Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Buon Giorno!

Not being able to speak Italian whilst bearing the most Italian name in the world has always been my biggest regret. But not for my Scrap. At 3 1/2, he needs to learn now. But can I find anyone to teach him? I have trawled the net, emailed the Italian Institute and scoured the library notice boards all to no avail. I imagined a nice Saturday morning school in Clerkenwell (or somewhere like that) where he learns fluent Italian while Rob and I drink coffee and eat pastries nearby, he then translates all the menus and road signs for all of our future holidays. No such luck. Any ideas?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Enquire at the Italian embassy. They should have a cultural service (and attache) who should be able to direct you to their language services or similar. I'm basing this on my experience of the Institut Francais in South Ken though so the Italians may be a little more lax about this.

Anonymous said...

There are lots of anglo/italian families at my kids' school so I will make enquiries and get back to you if I get any good suggestions.

Anonymous said...

My good friend Antonio had to go to Italian School one night a week, I think Friday, for years - I'm not entirely sure what this entailed except it was his Italian parents making sure they kept his Italian credentials up-to-date.

They lived in Hither Green and it can't been far away, so that's fairly local to you. I'll ask him what the deal was.

dis said...

google for Muzzy + language

BLTP said...

You could try the italian/language bookshops there's one in that row of print shops off charing cross road /st martin's lane and and a bigger one on great marlborough st they may have contacts plus some books to start on.

Anonymous said...

The answer in playground was basically that there isn't really what you're looking for. It was suggested that you get in touch with The Italian Nursery http://www.scuolamaterna.co.uk/ (telephone 77353058) which is on the Clapham/Stockwell border. It's probably a bit full on for what you want but they may have some suggestions. (By the way the website is a little out of date and it's no longer run by the church.) The other suggestions were getting your hands on some italian children's books. I can also endorse the suggestion of muzzy - it works well in this house for french and spanish for all ages! buona fortuna

Silvana said...

Thanks for the good ideas - I have heard that Muzzy is great. Grahame, if you hear from Antonio, let me know. And thanks Clara for going to so much trouble. Bit disapointing really but I will definitely contact the Italian nursery x