• How to communicate in a variety of social situations, such as introducing yourself, talking about daily activities, describing what you do for work, writing and reading simple texts, such as an e-mail, giving and getting directions, asking about the weather and telling time.
• Basic grammatical structures such as articles and nouns, adjectives, present and past tenses of regular and irregular verbs.
• Italian culture, including daily life, film, cuisine, universities and vacationing.

Benvenute e Benvenuti!

Italian Language and Culture: Beginner is an introductory course that teaches the four basic skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) in the context of major themes in Italian culture.

The course will stay open from February 12, 2023 until December 31, 2024 , as a self-paced course: this means that you can cover the material at your own speed within the time the course is open.

Although we estimate that, studying 3-4 hours per week, it will take you about 8 weeks to complete the course, you are under no obligation to finish within this time.

You may decide to study towards a Verified Certificate of Completion ($59), or to learn for your personal enrichment and pleasure.

To receive a Verified Certificate of Completion you must obtain a final score of 60% on Tests. You may drop 2 Tests.

Course organization

The course consists of four Units.

Each Unit is broken down in 6-7 lessons (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc.)

Each lesson presents its content in multiple ways. These can be viewed and studied in any order you prefer.

Below is a quick overview of the various components of each unit.

• Ciak! videos : original videos shot on our campus with native and near native speakers of Italian. Each Ciak! video is followed by two downloadable Podcasts. These will be ideal for your on-the-go practice.

• Grammar charts : grammar explanations, examples, and charts are available for review with audio files of each example and verb conjugation within the course, and can be downloaded in PDF file format.

• Slide Shows with animation : grammar explanations with images and animation.

• Videos (Slide Shows with Narration) : narrated grammar explanations.

• Esercizi : online exercises with immediate feedback.

• Vocaboli nuovi : new vocabulary lists are available as PDF files, slide show presentations, and videos with narration.

• Discussione : creative writing prompts.

• Lettura : readings delivered as PDF files, slide show presentations, and videos with narration.

• Intervista : interview with a native speaker on a variety of cultural subjects.

"Brilliantly structured, extremely engaging and very motivating course."

"It is like having a language lab right in my house."

"I'm learning Italian so easily and fast, with so much fun."

“Thank you for the fantastic course. I am overwhelmingly grateful for the richness and depth of the material and the opportunity to learn”

"I am constantly impressed by the freshness and challenge of the materials."

"I take language classes in school too and I can honestly say that this course far exceeds them."

"This is the first time I've been successful in learning a language. Thank you!"