Hello everybody!

My name is Daniela and I am an Italian teacher! I live in Trapani, a nice town in Sicily, a paradise on earth located in Southern Italy.

I love foreign languages! I have been studying languages since I was 7 years old. Then, I went on with French and Spanish and when I entered the University I studied Arabic and Turkish.

I like reading and listening to music! About the latter, I think it’s a “secret key” to learn languages, because thanks to the music it’s easier to remember words, verbs and certain structures in a new language. For this reason, I don’t really have a favourite music genre, I try to get the best out of all songs :-)

I love animals too! When I was a child I wanted to be a vet, so I could deal with dogs, cats and all the animals on earth but I also loved foreign languages too, so in the end I chose to get a dog to take care of and start a new adventure at University studying foreign languages, my big passion!

In 2012 I got my Master's degree, but I started working a year before. I teach Italian in three Italian language schools and I also teach English as a freelancer.

In 2016 I got my CEDILS certificate (Certification in teaching Italian to foreigners), that certifies the theoretical and practical skills in the field of teaching Italian to foreigners.

I have experience in teaching Italian online. I met many nice people on the Internet, willing to learn Italian. When teaching, it's amazing to get in touch with new people and cultures. It's incredible to see people learning while having fun!

Before I started working, I had many internships that helped me in a theoretical and a practical way. During my internships and studies I also realised that teaching is not easy, as it's not just about transferring information, but it's all about passion and the ability to involve people in what you're doing.

I really love my job! It's amazing to meet people from around the world (from Europe to Asia, to America to Middle East).

My approach is based on communication and practice. I don't completely avoid grammar, as it explains the rules of the language and is useful, but most of the time we forget about the goal we are aiming at, which is to communicate and express information, rather than being perfect in a language (at least when we're taking our first steps in that direction).

I don't see mistakes as a big deal because I'm sure we can learn from our mistakes. Depending on the mistake and on the person I'm working with, I sometimes try to make a joke out of that mistake, so that my student can easily remember what to avoid and how to correct himself in the future.

I believe in the "power" of games and music! I believe in games, especially in the communicative ones, because while being focused on the final aim of the game, the student realises he/she is speaking with little effort. At the same way, I believe in music because I think it's the easiest and most enjoyable way to remember words, structures or the right position of prepositions within a sentence. When I was a 7/8 years old, I used to listen to Madonna's songs although I couldn't understand the lyrics, I was too young and so I just listened to her singing, but with the passing of time those songs helped me in my English tests where I had to fill in the gap with the correct preposition. Refrain and verses came to my mind and that saved me! Then, it happened the same thing when I started to first communicate with native people, and so on.

For me it's very important that my students feel comfortable during my classes. That's my first aim both in class and online, because being anxious doesn't help when learning. I like to use many books for my classes but I also try to create my own materials.

Ciao a tutti!

Mi chiamo Daniela, sono italiana e sono un'insegnante qualificata di lingua italiana, esaminatrice CELI e insegnante CELTA! Insegno l'italiano in tre scuole di italiano e inglese per le aziende. Mi piace scoprire nuovi posti grazie ai viaggi, amo la buona cucina ed il buon vino. Siete pronti ad imparare l'italiano o l'inglese insieme a me? Impareremo molte cose e parleremo tanto! Non preoccupatevi se non avete mai studiato la lingua prima, tutti possono seguire le lezioni, dagli studenti principianti a quelli avanzati. Bisogna solo avere passione per quello che si fa e... una buona connessione internet :D Sarò io stessa a fornire i materiali!

Ci vediamo online! Ciao ciao!

Nel 2012 mi sono laureata in lingue straniere, ma ho iniziato a lavorare nel 2011. Adesso lavoro in tre scuole di lingua italiana e lavoro in maniera indipendente online. Lavoro anche come insegnante di lingua inglese.

Nel 2016 ho ottenuto la certificazione CEDILS per l'insegnamento della lingua italiana a stranieri, e nel 2021 sono diventata esaminatrice CELI (certificati di lingua italiana).

Grazie al mio lavoro, sia in presenza che online, ho la possibilità di incontrare molte persone desiderose di imparare la lingua italiana, ognuna con obiettivi diversi. E' bello entrare in contatto con nuova gente, nuove culture, ed è ancora più bello vedere che tutti imparano divertendosi.

Adoro il mio lavoro e non mi potrei immaginare fare altro :-)

Il mio approccio è basato sulla comunicazione e sulla pratica. C'è spazio anche per la grammatica, perché aiuta a capire come funziona la lingua, ma non dobbiamo mai dimenticare che l'obiettivo è comunicare ed esprimere informazioni.

Penso che gli errori non siano una cosa negativa, anzi! Impariamo sempre da loro. Penso anche che la musica e i giochi siano due perfetti alleati per imparare una lingua. Durante il gioco, si produce lingua e lo si fa divertendosi

Per me è molto importante che gli studenti si sentano a proprio agio durante le lezioni.