½ûÂþÌìÌÃ

Hi
I'm not sure if this will be of any help... my hubby went to the local supermarket and bought a dish and box - came home and set it up, pointed the dish to Astra 28.2 south and plugged the box in and .......(after a wait of about 10 days and lots of fiddling and mumbling....) he finally cheered ! We have all the BBC channels including CBeebies and lots of other channels. We get Skynews too. We don't get any ITV though. But I'm more than happy to be able to watch a bit of English Tv whatever it may be ! I think CBeebies is probably more entertaining than most ½ûÂþÌìÌà tv anyway ! (point of contention between me and my other half)
As for your daughter, how old is she ? If she is 3 or over, I would strongly recommend that you send her to Scuola Materna. My son started at 5, with no knowledge of italian, and in very little time he was chatting away. I think learning through play is probably one of the best ways for children. (doesn't seem to work with my adult students though -shame !)
Good luck and welcome to the beautiful Piemonte !
Karen

Hi Karen..thanks so much for your reply.
thats very helpful, so it could be well worth trying our current setup there and fiddle with the dish as it were. The box you bought, was it anything specific..I'm not very technical, so just wondered if they all do the same thing. Do you use a card or are you just basicly recieving a signal direct to the box with no card. I'm probably sounding really thick, but I have no knowledge in this area whatsoever.
Thankyou.
As for my daughter, she's 9 now. Would have been starting year 5 in Sept.
We did live in canary islands for a few years, in which she did spanish, so she should be fine in learning italian, but she enjoys and loves school and education and anything involving a project, and is also very likeable / popular girl and rocking any of that by the unknown language may deter that enthusiasm, so I wanted to focus on home tuition until she's confident to participate within a local school. Shes well advanced for her age anyway, so By having a private tuition before she commences may help greatly. I'd rather her delay her start and go in with a moderate amount of confidence of understanding, rather than throw her in and her enthusiasm disappears due to lack of confidence. I know the language will be learnt quicker by throwing them in, but no-one seems to think about how humiliating that must feel for a child who is bright and does well, and suddenly finds herself struggling.The long term cannot be of much benefit to them. When they are just starting school..thats different, I say yes..throw them in, but with my daughter age, It is very different. I hope that makes sense.
I do have a son also, but he's just 2, so no problem there, and already deals with spanish and English instruction at home. My partner is of ½ûÂþÌìÌà roots and speaks 7 fluent languages anyway, so thats a big help to them.
Do you actually live near where we are heading??
What would you recommend in the education area by way of local schools etc.. I must admit I have also considered the International based in Turin itself, but not only is the price nice and juicy, but it would be a 25min journey there, and then back, then again in the pm...I also hear from people that I've spoke to that the ½ûÂþÌìÌà schools are needing alot of improvement in their system..so, We all umm and ahh at whats right and wrong.. We are spoilt here in Bournemouth with an excellent school that she attends currently, that I cannot fault in any way. But like many areas, there are good and bad, so maybe if you know the area, you can advise a direction for me???!!!
Again..many thanks..sorry to waffle on..thats just me being me.
Abbey

there are already several threads covering this, but, again, you will need to instal a new dish of at least 1mtr. dia. to pick up any of the channels that your UK subscription will cover, you will probably find several of the channels fade out around mid afternoon, OR, you go to the supermarket, buy a "Free to Air box and dish, link up and fiddle around with, eventually getting some channels (cancel your sky card in England of course) OR, go into your local SKY Italia supplier, or telephone them arrange to have the system installed and choose the package you need, select the English language preference via the handset and get the news channels, bbc plus, movies if you choose them, then, as your ½ûÂþÌìÌà improves, switch to ½ûÂþÌìÌà setting (cancel your card in England first) I would bring your spare boxes over though as it may be possible to use them as extensions (not certain, but think so)
Remember to cancel Sky in writing in the UK, as well as verbally, or they persue you via debt collection agencies...

Hi Abbey
Okay - I'm really "thick" when it comes to anything technological ! :confused: But we watch all the channels without a card - I think as George has said, its a 'free to air' box & dish. We got it at our local Carrefour. (we bought it because we met an English lady outside Carrefour and got chatting and she told us about it!). We had a slight problem recently and lost all the signals, but then with a bit of adjusting we got them back. (Well my hubby did ).
I understand your problem with your daughter and you have my full sympathy. Our other son was 12 when we came and we had also looked at the Intl School - but as you said, the fees were just too high for us. So we enrolled him in the local school and asked that he 'go back' a year. (he didn't speak any italian). So he did 2 years at this school, and he had a really tough time at first. But I have to say his teachers were very understanding and helped as much as they could. He used to go to a grammar school in the UK (because the Channel Islands still have the 11plus !) So the school here was a complete culture shock for him. But he recently took his final exams and we were so proud when he passed. His italian is still not fluent, but I think thats because he's a bit laid back in general. (and he's a boy!). The school was definately not as well equipped as his old one, but I believe he learnt other important things, and it has given him more confidence to tackle diverse situations. Each school has its own rules etc, so if you wanted your daughter to start maybe after Xmas and have the benefit of learning some italian first, then I would contact a few different schools in your area and see what each one says. Other people on the forum, have been told that the school will only accept new pupils in Sept, and others have been luckier and been accepted whenever. Its just trial and error! There is a quite well known private school in this area. It the 'Don Bosco School'. It has buses to all the nearby towns and has elementary, middle and high school. Its supposed to have a good reputation and maybe they could give more 'special assistance' to a new pupil ? Not sure but its just an idea. (I think they have a website).
Whereabouts are you going to be?, we are also outside Turin. Its a good location, lots to see, lakes, mountains, and the coast is only a couple of hours away.
I'm not sure about private tuition - maybe a graduate/student could be one idea. Lots of them put little adverts in local shops offering their services. You could also ask at your local 'Comune' (town hall).
Hope this is of some help
Ciao for now
Karen

Congrats to your hubby on finding the signals, I believe they're tightening up all the time , probably to limit access, I went the Sky route, but kept the free box and dish too, F1 in German can't be beaten LOL.
the cost for sky Italia, approx €100 for dish box and installation, take the sterling figure for the package you have now and put the euro sign in front of it for charge (about 30% cheaper)

Just to clear up any confusion...
The UK SKY service is on the Astra satellite at 28 degrees east of south.
The Sky Italia service is broadcast from Hotbird at 13 degrees east.
What this means is that you can receive either one or the other, but not both ; you have to choose which when the dish is installed.
The BBC channels are free-to-air on the Astra satellite which serves the UK - you don't need a card or a subscription to receive them, so any cheap free-to air receiver bought in Italy should work. You DO however need a big dish, becase the signal is weak.

For the Sky UK subscription channels, you need your Sky UK receiver and card (registered to your address in the UK!) and a smaller dish will be OK (its on the same satellite as the BBC, but the beam is not as narrow)

If you opt for Sky Italia, a standard installation and basic subscription will give you BBC Prime, various news channels and a lot of American series and documentary channels with the original soundtrack in English. I think C-Beebies put in an appearance some time in the afternoon on BBC prime, but the rest of the time all I seem to get is repeats of 'Are You Being Served?'!

Many thanks again..

Firstly, Marc..Does this mean I could simply take my current box & card that I use now in UK, and with a satellite that is luckily already installed on my roof in Italy (once adjusted to frequency) use that same set up...and if so, could I in theory continue my payments to sky as I do now to the UK address believing that I still use it there, and, again if so, how does the phone line bit work. I ask that because Sky ask you to keep your phone line in as part of your agreement with sky. I know they do act on this as we have a second box here in UK in my daughters room, and for a while that wasnt connected to a phone line, and they kept writing to demand it was connected or they would suspend service, after a 14 day warning, I trailed some connections and phone wire to the box just in case they mean it!
What size dish do you recommend for the Sky service and would that be the same for the free to air box service. I guess around a 90cm or 1m?? We will be in the North of Italy, like I mentioned, @20 mins West of Turin.
Could you recommend, or know of someone that is of sound knowledge to be able to find signal / correct setup as far as dish is concerned, someone in my area. I will probably need one as, like I said, I'm useless.
Karen...Thanks again. Well done to your son, sounds excellent, I bet your'e well proud of him.
We will be in the vacinity of Rivoli. Are you close?? If so, I know who to question when I need any info!!!!!!!!
Yes..a good idea about the students/graduates, never thought of that. Probably a much better option. I'm sure there will be plenty willing for some extra money.
Many Many thanks again.

In the UK, your box telephones Sky to update their records, in Italy, they do not insist on the telephone line connection, their installer advised me to only connect if I needed to order pay per view films, I tend not to need them.

Most people who have tried to maintain a UK sky subscription here tend to change over to Sky Italia eventually any way as it is difficult to keep the signal good, and, you seem to lose half of the UK channels at different times during the day.

To find an expert in your area, ask your neighbours when you arrive, for initial advice, you could try [url]www.satcure.co.uk[/url] but you will find their recommendations will be 1metre dish as a minimum special pick up for the dish and a lot of messing around,

or, connect to sky Italia legit. save money, have a guaranteed installation and service back up, which, unless you actually like messing around with the installation would give you much peace of mind, and, you do have a language preference which gives you English on many of the channels (AND, you get Jimmy!!!) :eek: