Weilà group lessons
I teach weekly Italian grammar and conversation lessons on Zoom! To attend a lesson and/or to join my mailing list to be among the first to know what I’m teaching each week, email me at info@weilatom.com
1. What are group lessons?
Every Sunday on Zoom from 10am-11am US Eastern (that’s 4pm Italian time) I offer Group Lessons on Italian grammar and conversation. Grammar lessons are taught in English and Conversation lessons are conducted mostly in Italian. We cover a different area of Italian every time we meet. Each class is tailored to the needs of the students present and you will receive a copy of our class notes that I take on my digital whiteboard after the lesson.
When possible, I also offer more than 1 lesson a week, usually on Friday at 5:30pm US EST.
2. how can i sign up?
It’s really easy, just email me at info@weilatom.com to let me know you’d like to attend a lesson!
The best way to know about upcoming lessons is to join my free online mailing list. You can unsubscribe or resubscribe at any time as your needs and lifestyle changes. When emailing me, let me know if you’d like to join my mailing list. Every Wednesday I send out the Group Lesson Invitation Email to share the Group Lesson Schedule and Agenda for that week. I also post the Invitation Email on my Instagram Stories (IG: @weilatom)
To attend a lesson, all you have to do is reply to the Invitation Email to let me know you’d like to come and on Thursday you’ll receive the invoice. Once payment is received, on Saturday you’ll receive the Zoom link for the lesson. Please make sure to keep the link handy as you’ll need it come Sunday for the lesson.
For lessons taught on Friday, you’ll receive the invoice on Thursday and the Zoom link either Thursday evening or Friday morning.
3. how much does it cost?
$20 USD per student.
$10 USD if you’d just like the class notes + homework and cannot attend the live lesson.
I operate on a “pay-as-you-go” method, meaning you can attend as many lessons with me as you’d like, you only pay for the class you attend. You’re never locked into having to take lessons on a continual basis just because you attended one of them. Payments are handled securely through PayPal and must be processed prior to the start of the lesson in order to receive the Zoom link to enter the classroom. You do not need a PayPal account in order to pay the invoice. PayPal accepts several different payment methods, including Venmo, Debit or Credit Card.
4. What happens if I pay but then can’t make it?
All lessons are final sale, no refunds are available at this time. If you pay for a lesson and are unable to attend the class, let me know and you can choose to either apply the payment towards a future lesson, or you can receive a learning resource of your choice from my website equal in value to the lesson tuition paid.
5. class participation
You are free to participate as much or as little as you like, I want students to have fun and get whatever they want out of the lessons we have together. I like to think of myself not only as a teacher, but as a coach who helps guide his students along the language learning journey. I encourage as much class participation from student as possible and want the lessons to be fun and interactive. Throughout the lessons, I always ask if any of the students have questions or would like to participate in any way.
You can feel free to keep your camera and microphone on or off, it’s up to you. Lessons are not recorded.
In Group Conversation lessons, the goal is to speak as much Italian as possible. We still speak a fair amount of English throughout the lessons, because practicing your speaking skills is not only about speaking the language, but learning how to do so effectively; and sometimes we need English as a common base language to help facilitate that.
Every Conversation lesson is different. Most times, I go around the room and ask each student questions so they all can get the chance to participate. Students are free to provide responses that are as simple or elaborate as they like. I will correct any grammatical or pronunciation mistakes to help students improve. Most Conversation lessons begin with a prompt (such as a video, article, or image) so we all know what topic we’ll be discussing, and we allow the conversation to take us wherever it leads.
The goal of Conversation lessons is to provide students with a comfortable, enjoyable and judgement-free space to practice and improve their speaking skills. Just as we do in Grammar lessons, I take notes on my digital whiteboard of all the useful vocabulary and expressions that come up and I’ll email them to you after class.
Though Grammar lessons are taught in English, you can feel free to address me in Italian and I’ll respond in Italian.
6. Does it matter if I’m a beginner or advanced student?
All of my Group Lessons are open to students of all levels of Italian. It is suggested a student have at least a level A2-B1 level of Italian, meaning they’ve been exposed to areas such as the Present tense, Passato Prossimo, Imperfetto, Futuro, and Object Pronouns.
While each Grammar lesson is inherently of a specific level based on the topic we cover, I do my best to divide lessons into Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced sections whenever I can. I purposely design each lesson to be a “stand-alone” lesson, meaning it doesn’t matter whether you join us every week or every so often, you’ll always be able to follow what’s going on.
There are times when I teach General Italian Grammar Lessons in which we cover multiple different areas of Italian grammar. These lessons are great to simulate what its like when you’re in Italy and surrounded by the language without different topics being separated.
Conversation lessons are taught in Italian, though we do use English as a tool when necessary, especially when writing translations on the whiteboard. A good way to know if Conversation lessons are right for you would be to determine if you can successfully ask or answer simple questions in Italian. I would say so long as you’ve been studying Italian for about 6 months to a year, you should be in a good position to start taking Conversation lessons.
7. I still have more questions
For any other questions, please feel free to email me at info@weilatom.com. Due to volume, I may not get to your email right away. I do my best to get to every email I receive, but if you do not hear back from me within a few days, you can feel free to send me a follow up email.
By RSVP-ing to a Weilà Group Lesson, you agree to the terms and conditions listed here on this page and to the Weilà Tom Privacy Policy and Return Policy.
Hope to see you in class!