High treason

I do not love my country. Its abstract splendor
is beyond my grasp.
But (although it sounds bad) I would give my life
for ten places in it, for certain people,
seaports, pinewoods, fortresses,
a run-down city, gray, grotesque,
various figures from its history,
mountains
(and three or four rivers).

Jose Emilio Pacheco

Learning Italian in Italy: the good, the bad and the info

The story starts with me wanting to learn Italian and continues with a bunch of Italians who travelled last February to Bratislava, told me how beautiful Bologna is and inspired me to search for schools, finding by pure chance one that offered me a 4-month internship in exchange for the course.

I have to say that I was not a total beginner; I had the most basic knowledge of grammar and thanks to french and spanish, I could more or less understand. I followed a 4-hours-a-day course for a couple of months, passing the Celi 3 exams succesfully in June. Then, a big pause and in October, a 10-hour packet of private lessons that almost gave me the Celi 5 (C2 level). Almost, because I only passed the oral part. Ok, the C2 level is anyway high for only 8 months of learning the language, but, to be absolutely honest (and it's the first and the last time I admit it), I do believe that if I had been more focused and determined, I would have made it. Stupid me.

Study the language at the country where it is spoken is something I can not reccommend enough. The progress achieved was incredibly fast and deep, what was taught at school was immediately after practiced in the streets, learning became an automatic procedure. Of course, I needed a little bit of patience for the first days, when all this linguistic input had left me almost silent (or english-speaking). But after a couple of weeks... I still remember my friends' faces when one day, seemingly out of the blue, I started having long, coherent discussions on their mother tongue. By the way, Italians' incompetence on english (sorry guys) also helped :)

Bologna turned out to be a wise choice too - even though by chance. It is beautiful, historically and culturally rich, full of students, vivid and lively, not too small (doesn't let you get bored), not too big (doesn't prevent you from meeting people), not too touristy (you can easily avoid hanging out with tourists or foreigners). Plus, from there you can easily visit the main cities of the northern Italy, and there are also some Ryanair flights to the south (personally, I didn't travel that much, but it's good to know you have the option).

The school I went to is called Madrelingua; they were great! I felt welcome and at ease from the very first day, everyone has been helpful, friendly and supportive, from the teachers to the directors. They were always there in case I needed something, ready and willing to answer my questions and find solutions to the problems I faced - from learning difficulties to coping with the bureaucracy while preparing the exams applications. I can not thank them enough. Here is their website (the Greek part is my work, impressed much?)