The Florentine mosaic

If Milan – is the business and fashion centre, Florence – is the capital of art and culture. The city has kept unique spirit of Renaissance which so draws the travelers. A trip to Florence – is an obligatory part of the university program on art in many countries, especially the USA. It is a pity that we do not have such tradition. However, our tourists are enough here.

The Florentine school was the first in the network of Linguaviva (now except it and Milan Linguadue, there is a centre in Sirakuzah on Sicilia and children’s camp in Linjano near Venice), it has appeared 30 years ago. At first, only usual Italian courses were offered, now to them are added the programs with the Florentine institute of culinary art Apicius and university of arts Florence University of the Arts. To study in Apicius it is possible and in English, and at university of arts it is the general unique language of training because it was created as the high school for foreigners, but Italian in any case is included into the program.

The school really well knows the business, it has the reputation of one of the best in Italy. It is included into the elite international association IALC uniting qualitative courses of foreign languages from the different countries (except it, there are four more Italian schools which are the members of this association).
The school is located in the central part of the city, two steps away from the station, a monastery of Santa-Maria. Actually, in a medieval city two steps away from each other: you start to wander on narrow small streets and inevitably find yourself at first at the Dignity-Lorenzo, then at a cathedral with a belfry of D’hôte, you go down a little more downwards – and here is already Palazzo Vekkio, a palace of family of Medici, and here already and gallery with David Michelangelo, and the Old bridge with benches of jewelers. Families in which students stay ,also live near the school.

The school occupies the second floor of the house of the end of a XIX-th century, with high ceilings, spacious halls, huge windows from which there is a wonderful view on the well-known domes of the Florentine cathedrals made of red brick and on the same colors tile roofs of an old city. You go to the balcony – the sun shines, bells call, birds sing, cicadas crack, the Italian words thrown by passers-by on the move, and for a moment seems wonderful.

The training program at school, as well as in other centers of the network, is made in a standard way: from morning there two lessons of grammar with one teacher, then a small break, then two more lessons, but already of every day speech and with another teacher. If a course is intensive (30 lessons in week) after dinner individual classes are added . For fans of culinary art – special courses in Apidus. For the professionals Apicius offers the serious programs representing cookery as a part of the Italian culture. In other words, the students are not simply learnt to cook, but involve in the difficult process under the name «art to live in Italian manner», including both history, and traditions, style, and the same cuisine. Those who are interested in art, design and a photo, are offered the classes on this theme and at the school, and at the university of arts.
You should understand that Italian cannot be learnt by sitting in the class as well as it is not possible to understand Italy. Only living and enjoying life, there is a chance to come closer to an ideal.

Currently the world is much more interactive than ever before. The borders of many countries have been opened allowing people to travel there. Further to that, the online technologies provide us with a unique possibility to discover countries even without visiting them. But all this requires possessing foreign languages. Those who are looking materials on Spanish, are welcomed to go to this learn to speak Spanish site.

Keep in mind it is not necessary to invest a great deal of cash to learn a foreign language. The Internet network today is a great storeroom of materials. Search Google and other search engines for “learn speaking Spanish“. You may be surprised how many online courses and tutorials are accessible online. No need to enroll in a class or hire an expensive tutor. You can learn to speak Spanish online at no cost.

In the past we wrote about what prospects in sense of the further study and career open before those who knows the Italian language. In particular, we have told about the well-known schools of design and not less well-known technical university of Milan, rather interested in our talented students. If Italy – is your dream, it is left only to learn language. Where and how well to do it we suggest you to learn in this article.

Milan is further – is everywhere

The Italian language is not included into the number of the most widespread and necessary languages to learn, it does not have loud status «means of the international communication» and, nevertheless, thousand and thousand people from all over the world, are fascinated by its beauty and are in love in its native land, come to learn it to Italy every year. According to last data, almost the third of this public – are Americans, another quarter –are Germans and Englishmen, the rest part presents the mix of Europeans, Japanese, Australians and Latin Americans. And here what is interesting: all questioned students of the Italian language schools recommend the courses to another, 75 % estimate the teaching level, as excellent (no other courses abroad have not deserved that!) . Without putting under the question the quality of Italian courses in Italy, nevertheless we shall dare to assume that matter is not only in them. But also in the students: Italian is learnt with love, interest, desire (have you ever heard the same about English?) and if you do something with pleasure, the result, as a rule, is better – independently from anything. So, schools of the Italian language in Italy are good by definition.

It is considered to be that the Italian language is learnt for itself as a hobby, at the best – for traveling across Italy, communicating with the Italian friends. But it appears, the majority (more than 40 %) is going to use it in work. Really, why not to combine business with pleasure?

In most schools are used the programs of preparation for the further study and training («Language + work»). Mainstreams of training – are design, architecture, a fashion – that is Milan is famous for . But also other fields of activity do not stand aside, for example, recently for the student from Russia, the lawyer by the specialty, was organized the courses with the subsequent practice in the field of international law. Other student prepares to enter Master program in the field of a fashion and luxury goods – he was organized the special program.

Preparation for the further study is not limited only by Italian language courses: the student is given consultations, the information on programs and educational institutions, training costs etc. When the foreign student the first time comes to Italy, without knowing language, he feels lost. After the language courses he is almost a real Milano man, capable to take care of himself. The educational institution does not have with him any problems».

To participate in training and to enter the university, it is necessary to have level of knowledge of language above an average (Intermediate 2 or level 6). Not all desire to subdue the top, for many and two weeks in Italy – are already a holiday.

Today the world is more interactive than ever. The borders of many countries have been opened allowing people to visit them. Moreover, the web technologies provide us with a truly unique opportunity to discover countries even without travelling to them. But all this requires possessing foreign languages. Those who are searching materials on Spanish, are invited to visit this learn to speak Spanish site.

Remember it is not necessary to invest a great deal of cash in order to study a foreign language. The Internet network today is a great source of materials. Search Google and other search engines for “Spanish lessons for beginners“. You may be surprised how many online courses and manuals are accessible online. You don’t need to enroll in a class or hire an overpriced tutor. It is possible to learn to speak Spanish online at no cost.

Here are some cases why we learn foreign languages:

1. As necessary – we are forced to learn it at school or high school.

2. People foreign language simply – as a hobby.

3. For the practical purposes – rest, study, work or business abroad.

4. For the cultural and educational purposes.

People who come to courses and schools to learn foreign languages do it on their own free will, anybody force them, that is why the motivation of pupils is described only by points from 2to 4. We will consider them separately.

Foreign language studying as a hobby. Here it is all the same, which language to choose for studying, Italian, Spanish or some other.

Studying of a foreign language for the rest. The choice is defined by a place where you wish to have rest at. If you love Canary Islands – study Spanish, wish to sunbathe in Sicily – then study Italian.

Choice of a foreign language for study. Here all depends on the specialty chosen by you. If you are the artist then without doubts you should learn Italian language, because such quantity of museums, ancient ruins and other sights as in Italy, you will not simply find anywhere. If you have decided to become the toreador, it is necessary to go to Spain, and to learn, of course, Spanish language.

As to the work. People usually go to those places where they are paid more. In this sense Italy is slightly more attractive than Spain and Latin America and from this point of view now it is more favorable to learn Italian language. But all can change, and what will be in the future – it is difficult to tell.

From the point of view of business, in general it is possible not to learn any language–it is easier to take with itself the translator. But if your business has any “thin” moments which should not reach nobody’s ears then it is necessary to learn language yourself. What language to learn – depends already on where your business ties are. It can be Spain, Latin America, southern states of the USA – then learn Spanish language. If you have ties in Italy, southern cantons of Switzerland or on some Mediterranean islands of France, then it is necessary to master Italian language.

Studying of language for the cultural and educational purposes. What can we say here? Spiritual needs – is a complicated thing and for each person they are enough individual. It is difficult to define, what exactly is necessary for you. If you are the fan of dances and adore flamenco, samba, tango or cha-cha, then carry with you the Spanish textbook. If prefer tarantella or saltarello – run to the Italian language courses.

There are a lot of pop starts as in Italy as in Spain and countries of Latin America. It is hard to name all of them. It would be enough to name Adriano Celentano and Julio Iglesias.

The only thing in what the Spanish language is out of competition is in soap-operas . Latin America shoots these soap-operas with the light speed and housewives of all world cry over sufferings of heroes and are happy for their happiness. If you are such housewife or simply a lover of the Latin American serials, then you should go directly to Spanish language courses.

We hope that now it will be easier for you to be defined with the choice, what language to study. Better, of course, to learn both, but do not hurry up yet – choose one of them for now.

These days the world is much more interactive than ever before. The borders of many countries have been opened allowing people to travel there. Moreover, the online technologies provide us with a truly unique possibility to learn countries even without visiting them. But all this requires possessing foreign languages. Those who are searching materials on Spanish, are invited to go to this learn to speak Spanish site.

Remember it is not necessary to invest much cash in order to study a foreign language. The Internet network today is a great source of materials. Search Google and other search engines for “free online Spanish lessons“. You might be surprised how many online courses and manuals are available online. No need to visit a class or hire an overpriced tutor. You can learn to speak Spanish online for free of charge.

There are a lot of countries and people in Europe. In the north and in the center dominate the German people, in the east – Slavic, and in the south dominate the descendants of Romans (Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians). The West of Europe is divided between the German people (Dutch people and Englishmen) and Frenchmen, the relatives of Spaniards.

Slavic people contacted the different people of Europe throughout all history and, accordingly, there was a requirement for studying of different foreign languages which in the modern world gets the increasing sharpness.

The most part of the former USSR – are enough the cold countries and inhabitants of this territory always were drawn to the south, where it was warm. Besides Turkey, Egypt and Cyprus a lot of our compatriots prefer to have rest in Italy and Spain, especially on Canary Islands.

It is caused not only by the warm climate of these countries, but also by the rich cultural heritage of these countries. «there is where to get warm and to look around». Naturally, our citizens have a question: «How to communicate at the resort?». There are not problems in the boarders of the hotel. The personnel there is trained to speak English language, and if you got at least C at school on this subject , then you would be able to explain somehow what you want.

It is more difficult, if you have to leave the hotel and to leave in a city or to go outside its boarder. Here English will not help any more. It is necessary to know native language of inhabitants of these countries, that is either Spanish, or the Italian language. Otherwise you risk to be lost and not to return home.

Spanish and Italian language are included too into the Roman language group united by the general origin from Latin language – an official language of ancient Roman empire.

Besides Spanish and Italian languages the same group includes, for example, the French language which has been widely spread enough as the subject in the high schools.

By the quantity of people speaking these languages, Spanish and Italian are strongly different. About 350 million speak Spanish in the world (the majority of them are in Latin America), in Italian – about 70 million people.

The Spanish language is an official language of the United Nations, and Italian – is not. The Spanish language is recognized by the official in 20 countries of the world, and Italian – only in three. That means that the international prestige and the value of the Spanish language is considerably more than Italian. Value of the Spanish language is shown in that it is much more extended in schools as a subject, Italian language. It would seem, it is more useful to learn Spanish language, but it is not always so.

Currently the world is more interactive than ever. The borders of many countries are open providing people with nice chance to travel there. Besides, the web technologies provide us with a unique opportunity to discover countries even without travelling to them. But all this needs possessing foreign languages. Those who are searching materials on Spanish, are invited to go to this learn to speak Spanish site.

Remember it is not required to invest much cash to study a foreign language. The Internet network today is a great storeroom of materials. Search Google and other search engines for “Spanish lessons for beginners“. You may be surprised how many online courses and tutorials are accessible online. You don’t need to visit a class or hire an overpriced tutor. It is possible to learn to speak Spanish online for free of charge.

ADHD affects more children in the US than you would believe. And about 4% of all children put together take drugs to help them with the way they pay attention in class and with hyperactivity in general. Of course, these medicines are not free of troublesome side effects. So troublesome and so frequent are these effects that two out of three children with ADHD have parents looking for an alternative to conventional treatment for ADHD. One of the first things that parents try in their mission to help a child with ADHD, is a change in the diet – a change for the better. Often, keeping children away from processed sugar-hopped foods and food additives helps quite a bit. Lots of parents, about one in five, have tried herbal products. Supplements like vitamins and alternative treatments such as yoga and biofeedback aren’t exactly unpopular either. The problem is, as with every other kind of alternative treatment, these have precious little scientific research to hold them up.

It isn’t as if parents always have a choice in standard psychiatric drugs for ADHD treatment anyway; some children are completely intolerant to them. For these children, an alternative treatment for ADHD isn’t an alternative at all – it is the only way. And even in the children whose bodies do tolerate the drugs, one time out of three, there are problems – a terrible loss of weight, stomach ache, sleep loss, a complete change of personality. The FDA has been paying attention too – and for a few years now has stamped warnings on popular drugs like Ritalin, Concerta and Adderall. Those messages warned of possible heart attacks, hallucinations and death. So if a parent does want to explore the options in alternative treatment for ADHD, what kind of choices that they have?

The initial results are not encouraging; there has been a major study done on the effects of a herb that has been much in the news for its effects in all kinds of psychiatric conditions, including depression; it is called St. John’s Wort and it has been tested on dozens of children; the study found that the herb worked no better than sugar pills. But the study only tested for its effects over an eight-week course; some prescription drugs can take 12 weeks to show any kind of effect. An eight-week study isn’t exactly fair. The thing is, in any course of complementary medicine, no one method ever works by itself. It is always groups of mutually complementary treatments that get picked.  Ginkgo biloba, ginseng and echinacea  are among the other herbs that are known to have an effect – in preliminary studies. If you are looking for an alternative treatment for ADHD, you do need to keep searching.

But you could help a child gain many of the effects of a good alternative treatment for ADHD, just by avoiding some of the foods that are known to aggravate the problem. There was a study done in the respected medical journal The Lancet three years ago, that looked into how children with ADHD, whose diet included foods with artificial colors and preservatives, only make their problem much worse. They were put on an additive- and color-free diet for a month and a half; and their condition improved a whole lot. The moment they were given a can of soda at the end of that period though, it drove them up a wall. So an additive-free diet is great for ADHD; and while it might be intuitive to think that a high sugar diet can be really bad for ADHD too (especially since sugar is known to get even normal people ll agitated), that connection doesn’t work really as well.

Here is an interesting alternative treatment for ADHD; it’s called biofeedback. It’s kind of high-tech; children are made to put on electrodes on their foreheads; when they have specific kinds of thoughts or thoughts of intent, the electrical energy generated by the brain is caught by the electrodes, and is used to control events on a video game.  It is so entertaining to children to see that they can control things with their mind that they keep at it; and in the process, gain valuable experience in the control of their minds.They say that this works just as well as most drugs. You could go to the Integrativepeds website to find out more about doctors who might be willing to explore alternative treatments with children.