Ciao! Il mio nome è Marco
My Mission is to help people speak Italian. I have taught online for years, and now decided to consolidate what I know in courses.
5
years teaching italian
2000+
course students
100+
lessons included
in the courses
a bunch
of exercises and
practice content
One subscription
The subscription includes grammar courses for all -from absolute beginners to advanced learners
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What is inside the subscription?
I have created my courses with a double goal in mind: offer good quality grammar class to learn, and ways to practice to improve.
I am a big believer that understanding the grammar is the most important and hardest thing to do when learning a language: that is where we start.
5 COURSES
Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Verbs and Pronounciation
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
Fresh content every week to practice
A COMMUNITY
To build, contribute, inspire and be inspired
MANY, MANY EXERCISES
Adding new ones every time!
Our Blog
Content in Italian, for all levels
About Me
But who is Marco?
It’s-a me! (Also, we don’t really say that -but more on that later). I have been giving Italian classes since 2017, for thousands of hours.
I don’t really like talking about myself -but obviously, need to know who I am.
I was born and raised in the Milan area, in Northern Italy. Went to college (Business School) and what I loved was cultures: I spent a semester in Canada and one in Germany.
After going to college and a couple of years working in corporate, and I kept moving around: Milan, then Germany, finally Switzerland. Then I had to make a run for it. I went to Spain, spent a while in a hostel fixing myself and then moved to Colombia.
While I was studying my Master, I started teaching Italian online to pay the bills. Simple model: charge an hourly rate ro someone who was either just starting, or wanted someone to practice. This was an obvious choice: I always loved languages. I like studying them, and I understand how they work. I am fluent in Spanish and English, have a good understanding of French and played around with German and Portuguese.
I love the Italian language. Some say it is the most beautiful -I don’t quite buy this patriotic shill, but love it nonetheless. I have been writing poems and short stories for years, and have a novel that is 60% ready and at some point I will get out in the open.
This was 2018. Years later, this course collects all the resources I have used to help learners, as well as those that I used to study other languages.
I am confident that this a solid course, heavily based on grammar and structure because that is how I learn. But more on The Method over here!
My Experience
As someone involved in the Digital Marketing world, I am well aware how true the saying is: who can’t do, teaches. And I have to hold myself accountable to the same standards: I have to prove that I can.
I taught online since 2018. I have been on several platforms. And when you do something online, it is easy to check when someone lies.
This is a screenshot of Preply, one of the websites I used. Don’t believe me? You can find it at this link!
All the questions asked forced me to find answers; all the slides I put together gave me the idea: why not creating a course? Most of the information I teach to learners starting out can be learnt without one-to-one support anyways. This is how my first course was created and put on several marketplaces -among them, Udemy and Skillshare.
And again -impossible to lie! Here the screenshot and the link.
Again, I had to fight with the imposter syndrome quite a bit. Charging for something I did not specifically study to do is not easy for me. It is a fact, however, that I really enjoy the language, languages in general, and teaching.
As a matter of fact, this course is my side hustle while I study my PhD. The idea: teaching Italian, I figured how much I enjoy teaching. I want to do this for a living.
What my students said on Udemy
Before making the big jump and creating my own website, I have sold my courses individually on different platforms. There, I was able to collect feedback, tweak and improve. Here’s what those students had to say!
Narine
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Excellent! So easy to understand! The explanations are very clear even for non-native English speakers!
Gwen
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Very clear course. He explains every thing really well and he even corrects the assignments you submit.
Iuliia
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I like the course! I already have some very basics of Italian, but took it to refresh my memory and it works wonders. The explanations are clear, it’s easy to follow, it has a good structure and it’s not boring.
Sonja
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Excellent! No fluff or needless repetitions. Well organized. Information is presented in a clear and understandable way. Highly recommended.
Gabriela
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Very well explained and easy to watch. So far I like the course and the teacher very much.
Irina
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Great course! Very well structured and explained, reveals all necessary details and topics. Exactly what I was looking for to start Italian. Thank you!
The Method
In years of teaching 1-to-1, and years creating courses, I have always taken a grammar-driven approach. I disagree with the feel-good view that tries to get you to say a few words while not knowing what is going on.
This course contains many different elements:
The Core Course, grammar for levels A0, A1 and A2 (total 4 hours)
The Verbs Cheatcode, a 1 hour-long deep dive on verb conjugation
The Pronunciation Secrets, to finally stop saying gabagool (it is capocollo!!)
The Intermediate Course, grammar for levels B1-B2 (total 2 hours)
Reading together, many hours of reading activities to expand vocabulary and understanding
Billions of exercises for each level, because pain is gain
Completing this three units would take you to a level at which you can potentially communicate.
This is, and should always be, your one and only goal whenever you study a language. Non perfection, but function.
The big question that everybody asks is always the same: how long before I can speak Italian?
The answer to this question is genuinely impossible to give. It depends on on several things: your native language, previous languages studied, time commitment, genetics, age.
A general idea: the most important units are (1) The Core Course, (2) The Verbs Cheatcode and (3) Pronunciation Secrets. You can make it in a month, 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.
Here what your effort might look like.
You start
Putting in 30 minutes per day, 5 days a week
After a week
You can put together simple sentences about yourself, using simple verbs in the present tense
After two weeks
You understand gender and number, and are able to pronounce any Italian word
After three weeks
You are able to use the past tense, as well as more complex structures (such as can, must, would). You start using pronouns and adjectives. You are able to read simple texts and understand them
After a month
You are able to speak about the past and future, as well as to use more subtle structures such as would like. You have a good grasp of pronouns, adverbs and adjectives. You can write simple texts about yourself
After two months
At this point, you start using and understanding the subjunctive in if-clauses and other hypothetical structures. You can read texts that are a bit more complex
After three months
You completed all the grammar that I consider useful at this stage, and can focus on improving your other skills. You can easily create complex sentences, including passive forms, and choose the right tense for most situations. You can have a simple conversation, and understand slow Italian being spoken
From that point, studying becomes a lot more chaotic. You now need to navigate sayings, different accents (both italian and foreigner), and will often feel like you are alone in a world of unknown words.
Your goal now becomes to be ok with not knowing everything, and practice smart listening. To this date, after 20 years studying English, I will bump into words I don’t know. No need to look each of them up: context will save you most of the time.
For that type of studying, I keep adding new reading, listening, writing resources and give you tips that can work with different learning styles and backgrounds. Some will want to listen to opera, some read poetry, others business news. To each their own!
I will be guiding you in the courses and resources in the order I consider best, and suggest to stop and practice when it is time. However, that is what it is: a guide. This is not a race, and you can take months -or complete all the grammar resources in a week, if you want to.
You can go back and forth as much as you want among all the units, focus on your weaknesses, skip what you know and focus on what’s tricky.
Remember: this is not a race, we all learn differently and have different amounts of spare time, motivation and goals. This is ok.
What you should think is a simple fact. Learning a language will make you grow as a person (and as a professional), and it will allow you to understand a whole new culture.
It is like a new map in a videogame, a spin-off of an awesome TV show. And, believe me, it is hard to explain how amazing it feels to be able to go to perform your first, simple task in a language that you are studying.
