ECCO CIBO: Italian Regional Cooking and Culture. Find out more on our Food and Wine page
INTERESTED IN SPANISH? Check out our Spanish offerings
Studying Italian at Ecco Italy is about as close as you can come to the real thing—being in Italy! Whether it’s practicing the basics over a Milano cappuccino in Ecco Uno or passionately debating politics, aesthetics or psychology in Cinema Chat, each course combines the wonders of Italian culture with the sounds and signs of the Italian language. A spirit of lightness and play makes the necessary rules and rigors of language learning fun. Our artful, media-enhanced location helps us bring language to life as we practice shopping in stores and markets or work on grammar and conversation exercises around the farm table or under the roof deck’s pergola.
New courses are in the works, so stay tuned for much more italiano!
ASK ABOUT OUR GRAD STUDENT DISCOUNTS!
Find out more about our faculty and read what past students/participants have to say on our WHO IS page
Find out more about our sister-school in Todi, Umbria La Lingua La Vita. Interested? Come to us for more details and to register for study in Todi!
Conversational Italian for Beginners A+B
with Patrizia Johnson
Ecco Uno A
Monday Mornins, 10:30-Noon
September 8 – November 10, 2008
$250 ($450 per couple; $195 grad students)
Ecco Uno B
Mondays, 12:30-2pm.
$250 ($450 per couple; $195 grad students)
Our core-course for beginners, Ecco Uno is geared towards the linguistic beginner for level A and those with a bit of experience (in present tense only) for level B. By using our custom conversational materials, role plays around the building and neighborhood and other activities and exercises, this course is a fun, varied way to really learn to speak Italian!
Textbook required: Oxford’s Take off in Italian, the Complete Learning Kit
ECCO TRE: Intermediate Italian w/Grammar Component
For Advanced Beginner-Intermediate Students
COMING FALL 2009
$250
Part of our core-course (ECCO 1-2-3) series, this one picks up where Ecco Due left off and moves forward, brilliantly, with the conditional and future tenses. The class will be conducted in Italian with brief digressions in English (as needed), and will certainly offer lots of speaking practice! This course assumes knowledge of Italian in present and past tenses and is more advanced than Early Morning Italian 3, also an option this winter.
Textbook Espresso Due, custom handouts and other conversation exercises and readings will be used.
Not sure of the level? Check out a few tips and examples of what we’ll be doing in this course and Ecco Tre.
BUON VIAGGIO: Italian for Beginners and Travelers
with Christina Ball and guest faculty
COMING WINTER 2009
Discounts for grad students, couples – and more!
$275 (discounts for couples and grad students!)
If you’re planning a trip to Italy in the near or distant future, this is the course for you! Buon Viaggio is a unique, effective, multi-faceted course which combines basic language practice with cultural orientation and endless travel tips. Each lesson will include a language portion geared towards the linguistic beginner : you’ll master Italian pronunciation, learn basic verbs and expressions (greetings, directions, numbers), practice ordering at an actual Italian coffee/gelato bar, order from actual Italian restaurant menus, practice shopping in Verity blue and learn all there is to know about hotels and reservations. Our wine tasting lesson will take place at Charlottesville’s new Italian wine bar, enoteca. We’ll use Oxford’s Take Off in Italian book/cd as our guide, as well our own customized language and travel materials.
What people say about this course:
“If all education were as well put together and such fun, we all would be Ph.D. candidates!”
Paul H. Sartori,
Partner, CHM Partners International
Charlottesville, VA
“One of the wonderful aspects of this class is the variety of activities, from wine tasting, to video clips of Italian cities, to deciphering actual Italian train tickets or ordering from a menu from a famous restaurant in Florence. For two hours on Wednesday evenings I was transported to Umbria, Rome, or Tuscany. Christina also offers valuable insider info on the best places to go and on some of Italy’s best kept secrets. Now I’m ready to actualize my Italian vacation! Thank you Ecco Italy!”
Ted Jones, Architect
Charlottesville, VA
Leggiamo e parliamo! – corso intermedio di conversazione
TBA
Facciamo una pausa alla fine della serie Ecco 1-2-3 e incontriamoci per un po’ di lettura e conversazione!
In questa classe useremo il libro Diario della studentessa Jean, una studentessa di italiano che scrive nel suo diario di varie avventure, dai suoi viaggi in Italia e all’estero all’esperienza con pronomi e preposizioni! Il libro e’ accompagnato da un “eserciziario” che permette di rivedere la grammatica e che offre spunti per interessanti e divertenti conversazioni. Ogni lezione leggeremo una parte del diario e poi discuteremo sull’argomento di cui abbiamo letto. Ci saranno opportunita’ per discussioni serie, discussioni allegre, storie personali, domande, risposte, commenti e chi piu’ ne ha piu’ ne metta! E’ un corso per studenti di livello intermedio-avanzato e sara’ condotto in italiano, con brevi disgressioni in inglese se necessario.
Ripasseremo anche la grammatica piu’ importante in preparazione a nuovi corsi di italiano avanzato in autunno.
EARLY MORNING ITALIAN
with Christina Ball
8:30 – 9:45 am
Spring session TBA
Start your day with a cappuccino and an inspiring hour-and-a-quarter of Italian! If you’ve always dreamed of learning Italian in a beautiful and relaxed setting, this is the course for you. Using the renouned, practical Take off in Italian! learning kit and a variety of conversation activities (chats, games, film clips), we will continue to approach mastery of the basics of the Italian language and culture in our conversation-friendly, media and cappuccino-enhanced classroom. This is an Italian language course geared towards teaching students how to effectively communicate in spoken Italian. Topics include food and food shopping, vacation, fashion and clothes shopping and talking about daily life in Italy and the U.S. A great basic course for those who dream of being able to speak beautiful Italian! Still a beginner course, EMI 3 assumes basic understanding of Italian in the present tense as well as the present perfect or passato prossimo.
Not sure of the level? Check out a few tips and examples of what we’ll be doing in this course and Ecco Tre.
h2. FRENCH at Ecco Italy
Rendez-vous 2
with Jennifer Waine
Students who have either taken our “Rendez-Vous I” course or who have had some basic experience with the language are invited to enjoy a hands on, interactive, high energy approach that includes an excursion to the market, French music, French videos on “YouTube” and much more. After a brief review of the present tense verbs, we’ll delve into the past and future tenses. Explore an array of vocabulary and grammatical structures that will expand your conversational abilities exponentially. This class will be conducted almost entirely en français. Students will receive a weekly packet custom designed for this class by the instructor and will need to purchase French Now! Level 1 by C. Kendris, 4th edition.
What past students say about our French courses and instructor:
Jennifer is a wonderful teacher. She is knowledgeable, fluent and fun. She keeps us moving forward, laughing all the way.
Jennifer makes even the least language-talented student feel that he can learn.
I left every class with a light spirit.
Salon de Conversation
coming Fall 2009
Bring your sandwich and enjoy a quiet yet fun and relaxed atmosphere in which you can practice your French and meet fellow Francophiles. This multi-level gathering invites everyone from the enthusiastic Beginner who is eager to test drive his/her conversational training wheels to the Advanced student who is looking to maintain his/her skill.
What past intermediate students say about Jennifer and studying at Ecco Italy:
I was nervous about not being able to keep up, but the other students and the instructor were supportive and laid-back, while still providing a challenging atmosphere.
Intermediate Grammar, Culture and Conversation:
CINEMA CHAT
TBA
A series of cinema-sparked conversational Italian classes for the intermediate-advanced Italian speaker. Each “Cinema Chat” series focuses on a single Italian film and consists of five hour-and-a-half grammar, vocabulary and conversation classes. Thematically-organized film clips and related materials (songs, readings, mini-lectures) inspire a series of provocative, informative conversations, each accompanied by appropriate grammar and vocabulary reviews and exercises. A wide spectrum of topics—from politics and religion to dreams, psychology and family relationships—are touched upon in each series. Cinema Chat is an animated, intensive, inspiring, yet relatively informal way to practice your speaking skills while becoming better acquainted with some of the best new and classic Italian films out there. Conversational ability in Italian strongly recommended
What people say about this course:
“In all my years of language study Christina Ball ranks as one of the most inventive and inspirational of teachers. Her fluency not just in Italian but in several conceptual areas of interest creates an environment rich in the interplay of words and ideas. Combine all this with a real knowledge of cultural differences and wonderful sense of humor and you have all the makings of a great course.”
Therese Cafaro
Film producer, director and editor; Grape farmer
