Italian

Italiano! La lingua più bella! Few languages so lavishly reward those who take the time to learn them as Italian. Not only does it open the door to one of the most beautiful, exciting countries on earth, but it also holds the key to centuries of extraordinary art, music, and literature--to say nothing of the food.  And best of all, Italian, being rooted in Latin, is one of the easiest languages for English speakers to learn. That’s where Cambridge Coaching comes in. We offer customized private Italian tutoring at all levels:

  • Beginners: introduction to grammar, speaking, and verb conjugation (sample syllabus here)
  • Intermediate: taking reading, writing, and speaking to the next level
  • Advanced: exploring seminal texts and academic Italian (Boccaccio, Tasso, Dante, and more!)

We have also worked with even more advanced students looking to prepare for an Italian standardized test, or to fine-tune oral skills through conversation tutorials that emphasize usage, vocabulary, and the mastery of common idiom and even slang.

Our Italian tutors are exceptional teachers - they are PhD candidates and teaching fellows at NYU, Columbia University, and Harvard University, published authors, and language professionals. They can teach anyone: whether you’ve always dreamed of reading Dante in the original Florentine, or you’re a fashion design student about to do an internship in Milan, tell us about your goals, and we’ll help you get there in no time.

Select the focus that is right for you to learn more about how we can help you improve your Italian.

Academic    Test Preparation    Business    Enrichment    Cultural Exploration  

Suggested Approaches

Our 5 favorite approaches are inclusive of all linguistic goals from grammar-focused test preparation and translation to conversational enrichment and business packages.

While each of the language teaching methods below can be effective, your specific goals will impact which method we choose for your tutoring. In your initial evaluation, we will assess which approach best suits your linguistic goals and your learning style.

Resources

Because we are not invested in selling proprietary materials, we prefer to draw from the numerous language learning and teaching methods available to us. Here are some of our favorites:

Daily Immersion: Newspapers & Music

In addition to what you study during your tutoring session, one of the most fun aspects of learning a new language is exploring the culture that it comes from! Check out podcasts, music and local newspapers to get a taste of Italian culture.

Podcasts are a great way to supplement your language classes. Immerse yourself as you stroll through Harvard Sqaure, or as you walk down Lexington Avenue.

  • Italian Pod 101
  • Learn Out Loud 
  • News in Slow Italian 

Local and regional newspapers are a great way to follow current events in your new language, while advancing your reading comprehension:

Tip: Highlight or make a list of the words you do not recognize as you read. Don’t stop to look them up immediately. Finish the article and see how much you can understand without the dictionary. Then, look up the words, and re-read. This process may seem repetitive, but it asks your brain to work a bit more actively, and will yield results!

Don’t miss out on Italian music! Some musicians are particularly easy to listen to in their native tongue. Listening to music will get you comfortable hearing your target language and help your comprehension.  While you’re at it, you’ll expand your knowledge of colloquial vernacular and regional slang.  

Tip: Look up the lyrics in English before starting so you have a sense of the meaning of the song before you start listening. This will make it easier to recognize vocabulary.

 

Popular Subjects: Elementary Italian, Intermediate Italian, Advanced Italian, Italian Grammar Intensive, Conversational Italian, Advanced Reading & Writing, Classic Italian Literature, Italian Language & Culture, Italian & The Arts
Tests: Italian SAT Subject Test, AP Italian Language & Culture, Proficiency Exam (College and Graduate Level)
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Italian Tutors

Entela

Entela was born and raised in northern Albania. Entela's mother, grandmother and aunt are all biochemistry professors and, as a result, Entela started learning about biology and chemistry from a very early age. In high school, Entela became very interested in mathematics and won national and...

Emma

Emma was born and raised in Washington, D.C.  where she attended the National Cathedral School for girls.  She attended the University of Chicago for college, where she earned her BA in English.  Her senior thesis, “Look at the Harlequins!: Nabokov’s Corpus Compendium” was nominated for the...

Darko

Darko grew up in Dubrovnik, a small coastal paradise town on the southern tip of Croatia. After graduating summa cum laude from university, Darko moved to Northern California to study for a Ph.D. degree at Stanford University. There, he worked on more mathematical and computational aspects of...

Brian

Brian is a native of Long Island and began tutoring in high school. He worked with high school juniors studying calculus, second and third graders with special needs on their homework, and with a range of students and subjects in between. At Dartmouth, Brian worked as an assistant teacher (“...

Alison

Alison grew up in Concord, MA, known for its literary and revolutionary history (Henry David Thoreau inspired the name of her first dog Walden). Alison has always loved reading and writing; at Brown University, she studied Comparative Literature and Italian Studies. While studying abroad for a...

Annie

Annie’s first memory is of learning to write her own name; she has since written everything from conceptual poetry to financial technology reporting. She graduated from Stanford with a BA in Creative Writing with Interdisciplinary Honors in the Humanities and an MA in English under the direction...

Alberto

Alberto is originally from Vicenza, in Italy. He graduated in Mathematics, summa cum laude, at the University of Padua. He then came to Urbana Champaign Illinois where, contrary to all expectations, he had the 5 best years of his life on Campus, studying and teaching Mathematics, and connecting...

Isaia

Isaia is a fourth year PhD candidate and Teaching Fellow at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is currently teaching a class on Plato and has already taught Latin classes at various levels. His dissertation focuses on the rhetoric and style of Thucydides and on the...

Karen

Karen grew up in the woods in Central Texas. She started studying Latin in middle school, got serious about it in high school, and then in college took up Greek because it was the only thing that would fit into her schedule (but she actually ended up loving it). She graduated with a B.A. in...

Eva

Eva grew up on the beautiful island of Sardinia. Her childhood was all about running and climbing trees, swimming and sailing the blue Mediterranean sea. Through sailing, she learned the beauty and the danger of the sea and nature taught her how to be emphatic humble and wild the right amount....

Ross

Ross was born and raised in the suburbs of New York. After spending adolescence riding his bike, exploring Central Park, and developing a strong ‘New Yawk’ accent, he took a trip down south to study at Emory University as a Robert W. Woodruff Scholar. Taking full advantage of Emory’s liberal...

Stephanie M

Stephanía (or Stephanie, whichever is easier!) is originally from Puerto Rico, where she escapes when the winter comes. Stephanía attended the University of Puerto Rico, majoring in Foreign Languages (French, Portuguese, and Italian), International Relations and Government, Law, and Public...

Olivia

Olivia graduated from Princeton University with a BA in chemistry and a minor in Mandarin (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), and she earned first prize in a nationwide Mandarin speech and talent competition with an oration about her villainous washing machine. She went on to earn a...

Amelia

Born and raised in Hawaii, Amelia was excited to experience the snowy winters of rural Vermont when she started her undergrad degree at Middlebury College. Along with gradually figuring out how to layer, she fell in love with the Italian language. After spending a year abroad at the Università...

Ryohei

Ryohei (Ro-hey) was born in Tokyo, Japan, where he spent the first three years of his life before moving to the suburbs of New York (Port Washington). He studied Francophone literature and the history of art at Princeton University, and spent his junior year in Paris at the École normale...