Posted in Articles, Italian culture, language tools on Jan 23rd, 2012
In Italian, idioms (figures of speech) are called “espressioni idiomatiche”. They can be tricky and hard to understand, because when you translate an idiom, you don’t get its real meaning, but only the meaning of the words it is made of. That is why, for those interested in understanding the Italian language and culture, it [...]
Posted in Articles, Italian culture on Jan 18th, 2012
Young Italian children play a game that is very similar to the one known as “Ring-a-Ring-o’-Roses”. It is called Girotondo. How to play: The children make a ring by holding hands and walking in a circle while chanting a short rhyme. At the end of the song they throw themselves down onto the ground and [...]
Posted in Articles, Italian culture on Dec 2nd, 2011
Italian families all over Italy are getting ready to celebrate Christmas in their homes. In the cities decorations and Christmas trees adorn streets and squares, while many churches display nativity scenes. A nativity scene (Presepe, in Italian) is a representation of the nativity story of Christ, and can be done in a live form (Presepe [...]
Posted in Articles, Italian culture on Oct 25th, 2011
October is a great month for Italian festivals, especially food festivals and wine harvest celebrations. But what about Halloween? Well, Halloween is not a big celebration in Italy and does not belong to the Italian tradition, but it is becoming more popular especially in the larger cities. Halloween in Italy is All Saint’s Eve. All [...]
This weekend many Italian communities around the world will be celebrating San Gennaro (Saint Januarius), and this will give anyone an opportunity to enjoy a festive event, eat Italian food and try to practice some Italian with other festival participants. But who was San Gennaro? He was a martyr saint and Bishop of Naples during the [...]
Posted in Articles on Sep 12th, 2011
Almost all human beings acquire a language (and sometimes more than one), to the level of native competency, before age 5. Most researchers agree that children acquire language through interplay of biology and environmental factors. A challenge for linguists is to figure out how nature and nurture come together to influence language learning. Language acquisition [...]
Posted in Articles, language tools on Aug 16th, 2011
The one-parent-one-language method (OPOL) is a popular method for teaching young children to speak multiple languages. With this method each parent speaks only one language with the child. The language used by the parent is usually the language that is native to that parent. Although the OPOL method is very popular and very effective, there [...]
Posted in Articles, language tools on Aug 11th, 2011
Many parents are eager to teach their children a second language, but pretty soon they feel overwhelmed by worries and concerns. Some common ones are: Will my bilingual child be a little slower learning to speak? Normally a child’s speech is not delayed because he is bilingual. Bilingual children learn at different speed, so some [...]
Posted in Articles on Jul 24th, 2011
Next time you go shopping at the grocery store, bring the kids with you and ask them to read labels and make a list of all the countries food items come from. This activity can be both fun and educational if you bring to the store more than one child and turn this into a [...]
Posted in Articles on Jun 9th, 2011
Guest post by Rebecca Bernard Aguiar Traveling abroad for authentic cultural experiences can sometimes be a challenge. However, there are still fun ways to practice your Italian language skills right in your own backyard. When it comes to living “la vita bella,” Los Angeles is full of Italian adventures just waiting to be had. This [...]
Filastrocche Italiane - Italian Nursery Rhymes
Artemisia Vuole Dipingere - Artemisia Wants to Paint
... and many more books with parallel text in Italian and English at: www.LongBridgePublishing.com
