INITIATIVES TO PROMOTE THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES
On May 26th, the Italian Embassy in Washington hosted a meeting of the Greater Washington DC Observatory of the Italian language. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss current initiatives to promote the Italian language in the DC area. As the AMHS organization has a compelling interest in the Observatory’s goals, the organizers of this event, First Counselor at the Italian Embassy Catherine Flumiani and Scholastic Director at the Italian Embassy Maria Fusco, invited the AMHS to send a representative.
The author had the privilege of attending on behalf of the Society and would like to report on what the Embassy is doing to strengthen its initiatives promoting the Italian language and culture in the greater DC area. At the beginning of the meeting, Counselor Flumiani and Dottoressa Fusco shared with all attendees a strategic plan for the promotion of the Italian language in 2017.
The top priority is to increase the numbers of the Advanced Placement (AP) exam. If a world language program offers an AP course and exam, the successful completion of which typically results in college credits, students have an incentive to study that language over another. If Italian programs are to thrive in the greater DC area, high schools need greater numbers of students taking the Italian AP exam. Although there were many ideas discussed about how to generate more interest in taking Italian at the advanced placement level, a few ideas stood out as the most effective and feasible for this year.
First, throughout the 2017 summer break, Professoressa Anna De Fina of Georgetown University and Professor Giuseppe Falvo of the University of Maryland will begin organizing presentations to high school students for the upcoming school year that will highlight what one can do with the Italian language at the university and beyond. Additionally, there was a consensus that a greater effort should be made to highlight the strong connection between the Italian language and a career in the sciences.
As a result, there are also plans to organize presentations by young Italian scientists at high schools to demonstrate the opportunities that proficiency in Italian can yield in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) field. In addition to increasing AP exam participation, developing Italian Beginner courses at the elementary and secondary levels is another important priority when it comes to promoting the Italian language in the greater DC area. Students who learn languages at an earlier age generally develop more native-like pronunciation. Moreover, students who enter high school already with a basic understanding of Italian can more easily reach the AP level, thus supporting the Observatory’s top priority.
Several attendees expressed their belief that exposing boys and girls to Italian opera would ignite a passion for the Italian language and inspire younger students to study Italian. Professor Falvo plans on reaching out to the University of Maryland students who study opera in order to organize a concert featuring Italian opera for children in College Park and the surrounding area, hopefully inspiring these youngsters to choose Italian if offered in their elementary or middle schools. A third priority is fundraising, particularly for scholarships.
The AMHS representative, a 2015-2016 NIAF/AMHS scholarship winner, spoke about how the AMHS-NIAF scholarship enabled her to study at the University of Perugia for Foreigners, an experience that turned her into a more knowledgeable Italian teacher, a more proficient speaker of Italian, and thus a more effective promoter of the Italian language. She expressed the view that, in addition to the AMHS-NIAF scholarship, stakeholders should be looking to create more scholarships for Italian students, specifically for young men and women who want to become Italian teachers. Immersion experiences are invaluable, but their cost discourages many students from pursuing them, which ultimately reduces the number of potential Italian teachers.
There is a pressing need for Italian teachers in the greater DC area to meet the growing demands of students who want to study the language. Lastly, there was discussion of some of the other significant resources, projects and events that will generate general interest in the Italian language and encourage prospective Italian students. AMHS members should mark their calendars for the week of October 16th to October 20th, Italian Language Week, and keep an eye out for the daily events celebrating the Italian language and culture in Washington D.C. Additionally, AMHS parents whose children or grandchildren are studying Italian, or who themselves are interested in taking Italian courses, should check out the website “US Speaks Italian,” for information about studying abroad, scholarships, online courses, and educational resources. The embassy is very interested in feedback on the website and any improvements it can make. AMHS members can direct any comments or questions to the AMHS representative or to Maria D’Andrea, who will pass them on to Counselor Flumiani and Professoressa Fusco.