8 - Making sure the language survives

New generations express interest in the Italian culture snubbed by parents

The middle generation had cut its links with Italy. That generation is now in its 40s or 50s, and it includes the children of the first Italians who immigrated to Canada in the Fifties or Sixties. They cut those links for several reasons: to feel fully Canadians, avoiding stereotypes and offensive names such as ginos or wops; to react to family habits such as working in the baccaiarda where tomatoes grow and the summer afternoons spent in preparing tomato paste; to flee the noisy Sunday parties among former townsfolk, or the huge portions of pasta.
Many still remember with annoyance the living room sofas covered in plastic, where nobody was allowed to sit as it would be "consumed". And the Sunday Mass, the processions, the First Communion with the unavoidable photo to send the relatives in Calabria or Sicily or Friuli. Their Canadian peers did not share and did not understand those customs, and therefore joked about them. They dropped Italy, beginning with its language.
Those links are slowly being rebuilt by their own children. Having grown up as Canadians among Canadians, they suddenly found out about their heritage. First they smiled, then they grew curious. They discovered that growing tomatoes in one's backyard and making tomato paste was not that bad an idea; that family reunions gave warmth and flavour to the stiff Anglo-Saxon relations; that the grandparents' untouchable sofa was not taboo, but the sign of a hard-earned well-being that deserved respect. Also, that pasta was really good, Ferrari and Lamborghini were beautiful, and Italian cinema, theatre and fashion were fascinating. When they went to Italy on vacation or as students, they realized the difference with the old tales, and found a dynamic, modern, brilliant country. And rediscovered its language.
Statistics Canada recorded a decrease of spoken Italian over the last five years, but it could not record the raising interest in it; however, the signs are clear. At St. Michael's College, for instance, the University of Toronto Italian Club has blossomed. Its 100 members of not long ago have grown to 400, and its officials are working to federate the other Italian Clubs formed in the major Canadian universities. "We know quite well," says President Nicholas Pappalardo, "the stereotypes still hovering over the Italian-Canadian community: we intend to do our part in eliminating them. The only way is through constant dialogue with our peers from other communities."
Domenico Pietropaolo is Director of the Department of Italian Studies of the University of Toronto, the most important centre of Italian studies outside Italy. He distances himself both from Statistics Canada and from the survey carried out by Tullio De Mauro, according to which Italian is the fifth most studied language in the world.
He says: "The figures released by Statistics Canada concern spoken Italian, not how it is studied. Prof. De Mauro's survey only considers data on courses held by the Istituti Italiani di Cultura. For us, things have more or less remained the same. In 1997 there were 1,060 students enrolled in Italian language classes at the University of Toronto, in 2002 they were 1,050. Over the past seven years these figures oscillated by not more than three or four percent."
In regards to the future, do you feel optimistic or pessimistic?
"Cautiously optimistic, because something new is going to happen."
What are you referring to?
"In 2003, for the first time in the history of this province, students will access the university after Grade 12, due to the reform in education. Current 12th-graders and 13th-graders will enter together. This will boost enrolment to first-year courses, including Italian."
That sounds nice. Why did you qualify your optimism as "cautious"?
"Because that increase in enrolment will be caused by the reform itself, not by an increased interest in the Italian language. Because of this, we shall need to keep a watchful eye on this phenomenon; it must be verified whether the increase will be confirmed in subsequent years and whether Italian will increase as much as the other disciplines. We shall strive not to lose any of the students who will enrol in our classes."
Who enrols in Italian courses offered by your Department? Young Italian-Canadians only or also non-Italians?
"Most of them are Italian-Canadians, curious about the culture of their parents or grandparents, even though few intend to get a degree in Italian Studies. Most of our students, in fact, attend three or four courses of Italian in their whole career."
How many students graduate in Italian Studies?
"Relatively few of them, as few are the non-Italian students. Generally speaking, when students enrol in university they choose this or that course in accordance to their previous contacts with a given discipline. Unfortunately, nowadays Italian is taught in very few high schools in Canada - and Prof. Mollica found that where it is taught, enrolment is down - so non-Italian youth have little opportunity for a significant exposure to Italian culture before they enrol in university."
How difficult it is to expand the offer of Italian language and culture?
"Very difficult, and the worst difficulty lies in the insufficient number of teachers in comparison with the number of courses we would like to offer."
What are the characteristics of your offer?
"We currently develop a rather complex programme: language, linguistics, cinema and theatre, and literature. But due to the lack of teachers we can only rotate courses every two years. Then, there is another big difficulty."
What is it?
"The bursaries do not allow a student to live decently, especially during a Ph.D. These students are on average 27, and some are even married. The programme takes five years, often including trips to Italy. How can one bear this burden with absolutely insufficient bursaries?"
What can be done to overcome these dire straits?
"First of all we should pressure the high schools so that Italian is offered as a part of the regular curriculum."
Who should do this pressuring?
"All of us. The community, through its organizations, should be in the front lines of this campaign as well as in the establishment of a system of bursaries for young people studying Italian. There is also another way."
Please elaborate.
"We could introduce cultural philanthropy in our community. We have big entrepreneurs who lead companies renowned not just in Canada but all over the world. They could support university chairs, offer bursaries, fund international projects. They could get a powerful return in terms of image."
Do you think that Italian-Canadian entrepreneurs may be open to such initiatives?
"Some of them already are. Evidently their example will only be followed if culture will finally become a priority for Italian-Canadians. I think that their organizations, from the clubs to the regional associations, the Congress, Comites, CGIE, should do more in this direction."
Who should support this strategy towards Italian language and culture, promoted by our community, Canada or Italy?
"Both of them. Canada should do this because Italian is the language of a country playing a significant role in international economy and politics. Canada has every interest in keeping constant relations with Italy, so the importance of studying Italian in Canada seems obvious to me."
What about Italy?
"Italy should support Italian studies abroad not just out of its historical duty to its own culture but also for practical reasons. Promoting the study of Italian means promoting Italian economy as well. What can Italy and Canada do? I mentioned our emergencies, they should help us cope with them. We need chairs and bursaries, but we especially need greater collaboration between Canadian and Italian universities."
This collaboration already exists. How could it be greater?
"The problem is that in most cases the collaboration is limited to personal contacts between teachers, and is oriented to the organization of meetings. That's very useful to professors, but has little to do with the students, who need guidance and assistance when they go to Italy for short periods."
What sort of guidance and assistance?
"Let me exemplify. Regardless of individual preparation, students who need to search archives in Italy for the first time need to overcome significant academic and bureaucratic difficulties. Three or four weeks of study would be much more profitable if one could access archives and libraries through the academic and administrative structures of the Italian universities supporting the study, and even more so if one could eventually consult with an Italian professor."
Isn't this the case now?
"Only if there is a personal relation, and then this becomes a collaboration between two specific individuals, not two institutions. The collaboration between Canadian and Italian universities requires cultural agreements and organizational structures that, unfortunately, do not exist yet."

Publication Date: 2003-03-09
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=2465