I am an English teacher and student of the Italian language currently teaching in Perugia, Italy for the company Angloville. I am working here for the week and writing about my trip in both English and Italian. My Italian is bad so expect lots of mistakes/Itenglish so don’t hesitate to correct me.

Today was the first proper day of Angloville. The days are full of games and conversation sessions to help encourage the Italian juniors to speak English. We began with a very Italian breakfast – cereal and sweet cakes. Some of the lads invited me to sit with them.

At the end of the week, the kids are giving a presentation about any topic they want. In groups, they have to pick of us participants to help mentor them. I overheard a lot of the kids picking me which felt very nice indeed. I wonder if it was because they know I can speak some Italian. It was unlike school where nobody wanted to be in my group.

In the end I was assigned to a group of five lads including three I sat with at breakfast – Tonino who loves the Godfather same as me, Matteo whose favourite superhero is Spiderman, Andrea C who is probably the strongest speaker of the group, Leopoldo who is an A star student and the weakest of the lot Emanuelle. It was time to start planning the presentation. With minimal help from me, the lads came up with a basic and topic and plan. Our topic was tennis. They would talk about its history, the scoring system, the court and Jannik Sinna. At the end of the week, they will present what they’ve made to the rest of the class. Each of them has to speak.

After we finished in the presentation session, it was time for the morning games. We started with another round of bang, do you like your neighbour before moving onto wink murder. Meanwhile Elenora had claimed a massive boulder as her throne. Her level is fairly low, but she does make an effort even if she has to rely on an occasional translation from me.

At twelve it was time for the first proper conversation session. We are given topic cards with a list of prompt questions. The topic was travel and I was with a group of five girls including a mixture of the strongest – Maya and the weakest Ana and Matilde who I also suspect are on the spectrum. Both of them are also quite shy about speaking so I provided them some sentence starters to get them going. The other girls were strong enough. Like I say, Maya was one of the strongest. Like me, she was a fellow writer and curious about my Italian speaking.

Then it was lunch time. You might be asking what did I eat? Pasta norcina…I think.

By now it was hot, hot, hot. To escape the worse of the heat, we all had free time. Izzy and I went to the swimming pool. I don’t particularly like swimming, but it was so damn hot…unfortunately we were joined by a whole bunch of dead bugs floating in the water.

At 3pm, it was back to work with another conversation session. The topic was good and I was with four of the lads including Andrea C. All four lads said they liked cooking. To keep things interesting, I deviated from the prompt card and told them all to design a menu to impress a girl on the first date. All of them came up with four course menus including the likes of carbonara, hamburgers and tiramisu. I also asked questions like what would be your last meal or what would you eat for the rest of your life? The answers here were more boring – chicken and rice. Obviously these lads were planning on bulking for the future.

Once we were finished, it was time for a mini-project designed to build up their confidence for the presentation sessions. In new groups, we were given a prompt of whether we would choose to stay or leave a desert island. We were also given a list of items we could choose to use to either help us escape or start a new life on the island. I instantly created some competition by telling my lads that we had to beat Nick’s group. I overheard them say his group would cannibalise me, but my group would eat him first. Izzy then shut down the cannibalism conversation. But once we finished planning, it was time to present. My lads did well. They were all very practical deciding to use items like a magnifying glass, parachute, flare gun and hammer and nails to help them in their new life.

By now it was 5pm, aka snacktime – a Nutella sandwich then we had one more conversation session before dinner. In theory, the topic was fashion. In practice, I had three lads – one of the oldest and two of the youngest who were more interested in playing tennis and football with Nick’s group. Soon Izzy shut us down and we actually had to talk about fashion. The topic was a bit dry. But I did ask the lads about fashion faux-pas and all of them said exposed underwear and baggy jeans. I 100% agree on that.

After we finished, the kids had pool time, we had free time and then it was dinner. I actually remember what we ate for once – pasta with pork which was then followed by prosciutto, melon and cheese. This was a nice mix of sweet and salty. Finally, it was ice cream for dessert.

Dinner ended at half-eight and it was time for one final game of scattergories/ stop the bus. Izzy gave us five categories: countries, food, job, sport and something else I’ve forgotten. She then gave us a letter and we had to think of an answer for each beginning with that letter. It soon became super-competitive especially with Izzy’s arbitrary point system. It was fun though. I did it in Poland on an adult programme where the answers became very inappropriate very quickly.

The day was almost over – there was just time to join the lady participants in the poor for a late night swim. Now we’ve completed our first final day in Angloville, everybody is more relaxed with each other. Nick has given all the kids nicknames too like Renaldo, Alexander the Great or Spaceman. He also said I look like Adam Driver or Keanu Reeves. I don’t see it myself personally. Anyway that’s the end of the day four in Italy. A day of date night meals, wink murder and late-night swimming.

Oggi era il propro Giorno di Angloville. I giorni sono pieni di giochi e sessione conversasionale. Vogliamo encourage dei adolescent Italiani per parlare Inglese. Abbiamo cominciato un colazione Italiano – I cereali e I dolci. Dei ragazzi ‘invited me to sit with them.’

A le fin della Settimana, gli adolescenti danno un presentasione in Inglese. Non importanta l’arggomento. Dei gruppi, devono scegliere un ‘IP’ per mentoring them. I overheard molti dicono che mi vogliono lavorare con gli. Sono curioso se perchè parlo un po’ di Italiano. Era non come la scuola dove mi nessuno nello I loro gruppi.

Il mio gruppo dei adolscenti compresa cinque ragazzi – il fan di film Tom come mio, adora il film Il Padrino, il molto nervosa e livello-basso Emanuelle, il due piu forte adolescenti Andrea C, Leo e finalmente Matteo qui adora il super-hero Spiderman. Era il tempo per planificare il presentazione. Il mio gruppo ha decidato fare il presentazione di Tennis – l’historio, the points system, the court, single e doppie e finalmente Jannik Sinna. Ogni deva parlare nelle presentazione.

Dopo abbiamo finito il sessione presentazione, era la volta per dei giochi. Abbiamo giochato ‘bang’ o splat come chiama qui e wink murder. La piccola Elenora ha sentita sulla grande roccha – ha un livello basso ma anche ha fatto un grande efforte. Ma qualche volte, deva rely on a translation from me.

Dopo questo, era la volta per il primo conversasionale sessione. Ci abbiamo datto con un liste de domanda. Ma è giusto per cominiciare il conversasione. Nello mio groupo era Maya il piu forte ma anche Ana e Matilde qual’è il piu ‘weakest’ Ana è su le spectrum e Matilde ha cerebral palsy quindi è difficilie per loro per parlara Italiano almeno inglese. Il arggomento era viaggio e ho devuto usare tutti I miei skills insegnare. Per Matilde e Ana, ho provided del sentence starters and I think it helped.

Qual’e prossima. Il pranzo. Che ho mangiato? Pasta alla norcina…penso.secondo. Dopo il Pranzo faceva caldo, caldo, caldo. Gratuitamente tutti hanno il tempo libero dopo il Pranzo. Izzy e io siamo andati alla piscina. Purtroppo, we were joined per molti insetti.

Alle tre, dobbiamo cominciare I nostril sessioni conversasionale ancora. Questo tempo, il argommento era cibo. Il mio gruppo avuto quattro ragazzi compresa Andrea ma anche Alex. Tutti I ragazzi piace il cucinare. L’ho chiesta, qual’è cucinare per la ragazza di reve: antipasto, primo, secondo e dolce. Hanno detto carbonara, hamburgers, tiramisu. Anche, ho chiesta le domande che ‘what would you eat for the rest of your life or what would be your last meal?’ Le responde erano piu noiosi come riso e pollo come ‘un piatto per I gym bros.’

Dopo abbiamo finito, era il tempo per un sessione mini-presentation/project. In le nuove gruppe, abbiamo datto il argomento di …we were stranded on a desert island. Do we leave or stay? This is a list of items you can use to help you. Instamente, ho creato delle competitizione per ha detto che sarreberemo meglio che il gruppo di Nick. Nick ha respondato che il suo grouppo sarebbera mi mangia. Lol.

Allora, il mio grouppo ha decidato per passare sulla isola e erano molto creativo in usare dei items. Per essempio, a flare would be used to ward off wild animals, a hammer and nails would be used to build new houses and a parachute would be used as a hammock.

Dopo abbiamo finito, era il tempo per un snack – oggi abbiamo mangiato il panino Nutella. E dopo questa, era il tempo per l’ultimo conversasionale grouppo. Allora, in la theory… il arggomento era il modo e ho avuto tre ragazzi ch’erano piu interessante in gioca il tennis e il calcio con il gruppo di Nick.

Ma, presto, Izzy ci ha datto che dobbiamo parlare. Il argommento era un po secce. Ma ho chiesta I ragazzi di fashion faux pas. Hanno datto ‘exposed underwear’ o ‘baggy jeans.’ Sono d’accordo. Absolutamente.

Dopo piu la liberta volta, e la volta piscina per gli adolescenti, era la volta per cena: la pasta norcino e il melone e prosciutto. Alla 8.30, era la volta per un ultimo giochi: Scattergories/stop the bus. Izzy ci abbiamo mettato nel gruppo di cinque e ci abbiamo datto cinque categories: Countries, food, a job, sport e un altra categoria che no ho ricordato. Dopo, ci abbiamo datto un letter e abbiamo devuto un response per ogni cattegoria comincia con queste lettere. Non come Poland con gli adulti, il nostro answers era molto ‘tame’ ma dai…era piu divertente. Il Giorno essere finito, era la volta per piscinia per I nostril participanti. Ora, abbiamo finito il nostro primo Giorno, tutti era piu rilsante con tutti. Nick ha datto tutti gli adolscenti nicknames [see the English editions] e ha detto che ho l’air di Keanu Reeves or Adam Driver. No sono sicuro mi meme. Allora e tutto per il mio Giorno quatrieme di Angloville Italy: un Giorno di Piatti per il dates, wink murder e il nuotare in la notte ritardo.