Teaching Adults

Teaching Adults

Teaching Adults The first meeting with a student is always decisive for how our teacher-student relationship will proceed. Getting it wrong means wasting a lot of time getting it right, and sometimes it never gets right. When I started teaching, I had only experienced...
Cultural Gap

Cultural Gap

A silent lesson When I want to explain the cultural differences between England and Italy, I tell two anecdotes I personally experienced. It was December 2004, and my husband and I were in London for a weekend. Our hotel was on the opposite banks of the River Thames...
The Patient Nightmare

The Patient Nightmare

The Patient Nightmare There are two words with the same meaning, the English un-ex-pect-ed-ly and in-as-pet-ta-ta-men-te in Italian, that I can’t say light-heartedly. I need to pause. I need awareness and concentration so my mouth can perform all the required...
Yours Unfaithfully

Yours Unfaithfully

which language “Pat! have you read this book?” My husband was showing me the screen of his e-reader. “Didn’t you know we have the paper book in Italian in the bookcase? Left side third shelf from the bottom. No, I started reading it,  but it just didn’t ‘take...