Course (sic) material.

While Pat was away I completed and printed out the   libretto   for the Phantom Course. I began compiling the booklet in September with a view to offering the course last winter. However, for various reasons it took much longer than the module booklets I used to produce for my APU teaching. 

   Firstly, to avoid involving potential students in any expense I decided to include all the texts they’d need. In the case of The Canterbury Tales this meant buying a copy of an Italian translation, scanning the tales I intended using, running them through an OCR programme and finally creating a document with the translation running side by side with the Middle English original. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a translation of the passages from Troilus and Criseyde that I wished to use so I had to do the job myself. Then I had to find a native speaker who’d be willing to check my work. My friend Irish Paul who teaches ESOL to students from the Italian customs service found one who was prepared to take on the task. Needless to say, there were so many mistakes that Ornella virtually rewrote it. 

   As I’m doubtful that Montefalcone will have enough (if any) people interested in the course, I’ve created a web-site for it.  I’ll see if I can place a free advert in the Corriere Annunci  pointing people to it and  maybe that’ll pull in enough punters. But I’m not holding my breath.