course
Advanced Italian

I've taken Elementary Italian 1 and 2 and Advanced Italian 1 with Felice and without a doubt he is one of my favorite profs I've had here. Not only is he an effective and clear teacher, he is kind, caring, and funny, and takes time to build personal relationships with his students. He's written recommendations for me and truly cares about my experience in class and with Italian. If you are at all interested in taking Italian, this is the way to go. He absolutely deserves the gold nugget!! Everyone I know who's been in his class agrees with me, too.

Felice is easily the best Italian teacher at Columbia. Anyone who takes his class can tell you that. He is one of those teachers that you actually want to work hard for. Every single class is exciting and interesting. When you mess up he always is there to help you without making you feel bad for making a mistake. Additionally, he makes the somewhat boring exercises that are mandatory from the Italian Department a blast. If you take any course with Felice, you will not regret it.

Federica is clever, funny, kind and maybe most importantly very reasonable in her expectations. This class is by no means easy, but is very enjoyable and worthwhile in its challenge. The syllabus is well organized and allows for much leeway depending on the actual class' ability and whether things are on course or not. In her advanced Italian course she challenged us each individually to become better writers of the language. We learned how to write in different voices, and read many different examples from journalism to poetry to recipes. I never felt like she asked for too much of us, she was always reasonable, but she always pushed us for improvement and asked for more when it came to the quality of our work. Federica is a challenging professor, but in the good way that you won't regret, so if her course fits your schedule take it, you will do well if you put in the effort. You can be sure that you will improve in the language and you will have someone supportive and understanding to help you do so. I'd give her a very high recommendation. Columbia needs more language teachers like this! She also cracks jokes all the time. Sometimes they are funny. :P

Irene is a wonderful professor. She is very approachable and understanding, and she simply wants everyone to try and to learn. She assigns grammar homework, which we go over in class, and work from a booklet with different short pieces of writing about austrian culture which stands as the basis for the next class discussion. She really appreciates and encourages participation, and she always corrects mistakes in a very constructive manner. She speaks very clearly and is usually easy to follow, as long as you concentrate on what she is saying. She assigns four small (1 1/2 page) papers, which she grades, critiques, allows you to turn it in again, and averages the pre and post corrected grades for your final grade on the paper. Also, there is no sit-in final. I thought this class was too challenging for me, as many of the students were completely or nearly fluent in German, but I ended up with a B+, so as long as you try hard and can generally follow what's going on, don't be scared of the grade. She wants you to do well.

Professor Gozzi's vagueness (perhaps characteristically Italian) can be a bit annoying: she's not always clear about what particular assignments are, when things are do, and so forth. This became a particularly problematic issue at the end of the semester. The class on the whole is rather loosely structured, which makes it relatively low-stress, but perhaps not the most intensive way to learn a language. These drawbacks aside, the class was always enjoyable and entertaining, although it often felt more like a casual conversation and reading course than a high-level language course.

She is absolutely great and super motivated to help her students improve. She does assign a good amount of work but isn't very picky about when people hand it in...she gets a bit disorganized. Prepare to work and learn a lot, she does her best to make the experience the best for all her students.

Professor Noe is great. She was able to help students at all different levels in the class improve their Italian. She was easy to reach outside of class and happy to help with any assignments and fun to talk to. Despite some obnoxious people in the class she managed to keep the subjects interesting. She loves language in general, so she's better at teaching it than other Italian teachers I've had. If you have the opportunity to take her, go for it.

Daniela Noe is an amazing teacher and a wonderful woman. She is always smiling and takes the time to get to know all of her students. The class material is pretty interesting -- mostly films and short stories, with a few grammar units -- and the workload is fairly light. There is some grammar work and about 10 short essays throughout the semester. Even though the classes can be a bit boring sometimes (when we review grammar), Daniela does her best to make class time useful and fun. She is very flexible and simply wants her students to enjoy Italian language and culture. She may seem disorganized or frantic at times, but is just part of her Bolognese charm. She is amazing -- take her class if at all possible.