EMBASSY COUNSELOR CATHERINE FLUMIANI DISCUSSES PROMOTING “LA BELLA LINGUA”
We were off to a running start with our first program of the year. We had 85 attendees on January 29, 2017, and the number of favorable comments, during and after the program, showed that it was a big success.
Our speaker was Embassy of Italy official Catherine Flumiani, and she talked to us about “Promoting the Italian Language— Italy’s Rich Heritage.” Ms. Flumiani was accompanied by Maria Fusco, the Education Counselor of the Embassy of Italy.
We know that Italian language classes are so popular today, even though Italian is not as widespread in the world as, let’s say, Spanish, Chinese or Arabic. So there must be something that makes learning this beautiful, elegant language so popular-actually the 4th most studied language nowadays.
To find out how to make the Italian language even more popular, we turned to Ms. Flumiani, the First Counselor of the Embassy of Italy, to enlighten us. Ms. Flumiani is the First Counselor for Consular Coordination and Social Affairs, responsible for coordinating the activities of the Italian consular network in the United States.
She talked to us about the goals and strategies to further promote the teaching of the Italian language in both public schools and private schools in the United States, and she illustrated the tools that the Italian government has put in place in this regard and the importance of the interaction and cooperation with the Italian and ItalianAmerican associations in this respect. Our speaker arrived in Washington in the fall of 2016 after a distinguished career elsewhere.
Ms. Flumiani is a native of Varese and graduated from the Universitá Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano with a degree in political science. Before coming to Washington, she was posted to Amman, Jordan and Berlin, Germany. Since coming to Washington a few months ago, Ms. Flumiani has hit the ground running, such as giving inspiring remarks at the Columbus Day ceremony at Union Station shortly after her arrival here, as well as more recent events in conjunction with the Istituto di Cultura Italiana.
Ms. Flumiani told us the teaching of Italian is becoming more and more popular, and in fact last year over 2,700 students took the AP exam for Italian. She said one of the goals of the Italian government is to cultivate exceptional teachers and give them more training. Also, she said the Italian government wants to work more closely with Italian and Italian-American organizations, including national organizations such as the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) and the National Organization of Italian American Women (NOIAW) as well as groups such as AMHS. She mentioned the efforts of the Ente Gestore and she gave a special thanks to Joe Lupo, who directs the Casa Italiana Language School.
That school is the only Managing Entity (Ente Gestore) in the Washington, D.C. area which administers funds contributed by the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs for the teaching of Italian in local schools, preparing students for the AP exams, and providing comprehensive courses for students with native language ability (corsi integrativi).
After Ms. Flumiani’s remarks, many in the audience asked questions and made thoughtful remarks. In answer to one question, she noted that she favors “bambini classes” because the brain is most elastic before the age of 8 so that foreign languages are easier to learn. In answer to another question, she noted that many of the students are second- and thirdgeneration Italian-Americans, whose immigrant parents or grandparents did not pass down the language, while other students do not have Italian heritage at all but they appreciate Italian culture or opera and they love this musical, elegant language.
On a personal note, Ms. Flumiani told us she was in Rome during the earthquake last August, and she took note of all the relief efforts for central Italy, especially in Abruzzo following the earthquakes, snow and avalanche. After the comment period, special thanks was given to those present who have done so much to promote the Italian language and culture, namely, Joe Lupo, Lucio D’Andrea, Pino Cicala and Melo Cicala.
A brief business meeting was held prior to Ms. Flumiani’s talk. Rocco Caniglia, Maria Fresco and Sergio Fresco were each given a certificate of appreciation and thanked for their outstanding service. Then Albert Paolantonio was sworn in as a new board member (Jeff Clark will be sworn in as a new board member at a later date). Next we heard from Ray La Verghetta, chairman of the AMHS Scholarship Committee, who introduced our 2 scholarship winners, Salvatore Pitino and Nicholas Rao.
They both made a few remarks, which were warmly received by the audience (see next article in the Notiziario). Before the meeting began, we enjoyed a delicious lunch catered by Nino Pino of Osteria da Nino in Shirlington, Virginia. By all accounts, the meal was very much appreciated, and Nino received a warm round of applause after the lunch. We raised $158 from the raffle and $82 from the merchandise sales. The money will be donated to a charitable organization to help victims of the recent disasters in Abruzzo.