Page 4 - Italian American Herald - October 2020

4 ITALIANAMERICANHERALD.COM | OCTOBER2020 ITALIAN-AMERICANHERALD FROM THE COVER
This stance has been changing over the past 30 years not only in school-age children, but also by adults who regret their parents and grandparents discouraged them from learning Italian.
Standard Italian, which is what
I refer to in this article, comes from 13th-century language spoken in Florence in the region of Tuscany. This literary language was chosen as the common language to be spoken in Italy after the unification of the country in 1861.
That does not mean that it was or is the only language spoken throughout the country. Each region in Italy has its own dialect. Most Italians today speak both the common language and the dialect. There is even a resurgence of schools teaching dialect to their students. The history of the standard language and the dialects
is a fascinating study in itself.
Prior to moving to Italy in 2006,
I taught Italian to adults in Mullica Hill, New Jersey. They were passionate about having the opportunity to learn Italian. Not all of my students were
of Italian heritage, but those who
were had a variety of reasons for choosing to learn Italian. For the
most part, a majority were of Italian descent, given the fact that the area
has a high-density population of Italian Americans.
Like myself, some chose to learn the language because they had an Italian partner and were interacting and meeting Italians and Italian Americans at events celebrating Italian culture and they were also traveling or planning to travel to Italy to visit the partner’s relatives.
These students often wished to
be able to communicate with their partner’s relatives who spoke only Italian (often parents or grandparents) in an effort to integrate into their partner’s or their own family’s circle of relationships. In some cases, there was even the hope of going to live in Italy one day together. Some adults studied Italian because they wanted to pass the language on to their children.
There are many non-Italian adults and young adults who choose to study Italian as well. In some instances, they already have a knowledge of French or Spanish, and they choose Italian as another language to learn. This may be another reason statistics show a rise in Italian language studies. It can be easier for them with a background
in a similar language.
Then there are the lovers of Italy. They learn Italian as a hobby, have no particular deadlines, and often will
connect language learning to their other passions. These are people who go on vacation to Italy at least once
a year, and often two or three. They tell you that they learn Italian to be better prepared for traveling or to watch Italian films or programs they like. Others say it is because they are passionate about opera, but in reality, they always end up confessing that the musicality of the language fascinates them, they are also thinking of past
or future visits to Italy. The language keeps alive their thoughts and
dreams of this enchanting land.
Finally, there is the world of business. There are companies
in the fashion sector that pay for their employees to learn Italian so they can better communicate with subcontractors and all those Italian factories that produce for foreign brands. This is also true in the banking sector and for architects whose studio also collaborate in Italy.
So what about future generations? In recent decades there has been
an increase of schools offering the study of Italian. While quite a few universities offered the language as an option, many of them did not offer teaching degrees so there was and is today a shortage of Italian language instructors. There are now programs in grades K-12 as well, but
these schools often struggle to find qualified teachers.
In order to preserve the option for our children and grandchildren to learn their heritage language, we all need to work towards advocating
for the choice of Italian language programs in areas where it is a viable choice. We can work with universities who do offer Italian as a minor
and find out how they can support students in education so that they can become qualified to teach Italian in primary and high school levels.
I have seen time and time again that children, whether of Italian ancestry or not, are excited to have the opportunity to learn the Italian language. They can pursue this learning through many pathways; on their own, in schools that offer the study of Italian and through a variety of programs that are available online and for purchase.
In the end we can all work to promote the beauty of the Italian language by encouraging not only our generation but also future generations of children, both those of Italian descent and those who appreciate the Italian culture, to take that first step to speaking this beautiful and ancient language.