How did that all come to be?

Yeah, that's a great question.

So let's see.

I did my high school in Italy, and it was a scientific high school, because everyone in Italy at that time was doing a scientific high school, friends and family, and I just wasn't good at math.

I was not good at that.

[laughs] And so when I finished that, I decided to do, um, something different.

And actually, during that, uh, time in high school, I also did a year abroad in the US, my fourth year.

When you came to the US and started your studies here, what did you notice about the differences in the English language? Not just the words, obviously, and the grammar, but the differences in how we speak here versus what language is used for in, in Italy.

Tell me a little bit about how the Italian language that we hear today evolved.

Yes, so Italian does come from Latin, but it is not the Latin that you might think of those writers.

It is the Latin of everyday people.

So the vulgar Latin, we call it in Latino, vulgare, the vulgar Latin.

So it was the language that was spoken by everyday people and Italian evolved from that.

And the Italian that we speak today comes from the evolution of the language from Vulgar Latin into the Tuscan dialect.

And so the, specifically the Fiorentino, so the one from Florence.

When I saw in the mouth of the wolf, I thought immediately about Rome and Romulus and Remus, you know, at the teat of the wolf, who I guess is also a symbol of a prostitute, right? Right.

school.

Yes.

And that is what I did because most people in Italy usually do that one.

And also in my family, that was something valued, science, scientific high school.

And I did that and I did not like it.

I went through it and I did not like it.

Once I finished that, I said, I need to do something different.

Yeah.

What's your preferred method of teaching your Italian lessons?

Yeah, that's a good question.

Um, so I really like including all language skills in my lesson.

So when we talk about teaching learning Italian, um, we can focus on four skills; listening, reading, writing, and speaking, so all language skills.

And for me, it's important that even beginners, they focus on all language skills together.

We don't just focus, for example, just on reading or maybe just on grammar.

We bring everything together, and that is what I do inside my language courses.

... share some of your words that you love, that you connect with.

Yes.

So I was born and raised in Bergamo, Italy, so northern Italy, close to Milan.

And then when I turned 23, that's when I moved to the United States to get my master's in language studies, linguistics, and then I got my PhD in applied linguistics at the University of Arizona.

And I always wanted to have an online language school.

That was my goal.

[laughs] I didn't know if that was going to happen, to be honest, when I was doing my PhD, because I knew it would take so much work to get started with something like that online.

And when I finished my PhD, I said, "Let's try." I had three months of savings and said, "Let's try.

So do you buy it, and then you have it available? Tell us how it works.

And so when people do actually start working with the language, learning the language, what are some of the most common mistakes that people make when learning Italian?

Yeah, so as I already said, common mistake is not speaking right away, just waiting maybe three, four, five months into language learning to speak the language.

Don't wait very long.

You can start even from day one to speak with what you know, just saying your name.

Mi chiamo Margherita.

I learned that today.

I'm just going to say that out loud and saying that out loud, not just keeping the language in your brain.

So what sort of advice could you give for somebody who's not an absolute beginner?

Quindi magari ci sono io al mare e parlo in italiano, vado al bar, mi prendo un caffè, no? Che cosa, che cosa ne pensi?

Certo.

Sì, la-- diciamo che questo aiuta la motivazione.

E, ehm, in realtà la mia tesi di dottorato riguardava la realtà virtuale e quindi, ehm, ero andata in Italia a registrare questi video in vari luoghi, nella stazione, il bar, il ristorante, a casa, italiani con persone italiane.E poi questa ricerca riguardava, ehm, questa immersione degli studenti in queste realtà virtuali con appunto gli occhiali di realtà virtuale.

E quindi si immaginavano in quel contesto, anche se appunto questo contesto era virtuale, vedevano questa realtà italiana e si immaginavano in quel contesto.

Eh, è risultata molto utile come cosa, perché mi immagino in quel luogo, in quel contesto potrò utilizzare la lingua, pensare a cosa dire.

Ottimo, raccontaci, raccontaci qualcosina.

Sì.