Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
In this segment, there are "true or false" questions. Aside from the answers themselves, there are explanations of some true statements that are quite fascinating.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Agnese, the contestant from Rome, is quizzed on a list of soccer players and she has to respond whether they're ex-players or current players. A new contestant, Antonella, responds to a list of words, saying if they're adverbs or adjectives.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Claudio is given a list of Italian places and has to say whether they're in the north or the south of Italy.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
This is a great chance to practice bone and muscle vocabulary, since that's what the pairing is about in this episode. The first contestant is named Santo. "Santo" means "saint," so there's some joking about it being just his name, not a description. Carlo, contestant number two is a musician and works in music therapy. He sings a few phrases of an aria from the Puccini opera Tosca.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Confindustria is the main trade association for Italy's manufacturing and service sectors. This inspirational video was produced for its annual meeting, and Italian luminaries from Marco Polo to Renzo Piano are invoked to tell the story of Italian innovation.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
We can see that the battle against using "Lei," the common, formal, second-person form of address, was taken very seriously by the fascists. In fact they went too far when it came to a popular women's magazine called "Lei" (she, her).
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Mussolini continues to get rid of any traces of foreign words, and even mounts an exhibit against the use of the common formal second person singular address "Lei" (you) in favor of "Voi." See this lesson about "Voi" to get some background.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
A great deal of effort went into purging foreign words from the Italian language under the fascist regime. Newspapers, magazines, and book publishers were at the forefront of the effort and were tasked with finding Italian replacements for foreign words and expressions. Many fascist-era terms have fallen by the wayside, but some succeeded and are still in use today. As an example, the word manifesto [poster] was successfully introduced to replace the French term affiche.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Arianna starts work at Phones and More. Her first task is to call a list of publications to find out about ad space. When she gives her email address, she uses the word chiocciola [snail] for the @ sign. Koreans also say "snail shell" when they see an @ sign, while the Dutch see a monkey's tail, and the Norwegians see a pig's tail.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
The segment looks at how Mussolini patterned his fiercely nationalist rhetoric after poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, while harkening back to the glory of Imperial Rome. The song in the segment refers to Balilla, an 18th century Genoese boy. In 1746, Balilla threw a stone at an Austrian official of the occupying Hapsburg Empire, which led to the War of the Austrian Succession.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Arianna is on tenterhooks waiting for the phone call that could change the course of her life. When she can't bear it any longer, the phone rings. No caller ID.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Arianna goes to her job interview. How did she do? Should she have answered any questions differently? Are there some important questions she neglected to ask? Do you think she will get the job?
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Mussolini forbade the use of dialects and the minority languages that were spoken in the regions bordering the countries to the north in favor of one language for all. Italians were bombarded by fascist propaganda and Mussolini's very frequent speeches.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Arianna just got her Marketing degree and is looking for a job. Let's see how she goes about it.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Me Ne Frego [I don't give a damn], was one of the mottoes of Fascism, coming originally from the writings of Gabriele d'Annunzio and employed by storm troops during World War One as a war cry for courage and daring, with the meaning, "I don't mind dying for freedom." The motto gives the title to this documentary about the influences of Italian Fascism on the Italian language. It was produced by the Istituto Luce Cinecittà, with materials from the historical Luce archives, and narrates the obscure attempt by the Fascist regime to create a new and unique language, a new “Italian” that fit the dogma of the dictatorship.
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