Meet Lauren Surovi, Lessonface Italian Teacher and soon to be Ph.D.!

Ciao! I’m Lauren and I hope you’ll join me for my beginner Italian course that starts on October 28th.

I’ve been teaching Italian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for over six years and I absolutely love it, especially when I get to talk about Italian food and fashion. I’m excited to share my love of all things Italian with you. I know that not everyone gets an opportunity to travel to Italy to study the language so I teach immersively.

There will be lots of opportunities to hear and speak Italian right from the very first session. By the end of the first session, you’ll be able to introduce yourselves, say where you’re from, and share your occupation, all in Italian. By the end of our course, you’ll be able to able to hold a simple conversation, talk about your interests, likes and dislikes, while also being able to ask others about themselves.

Want to learn for yourself why Italian is often considered one of the most beautiful languages? Come find out.

If you have any questions, feel free to message me right here on Lessonface. I look forward to meeting you soon!

This course is specifically intended for self-identified beginners who are looking to get a great start on the fundamentals of communicating in Italian. The course will prepare students to be able to communicate in order to introduce themselves and share a little about their interests and activities. As a result, students will be able to practice Italian pronunciation and develop their speaking and listening skills.

Students will be able to introduce themselves, share a little about themselves and their activities, likes and dislikes, and so on. These topics will be presented in a way that also introduces students to Italian culture; for example, likes and dislikes can be coupled with a conversation about Italian food (for example, Ti piace la pizza? Ti piace il caffè? Do you like pizza? Do you like coffee?)

Lauren Surovi has been teaching beginner and intermediate Italian language courses at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for the past six years. She also teaches an online Italian Reading and Translation course for academics and professionals, as well as small-group Italian for Conversation classes for adults in Madison, Wisconsin. She earned her BA from Syracuse University in 2009, with a double major in Italian and International Relations. In 2012, she completed her Master's degree in Italian Studies at Middlebury College while living in Florence, Italy. 

In 2013, She joined the Department of French & Italian at UW-Madison to pursue a PhD in Italian literature (her academic research focuses on the theatre of the Italian Renaissance), and she anticipates completing her degree by summer 2020. In the Department of French & Italian, she has taught 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd- semester Italian, as well as courses on Italian literature.

This past year, she was honored by the department when they nominated her for the PhD Capstone Teaching award through the UW's All-Campus Teaching Awards program. She consistently earns high scores on her student evaluations; this past semester (spring 2019), she earned a perfect score (5.0/5.0 on the evaluations rankings) from her students in her 2nd semester Italian course.