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Pian di Marte Ospitalità Rurale view learning Italian and English

A TYPICAL WEEK ON AN OAKFIELD LANGUAGE HOLIDAY

May 20, 2019

There’s so much to see and do on an Oakfield Italian Language holiday!

ARRIVAL, DAY ONE:
In the afternoon, settle into your accommodation and join us for a welcome dinner at the Pian di Marte Ospitalità Rurale together for your first taste of Umbria and Tuscany! Then get a good night’s sleep in the peaceful Niccone valley to prepare you for your first day.

DAY TWO:
Wake up ready to begin your Italian Language Holiday, starting with breakfast in Italiano…Naturally! We’ll learn some new vocabulary and chat about everyday things together. Find out how Ezio makes his homemade fig jam; talk about a news story together; hear more about the Niccone Valley.

It’s time to start lessons. Obviously, the lessons will be geared towards the level of the learners. They will be dynamic and fun classes with plenty of pairwork, small group activities and we certainly won’t be sitting at a table for the whole three hours. Part of our class together will be dedicated to preparing for our afternoon excursion to Lake Trasimeno. We want you to start using the new language you’ve acquired straight away, but not before we’ve had lunch together and a well-deserved break / siesta.

After enjoying our first excursion together, we’ll stay in Passignano sul Trasimeno in the evening where we’ll have dinner at the Trattoria del Pescatore. Here, Serena and Carlo will explain some of the local specialities that their family has been cooking at the Trattoria for several generations. A delicious way to conclude our first day.

DAY THREE:
After our breakfast in Italiano, we’ll start our lessons again. Naturally we’ll review and recycle some of the things from the previous day as well as introduce some new language. After our lunch together at Pian di Marte Ospitalità Rurale, we’re going to head over the ‘border’ to Cortona in Tuscany. This charming hilltop village made famous by Frances Mayes’ book “Under the Tuscan Sun” and the subsequent film starring Diane Lane, is always a favourite with our learner guests. You can see the Annunciation by Beato Angelico, visit the Etruscan Museum, The Santa Margherita Basilica, and the Girifalco Fortress or just wander around enjoying the atmosphere. We’ll have dinner in a typical Tuscan trattoria in Cortona, where you can again try some local specialities, such as the “Pici alle Molliche”.

DAY FOUR:
Following a good night’s sleep in the peaceful Niccone valley and after our breakfast in Italiano, we’re going straight out this morning to find out about the local olive oil and wine production at the Azienda Agricola Mezzetti with Stefania. We’ll have a tour of the vineyards and tasting of local Umbrian and Tuscan products. We’ll go back to Pian di Marte for lunch together, then after some relaxation time, we’ll start our lessons in the afternoon continuing to consolidate what we’ve been learning so far and building on that. By this time, you’ll be really feeling how much your Italian has improved.

We’ll stop lessons in time for an aperitivo at Pian di Marte before we start our cooking lesson plus dinner together in the evening. If anyone still has enough energy, we’ll then watch a movie together or play a game…in Italiano naturally before going to bed.

DAY FIVE:
You’ve probably been dreaming in Italian by this time! Now you know the routine: breakfast in Italiano as usual followed by our fun and interesting three hours of lessons in the morning. After lunch and a break, we’ll be heading to Perugia, the capital of Umbria. We’ll start with a tour of the Casa del Cioccolato – home of the famous Baci chocolates. We’ll have a guided tour and find out all about these famous chocolates. (Sweet dreams are assured tonight!) Then we’ll head into the centre, wander down Corso Vannucci, the main street in the historic centre and see the Palazzo dei Priori, home of the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, the Sala dei Notari, the famous Maggiore fountain and much more! We’ll stay in Perugia for pizza this evening.

DAY SIX:
Sadly today is our last breakfast in Italiano! Time to think back on what you’ve learnt during our week of breakfast discussions together. Then it’s time to re-cap and consolidate what we’ve done this week in our lessons, answer any last-minute questions, put it all into practice one last time and make sure you all go home feeling excited about how much you’ve learnt. Naturally we’ll finish with a celebratory lunch together at Pian di Marte Ospitalità Rurale. Departure time is in the afternoon; we’ll be sad to see you go but know that you’ll have had a wonderful experience here with us at Oakfield Umbria.

5 BENEFITS OF DOING AN INTENSIVE COURSE THIS SUMMER

May 16, 2019

Whether you want to brush up on your conversation skills, focus on your business language needs or get ready for an important exam, there are many benefits of doing an intensive course. Here are five of them!

 

1  You really start to think in the language! In just a short time, you’ll find yourself completely immersed in the language and naturally thinking in it. This will help you feel more confident and comfortable when using the language.

2  You’ll have plenty of opportunities to experiment and practise your language skills in a wide range of situations. As you probably won’t be able to fall back on using your own language, you’ll be pushing yourself to find ways to communicate better every day both in and out of the classroom and with different people: classmates, teachers, local people, homestay hosts etc.

3  If you’ve done a standard extensive course, you’ll know that the gaps between the classesmean that you often forget what was learnt in the previous class. You set yourself home study goals, but everyday life gets in the way and you never study on a regular basis. On an intensive course you’re completely focused on your learning objectives without interruptions. This is particularly useful if you’re planning to take an exam at the end of your course or will be needing to use the language in an important professional situation.

4 There’ll be lots more to learn besides the language! Not only will your teacher probably expose you to a wider range of input than on a standard course, but you can also enjoy learning about the culture, visit new places and use your new language skills in a variety of situations. You’re learning but you’re also on holiday! You’ll go home having made new friends from around the world as well as your homestay hosts and can keep in touch with them afterwards to keep practising.

5  You can focus on specific goals. Because of the concentrated length of the course, your teacher will have clear goals in mind regarding your improvement areas, usually discussed in detail with you before starting the course. 1:1 lessons are best for this, especially for people with specific professional requirements. You can see a significant improvement in a short time focusing on one area of competence in order to gain the skills and knowledge you need to perform better at work.

 

Convinced? So are we! That’s why every summer we organise our summer intensive courses in Umbria. We can offer you the format that suits your needs best. Want to focus on your professional needs but also enjoy some relaxation? Done! Want to bring your family too? The more the merrier! Want to enjoy discovering Umbria and Tuscany while practising your language skills? This is the course for you!

5 THINGS TO TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION WHEN CHOOSING AN INTENSIVE COURSE

May 15, 2019

 

There are so many language schools promoting their summer intensive courses right now, so make sure you take these 5 things into consideration when choosing which one is best for you.

1 LOCATION – many people head for the big cities. While this can be a great opportunity to visit somewhere you’ve never been to before, it is also likely that you will have further to travel to get to your lessons – which means additional daily travel costs to get to your school. You could also spend a lot of time walking around on your own. Interesting but will you be using your language skills?

2 COURSE PROGRAMME – find out as much as possible about the course programme. Why do you want to do a summer language course – for work, pleasure, cultural interest, passing an exam? Choose a course that really meets your needs. If you need to improve your professional language skills, look for courses which specialise in professional adult training. Also think about 1:1 classes. This option will provide you with more personalized lessons that can be tailored towards your specific requirements. If you want to enjoy discovering your surroundings and practise the language with the locals, choose a course which allows you to have a real language holiday and live the language, not just study it.

3 ACCOMMODATION – You may be more comfortable in a hotel but the homestay option offers you greater opportunity to speak with your host family during mealtimes. Student residences can be a lot of fun but learners with the same mother tongue often tend to aggregate together and not practise their new language skills.

4 COST – the cheapest option is the cheapest for a reason. If you are giving up one or two weeks of your holiday time to learn a language, invest in a course that really will live up to your expectations and give you the results you need. And don’t forget that there are often many extras to be taken into account: enrolment fees, books, cultural programme, accommodation and board, travel costs – flights, airport transfers, insurance, travelling around during your stay, agency fees, personal costs e.g. museum tickets, cinema etc.  For example, if you find a one-week group course at a well-known language in London this summer costing around €600, expect to end up spending around at least €2000.

5 TEACHERS – who will your teacher be? Find out as much as you can about your teacher and his/her qualifications, how long s/he has been teaching, whether s/he is a permanent member of staff or only hired during the summer school period. Check out any student reviews available to see what they say about their teachers and the course too.

Here at Oakfield, we organize highly personalized summer intensive courses in the beautiful Umbrian countryside, in Italy. You won’t have the bright lights of New York, the university city of Oxford to discover, nor the beaches of Malta but you will have a 100% English experience.

We also organise language holidays for those of you who want to enjoy discovering Umbria and Tuscany whilst also improving your language skills. Relax, learn, enjoy. That’s our motto.