Good morning. afternoon, evening, 

how do you pronounce the word privacy, so common in Italian too?

Quite likely the procunciation you adopted, like the majority of people, is the American one.

There are many differences between British and American English, and many more if you consider English spoken by Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians etc. 

What's intriguing is developing strategies to become familiar with as many accents as possible.

Suggestions? Watch films with no dubbing, and appreciate English spoken by actors with their many different accents and beautiful voices, read books, enjoy them with friends, your children and become aware of your progress, time after time. Write down notes, compare impressions and ideas, let the language do its work, that is to open your mind and your heart while you have to do the same. Come to our classes. 

Choose films and books that you like and love what you do. Create a bond with English and find time to practice it with other students and native speakers, travel. 

Having a perfect pronunciation might not be the point, but what's fundamental is understanding when people speak to establish a proper interaction, communication, and in order to achieve this abjective you need to train yourself, the same you do when practicing a sport. 

What is your experience with English? Are you better at performing one of the five skills?

The five skills involved in acquiring a language are aural comprehension, ie listening, written comprehension, ie reading, oral production, ie speaking, and written production, ie writing, plus interacting with English speakers. 

The more you do something, the better the results are. So, come to class and practice English that like any other language is action, behaviour, motivation, feelings, beliefs...

What else is a language?  

If you are a false beginner in your studies, build up short sentences with just subject, verb, complement. Do not worry about mistakes, making them ias a way to learn.     

See you in class, 

Anna - Coordinator

Source: Speak Up October 2015 

Stefania: try to find by yourself which mistakes you can avoid making next time; have a look at a possible simple version of your ideas:

I studied English when I was at school 50 years ago.

My teacher used to teach/taught us grammar (no passive form) without practicing conversation.

I would like to develop the skills of listening comprehension and interaction with English speakers.

I hope that despite my mistakes I will be able to learn.

Of course you will, Stefania. Interest helps to convey appropriately attention to formal correctness and accuracy.

See you in class,

Anna

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