4 - Local organizations indifferent to crisis

Anthony Mollica offers suggestions in increasing interest in the study of Italian language

It was Franco Gaspari who tabled the issue. Gaspari chairs the Cultural Committee of Toronto's Comites. He availed himself of the stage of the Second National Conference of Italians Abroad, held in Toronto last month. He spoke of "basic apathy and substantial indifference" by the Italian community and its representatives towards the reform of the Ontario school system, a reform that drastically reduced language courses, including those of Italian. "Such apathy and indifference," he continued, "can only be explained with a change in the attitude of Italian-Canadians in regard to their language and culture of origin."
Gaspari did not limit himself to underscoring the paradoxical invisibility of so large a community. With his distinctive good manners and with the pragmatism he derives from his activity as a mathematician, he also pointed out one of the reasons for this fracture between Italian-Canadians and their culture. "The organizations that represent our community," he said, "must cast their differences aside and realize that collaboration is the only way to get results."
After these statements he proposed his recipe: "Such a large community must be able to lobby, to become a political force to be reckoned with. Safeguarding the Italian language requires such an effort. I propose that the Comites organize a meeting with Italian-Canadian politicians at every level, from school trustees to city councillors to MPPs and MPs, asking them to commit unconditionally to defending the culture and language of what is, after all, their electoral base. However, the community organizations must also do their part, i.e. getting Italian-Canadians involved and mobilized on this issue."
Franco Gaspari had the misfortune of speaking in close proximity to Massimo Magliaro, director of RAI International, who chose the same stage to announce the official divorce from Telelatino and the intention of applying for an autonomous channel broadcasting RAI programs in Canada 24 hours a day. The audience was engrossed by this announcement, and paid little attention to what Gaspari was saying. Pity; there was food for thought in it.
And yet Gaspari was not alone in sending out this alert call. He had been preceded by Domenic Marozzi from Edmonton, Vice President of the 4th Committee, the one on Culture, of the Consiglio Generale degli Italiani all'Estero (CGIE). He showed the way to defend and promote Italian language in Canada. "We must devise a strategy that involves parents, community, teaching boards, Comites, and CGIE." This appeal to mobilization was also drowned in the applause cheering Massimo Magliaro's opening remark: "You shall have RAI." Most of the audience, satisfied by such munificence, began to calculate how many soccer matches they could watch.
"I'm not surprised that a soccer match can be considered more important than a course of Italian," remarks Anthony Mollica bitterly, professor at the Faculty of Education at Brock University. "Had our community been more vigilant in the past, nowadays we'd most likely have the tools and strength to defend our language from the erosion caused by the cutbacks, the scarcity of qualified teachers, the advancement of new immigrant languages such as Chinese and Tagalog and the lack of resources."
Anthony Mollica recently organized the congress of the American Association of Teachers of Italian (AATI), which assembled in Toronto over 250 teachers from Italy, the United States, Canada and Australia. Mollica, who is also a past president of AATI, was in the Seventies the first consultant for the Ministry of Education of Ontario. He knows what he's talking about, also because he conducted a series of surveys on the diffusion of the Italian language in this province. The surveys were done for his university and for the Agnelli Foundation. "You want numbers? Here they are," he says. "Enrolment in Italian language classes in secondary schools, both public and Catholic, are down. It went from 3,106 students in 1998 to 2,382 in 2001. This trend was accurately disclosed a few days ago by Statistics Canada."
According to Statistics Canada, many languages have lost ground: Italian, German, Ukrainian, and Dutch. Italian is not the third language following English and French any more, but the fourth, after Chinese. Honestly, do we Italian-Canadians need to apologize for this?
"Not you, nor I, and not a lot of others. But the majority of us do. I spoke of scarce vigilance, now I'll expand on this. Our community thought that the only richness was material, and strove to achieve that. On the other hand, especially in the past, they did not consider the huge, authentic richness that was already available, its language and its culture. It bears this original sin, and now it's paying for it. I don't want to risk being misunderstood; when I speak of our community I mostly refer to its representative organizations. What did they do to defend the Italian language and culture? They made parties, banquets, processions; they presented prizes to one another and complimented one another. This, of course, was merely a front, because actually they quarrel all the time. They've built retirement homes, which was good, but can they show one tiny cultural initiative of their own? The youngest generations of Italian-Canadians speak no Italian with the family; this is the heaviest allegation. The community reaps what it sowed."
Are there margins for recovery?
"Sure there are, and we are here to talk about them."
Let's talk, then. The survey conducted by Tullio De Mauro says that the study of Italian is on the rise everywhere in the world. However, looking at the numbers from Statistics Canada we seem to be on a countertrend. Is it really so?
"Yes and no. Prof. De Mauro's survey was limited to courses promoted by the Istituti Italiani di Cultura, and they did register a significant increase. Think of the Istituto of Toronto: over a couple of years it practically quadrupled its enrolment. Things are different in local schools, and I gave you a summary of the situation in Ontario."
How do you explain this difference in the same country?
"The fact is that the Istituti di Cultura are free from many constraints that high schools and universities must observe. The latter must withstand cutbacks from the government and forcedly balanced budgets, as well as the trend to favour sciences over humanities, languages included, and so on. Do you know what is paradoxical here?"
What?
"Italian is a fascinating language, and we don't even need to explain why, and yet there are no tools suitable for promoting it methodically and massively. Italian needs a marketing campaign, I said it repeatedly. I agree with Prof. Lebano in full: we need more Italian cinema, more music, more theatre. Folklore companies should be assisted in bringing the cultural patrimony of Italian regions, a huge and unexplored field. The knowledge of Italian would allow not just Italian-Canadians, but Canadians at large, to appreciate these things. I've been saying for a long while that we must teach our language to non-Italians. This can still be done, even though English is the world's lingua franca, Italian opens immense horizons also to non-Italians who study it."
Why doesn't Canada do so?
"Because Canada has not decided yet how to implement the splendid idea of multiculturalism. Multiculturalism cannot simply promote nostalgia exhibitions, processions and traditions from 50 years ago. Language and culture are inseparable, and constantly evolve. If the government - in this case the Province, as education falls under its jurisdiction - truly believed in multiculturalism, it would promote the study of languages, including Italian. On the contrary, they cut it."
It looks as if there is no way out. Things being as they are, the study of Italian seems destined to whither ever more. Am I wrong?
"You are indeed. Ours is a special language, not only because it is the language of great culture - let's not forget that Italy owns 70 percent of the world's art patrimony - but also because it is conquering an ever increasing degree of social and commercial value. These characteristics are the real strength of a language: the Italian government would stand to gain a lot from promoting the study of Italian abroad. That's why Italy must devise a strategy for valorizing its language abroad."
What should Italy do, from a practical standpoint?
"It should begin from the textbooks. The success of a language course depends from the material used and the study plan chosen. Well, books coming from Italy are excellent, but they suffer from having been conceived and written there. Students have a hard time in identifying situations and people thousands of kilometres away. Therefore, a Canadian publishing industry in Italian should be supported with funds earmarked for locally made textbooks, or at least a closer collaboration between Italian and Canadian publishers should be established."
What comes next?
"Next come those who must use the textbooks, i.e. the teachers. Italian being the special language it is, its teachers should be highly qualified. They not always are, and that's not their fault. In order to teach after school and on Saturday mornings, an OK from the parents is enough. Doesn't it seem too little to you? And that's not all: very often those courses are held, for lack of better alternatives, by people whose only qualification is that they can speak Italian. However, being able to speak a language does not imply being able to teach it. Many school boards organize training courses, but they are short and usually made without any connection with universities, so that the participants receive no university credit."
What do you suggest?
"I propose two solutions. The first concerns the local government: let it rule that the refreshing courses organized by school boards for their teachers must be done in collaboration with the Faculties of Education, which were created precisely to train teachers. The second concerns Italy. In order to promote the teaching of its language abroad, it should encourage teacher candidates, who intend to get a degree and teach Italian, to attend short courses, e.g. in the summer, at Italian universities. These could be twinned with some Canadian universities. It would be an ideal partnership, and the government of Ontario is currently encouraging such collaboration. Meanwhile, another path could be followed."
Let's hear it.
"The Italian government, through the Istituto di Cultura and in collaboration with local universities, could sponsor some short refresher courses on innovations in the teaching of Italian. At that point, getting Canadian authorities to recognize those courses as an integral part of a regular university curriculum shouldn't be too difficult. Finally, there are the students."
What about them?
"A few Canadian educational institutions are already twinned with Italian counterparts. Fine, knowledge has no borders. But this must be pursued even more, and both countries must do so. There is a solution. A lot of Italian youngsters go and study English in Britain; why couldn't they be attracted to Canada? English is one of the official languages of this country, and there is no lack of excellent teachers of English. At the same time, the Canadian students who want to study Italian are sent to Italy. It would be better from a learning point of view, and more convenient too, don't you think? However, let me show you the Achilles' heel of these proposals."
Please do.
"All these initiatives, and more, seem easily done, but if they lack the determined support of the organizations representing the community at the highest level they risk remaining words. Governments, both in Italy and Ontario, would consider them dreams."
I don't think that the Italian government is uninterested in the diffusion of its language abroad. I concur that it lacks an attack strategy, like that advocated by Prof. Lebano, but it funds the teaching of Italian with huge resources.
"I won't deny it. But then how do you explain that, despite those huge resources, Italian lost position? The numbers from Statistics Canada are quite clear."
Statistics Canada itself explained it in part: the great immigration from Italy is over, and the study of Italian is not a priority any more. The community is growing old and the new generations, Canadians from every standpoint, lack linguistic interest, captivated with economic subjects. There are several reasons...
"Which I share, but I wonder whether it wouldn't be more opportune for the Italian government to supply services - locally produced teaching material, refresher courses for the teachers, student exchanges - rather then dispersed funding. I don't dream of raising doubts on those funds, I just wonder whether they serve the purpose. Considering the results, I think it's time to change path. The current method is a waste of money."

Publication Date: 2002-12-22
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=2176