Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Marika and Arianna discuss the Erasmus Program, a student exchange program that was founded in the late 1980s. It allows European university students to study at other EU country universities. The program is named after the Dutch humanist, Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536).
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
Tamara, with Tania's help, continues with the decoration of a gift bag. The glue and glitter technique can also be used on handbags or t-shirts.
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
Arianna has been made the head of a new marketing team. Too bad the woman reporting to her let things go sideways.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Tamara shows us how to use a simple stencil to turn a plain paper bag into a gift package.
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
Marika wraps up her lessons on combined pronouns in which ci acts as a stand in for places.
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
Tamara and Tania show some of the items that can be bought either unfinished or decorated in their shop. They demonstrate the use of glass paints and outline the steps used in decoupage.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Marika covers these super tricky combined pronouns: glielo, gliela, glieli, gliene, and gliele.
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?
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