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.
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!
Parole e Passione: Italian for Travelers
with Dan Rosensweig
Mondays, 5-6:30pm
Sept 8 – Oct 27, 2008
$225
If you’re planning (or want to start dreaming about) a trip to Italy in the near or distant future, this is the course for you! /Parole e Passione/ (Words and Passion) is a fun, 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.
Additionally, instructor Dan Rosensweig will share multiple film and music clips with you, both for your personal enjoyment and as a way to help you get a sense of the connection between words and passion in Italy. You’ll learn how “La Bella Vita” or “The Beautiful Life” in Italy is made possible by a colorful and musical language that inspires one of the most open, warm and dramatic cultures in the world.
Download the Enrollment Form
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)
Ready to Enroll? Download the Enrollment Form
Print it and either mail it in or drop it off in our mailbox just outside the classroom door.
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 DUE: Conversational Italian for Advanced Beginners
A note about the level: Ecco Due is intended for students who’ve been introduced to most of the major tenses (present, past, conditional, future) and grammatical structures in a traditional beginner’s course.
SESSION 1 Canta che ti passa—Sing your blues away
with Silvia Dupont
Tuesdays, 10:30-Noon
August 26-October 14
Tuition: 195
Materials: $35 (book, cd, photocopies)
Do you like to sing in the shower? Would you like to learn Italian in a new and fun way? Let’s learn Italian…by singing! Through 8 different songs, we will review basic grammar and also explore new cultural topics. We’ll also learn about the vocalists and what made their songs so popular. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s read, listen, speak and, most of all, sing! (But don’t worry: you don’t have to have a great voice … you can just hum along).
SESSION 2: C’e’ Posta per te—You’ve got mail
Tuesdays, 10:30-Noon
October 21-December 16 (no class Thanksgiving Week)
Tuition: $195
Materials: $20 (book, photocopies)
Italians say “sbagliando s’impara” (we learn by making mistakes). This proverb captures the very idea of the book we will use in this class. The misadventures of the main character Minni will help us to understand how easy it is to get “lost in translation” and will make us all feel much better about our own problems with grammar! You will learn idiomatic expressions and everyday, colloquial Italian in an easy and amusing way. There will be plenty of occasions for listening and speaking, learning grammar and practicing.
Download the Enrollment Form
e-mail Silvia to enroll
ECCO TRE: Intermediate/Advanced Italian
Session 1 VOLARE
Thursdays, 10:30-Noon
Session One: August 28-October 16, 2008
Tuition: $195
Materials: $35 Cantagramma: intermedio
Do you like to sing in the shower? Would you like to learn Italian in a new and fun way? Let’s learn Italian…by singing! Through 8 different songs, we will review basic grammar and also explore new cultural topics. We’ll also learn about the vocalists and what made their songs so popular. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s read, listen, speak and, most of all, sing! (But don’t worry: you don’t have to have a great voice … you can just hum along).
Session 2: DOLCE VITA
Thursdays, 10:30-Noon
October 23-December 18 (no class Thanksgiving week)
Tuition: $195
Materials (book, photocopies): $20
Grab your dark sunglasses and watch out for papparazzi…This course takes you back to the stylish streets of Roma in the 1960s. You’ll experience the “sweet life” by reading and discussing an original story set in the world of cinema—- don’t be surprised if even Marcello Mastroianni makes a guest appearance!!
Download the Enrollment Form
e-mail Silvia with questions or to hold your spot
BUON VIAGGIO: Italian for Beginners and Travelers
with Christina Ball
COMING WINTER 2009
See our Fall version above: Parole e Passione!
$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.
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
