How Sarah Mastroianni Made Siena Her Italian Hometown and Built a Career Around Italian

This episode’s audio doesn’t exist, and we have technology to blame (poof! gone into cyberspace!). Instead of listening to this episode, feel free to use the notes below to learn more about the topic. And if you’re like, “CHER, NO. I NEED THIS EPISODE,” then let me know in the comments below. I’ll put it on my list to record again!

The second anything Italian comes up, you can already feel Sarah’s passion emanate the space.

While growing up with Italian roots might have contributed, she cultivated her love of Italy after her first trip to her father’s hometown.

Since then she’s taken herself on a beautiful journey replete with funny language mistake anecdotes and opportunities to interact with the culture, which she writes about on her blog Not Just Another “Dolce Vita”.

You’re going to love this episode because you’ll learn:

— Her advice on finally mastering Italian prepositions and sentence structure [She’s an Italian professor. She knows her stuff.]

— Which four methods she used to immerse herself in the language while still at home in Canada

— How she navigated the Italian workplace and adapted to a Sienese accent

— Seven of her favorite Italian musicians

— Three of her favorite Italian words/phrases

— Three recommendations for reading material at the beginner + upper intermediate level

Resources Mentioned:

— Panoram Italia – Canadian publication where Sarah writes

— Dual Language Italian Readers

— Io Non Ho Paura (Italian Edition)

— Il Giorno in Più – from the Italian Amazon store

— Modà – Non È Mai Abbastanza

— Eros Ramazzotti – Più Bello Cosa

— Gianni Morandi – Occhi Di Ragazza

— Toto Cutugno – L’Italiano

— Antonello Venditti – Che Fantastica Storia È La Vita

— Tiziano Ferro – Ti Scatterò Una Foto

— Giorgia – Gocce di Memoria o Tu Mi Porti Su

— Emma – Dimentico Tutto

My favorite articles from Not Just Another “Dolce Vita”

— Why Study Italian?

— Italian Compliments

— Compliments in Translation

Get to know Sarah

Site: Not Just Another Dolce Vita

Twitter: @s_mastroianni

Facebook: Not Just Another Dolce Vita

Want some ridiculously helpful support when learning Italian? Use Italki.

Italki is an online community of language learners and teachers to help you take whatever foreign language you’re learning to the next level.

What’s cool about it is that you can learn directly from home via Skype on your own schedule and skip the traditional school curriculum – which I love because I’ve always been a rebel.

It’s totally affordable, too. I spend $10 an hour with my tutor Giulia – a native speaker – for each 45-minute session, and the lessons are based on what I want to learn, which helps me retain information because I’m genuinely interested.

This style also encourages me to take note of the areas I need to strengthen throughout the week when I watch Italian movies, read books or newspapers, and talk to friends from Italy.

Signing up with Italki is completely free, and you can use the site to find language partners for free until you feel ready to hire an informal or professional teacher

Go to Italki and start tackling those problem areas you’ve been dealing with alone, like those pesky prepositions, the endlessly confusing sentence structure, and that subjunctive tense that’s been driving you crazy.

Visit Italki now and sign up for a free account.

All links above are referral links.