For an Italian who wants to go on working in Italy and to get better opportunities, the foreign language you absolutely need to know for work is obviously English. But by now an intermediate, or better still an intermediate-to-upper-intermediate, level of English is no longer an extra on your CV, but…

Having looked at how certifications work for English and French, we continue our journey through the world of the CEFR with a closer look at German language certifications. If you would like a more general overview of how the European system for assessing language skills works…

Language training, or no training at all. The question is always the same one: how much does it cost me? How much does a piece of machinery cost me, how much does one more employee cost me, or a new photocopier. And, on the other hand, how much does it cost me NOT to have it? How many jobs do I have to turn down if I don’t increase…

With this post we continue our journey through the language certification systems and take a look, this week, at the certifications for French. If you missed the previous articles, here is where to find them: Here, the general picture of how language certifications work…

If you work in the restaurant industry (just like if you travel a lot) you know that a school-level English often isn’t enough: to understand and be understood you need not just the language, but also a basic knowledge of the food culture of the people in front of you. For…

In a previous article we already looked at how language certifications work, and in particular at the Common European Framework of Reference, or CEFR. Today we want to look more closely at English language certifications. For English there is no single institution and no single…

Standardising skills is a typical requirement of a globalised world, and the question of language certifications is just one aspect of it. People today travel by choice or out of professional necessity, or else work in their own country while dealing constantly with foreign markets…

For us, Christmas is a special time of year, a holiday laden with symbolic meaning that goes well beyond its religious significance, a time for celebration and rest. The impact of Christmas here in Italy (and, more generally, across the Western world) is enormous, so much so that companies…

Studying a foreign language is a considerable investment, one in which the “time” and “personal commitment” components are often underestimated when they ought always to come first.