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Dec.26/04 - Jan.2, 2005 |
13 - Help comes for interested in Italy
Professor Paolo Balboni from Venice explains language studies priorities
By Antonio Maglio
Originally Published: 2003-03-16
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."
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