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Thursday, October 31, 2013

Sentieri Event: Festa di Natale

Festa di Natale – Sentieri's Holiday Party
Sunday, December 8th
5:00 – 8:00 pm
at the California Clipper

  Magic Show!      DJ!      Snacks!      Cash Bar!      Raffle!

Celebrate the holidays and another year with your favorite Italian speakers! Join the students, teachers and
friends of Sentieri as we celebrate Natale. The private party is at the California Clipper bar, located at
1002 N. California Ave.
$20 per person
$15 per Sentieri member
*Cash or check payment due by December 2, 2013
*Send check to: Sentieri 5430 N. Broadway St. Chicago, IL
*Call to make an appointment: 773-275-5325

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

La Zucca isn't only for Halloween


This week, seeing as though Halloween is fast approaching, we saw it only fitting that we introduce you to some of our favorite Italian idioms that also happen to reference one of the most popular foods from this time of the year. Pumpkin!

Avere poco sale in zucca translated literally means "to have very little salt in the pumpkin," but what does it even mean? The phrase is used to describe someone who is- how can we say?- lacking in intelligence or good sense. Interestingly enough, this phrase comes from a time when pumpkins were used as containers for salt. When poor farmers were low on salt, they would often say, "Abbiamo poco sale in zucca."

Pumpkins also got a bit of a bad rap since they weren't considered to be of much nutritional value and don't have a strong flavor. So if someone calles you a "zuccone" ("a big pumpkin") or tells you that you are a "zucca vuota" (an empty pumpkin), you can be assured that it isn't a compliment.


Buon Halloween a tutti!

Gisella
Sentieri Blog Contributor

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Winter 2014 - Italian Class Schedule

Italian Class at Sentieri Italiani

Location 
Sentieri Italiani
5430 N. Broadway St. Chicago, IL 60640
Map/Directions

Italian Courses
Winter 2014
January 6th to March 15th

Basic Italian 1, absolute beginner
Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30pm

Basic Italian 2
Thursdays, 6:30-8:30pm

Basic Italian 3
Tuesdays, 6:30-8:30pm

Basic Italian 4
Saturdays, 10:30am–12:30pm

Intermediate Italian: Listening, Vocabulary and Speaking
Saturdays, 10:30am–12:30pm

Advanced Italian: Listening, Vocabulary and Speaking
Tuesdays, 6:30-8:30pm

Conversation Italian 1
Mondays, 6:30-8:30pm

Conversation Italian 2
Thursdays, 6:30-8:30pm

Conversation Italian 3
Mondays, 6:30-8:30pm

Conversation Italian 4
Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30pm

Book Club (intermediate/advanced)
Fridays, 10:00am–12:00pm

Course Fees
(min. 8 students per class)

Standard Registration 
(after November 15th)
Cash/check: $300.00


- Credit Card transactions: $15 extra, membership discount does not apply
Materials not included. If required for your course, material prices will be sent with your course confirmation and will be payable at the first class.

Register by 
  • Sending registration form and payment to Sentieri: 5430 N Broadway, Chicago, IL 60640

Private Italian classes at Sentieri
  • One-on-one sessions to be scheduled upon registration. 
  • Lessons by phone or email are also available 
Course Fees
  • Six Lessons (One hour each) $420
  • Eight Lessons (One hour each) $530
  • Ten Lessons (One hour each) $650
  • Any additional person is $30 per hour
  • Lessons by phone or email are also available
  • Classes can be held at your location for an additional $200 per package
Register by 
  • Calling 773-275-5325. Once schedule is confirmed, payment is due one week prior to the first lesson. Send payment to Sentieri: 5430 N Broadway, Chicago, IL 60640

Daniela Cavallero during an Italian class on Skype
Private Italian classes on Skype
  • One-on-one sessions to be scheduled upon registration. 
  • Lessons held by Skype
Course Fees
  • Individual hour $80
  • 6 hour package $420
  • 8 hour package $530
  • 10 hour package $650
Register by 
  • Calling 773-275-5325. Payment due at registration. Visa or Master Card only.



Interested in one of our classes but still have some questions? Call us today at 773-275-5325 or submit our online contact form.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

A (Very) Brief History of the Giallo

An American writer wanders the streets of Rome when he witnesses a black-clad figure stab a woman inside an art gallery. Shocked, he rushes to help, only to find himself suddenly trapped by the gallery's enormous glass doors. Powerless, he watches in horror as the woman cries for help as she dies. 
 
With the approach of Halloween, many of us are spending the coming weeks catching up on horror flicks and Italy certainly has no dearth of films in this genre. The above scene opens Dario Argento's 1970 The Bird With the Crystal Plummage, a classic of the giallo genre.
 
Giallo is the Italian word for yellow, which was the trademark color of the covers of the pulp crime novels, published by Mondadori, starting in 1929. Following their enormous success, other publishing houses soon got in on the act, publishing their own cheap crime novels, always with the yellow cover. The term giallo soon became synonomous with crime fiction.
 
The films that soon emerged from these novels added elements of horror, eroticism, and madness, taking the typical giallo plots and transforming them from straightforward crime stories into psychological thrillers. While the whodunit aspect of the literary tradition was retained, the murders that occur in gialli are often grotesque, usually filmed in artful, even operatic, ways.
 
If your curiosity is piqued, here is the trailer from legendary director Mario Bava's 1963 film The Girl Who Knew Too Much, which is generally considered the first film of this genre.
 
 
Have you seen any giallo films? If so, which ones are your favorite? Tell us in the comments section below!
 
Gisella
Sentieri Blog Contributor

Friday, October 4, 2013

The New Italian Language

Last week while browsing La Repubblica I came across an article detailing new Italian words being put into the 2014 edition of Lo Zingarelli, an Italian dictionary. There has been a proposal of 1,500 new words, some of which come from Italian dialects and American slang. Some of these new words include:

“Hashtag”- This word comes from American slang, and it is primarily used within social media outlets like Twitter. Users place a “#” in front of words or phrases that describe their social media post. This allows other users to search a database that stores other postings that have used the same words or phrases.

“Adultescente”- This word refers to young people in their thirties whose lifestyle (study, work, home) and mentality are considered similar to those of a teenager. This word combines the words “adulto” (adult) and “adolescente” (adolescent).

“Videointervista”- This words means “video-interview”. It is a word that has been common in the Italian language for a while, but only now is it being introduced into Lo Zingarelli.

Changes in the Italian language are very fast. Massimo Arcangeli, a linguist, has noted that it is important to keep new words under observation for a long time so that the frequency of a word’s use and importance in Italian society can be determined.

There are, of course, some words that have been left out of the 2014 edition of Lo Zingarelli. Two of these omissions include:

 “Iperattivi”- This word means “hyperactive.”

“Bling Bling”- This word comes from American slang. It refers to a style of dress that is flashy and ostentatious.


Certainly these new words, coming from different cultural backgrounds, highlight the evolving nature of the Italian language in our modern society.



Brittany
Sentieri Blog Contributor 

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Comedy, Italian Style at the Chicago International Film Festival

October 10 starts the beginning of the 49th edition of the Chicago International Film Festival and we're excited to see that a number of Italian films are scheduled to be shown. This year, in fact, the festival will be celebrating Italian cinema with the retrospective Comedy, Italian Style, showing some of the most beloved Italian comedies of the past few decades.

Some of the films that we're most excited about are Divorce, Italian Style, the 1961 satire of Sicilian male-chauvinist culture, and Amarcord, Fellini's dreamlike capolavoro that pays tribute to small-town Italian life.

Check out the full list of films and showtimes here.

What are some of the films that you are looking most forward to? Let us know in the comments section!


Gisella
Sentieri Blog Contributor