Presenting Giulia Balestri
- 19 October - 26 OCTOBER 2024
- 18 October - 25 October 2025
A novel approach to language learning
Learn Italian immersed in one of the most beautiful and interesting regions of Italy, nestling between the Apuan Alps (where Michelangelo found his precious marble) and the majestic Apennines, the mountainous backbone of Italy. Enjoy your stay at a beautiful ancient watermill, lovingly restored, with views over the river, the gardens and the mountains. Savour a journey through history, nature and rural traditions in unspoilt Lunigiana and visit the stunning seaside villages of the Cinque Terre.
A question a lot of people have been asking about The Watermill’s Italian Language course: Is it suitable for all levels of ability in speaking Italian? And the answer? An emphatic, “Si!“.
This is because of the special approach we developed with our colleagues from the prestigious language school in Florence, Langues Services and with our friend and teacher Giulia Balestri. Its philosophy and method are inspired by the work of Professor Bertrand Schwartz of Paris University, the educationalist who overturned the concept of teaching to adults, proposing an approach that develops not only theoretical knowledge but practical know-how as well.
The aim is to enhance the personal qualities of each student, tailoring the teaching to their needs and ambitions and establishing mutual, active and confident relationships, where the student is the true protagonist in the course. The motto is ‘action first, knowledge after.’
Your teacher/tutor, Giulia Balestri, explains the core of their approach:
“Our aim is to make the learning process as natural as possible; so imagine, when you’re abroad and you deal with an ordinary situation – whether it’s buying something or having a lovely dinner with a group of new friends – you won’t divide people depending on their knowledge of a language: you’ll try to pick words, meanings, maybe comparing sounds; you’ll use your primary senses to try and understand; your effort to observe and listen will be at its best, you’ll use your intuition, your imagination and your memory; and if someone sitting next to you at a table doesn’t understand when you do, you’ll translate for them: and that word or that phrase will remain in your memory more than a thousand others repeated by heart reading a grammar book alone in your house.”
Giulia adds:
“Mixing up different levels can be a powerful resource, where those who know more will be encouraged to be active and ‘teach’ what they know to those who know less, thus becoming more confident and assimilating their skills; and those who know less are motivated to push themselves forward. Mixing up different levels/people makes the course more creative, less unyielding, more realistic!”
When we do the ‘formal’ lessons (about 20 hours during the week), you’ll be divided in small homogeneous teams, so that we can cover a certain grammar issue at different levels and from different points of view, but still the lessons will be held all together.
“The lessons will be very interactive anyway, you’ll be asked to be the very protagonists in the ‘formal’ lessons, too. To guarantee the highest quality of the teaching/learning process, the group won’t have more than 12 participants.”
How will we find out about you and your needs? Giulia says:
“Every participant on the course will be asked to fill out a form, a sort of CV of your knowledge of the Italian language, to find not only about the Italian courses you took and understand your level, but also to learn about the kind of ‘relationship’ you have with the Italian language, and your interests and hobbies… so that I can prepare a course plan that suits your needs and expectations. Of course many things will be changed, improved and decided together, once we meet at The Watermill, and start to know each other”.
We can’t wait to meet everybody – and improve our Italian, too! Ci vediamo!
Meet Giulia Balestri
Giulia, who was born, and now lives, in Pisa is passionate about Tuscany and about the Italian language. And she thinks that there is more to learning Italian than just mastering new language. She says:
“I’m convinced that studying a foreign language not only gives people the opportunity to have an extra communications tool, but also opened their minds to different points of view, stimulating curiosity and a passion for different cultures.”
She became passionate about teaching Italian after attending a special course at the University for Foreigners in Siena nearly 10 years ago, a passion augmented by her experience as a lawyer, dealing mainly in criminal law and immigration. Since 2014 she has been collaborating with the Alif language school in Pisa, where she was born and now lives.
Giulia says:
“For the teaching of the Italian language we favour a communicative approach, which allows people to learn in a comfortable and stimulating environment, despite the different linguistic backgrounds of the students and sometimes also their different starting levels.”