Hungerford & District U3A |
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Italian
We have two active Italian groups.
Improvers.We are now meeting alternate Fridays in the Community Room at the Fire Station.
During Covid we managed to keep going by using Zoom - with nine of us on screen it was quite a challenge but still a lot of fun.
“We started very much as a beginners’ group but with new members from Chieveley and Netheravon with more experience we have definitely moved up a level. As one of our members recently put it “(Learning a language).. has parallels with physical exercise - a stroll is good for you but not as beneficial as a run”. We do have one or two sprinters but mainly we are all jogging along quite nicely now.
The content comes from a variety of Italian sources I have collected through my learning with a lovely Italian lady also called Barbara. I put them through their paces with “quick fire” phrases, Easy Reader texts for comprehension, and audio tracks at normal Italian conversation speed - and they do homework. I’m not sure why but they still keep coming back for more. Perhaps to quote another member “Great brain exercise with lots of laughs together!”
Conversation group
We are now meeting fortnightly face to face, usually Thursday mornings, however we may occasionally ‘Zoom’ instead.
Most members have been studying the language fairly intensively for several years or have lived in Italy and we are all united by a strong interest in all things Italian. As well as general conversation - helping each other out with words we can’t remember - we make a lot of use of online resources such as grammar exercises and e-books. Recently we tackled a (short!) version of the Canterbury Tales in Italian and we also produce some short written pieces too.
We welcome interest from potential new members, a reasonable level of fluency is recommended.