Elementary Language Courses
Adult elementary level courses (A2) typically have previous-level courses as a prerequisite. CLICK HERE for more about levels and curriculum.
$350.00
Elementary Language Courses
Adult Elementary level Language Courses (A2) typically have previous-level courses as a prerequisite. CLICK HERE for more about levels and curriculum.
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Instructors
Nicoletta Nencioli Aiken
Born in the medieval town of Treviso in the Northeast of Italy, Nicoletta Nencioli Aiken is a journalist,author and teacher. She comes from a long line of educators, professors and writers, her parents and grandparents have been linguistics and literature teachers. Ms Nencioli Aiken remembers her earliest Italian-teaching experience – helping her mother review the students’ compositions. A passion for the humanities brought her to study at the ‘Liceo Classico’ of Treviso, followed by the study of Law at the University of Rome, and Italian literature through ICON.
While in Rome, the call to write led her to pursue a career in journalism where she worked as a writer for the Italian public radio/television RAI and a reporter for several news and literary outlet. Upon receiving her professional journalist credentials, she moved to the US in 1992 where she worked for the Venice newspaper ‘Il Gazzettino’ until 2009. She continues her journalistic work for the main Italian News Service (ANSA), reporting daily on wide range of topics. Ms Nencioli Aiken in 2008 authored ‘Making out in Italian’ for Tuttle Publishing, a fun guide to the language of Italy as it is actually spoken. After tutoring in italian language and culture american friends and family, she now teaches italian at ICS. In her free time, she can be seen flying back and forth between Washington DC and Venice,bicycling and speaking Italian to her American husband..
Sofia Caligiuri
I am an Italian-Naturalized American artist who lives and works in the Metropolitan Area of Washington DC.
I was born in Calabria, Italy, and later moved to Rome where I studied as a painter at the Academy of Fine Arts under Alberto Ziveri. My favorite teachers included Fiorella Diamantini and Arnoldo Ciarrocchi, an exquisite Master Etcher who also taught Maccari. We used to have etching lessons on Saturday mornings, while eating pizza bianca sprinkled with oil and salt accompanied by a couple sips of wine. In this way, students enjoyed both intellectual and physical nourishment. I remember that it felt like a mystical experience each time. I illustrated several journals in Italy. Published two books “Le Novellette” Artemide Edizioni, Roma Italy 2004 and “The Fief, a story of love and other virtues” Artemide Edizioni, 2002 Roma, Italy.
I have held exhibitions of my work in Italy and in the United States.My imagery emphasizes the idea that the impermanence of all phenomena underlies the search for the meaning of life. Therefore, I follow memories and thoughts as Traces that ultimately will bring me to find Evidences of how my life developed and what type of evolution I experienced. In other terms, my work is a tool that I use to get to know myself better and especially to discover what kind of mission I have in this life and fully develop my own potential.
Dr. Annelise Brody Morani
Chair of the Board, Executive CommitteeAnnelise received her laurea in comparative literature at the university of Bologna with a thesis on Dante and the Rossetti family. She received also her MA and Ph.D in Italian literature from the JHU with a thesis on Virginity in Early Italian literature. She then went on teaching as a faculty member at various college institutions joining Washington University in Saint Louis in 2005 where she taught Italian language, literature and cinema at all levels. She also served as language coordinator until 2018. She developed and taught online language courses as a winner of a grant in language and technology research at her institution (2014) She became proficient in using both Blackboard and Canvas platforms.
Her main research interest is in Medieval Italian literature and in particular in literature and ethics. She published papers on Petrarch and Boccaccio, presented at numerous conferences.
Annelise is also a passionate yoga practitioner and a certified yoga instructor in Hatha yoga and ELDOA 1&2. She has been teaching yoga to dancers, children as well as seniors. Her focus is on improving mobility and spinal health.
Laura Loddo Moticka
Born in Venice so many years ago, I graduated from the University Ca’ Foscari of Venice with an M.A. in Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures with a focus on teaching a foreign language. I have been teaching Italian since 2002 to students in high schools and adults. I also studied singing at the Conservatory.
I have an adolescent kid, whom I call “Il mio porcospino”. Together with him and my husband, I like to travel the world and especially explore Italy.
In my free time, I like to read historical novels and detective stories; I enjoy listening to music of all kinds and singing in choirs. I also love to bake and make jewelry using Murano glass and all sorts of stones. I must admit that I am also a workaholic who is always in the “I am a teacher and need to find materials and realia for my students” mode.
Antonella Salvatore Pellegrino
Antonella Salvatore studied classics in Italy where she earned her university degree. “I attended specialized courses for teaching Italian to foreigners at the Universita’ Ca’ Foscari in Venice, the Universita’ per Stranieri in Perugia, and at George Mason University in VA. I have been teaching Italian here in the Washington area since 2005 in which time I have taught college courses at American University, adult courses for the Italian Cultural Society, and courses for native Italian-speaking children at the middle school level.” She adds, “I have a great passion for the Italian language and its literature deepened since my school days at the Orazio Flacco Classical high school. (Flacco is the poet who coined “Carpe diem” to mean “take heed!” or “seize the day!” and who was born not far from my home town in Basilicata.) “I love my work and the language of “that beautiful country where the use of “si” for yes resounds!” (Dante Alighieri, Inferno, Canto XXXIII). She lives in DC with her husband Roberto and her daughter Elena.
