Watch Italian Television from anywhere!

If you are planning to have a chance to master your listening skills through television, we just discovered an application for mobile devices (iPad, iPod Touch  and iPhone) called “La TV”, it costs just 79 cents! It’s considered the best italian tv on mobile devices, it includes the navigation on televideo too!

These are these guaranteed channels:RAI 1, RAI 2, RAI 3, RETE4, CANALE5, ITALIA1, RAI 4, RAI 5, RAI MOVIE, RAI PREMIUM, RAI YOYO, RAI STORIA, RAI SCUOLA, RAI NEWS, RAI SPORT 1, RAI SPORT 2, LA7, plus some popular radio stations!

Of course you can continue to watch italian tv from your computer connecting to internet free services like www.justin.tv.

One easy exercise is to watch the news, the images will help you understand, and your effort has to be limited to 30 minutes.

Are you already watching italian tv from anywhere?

Our first podcast is live!

It happened for us too! Imagine a channel dedicated to listen the italian news in Cork, via audio…and as it happens when you have something in mind, I popped on a book about creating a radio on the internet and here we go…our first podcast is live!

My voice sounds so italian, but no worries although genuine I decided then to enroll in an accent reduction course…and is so well in contrast with the one of Laura, that master a more professional pronunciation.

Up to you to listen and see if you can dream to experience more of Italy…

The full podcast is on our website, digit www.corkitalianschool.com to listen! Hope you like it!

ciao!:)

“Italia!” a dedicated magazine available in Cork…

This is the time of the year in which we find around a lot of people asking us some advises for visiting Italy…and we see that so many info are missing on the web!

I’m just back from some days visiting my family and some of the beautiful mountains around Lake Como, and I wanted to check again what was the offer in town for magazines…

I got one for my family about Sicily and those images made us dream with crystal clarity…and they really helped to plan more.

About Italian magazines I’ve seen a great solution in Eason, in St Patrick Street (let me know if you find it somewhere else) it’s a magazine called “Italia!” 6 euro and 18 cents for detailed articles about Italy with pictures…
You can visit the website to see what’s about http://www.italia-magazine.com/.

For the summer…either if you plan to go there or not, now you know an alternative way to feel a piece of mediterranean atmosphere while relaxing at home…

I see that if you missed a special about a region of your interest you can order them back.

Are you already a reader of this magazine? Let us know what you think…

I just received a very complete report of all the italian magazines and newspapers available in town from Dave, author of the blog Italian Flavoured Cork.

Here is his detailed reply, take notes…it contains a lot of information! Thanks Dave!

There used to be several magazines with an Italian theme on sale here during the boom years.

First to go was “The Italian Magazine”. Then “Italy Magazine” went online (http://www.italymag.co.uk/). A few months ago Calcio Italia disappeared from Easons and Porters. You can download back issues in the iTunes Store (search for Calcio Italia). I was really sorry that this magazine folded. I had grown to love it over the years. A few months ago Taste Italia merged into Italia. If they absorbed Calcio Italia I’d be really happy. Italia needs to do something like that to broaden it’s appeal.

There is always Jamie Oliver’s Magazine. He publishes an Italian Issue every year (http://www.jamieoliver.com/magazine/)

Easons does carry some Italian language magazines. They have recently reorganised their foreign language magazine section, so the magazines can be hard to find. They are at the end of the magazine shelves along the wall, next to the foreign newspapers. However, they have put them in among fashion magazines, so you would miss them if you weren’t looking for them. Oggi is often hiding there, sometimes Panorama peeps out as well. Every now and then Gente makes an appearance. I don’t know of any other place in Cork that sells these magazines.

Eason also sell La Repubblica, Corriere della Sera, Gazzetto dello Sport in the foreign newspaper section. The library at UCC holds La Repubblica, and the newspaper shop in the student’s centre also sells it. They used to sell Corriere della Sera, but I haven’t seen it in a while. Maybe it goes before get there?

I know you can get these papers online, but sometimes it’s nice to sit down with a cup of coffee with an actual newspaper.

Did you know why Rabbits and Eggs are the symbol for Easter?

“Natale con i tuoi e Pasqua con chi vuoi“, this is the motto of Italians these days and it means that for Easter there is no obligation to visit all your relatives, you are free to spend your recreational time with who you want.

Back to the title…sometimes when I see supermarkets loaded with Easter bunnies I wonder why this animal is related to this period…mistery solved!

We’ve got the answer! It comes from pagan traditions because the rabbit it’s considered one of the most prolific and fertile animals.

So Easter, falling in spring is related to the desire for renewal and new life, this aspect  is then clearly represented by eggs.

The italian tradition contains as a main theme “Colomba Pasquale“, it’s a cake with the shape of a dove, that is no so easy to find here in town.

We wish a Happy Easter, with the opportunity to relax, to slow down in the nature and feel the sun on your skin…(if available!)

PS: It’s a time of relaxation and longs sleeps as the other proverb says “aprile dolce dormire“, so don’t feel guilty if you find yourself sleeping longer…:)

New Course in Culture, Tourism & Lifestyle

You know that feeling when you want something, you search for it and you cannot find the solution?

We wanted to bring more culture and more of the italian vibe in our choice of courses, including all the  people who are avid traveller of the peninsula but don’t necessarily dream yet to engage with the language, so the course is entirely in English.

Finally one day we received an invitation from one of our teachers to do something that was presenting the culture of Italy, its finest gems in a funny and interactive way as we like to do.

So the course is now ready to be launched the 5th of April. It runs for 4 weeks, on Thursdays and will give you all the precious insights that only the locals can provide.

The focus is on that part of engaging culture that is absent from magazines and from internet, and programs like “Two Greedy Italians” are showing between the culinary scenes. Everything will be explored from a new angle and you will be shocked by how much is not advertised or published in the media.

There is so much that can be brought here in Cork, especially in a week in which the sun and the mild temperature is making us dream of a short escape…

Can’t wait to make you realize once more how  travelling to Italy can be such a wise choice…:)!

You can have a taste of this course for just 3 euro during our open evening: “Italians and Much More”, thursday this week.

Enrollment open from our website www.corkitalianschool.com

Tarantella

Event the 29th of March: “Italians…and Much More!”

After the joyous time of our January event in “A Taste of Rome” we are proud to organize another Italian night that is better to highlight on the calendar. We called this event:  ”Italians…and Much More!“.

There is too much to say about this night that  it cannot be summarized in a title with more specific words; for sure we will speak about us, “gli italiani” the population that loves food, singing and sailing, and through the recent years has adapted new habits, and somehow still lives in a culture with traditions that can be so fascinating to explore.

It will be an intense trip through, folklore, music, gossip, stereotypes, good, bad and strange habits, with much more on the menu. Forget about the same old clichés about italians living with mamma till the age of 35 (we have new stats updated!) and we have to show new trends that will make you feel engaged and connected with our land.

You will be surprised and happy to know things that only few others italophile knew after months or years of intense research.

Did you know that a man usually finishes his degree at the age of 30? Do you know why we wear black at weddings? Ever guessed why we shout even in the calmest conversation? Ever wondered why looks is so important and how to look like an italian? These and much more questions, funny stories and engaging facts will be the topic for our next open night.

The event is in English and open to everyone. Admission 3 euro.

Limited seats, please book in advance to reserve your place through our website www.corkitalianschool.com

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! (Looking forward to show what we do to honour our saints too…)

International Women’s Day

I just discovered today that the tradition of celebrating the Women’s day with a flower it’s not common in Ireland, so I asked our friend Elisa to help me to explain more about this tradition in Italy.

Here you can find her article:

“The flower called mimosa is the symbol of the 8th March in Italy. The flower is chosen as a symbol for the Women’s Day by the Union of Italian Women, a feminist association founded in Italy in 1945.

The choice is due to the fact that the mimosa is a flower that blooms in the first days of March.

On the 8th March it is traditional for Italian men to offer a bouquet of these yellow blossoms to their moms, partners, female friends a work colleagues.

When I was at school, many boys would offer a mimosa to their school girl friends and this was one of few occasions of “declared peace” between teenage boys and girls.

My father would always leave a mimosa in mine and my sister’s bedroom on the 8th of March.

On the 8th of March it is traditional for girl friends to go out together for a pizza or at the restaurant. At the end of the night I would expect to see on my plate a traditional mimosa dessert, which is a sponge cake decorated with Chantilly cream (or custard) and decorated with yellow sponge dices, to give the appearance of the mimosa flower to the cake.

There are good recipe in the Academia Barilla and on the BBC Food website.

The mimosa scent is sweet and fruity. The colour is an intense yellow. It is a flower with character and a good representative for many women’s right campaigns.

The celebration of the economical, political and social role of women is particularly important in Italy, where the women are still struggling to gain equal rights for Men and Women.

In the past few days the Italian press is reporting the number of women murders between 2005 and 2010: 650 women were killed by a man with a passional motive.In Italy the net hourly wages for women are lower by 9.2% to those of male workers.

In Italy and in many other countries it is still important to increase awareness on women’s rights and we hope that this article will suggest new ways to celebrate the 8th of March.”

Have a great Women’s Day and thanks again to our friend Elisa!