<p>The instructors…well, there are two of them: the one is really good during critiques and gives some nice feedback, but she doesn’t really offer much in-depth help otherwise. The other instructor is pretty much incomprehensible, he told me to shrink parts of my painting and change the background color in the 5 minutes I had left during the night painting.</p>
<p>As far as languages…you get to use as much italian as you know, which for most people is only a few key phrases. Mostly it’s just saying “ciao” to the locals as they pass you walking to their homes, and smiling/nodding as they talk about your painting in italian. You really don’t need much to get you by, but a few people in the program had taken 2 years of italian, and they got to use it frequently. The local teens all spoke english, as do many of the other people you encounter (although many will try not to let you know).</p>