Italian for your school, your teachers or your readers

What we can do together

Three kinds of collaboration. In all three I am the person who does the work: there is no agency in between and nobody else turns up instead of me.

Schools, institutes and companies

Group courses and private lessons, at your place or online. Standalone workshops and talks about the language, the culture and the gestures, including for an audience that speaks no Italian at all. Exam preparation for CILS, CELI and PLIDA, and B1 for Italian citizenship. Business Italian for teams who work with Italian clients or colleagues.

Teachers and teacher training

For most learners the week between two lessons is a hole. I help you fill it without losing your evenings to it: assignments with a deadline, mistakes you get to see again instead of having to remember, review that schedules itself. That is a question of teaching and of tooling at the same time, and I come from both of those worlds.

In practice: choosing and setting up the tools, the GDPR questions you should put to any supplier in writing before your class touches their app, and making your own materials instead of buying them. One conversation, half a day with your team, or a longer piece of work. Two articles that show how I think about it: apps for Italian teachers and phones in the classroom and the GDPR.

Editors, publishers and brands

I write about the Italian people actually use: at the table, at the pharmacy, at the market, at the notary. With every article I make a free pdf guide for the readers, with no email address and no sign-up. Who I have written for so far, and what came out of it, is on the partners page.

Hiring a teacher or lecturer of Italian

Are you here because your school, university or language institute is looking for a teacher of Italian? The details a vacancy usually asks for are gathered here. The full CV is further down this page, and as a one-page pdf.

• ContractAs a freelancer (Dutch chamber of commerce 42118745, VAT NL005508294B90) or employed, also for a few hours a week. A single guest lecture and a ten-week block both work.
• WhereOnline anywhere. In person between Ede and Amsterdam, elsewhere in the Netherlands by arrangement.
• Who withAdults and teenagers, from A0 to C1, one to one and in groups. Exam preparation for CILS, CELI and PLIDA, and B1 for Italian citizenship.
• QualificationsMaster ITALS (Ca’ Foscari, Venice), master in teaching Italian as a second language (Giustino Fortunato) and a master’s in languages for international communication (Mercatorum). Teaching since 2018.
• Language of instructionI teach in Italian, English and French; I read and understand Dutch (B1) and use it where it makes an explanation shorter.
• Online and digitalEight years of online teaching, with my own material and my own learning environment. I pick up your platform quickly: my other job is project manager at an IT company, with five years of integrations and APIs, and I can explain the GDPR side of a tool before a class goes near it.
• My online presence42 learner reviews on Preply and Google, LinkedIn, and the CV below.

In short: the CV as a pdf and a message are enough to start. I reply within a working day.

How I teach

Eight years of adults, from the first lesson to C1, one to one and in groups, in person and online. Every course starts from what you need to be able to do in Italian three months from now. The content follows from that, and grammar arrives at the moment it makes something possible.

I use a coursebook when it makes the work lighter, not because chapter six follows chapter five. Alongside it I write my own material and work with authentic material: menus, advertisements, songs, news items. What a group of ten gets and what one learner gets are not the same thing, and that difference is exactly the job.

I keep a strict line between what stays human and what becomes software. Explanation, conversation and the correction of real writing and speaking: human, always. Assigning practice, collecting completion, logging errors and timing review: software, always. An app that promises to replace the teacher is lying to one of you.

The technology, and why I understand it

The other half of my working week is technology. I am a project manager at an IT company in Amsterdam, where I have spent five years on configuration, integrations and API delivery. I am certified in project management (PRINCE2 Practitioner and CAPM), in process improvement (Six Sigma Yellow Belt) and in innovation management (ISO 56002).

That is why I can offer a school or a teacher more than a list of apps. I can explain what happens to your learners’ data, how to set things up so that as little as possible leaves the device, and what you should and should not switch on in a classroom with minors. And if something has to be built, I build it.

What I have built

Everything below is mine, from the first line to the last. It is my teaching material and my portfolio at the same time, and it is the reason I can talk about tools without being a salesman.

• The amo Italian app: an Italian course for iPhone, with a teacher mode, class codes, assignments by stage and an error overview the teacher gets to see.
• 25+ Italian classics, rewritten by level from A1 to C1, with word lists and questions on every chapter.
• A free level test that measures four skills separately instead of handing out a single letter.
• A grammar in eighteen languages and more than seven hundred interactive exercises with answers, free to use in class.
• A blog about language, teaching and life in Italy, with a section of its own for teachers.

Curriculum vitae

Teaching

• 2023 to nowItalian teacher on PreplyOnline · around ten regular learners, from beginners to advanced, with material and texts made for them.
• 2018 to nowTeacher of Italian as a foreign language, self-employedThuis Italiaans · Ede, Amsterdam and online. Adults from A0 to C1, private and in groups; exam preparation for CILS, CELI, PLIDA and B1 for citizenship.
• 2018 to nowItalian teacher on ApprentusAmsterdam · lessons in person, from children to adults, with material built per learner.
• 2023/2024Teaching internship, ItalianTaalhuis Amsterdam · during the master’s.

Technology and project management

• 2025 to nowProject ManagerIT company · Amsterdam
• 2023–2025API Implementation Manager, then SeniorIT company · Amsterdam
• 2020–2023Configuration SpecialistIT company · Amsterdam
• 2018–2020Commercial Manager France and Benelux, API Project ManagerInternet company · Amsterdam
• 2018Customer Success Agent and logistics coordinator (internship)Tourism company · Amsterdam

Education

• 2024/2025Master’s degree in Languages for International CommunicationUniversità Mercatorum
• 2023/2024University Master’s in Teaching and Promotion of the Italian Language and Culture to Foreigners (ITALS)Università Ca’ Foscari, Venice · LS track
• 2022/2023Master: teaching Italian as a second language (L2), methodology and didacticsUniversità Giustino Fortunato, Benevento
• 2021–2022Double master’s in Project ManagementRome Business School and Universidad Internacional de Valencia
• 2015–2019Double degree in Languages and Communication for Tourism and BusinessUniversità della Valle d’Aosta and Université Savoie Mont Blanc (Chambéry, 2016/2017)
• 2014/2015Languages and Culture for TourismUniversità degli Studi di Torino
• 2014Pedagogy, sociology and psychologyLiceo psicopedagogico

Theses

• 2024/2025The Evolution of the Lingua Franca in Europe: From Latin to EnglishMaster’s degree, Mercatorum · supervisor Emanuela Ammendola
• 2023/2024Intercultural dialogue in a blended LS course, through advertising and musicMaster ITALS, Ca’ Foscari · tutor Michele Blandino
• 2022/2023Considerations for a successful online classMaster L2, Giustino Fortunato · supervisor Aurelio Liguori

Certifications

PRINCE2 Practitioner and CAPM (project management), Six Sigma Yellow Belt (process improvement), ISO 56002 (innovation management), Design Thinking. The badges are on Credly.

Languages

Italian (native), English C1, French (professional), Dutch B1, Spanish (conversational).

Practical

Based in the Netherlands, between Ede and Amsterdam; I come to you or we work online. Thuis Italiaans is my sole proprietorship: KvK 42118745, VAT NL005508294B90. Available as a freelancer and for employment. LinkedIn.