Italian evening course in Brighton: Cactus staff review

Walking into the classroom to be greeted by a cheery ‘Ciao’ from my teacher was a grand welcome to my first Italian learning experience. I returned the ‘Ciao’ with great confidence, sat down, and was delighted to hear Grazia, my teacher, welcome the others and start talking about the course in Italian. Not a word of English despite the fact we were all absolute beginners. I could hardly understand a thing but it didn’t seem to matter as the meaning for the most part was clear.

And this was how it progressed from there. Hardly any English apart from a few muttered translations from my fellow students. One could definitely get a sense of confrontation from some of them – this is not how we studied French at school! – but after a couple of lessons everyone seemed to get into the groove and we started producing our own somewhat hesitant, somewhat clumsy Italian sentences. But Italian nonetheless!

Grammar was taught, but very much in context for the most part – some focus work on verb endings aside – which made it seem as if it were like learning pieces of vocabulary rather than structures. For me this worked better, as I find learning grammar by rote (amo, amas, amat…) about as interesting as learning a telephone directory.

Also, to have this immersion in the language every week was refreshing and different, and meant that walking into the classroom was like entering a little language bubble for those 2 hours. Even if I didn’t get some of what was said – and Grazia always did her best to repeat, rephrase and re-contextualise when necessary – I felt that this was what it must be like for a child learning its first language and was happy to let the unconscious do its work. A few times this meant that I was able to make connections and understand language that hadn’t been explicitly taught, and proved a fascinating part of the learning process.

Now I have finished the course, the challenge is to maintain and build on the linguistic foundations laid down. The next level is not running this term, as so many are away over the summer, and I’m already missing the discipline the weekly bubble provided. I’m listening to a few podcasts and doing a bit of self-study on the side, but I can’t wait to sign up for the autumn term and get back into la bella lingua!

Chris took a 10-week beginner’s Italian course in Brighton. Cactus offers daytime and evening language courses in many other languages and locations across the UK, as well as language courses abroad for those wishing to put their language into real-life practice.