Love for Learning Italian

Above in a photo of Dawn in Rome in November, 2022.

Dawn, along with her husband, first joined Leicester Adult Education 28 years ago!

They had booked their honeymoon in Italy, so decided to join our Italian for Beginners course. Although they visited a northern town, which was almost entirely German speaking, Dawn began her love for learning Italian. In the early 2000s, Dawn achieved a grade B in GCSE Italian. However, a busy lifestyle and pressures of work meant that Dawn had little time to study Italian anymore. So, when Dawn retired in 2018, joining an Italian class was top of her to do list!

Learning Italian was going to be a long-term commitment for Dawn. She told us that she had a negative experience with a tutor at a different college, which was demotivating. However, as soon as she heard that Gianluca taught at Leicester Adult Education College these fears went away, and Dawn enrolled onto a course.

“I felt confident that Gianluca would be a diligent, conscientious and engaging tutor. This has more that proved to be the case. He is a very calm and supportive person.”

In addition, Dawn expressed that the skills she has learnt from her Italian class “go beyond the language” because she has made friends and feels part of a “little community”. Dawn also enjoys our enhancement courses and language talks, like the 4-week enhancement course called ‘Italian News and Debate’ she has just completed.

“Everyone on the class would agree that it has been a most enjoyable and stimulating class. It has been informative and enjoyable. Luca prepared some excellent resources and made sure that students at all different levels could enjoy and participate in the class.”

Gianluca will play Dawn’s class Italian songs, give them poems and greeting cards. He even holds Italian events to celebrate upcoming festivals. Here's a photo from last year’s Christmas event:



As Dawn is retired, she appreciates the structure that attending courses gives to her week. She also told us that she values the challenges that learning a language can offer. For example, Dawn’s class are currently learning pronominal verbs which are widely used in spoken Italian. Whilst this was tricky at first, Dawn values the opportunity to be challenged and learn new skills. In the long term, these skills will also help Dawn to talk to locals easier. Dawn travels to Italy every year and she enjoys being able to engage with the locals.

We asked Dawn what her next steps are, and she told us:

“My next steps will be to continue to attend classes and sign up for next year and forthcoming years for as long as possible. I also intend to attend as many of the talks and short courses as I am able.”

On reflection of her learning, Gianluca told us:

"Dawn is a very committed and passionate learner and is curious about the language but also the cultural aspect of the language."

"She has a great attitude toward her learning and completes the weekly tasks in class and at home. This has resulted in her progress in confidence as well as in the language content. In addition, Dawn has a great attitude while learning in the classroom environment: she works well on her own but also participates actively in group tasks, where she practices the 4 skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing."

"At the College we do strongly believe that learners are learning not only the target topic (Italian language in this case), but they are also benefiting from a safe and friendly learning environment where they can build friendships and gain confidence."

We’re really happy that we are able to provide Dawn with courses that she enjoys, and we are in admiration of her commitment to learning Italian!