i feel rude asking them to speak 'properly' as i would call it, as I wouldn't ask a geordie to speak properly in England if they had a strong dialect, as my English is good enough to understand regional accents/slang.

This is where I fall down in Puglia.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 02/16/2005 - 12:31

Buon giorno - has anyone of you considered coming to Sardinia for an Italian language course? Last year, together with two friends of mine, I opened an Italian language school here in Alghero. Like the Mulino school, we are in a small town, where contact with locals is easy. Also, the Italian spoken here is a very pure almost accent-free Italian. [i]<--removed trade ad (webmaster) -->[/i]
Hope to hear from you!
Nico

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 02/16/2005 - 12:38

I see what you mean.......I must admit I tend to start each encounter with, 'sono inglese ma parlo un po'd'italiano'...that seems to slow them down a bit and generally they respond as if i'm about 4 years old ..which is fine by me...at least we are communicating.......I can't wait to go back tho' and see if I can detect the dialect.

I was doing my ironing this morning watching La regina d'africa ( old Katherine Hepburn/Humphrey Bogart.........it actually sounds like Humf!!!) which was quite ambitious and brought home how much work I need to do. Actually we brought several DVDs back with us in Italian with english option and subtitles.
Have to laugh at some we got...we just grabbed what we could in Auchan at Pescara a while ago !!
The Aristocats ( disney)
West side story
An old James Stewart film which i'd never heard of
3 episodes of the Avengers with Emma Peel !
The African Queen ( this mornings offering!!)
And a Michael J fox film which I hadn't heard of either......

Still at least we can watch them in english as well !
LYn

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 02/21/2005 - 10:55

[quote=Sarah]Hey Sano!

The web page is [url]www.scuolamulino.it[/url]. If you go to the web page it has all of the information listed. [email]scuolamulino@scuolamulino.it[/email] is the email. The director (Silvio) is really good about writing back quickly and you can ask him for more indepth info about the course because I forget exactly how much it cost me. If you're interested, you can see if he needs any mother tongue english conversation partners. If you do conversation lessons in English you get a discount on the course. I did it this summer and got a good discount and it was really easy, maybe 2 times a week for an hour. A nice way to meet people and chat chat in English.
Hope it works out for you![/quote]

Thanks for this info Sarah. Much appreciated and I may just head over for a week later in the summer - depending on how my attempts at learning the language go here.