Trusted teacher

My name is Hélène. I have lived abroad for over 25 years: in Great Britain where I taught French, then in Belgium where I worked on different projects with the European institutions, and finally in Italy for 20 years where I was called upon to teach Frech to Foreigners at the University of Turin and where, at the same time, I directed cultural projects related to Francophone litterature in an institution called il Circolo dei Lettori. My way of teaching French as a Foreign Language is different from formalised learning processes, it is pragmatic, progressive and tailor-made. Why? First of all, because, before I became a teacher, I have been confronted to learning other languages: English, then Spanish, Portuguese and finally Italian. I have thus understood what is useful, mainly what is not, to enter another language, what gives the satisfaction of rapid progress in speaking, understanding, and writing... without approaches that are too often useless, time-consuming and costly for an unsatisfactory results. The FLE tuition, that is to say French as a Foreign Language, is intended for those who wish to learn French in order to be able to live in French-speaking environnement. However, it can also be of grat help for children/teens who do not have the grammatical fundamentals in order to be better at school. A language, any language, cannot be acquired just "at random", it has a structure, the grammar through which we must progress to learn. DON'T PANIC, GRAMMAR CAN BE APPROACHED WITH FUN & PLEASURE! My approach is TAILOR-MADE TO EACH, SO THAT FRENCH CAN BE USEFUL TO YOU IN REAL LIFE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. All my many students so far have liked the progression I give to my lessons and the relevance of my pedagogical approach, serious and easy-going at the same time.

Trusted teacher

4Students

As an Italian Opera singer, I help since many years singers with the right pronunciation of the repertoire they sing, helping them in shaping the language in a clear way, which also helps the singing. Our lesson will involve speaking, pronunciation exercises and singing. We will start the lesson by reading the text and finding the right direction and emphasis. We will focus on the sounds and how to produce them. In the second part of the lesson, we will apply all of the above to the singing!

Trusted teacher

Do you want to learn Italian from scratch? I offer private lessons specifically designed for beginners, in a friendly atmosphere and at your own pace. The goal is to give you a solid foundation for understanding, speaking, reading, and writing in Italian. Each course is tailored to your progress and objectives, whether it's for travel, study, discovering Italian culture, or learning a new language. In the program : Alphabet and pronunciation Basic vocabulary Useful everyday expressions Basic grammar concepts Construction of simple sentences Oral comprehension and expression Practical exercises to consolidate acquired knowledge The courses are interactive, progressive and adapted to each student's pace in order to make learning enjoyable and effective.

Trusted teacher

Ciao! I have been teaching Italian for the past sixteen years, privately and at language schools including La Scuola Italiana del Greenwich Village in New York and ItalCultura, the school of the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago. During our first two lessons, I’ll make sure you have the tools to pronounce and recognize all the sounds of Italian. This step is essential, and it makes everything that comes afterwards much easier. When I teach, I try to avoid all the things I hated as a language student. My terrifying French teacher in middle school made us repeat the same fake dialogue from a really bad textbook ad nauseam, over and over and over again. Some of it is still carved into my brain: “Bonjour, je m’appelle Richard Drapeau, je viens du Canada, je suis Canadien...” So we won’t do that. We’ll use real songs and real literature. We’ll have real conversations, tell stories, improvise, and, when possible, go on “talking walks.” I find that when you engage more of your senses, it becomes easier to relax, stay curious, and actually remember new words. I customize my materials around your interests, needs, and desired pace. If you love cinema, we can work with films. If you’re interested in literature, politics, food, art, history, or simply being able to have a proper conversation when you’re in Italy, that can become part of the class. And because you’re learning with a native Italian, you’ll also learn about Italian culture, history, habits, gestures, contradictions, and ways of thinking. Language is never just a pile of grammar rules. I speak several languages myself, so I know both how exciting and how painfully tedious learning one can be. My aim is to give you a strong foundation without draining all the life out of it. I hold a degree in Lingue e Letterature Straniere (Foreign Languages and Literatures) from Università Roma Tre and a Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts and Media from Columbia College Chicago. I wrote my university thesis on translating a long epic poem by W. H. Auden, and at one point I tried to ride a horse across America.