32. Finding a School
This blog is probably appearing late for many of you, who will already have chosen or are already attending a language school in Italy. If so, I apologise, but I do hope it will prove of use to some of you. In one of my earlier blogs I did mention a web site that listed some schools -- http://www.it-schools.com email: italy@it-schools.com. I would like to pass on some information from Mr. Alberto Rossi from It-schools.
In one of my blogs I think I referred to It-schools as an association that vets those schools listed by them. Mr. Rossi has very kindly corrected my error. He points out that “It-schools is not an association but simply a private (little) advertising company …a ‘search engine’ specialised in Italian schools.” There are, instead, two “principal quality checkers” – the Italian Ministry of Education and ASILS, an association of Italian language schools “with some standards about quality”.
The Ministry abolished its vetting programme and has not as yet replaced it with anything else. ASILS is not comprehensive. As Mr. Rossi aptly puts it, “there are a lot of good schools without the recognition of the Ministry as well as a lot of good schools not being part of ASILS. There have been also some bad schools, recognised by the Ministry!” All this brings us back to the original question, how does one find a “good” school, or one suited to your interest?
I’ll tell you how I found the three schools I attended and let you draw your own conclusion. The Università per Stranieri a Perugia was highly recommended to me by a friend, and in my past academic experience I had heard of the University of Perugia. My decision was a no brainer. It had to be good school. Well, if you read blogs 4 - 6, 9,10 you will know just what a terrible learning experience I was subjected to. If you read my blogs and still go there and have a bad experience you have only yourself to blame. You have been warned!
Scuola Leonardo and LinguaIt I chose without advice. I found the It-school site and “mistakenly” thought that it was an Association. I was impressed by the fact that Scuola Leonardo was government approved and of long standing. Little did I know that such approval was outdated. I was toying between Lucca and Siena when a friend told me how beautiful Siena was! And so I chose Siena and had a wonderful experience.
Since It-schools has served me well once, I decided to use it again, and based on LinguaIt’s publicity about teaching everyday Italian I chose it. Again, I have no major regrets. As Mr. Rossi has pointed out to me, some of the schools have been listed for over 12 years and some he has personally visited. I am sure Mr. Rossi would be happy to advise anyone who so needs advice. Personally, I have no problems about choosing a school listed on It-schools. Which brings me to my last point.
In September I will be going to Rome to study. I found the school’s brochure at the Italian Consulate, and I liked what I read about emphasising conversation. I registered. I assumed that the school was part of the It-schools stable, but I have since found out that it is not. Nor is it part of ASILS, and further, it prides itself in not being a member of anything. I have also found other (I hope minor) features a little troubling, but I have decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and attend. You can read about my experience in early November. Let’s just hope I haven’t found another school as bad as the Università per Stranieri a Perugia!
In one of my blogs I think I referred to It-schools as an association that vets those schools listed by them. Mr. Rossi has very kindly corrected my error. He points out that “It-schools is not an association but simply a private (little) advertising company …a ‘search engine’ specialised in Italian schools.” There are, instead, two “principal quality checkers” – the Italian Ministry of Education and ASILS, an association of Italian language schools “with some standards about quality”.
The Ministry abolished its vetting programme and has not as yet replaced it with anything else. ASILS is not comprehensive. As Mr. Rossi aptly puts it, “there are a lot of good schools without the recognition of the Ministry as well as a lot of good schools not being part of ASILS. There have been also some bad schools, recognised by the Ministry!” All this brings us back to the original question, how does one find a “good” school, or one suited to your interest?
I’ll tell you how I found the three schools I attended and let you draw your own conclusion. The Università per Stranieri a Perugia was highly recommended to me by a friend, and in my past academic experience I had heard of the University of Perugia. My decision was a no brainer. It had to be good school. Well, if you read blogs 4 - 6, 9,10 you will know just what a terrible learning experience I was subjected to. If you read my blogs and still go there and have a bad experience you have only yourself to blame. You have been warned!
Scuola Leonardo and LinguaIt I chose without advice. I found the It-school site and “mistakenly” thought that it was an Association. I was impressed by the fact that Scuola Leonardo was government approved and of long standing. Little did I know that such approval was outdated. I was toying between Lucca and Siena when a friend told me how beautiful Siena was! And so I chose Siena and had a wonderful experience.
Since It-schools has served me well once, I decided to use it again, and based on LinguaIt’s publicity about teaching everyday Italian I chose it. Again, I have no major regrets. As Mr. Rossi has pointed out to me, some of the schools have been listed for over 12 years and some he has personally visited. I am sure Mr. Rossi would be happy to advise anyone who so needs advice. Personally, I have no problems about choosing a school listed on It-schools. Which brings me to my last point.
In September I will be going to Rome to study. I found the school’s brochure at the Italian Consulate, and I liked what I read about emphasising conversation. I registered. I assumed that the school was part of the It-schools stable, but I have since found out that it is not. Nor is it part of ASILS, and further, it prides itself in not being a member of anything. I have also found other (I hope minor) features a little troubling, but I have decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and attend. You can read about my experience in early November. Let’s just hope I haven’t found another school as bad as the Università per Stranieri a Perugia!
posted by Toby1939 at 2:45 PM
