You are completely new to Italian, or you can speak and understand Italian in a very limited way. We will teach you the fundamentals of basic Italian communication, like introduce yourself and others and ask and answer questions about personal details.
Program Structure
Register to a beginner sub-levels:
Beginner 1
PICK A DATE AND REGISTER
COMMUNICATIVE CONTENT
- Greetings
- Introducing yourself/introducing other people
- Asking about someone’s place of origin
- Asking and giving phone number and address
- Start a conversation
- Asking and giving personal information
- To be sorry for something
- To thank
- Ordering in a café and in a restaurant
- Asking for things in a polite way
- Asking for the bill
- Making a reservation
- Spelling
GRAMMAR
- Subject pronouns
- Present tense ESSERE-AVERE-CHIAMARSI
- The alphabet
- Nouns
- Definite and indefinite articles
- Nouns and adjectives agreement
- Introduction to interrogatives and demonstratives
- Numbers 0-100
- Prepositions a – in
AVAILABLE CLASSES
Dates
Day/time
Teacher
Price
Oct 6 to Dec 8 (10 WKS)
M 4:00-6:00 pm PT
Teacher: Jimmy (IN PERSON)
$400/term
Oct 9 to Dec 18 (10 WKS) ---- no 11/27
TH 4:00-6:00 pm PT
Teacher: Jimmy (ONLINE)
$390/term
Oct 11 to Dec 20 (10 WKS) ---- no 11/30
SA 11:15 am - 1:15 pm PT
Teacher: Jimmy (IN PERSON)
$400/term
Oct 12 to Dec 21 (10 WKS) ---- no 11/30
SU 10:00 am -12:00 pm PT
Teacher: Luigi (ONLINE)
$390/term
Oct 14 to Dec 16 (10 WKS)
T 12:00 -2:00 pm PT
Teacher: Chiara (ONLINE)
$390/term
Oct 14 to Dec 16 (10 WKS)
T 6:00-8:00 pm PT
Teacher: Chiara (IN PERSON)
$400/term
TEXTBOOK
Book (mandatory)
New Italian Espresso - Chapters 1-2-3-4
Workbook (mandatory)
New Italian Espresso - workbook
Beginner 2
PICK A DATE AND REGISTER
COMMUNICATIVE CONTENT
- Free time and leisure activities
- Talk about how often one does something
- People’s interests and occupations
- Express agreement and disagreement
- Asking and telling time
- Booking a hotel room
- Asking for the price
- Home furniture and urban environment
- Complaining about a specific problem
- Description of an apartment
- Description of a place
- Description of an itinerary
- Directions
- Expressing regret
- To apologize
GRAMMAR
- Regular verbs -IRE
- Verbs ANDARE -GIOCARE–LEGGERE- USCIRE (present tense)
- Frequency adverbs
- The days of the week
- Mi piace- Mi piacciono
- Indirect pronouns (singular)
- Perchè
- C’è- Ci sono
- POTERE-VENIRE (present tense)
- Prepositions da…a…
- Prepositions with articles
- The months
- Ordinal numbers
- The date
- Numbers 100 +
- Ci + andare
- Noun-adjective agreement
- Adjectives in -CO -CA
- Partitives (plural of indefinite articles)
- Molto
- DOVERE-SAPERE
- More interrogatives
- A CHE ORA ?
AVAILABLE CLASSES
Dates
Day/time
Teacher
Price
Oct 13 to Dec 15 (10 WKS)
M 6:00 - 8:00 pm PT
Teacher: Chiara (ONLINE)
$390/term
Oct 11 to Dec 20 (10 WKS) --- no 11/29
SA 11:00 am - 1:00 pm PT
Teacher: Gianna (IN PERSON)
$400/term
Oct 7 to Dec 9 (10 WKS)
T 4:00-6:00 pm PT
Teacher: Dario (IN PERSON)
$400/term
Oct 16 to Dec 18 (9 WKS) ---- no 11/29
TH 3:00 - 5:00 pm PT
Teacher: Chiara (ONLINE)
$360/term
TEXTBOOK
Book (mandatory)
New Italian Espresso - Chapters 5-6-7-8
Workbook (mandatory)
New Italian Espresso - workbook
Beginner 3
PICK A DATE AND REGISTER
COMMUNICATIVE CONTENT
- Talk about past actions and events
- Holiday activities
- Specify when a past event took place
- Talk about the weather
- Food
- Grocery shopping
- Description of a store
- Recipes and dishes
- Work habits and working hours
- Daily routine
- Congratulations and wishes for special occasions and holidays
- Italian public holidays
GRAMMAR
- Past tense : passato prossimo
- Time indicators
- Regular and irregular past participles
- Absolute superlative
- Double negative
- Qualche
- The seasons
- Quantities
- Partitive (singular)
- Direct pronouns (lo ,la, li, le, ne)
- Impersonal construction (si + verbo)
- Reflexive verbs
- Time and frequency indicators
- FARE (specific usage)
AVAILABLE CLASSES
Dates
Day/time
Teacher
Price
Oct 7 to Dec 9 (10 WKS)
T 4:00 - 6:00 pm PT
Teacher: Francesca (ONLINE)
$390/term
Oct 9 to Dec 18 (10 WKS) ---- no 11/27
TH 6:00 - 8:00 pm PT
Teacher: Luigi (ONLINE)
$390/term
Oct 11 to Dec 20 (10 WKS) --- no 11/29
SA 11:00 am - 1:00 pm PT
Teacher: Dario (IN PERSON)
$400/term
Oct 9 to Dec 18 (10 WKS) ---- no 11/27
TH 4:00 - 6:00 pm PT
Teacher: Dario (IN PERSON)
$400/term
TEXTBOOK
Book (mandatory)
New Italian Espresso - Chapter 9-10-11-12
Workbook (mandatory)
New Italian Espresso - workbook
Beginner 4
PICK A DATE AND REGISTER
COMMUNICATIVE CONTENT
- Family
- Description of a photo
- Expressing possession
- Gifts and weddings
- General review
GRAMMAR
- Possessive adjectives
- Relative superlative
- Reflexive verbs (Past tense)
- Perchè- Siccome
AVAILABLE CLASSES
Dates
Day/time
Teacher
Price
Oct 9 to Dec 18 (10 WKS) ---- no 11/27
TH 6:00 - 8:00 pm PT
Teacher: Dario (IN PERSON)
$400/term
Oct 12 to Dec 21 (10 WKS) --- no 11/30
SA 9:00 - 11:00 am PT
Teacher: Gianna (IN PERSON)
$400/term
Oct 14 to Dec 16 (10 WKS)
T 3:00 - 5:00 pm PT
Teacher: Chiara (ONLINE)
$390/term
Oct 8 to Dec 10 (10 WKS)
W 10:00 am - 12:00 pm PT
Teacher: Mattia (ONLINE)
$390/term
Oct 6 to Dec 8 (10 WKS)
M 6:00 - 8:00 pm PT
Teacher: Gianna (ONLINE)
$390/term
Oct 6 to Dec 8 (10 WKS)
M 6:00 - 8:00 pm PT
Teacher: Dario (IN PERSON)
$400/term
Oct 6 to Dec 8 (10 WKS)
M 3:00 - 5:00 pm PT
Teacher: Dario (IN PERSON)
$400/term
TEXTBOOK
Book (mandatory)
New Italian Espresso - Chapters 13-14-15 + general review
Workbook (mandatory)
New Italian Espresso - workbook
Conversazione Beginners
PICK A DATE AND REGISTER
Short 5 weeks course aimed at improving our students’ conversational skills on everyday topics.
No books required.
Classes are 90 minutes long.
We have both IN PERSON and ONLINE group options.
To join this group, students must have completed our regular Beginners 3 course or demonstrate an equivalent level.
AVAILABLE CLASSES
Dates
Day/time
Teacher
Price
Oct 6 to Nov 3 (5 WKS)
M 2:30 – 4:00 pm PT
Teacher: Mattia (IN PERSON)
$190/term
Jan 15 to Feb 12 (5 WKS)
TH 11:30am -1:00 pm PT
Teacher: Francesca (ONLINE)
$180/term
Feb 19 to March 19 (5 WKS)
TH 11:30am -1:00 pm PT
Teacher: Francesca (ONLINE)
$180/term
TEXTBOOK
PRICE
Prices are listed next to each group.
A 10$ nonrefundable registration fee will be automatically added at checkout.
Books are not included in the enrollment price.
DISCOUNTS
BRING A FRIEND: If you enroll with a friend (new to IIS), you both get a 10% discount
ENROLL IN 2 GROUPS: if you enroll in 2 groups in the same Term, you will get a 15% discount on the second group's enrollment (the less expensive)
PRIVATE CLASSES: if you are enrolled in a group, you can purchase private classes with a 10% discount
BULK REGISTRATION: if you enroll in 2 or more Terms at the same time, you will not pay the $10 registration fee and will get an additional 10% discount
To get these discounts, send an email to italianschool@sfiis.org
A 10$ nonrefundable registration fee will be automatically added at checkout.
Books are not included in the enrollment price.
DISCOUNTS
BRING A FRIEND: If you enroll with a friend (new to IIS), you both get a 10% discount
ENROLL IN 2 GROUPS: if you enroll in 2 groups in the same Term, you will get a 15% discount on the second group's enrollment (the less expensive)
PRIVATE CLASSES: if you are enrolled in a group, you can purchase private classes with a 10% discount
BULK REGISTRATION: if you enroll in 2 or more Terms at the same time, you will not pay the $10 registration fee and will get an additional 10% discount
To get these discounts, send an email to italianschool@sfiis.org
DURATION
Group Classes
from 5 to 10 weeks groups, different duration
Term 1
January 12th to March 22nd, 2026
Term 2
April 6th to June 14th, 2026
Term 3
July 27th to October 4th, 2026
Term 4
October 19th, 2026, to January 15th, 2027
