13 - Help comes for interested in Italy

Professor Paolo Balboni from Venice explains language studies priorities

The situation is like this: from all over the world people ask for more Italian, whereas in Canada and the United States people demand money for their own initiatives in favour of Italian, no questions asked. Clearly, Italy's strategy targets areas where direct investments are made and strict controls can be enforced."
Paolo Balboni, dean of the faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures and director of the Laboratorio Itals at Venice's Università Ca' Foscari, agreed to be interviewed under one condition: "I will speak loud and clear." He kept his word.
The Italian language is going through a fortunate period abroad. My series confirmed this for the USA, Canada and Australia. Precisely because of this favourable climate, the teachers of Italian are asking for greater attention from Italy claiming that the country could do more. Do you think Italy can do more?
"Of course Italy can do more. Actually, it is doing more. You mention complaints coming from Anglophone countries, and I say that Italy is doing a lot elsewhere. First of all there is a joint initiative of all three concerned ministries (Education, Foreign Affairs, Italians Abroad) towards Brazil and Argentina; then there are strong interventions in Maghreb, in the Balkans, in Turkey, in the Far East. I don't want to sound overly patriotic, but I feel that Italy is at last moving on a global project in diffusing Italian among foreigners."
What is the role of Università Ca' Foscari within the framework of this global project?
"We began in 1999, and by the summer of 2002 we had trained in a significant way, i.e. with courses lasting at least 30 hours, 2832 teachers; 433 of these took a two-year master's degree online and in-person attendance. I can say that no other university has had as great an impact as Venice in teacher training. Let me add that teacher training is the key, the one necessary condition for diffusing the Italian language. Try and surf on www.itals.it, our site, and you'll see what we do. We must be careful: even if it is true that Italian is in great demand, it is also true that courses of poor quality make students choose Spanish or German instead. We try to avoid that."
The recent Italiano 2000 survey, carried out by Prof. Tullio De Mauro, revealed that Italian today is not considered only the language of high culture, but also a useful language. This allows it to be counted among the four or five main languages (the 'first rank') of the European Union. How is Italy working toward this goal?
"The survey you mention only concerns the courses promoted by the Istituti Italiani di Cultura. Actually, most of the teaching of Italian abroad takes place in entities linked to Italian immigrants or to the Italian Chambers of Commerce, within Mediterranean projects in the Maghreb and the Balkans, and on the basis of Art. 126 of the Maastricht Treaty (which created the European Union) in the schools on the continent. Reality is much nicer, more alive and changing than that survey shows, trust me."
What will happen in Italian schools and universities if Italian will become one of the 'first rank' languages of the European Union? I envision a kind of 'domino effect' all over the world, meaning that there will be a significant impulse to its study and diffusion. Is that so? And if it is, will the study and diffusion of Italian remain an exclusively Italian problem or will they become a European one?
"This 'first rank' image is nice but says very little. In reality, Europe's 'first rank' language is English, the so-called EuroEnglish: everybody understands everybody else but very few understand the native speakers, especially the Americans. Then there are the 'second rank' languages: French, whose popularity is rapidly diminishing, German, Spanish, Russian and Italian. They are important not for unknown reasons, but because they have greater diffusion. People flock to Italy and Spain for tourism; German and Russian are the languages of new business (these languages are spoken in the 10 new member states of the EU); French has traditional prestige, despite its downward trend. Consider also that Italian is the language spoken in Italy's Northeast, i.e. the EU area with the highest productivity. Are you aware that the province of Treviso, with 200,000 inhabitants, exports more than Greece? And that Treviso and Vicenza taken together export more than Portugal? From this standpoint, the diffusion of Italian already is a European problem. This also holds for all the 'second rank' languages: the Maastricht treaty says that every European citizen must be trained in two languages of the Union. Very few will choose Luxembourgian as their second language."
Let's go back to Canada and the United States. I seem to understand that they are not in tune with the global project for the diffusion of Italian abroad that you mentioned. Why?
"We at Ca' Foscari are collaborating with dozens of universities, ranging from international doctorates to student and teacher exchanges. Canadian and U.S. universities are the most difficult to interact with: they feel somehow like our superiors, not our peers. If an international doctorate is organized, both partners must accept some changes to their rules, but North American universities often tell us 'This is our way, we cannot stray from it.' So, nothing gets done. I have to say that much better collaboration is possible with South American and Mediterranean universities (in addition to European institutions, where all EU-sponsored exchange projects are carried out)."
According to the teachers of the Departments of Italian Studies of the Canadian and U.S. universities, better collaboration would be needed from Italian universities.
"What can I tell you? As far as we are concerned, doing more would be very hard. As I said, we created a two-year master's degree that 433 teachers have completed. I can add that right now some 300 teachers and graduates are attending that course. Also, the course has been recognized as professionally qualifying in many countries, some of which accept it as equivalent to their own 'Master in Education' degrees. I don't see this as poor collaboration. There are also other initiatives: AATI (American Association of Teachers of Italian) receives funds from Italy's Ministry of Education to send some of its members to summer courses, and many other institutions get funds from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to send students to our master's degree. Funds are not the real problem."
What is, then?
"The real problem lies in the teachers' willingness to update their training, and in the attitude of schools and universities that almost seem annoyed. There are times when we offer training abroad, and some teachers have been compelled to take vacation days, if they were allowed to, in order to attend, because Canadian and U.S. universities and schools are a hindrance, not a boost to professional training."
We might say that there are teachers interested in training that find themselves hampered by the scholastic or academic structures they belong to. However, the same teachers, despite the assistance and the opportunities that you mentioned, are less than happy with transatlantic collaboration. One of the complaints I encountered concerns the textbooks coming from Italy, mirroring the Italian cultural milieu. For instance, they say "our country", and North American students think of Canada or the United States, while the book meant Italy. This is just an example, of course, but it shows that textbooks can misdirect students rather than help them. What do you say?
"This idea reflects yet again North American isolationism. It's a pity, because this way North America, which should be the powerhouse of the world, reduces itself to a damaging quest self-reference. Every language book, be it for British English, for French, German, Spanish, Russian, and therefore for Italian as well, try to achieve dépaysement, i.e. mentally moving the student who's studying Italian (or French, or English, etc.) to Italy (or France, or Great Britain). That's standard practice, adopted by every scholar. North Americans, on the other hand, believe that the world must go to them. Learning a language should mean opening one's mind: the idea that saying 'our country' could confound an American student can only raise doubts on the maturity and willingness of that student to face the world, to stop seeing himself as the centre of the universe."
You told me that there is a global project for the diffusion of Italian abroad. Can you explain why Italy choose to invest so much in some countries and so little elsewhere?
"I'd say the strategy is to invest in countries that are interested in Italian because they are interested in Italy. This might sound like a joke, but it describes a reality that includes neither the USA nor Canada. Those countries are only interested in languages insofar as they relate to an internal problem: French for Quebec, not out of interest in France; Spanish and Chinese because of immigration, not out of interest in Latin America or China; Italian because of the large community of Italian heritage, which is a meaningful target in terms of marketing, political orientation, etc. Italy invests where there is an interest in Italy."
What sort of interest?
"Cultural, economic, tourist, or scientific interest. There are no American scientists moving to Italy - wages are half as high in Italy - but there are 35 Tunisian kids attending my university's doctorate in Environmental Science, which implies that their interest in our scientific approach to these problems compelled them to study Italian. It also means something else: 200 Italian companies operating in the environmental sector in Tunisia generated a massive demand of Italian involving some 2,400 people, which will be satisfied with ad hoc interventions. In Canada children almost have to be pressured into attending Italian classes, in the rest of the world kids insist on it. Do you think we should rather invest in Canada or in the rest of the world? I know that my frankness can be construed as offensive to some, but, you see, I am travelling constantly, and I'm paid to look at things the way they are and not the way they could or should be."
How are things, then?
"Taking Tunisia as an example, I just signed an agreement whereby half the teachers' wages will be paid by Tunisia, half by Italian Regions, companies and foundations. I will choose the teachers, train them, send them to Tunisia, check their results. It's a functional, efficacious, and efficient model. What sort of 'strategy', in general, do North Americans ask? They ask for funds, to be handled on their own, according to locally decided priorities, with no control on the quality of expenses from Italy. Clearly our strategy prefers areas where Italy invests and controls the fruits of its investments."
Did you try and explain this to North Americans?
"Of course, but I'm not sure that they understood, because in North America there is a foggy perception of European things and the way some dynamics changed after Maastricht. For instance, it seems that they haven't understood that large-scale education strategies are not fashioned anymore after national interests, but after European interests. This means that the Union decides on how many languages must be studied in Italian schools and universities, and that European projects are funding the diffusion of Italian and French in Latin America. That's where we can place our bets, because Latin America is interested in Italy and France."

Publication Date: 2003-03-16
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=2493