How to say ‘Happy New Year’ in 20 languages

Posted by simonager under English, French, German, Italian, Learning a language, Spanish

New Year is celebrated around the world, though not necessarily on the same day everywhere. In some cases, such as in Chinese and Vietnamese communities, there are celebrations for both solar New Year on 1st January according to the Gregorian, and Lunar New Year, the date of which changes every year. In the Eastern Orthodox [...]

Read the full article

Tags: arabic, catalan, french, german, italian, mandarin, new year, spanish, voc

Buon appetito! Why Italian meal times are such a special occasion

Posted by simonager under Italian, Learning a language

In Italy people live to eat whereas in some other nations, such as the UK, people tend to eat to live. Food is taken seriously in Italy and meals are social occasions which can last several hours as the food and drink is enjoyed at a leisurely pace.
Every region and many towns have their own [...]

Read the full article

Tags: culture, food, italian, itlay, tuscany

Truffles (Tartufi)

Posted by simonager under Italian, Learning a language

Truffles are the fruiting body (ascoma) of a type of fungi found in Europe, Asia, North Africa and North America. They have been used as food, aphrodisiacs and medicines since Roman times, and are the one of the most expensive foods in the world. They are especially popular in French, northern Italy and parts of [...]

Read the full article

Tags: culture, england, food, italian, itlay, november, october, truffles

Is Sicily really so different from mainland Italy?

Posted by simonager under Italian, Learning a language

Sicily (Sicilia) is an island with a population of about five million located off the southern tip of mainland Italy (Italia). It is an autonomous region of Italy, the largest island in the Mediterraean, and has been considered a strategic location for much of it’s history. As a result, it has been occupied by many [...]

Read the full article

Tags: destination, food, italian, itlay, location, sicily

Cactus Opinion: Dreaming of Italian in Rome

Posted by Sarah under Cactus Languages Abroad, Italian, Learning a language

Alex Wolfson, Cactus Language Holiday Advisor, tells us why he’d like to visit Rome…

Bryan Adams was at Number 1 with his song from Robin Hood and the Soviet Union had just collapsed when I visited Italy for the only time in my life so far, and I cannot help but feel that I visited Rome [...]

Read the full article

Tags: italian, italy, rome

Top 5 City Breaks this Autumn

Posted by Sarah under Cactus Languages Abroad, English, French, Italian, Learning a language, Spanish

Put some brightness in your diary this autumn…
August has just been pronounced the worst on record, we’re almost in autumn without even seeing a summer, and the evenings are starting to draw in. Anyone living in the UK has ample reason to be jumping on a plane right now - and it seems that, despite [...]

Read the full article

Tags: barcelona, berlin, cava week, city break, english, french, italian, new york, nice, rome, spanish, thanksgiving

Language Holidays for the Over 50s

Posted by Sarah under Cactus Languages Abroad, English, French, German, Italian, Learning a language, Spanish

Why learn a language later in life?
With an increasingly ‘older’ population, and people living for longer, it is not surprising that the over 50s and retirees are now enjoying, and demanding more, of their free time. Many now have the time, money and freedom to indulge in existing passions and explore new interests, whether at [...]

Read the full article

Tags: language learning over 50s, learning a language, learning later in life, young at heart

Language Learning: Setting Yourself Goals

Posted by Sarah under Cactus Languages Abroad, English, French, German, Italian, Learning a language, Spanish

When you learn something new - whether it’s a sport, a musical instrument or a foreign language - it can really help to have a goal, or set of goals. A goal will not only motivate you and provide the impetus to keep going; it will also give you a valuable means of tracking [...]

Read the full article

Tags: cambridge further exams, celi, dele, delf, language exam preparation course, language holiday abroad, language learning, language learning goals, testdaf

Attenzione! 10 Italian False Friends

Posted by Sarah under Cactus Languages Abroad, Italian, Learning a language

Not all Italian words mean what you think they do…
Learning a language is as much about stringing together a perfect sentence as it is about being able to laugh and pick yourself up when you make a mistake. False friends, or falsi amici, are one such route to finding yourself in the latter situation - [...]

Read the full article

Tags: false friends, italian

The Language of the EU

Posted by Sarah under English, French, German, In the Press, Italian

Augusta Nicol, Director of Studies at Cactus New York, comments on Berlusconi’s latest upset
Silvio Berlusconi, the intractable and obstinate Italian Prime Minister, has thrown a tantrum over the fact that EU meetings use the languages that most Europeans speak, and not Italian (read full article in EUobserver here).
He has “advised his ministers to walk out [...]

Read the full article

Tags: berlusconi, eu, italian