Italian language course: Full circle

By G.W. MILLER III

Donna Galletta (center) teaches students how to make gnocchi in her home in Italy.CAGLI, ITALY - The telephone rang as Donna Galletta was preparing the potato dough.

"Pronto!" she bellowed into the phone while continuing her gnocchi-making demonstration. She gently brushed small spheres of soft dough against a fork, creating parallel grooves - perfect for catching sauce.

Then she launched into Italian for a few minutes, and the 10 people watching eagerly waited, basking in the roasted-onion-and-garlic smell of the stewing sauce. Galletta's use of the language only added to the atmosphere of the cooking class, set in the comfortable kitchen of her hillside home in the Le Marche region of Italy.

"Sorry," she said in English after hanging up. "That doesn't happen on television shows."

But cooking shows also often don't let you roll your own pasta or eat the fruits of your labor while the green, rolling countryside of the Apennine mountain range sprawls outside the windows - another special feature of the South Philly native's culinary classes.

Galletta, 52, grew up near 17th and Porter streets, but has been living in Italy since 1988.

And since 1993, she and her Italian husband, Franco Mansi, have operated The Atrium, an Italian language and culture institute in the charming medieval town of Cagli. Mansi teaches the native language to visitors from around the world and Galletta offers hands-on cooking lessons with recipes ranging from regional specialties like olive ascolane (fried, stuffed olives) to classics like tiramisu.

"I love to cook," Galletta said with a smile. "I always have."

Growing up in the kitchen

Food has been a focus of her family's life for several generations. Galletta's great-grandmother owned a trattoria and her grandfather was a butcher in the Abruzzi region of Italy. In the 1920s, the family immigrated to America - like many Italians who fled their then-impoverished homeland - and brought traditions.

In South Philadelphia, the family opened two bakeries - M&M, at Wharton and Warnock streets, and Tally-Ann, at 9th Street and Snyder Avenue. Galletta's mother later opened Galletta's Galley, a restaurant in Princeton Junction, N.J.

Along the way, Galletta's mother taught her how to cook in the traditional Italian style. Many of the utensils Galletta now uses in her own kitchen - knives, spatulas, the ricer, etc. - were brought to Italy from America by her mother, who now lives in Yardley.

Galletta cooked her way into her husband's heart while he was a graduate student at Rutgers University and she was studying at nearby Douglass College. They have been married for 30 years. Their children, Gabriella, 28, and Antonio, 20, were born in New Jersey.

When Galletta and her bilingual family moved to Italy, she became a chef at a restaurant and pizzeria.

"My life has come full circle," she said, laughing. "My grandmother couldn't wait to get away from Italy, and here I am."

Dream job

Now Galletta strolls to work every day through the ancient city gate, down narrow, cobblestone streets and past the bustling piazza, to the stark former seminary where The Atrium (www.istitutoatrium.com) is located. She seems to know practically everyone in the city of 10,000 people and she regularly stops to chat on the way to the school.

She handles the business side of the institute, which teaches a few hundred people, and she freelances as a translator for companies throughout Italy. In the evenings, she shares her passion for food with visiting students, giving classes to foreigners for $26 per person. Her enrollment varies, though this summer she's teaching two classes a week, with about 10 students per class.

"You're my Italian mom," Elise Berry, 21, a college student from Knoxville, Tenn., told Galletta.

As Galletta and her students shaped the small, potato-dough sacks, Berry gently placed the pasta into a large pot of boiling water.

"You drop them in, they sink to the bottom and when they pop to the top, they're done," said Berry, who was attending her second cooking class of the week - both of which featured gnocchi.

When the pasta was ready, the students sat down at the long, wooden dining table and started passing plates around. Salad, wine, and fresh, unsalted bread (a regional tradition) circulated around the table.

"As long as you keep holding up plates, I'll keep filling them," Galletta told the ravenous group.

"I want you to be my Italian mom, too," Carolyn Kennington, 20, of Toms River, N.J., responded.

Galletta's husband, Mansi, ambled into the kitchen in time to get a few scoops of gnocchi - lightly draped in the red meat sauce, and then a cup of homemade lemon cream with fresh fruit for dessert.

"You lucked out - gnocchi twice in one week," Galletta said to her husband.

"We should eat like this every day," he joked.

Italian language course: Cultural group shares Italian specialties

Members of the Italian-American Cultural Organization of the South Shore held their final meeting of the 2005-2006 year on Monday, June 5 at the council on aging.

It was an evening of sharing their individual specialty Italian foods, braccioli, eggplant parmesan, chicken marsala, tortolini, gnocchi, chicken tetrazzini, cauliflower arostata, calzone, tonno, fritatta, chicken Italiana, fresh Italian cheese, Italian salad varieties, pea soup and minestrone. Desserts included Italian Cream Pie, cannolis, eclairs, custards, rice cream pie, pizzelle, chocolata cake and bark amandola.

President Domenic Candelieri conducted a brief meeting and announced arrangements have been made to conduct an advanced Italian language class as well as another beginner Italian language class in September. The first beginner class completed in March was conducted by. Giulia Po. The classes will also be offered to non-members of IACO.

Vice President Orazio Buttafuoco outlined the ctivities to celebrate Italian Heritage Month scheduled for October. Two lectures will be held at the Tufts Library in Weymouth on Saturdays Oct. 7 and 21 from 2 to 5 p.m. Lectures and a musical program are also planned for Saturdays Oct. 14 and 28 at the Thayer Public Library from 2 to 4 p.m. All programs are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

There will also be a display of Italian culture in the Thayer Public Library during October. Plans will be finalized at the opening meeting of the 2006-2007 year on Sept. 11 at 7 p.m. in the council on aging on Cleveland Avenue. Guests and new members are welcome to attend.

Italian language course: Mirabelli has 100 years of memories

By Bethan L. Jones/ Staff Writer
Thursday, June 22, 2006

A lot has changed in 100 years.

Places are different, generations have passed and Josephine Mirabelli has seen it all.

Mirabelli, a Lexington resident since 1924, and celebrated her 100th birthday on April 29.

Born Giuseppina Amaru in the North End of Boston to Italian immigrants, both of Mirabelli's parents were Sicilian and her father owned a trade goods store on Prince Street. The second oldest of nine children, Mirabelli spent her youth in Boston, Malden, a small time back in Italy and then to Lexington where her father bought what is now 1963 Massachusetts Ave. in 1924.



The Amaru girls were sent to school at Notre Dame Academy and Mirabelli later graduated from Boston University. She never took a job however, choosing to get married in 1928 to Eugene Mirabelli, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Mirabellis had two sons, Richard and Gene, and Josephine stayed at home raising her boys and volunteering for the community.

"I never made any money," she joked.

Starting in the 1930s and through the Second World War, Mirabelli was a volunteer with the American Red Cross and was an air raid warden. She also worked to collect clothes for earthquake victims and spent many hours volunteering in the Lexington store La Tienda, which was a cooperative venture with a group of Mexican immigrants.

"We would work," said Mirabelli of the store. "It was a lot of fun."

Handy with her needle, Mirabelli is one of the founding members of the Lexington Arts and Crafts Society. In her home hang beautiful embroidered drapes of fruits, birds and trees. All the rugs on her floors are ones she made by hand, along with the tapestry on her wall.

In addition to needlework, Mirabelli is also skilled in silver, leather and wood work; decoupage; and hooking. In recent years, Mirabelli has also taken up painting with watercolors.

Mirabelli sang with the Lexington Choral Society and would give lessons in Italian out of her home. She said part of the appeal of the lessons was helping to maintain her own Italian language skills; growing up Italian was always spoken in the home.

"If you know something, you don't keep it to yourself," she said.

As a member of the choral society, Mirabelli had an opportunity to realize her love of choral music and opera. Growing up, her mother would tell all the children the stories portrayed in the operas and then have them listen to them on Saturdays when they were on the radio.

In honor of all her work and dedication to Lexington, she received the Minuteman Cane Award in 1995.

Mirabelli said Lexington is very different from the little town she moved to when she was 18.

"It was a lot smaller," she said, recalling visiting shopkeepers on Massachusetts Avenue and catching up on all the news. "Today when you go down [town] you don't know anybody ... the town has changed."

Today, Mirabelli has five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Still living in the house she and her husband bought in 1928 when they married, Mirabelli said she was expecting several visitors in honor of her big day.

"We have room for everybody," she said. "We have a lot of fun when we get together."

And no one should doubt Mirabelli's tenacity to go and fully enjoy the extent of her celebrations.

"I'm full of pep," she said laughing.

Italian language course: Speaking the language shows respect

Jun. 20, 2006 12:00 AM

Regarding the gentleman in Philadelphia who wants his patrons to order in English ("Eatery in Pa. warned on English-only policy," Republic, June 13):

Bravo!

While on active duty, my shipmates and I always made an effort to learn the local language when in a foreign country.

This effort paid off. I speak Italian languages fluently and can order food in at least five other languages. The mere attempt to speak the dialect demonstrates respect for the culture and is always met with appreciation at worst, and friendship and understanding at best.

Why would someone want to live in the United States and not learn English?

Or, should those who don't want to adopt the bare essentials of their new homeland ask themselves, do they want to make the U.S. their home?

Or, . . . maybe they don't. - Brian Etheredge,
Phoenix

Italian language course: Socceranto minds its language

BERLIN: Is the goalkeeper a "fliegenfanger"? Was that goal a "Maradona"? Should the ball be passed to the "porteur d'eau" or the "trequartista"?

No comprendo? Then you're obviously not fluent in Socceranto, a football language hastily cobbled together by an English schoolboy and an American-Argentinian student.

They believe the game needs a common tongue to benefit both players and fans.

"Things are all very well when, say, Ecuador plays Costa Rica or Ghana meets the USA," said 16-year-old Ted Freedman, the English co-author of "Socceranto: Birth of a Language."

"But what about when Japan plays Brazil or Ukraine meets Saudi Arabia?"

The 32 teams taking part in the World Cup share 18 official languages so, the authors argue, football needs an international tongue that all recognize.

It's based on Esperanto, the world language invented in 1887, and football phrases, words and names drawn from throughout the world.

So a "fliegenfanger" is the term for a useless goalkeeper, derived from the German word for flycatcher.

"Maradona" is the word for a goal scored with the use of the hand as in the Argentinian's infamous strike against England at the 1986 World Cup.

In midfield, the "porteur d'eau" would be the defensive holding player in the style of former French international Didier Deschamps, often condemned as a water carrier.

The "trequartista" would be more flamboyant, the playmaker, from the Italian word for a player who operates between midfield and attack, three-quarters of the way up the pitch.

"Soccer has become the most international game in the world and the most globalized industry," said co-author Ignacio van Gelderen.

"This is just the launch of a long-term project. Or, as we say in Socceranto, it's "early doors" (early in the game). We hope that Socceranto will develop in time into a richer, more international, more distinct and fully-fledged language.

"We hope this World Cup will help."

Many of the phrases used are based on Brazilian names and, not surprisingly, used to describe flair and flamboyance.

A "Ronaldinho" is a no-look pass, a "Kaka" is a volley, a "Pele," a bicycle kick and a "Roberto," a banana kick, in honour of Roberto Carlos and Roberto Rivelinho.

Other players are in the dictionary but associated with times in their careers they would rather forget.

A "Baggio" is a missed penalty after the Italian star's bungled spot-kick in the shootout in the 1994 final against Brazil; a "Caniggia" remembers the Argentinian attacker who managed to get sent-off while sitting on the bench against Sweden in 2002.

Poor old Jurgen Klinsmann, currently on a high for coaching Germany into the second round here, also makes the book.

A "Klinsmann" is a dive in memory of the German's playing days when he had a reputation for going down too easily in the penalty area.

Source: China Daily

Italian language course: Parlez vous Mandarin?

By PETER SIMON
News Staff Reporter
6/10/2006


The world is changing dramatically, but foreign language instruction in local schools isn't.
The economic clout of the Pacific Rim, the threat of foreign terrorism and the global economy have convinced educators that teaching more languages is crucial not only to the future of individual students, but for the country's security and well-being.

Yet foreign language instruction is stuck in a decades-old, European-based model.

Spanish and French remain by far the predominant languages taught here, along with a smattering of German, Latin and Italian.

Instruction in "emerging languages" - including Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Farsi and Hindi - is nearly nonexistent.

"We still have our heads in the sand," said Donald J. Jacobs, director of the University at Buffalo's Center for Applied Technologies in Education. "Many people still think the competition is between Cheektowaga and Tonawanda, rather than global."

But interest is beginning to build.

North Tonawanda High School has offered Japanese since the late 1970s, when a Japanese intern launched the program.

Grand Island, Williamsville and the private Park School of Buffalo are exploring offering Chinese beginning in September 2007, and the Lackawanna schools are seeking to establish classes in Arabic.

In Buffalo, Superintendent James A. Williams hopes to boost a shrinking foreign language program by beginning instruction in both Chinese and Japanese.

Earlier this year, President Bush launched a National Security Language Initiative, designed to greatly increase instruction in "critical need" languages.

"We need intelligence officers who, when somebody says something in Arabic or Farsi or Urdu, know what they're talking about," he said.

North Tonawanda students who study Japanese for four years become conversant in the language and familiar with Japanese culture, said Jason Goulah, the teacher. In the last five years, five North Tonawanda students won full scholarships to study in Japan for a year.

"The Japanese program gives students an avenue into understanding Asia," Goulah said. "They begin to see things from an eastern perspective."

Meanwhile, other students interested in nontraditional languages take classes outside their high school classrooms, in mosques, temples or community centers.

Melany Piech, a Park School senior, goes right from school to Buffalo State College twice a week to study Chinese.

"I really enjoy foreign languages," she said. "I kind of wanted a new challenge."

Andrea Filozof, the Alden High School valedictorian, will pursue her studies of Chinese or Arabic from scratch next year at the U.S. Military Academy because classes were not available here.

Educators said students should not only have more languages to choose from, but should be encouraged to tackle them.

"There is a call for it and a need for it," said John D. Carlino, a German teacher at Kenmore West High School and executive director of the New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers. "But change is going to come slowly."

Here's why:

• Expanding foreign language instruction is costly. Grand Island initially planned to offer Mandarin Chinese next school year, but the Board of Education decided to hold off for budgetary reasons. Now the district is seeking a federal grant to begin the program in 2007, said Karen Karmazin, assistant superintendent.

• Certified teachers are hard to find. Local districts advertise nationally for German teachers. Lackawanna is having difficulty finding a certified Arabic teacher. And Williams, the Buffalo superintendent, said, "We might have to hook up with people in China to teach Chinese."

• The federal No Child Left Behind Act places far more emphasis on English, math, science and social studies than it does on foreign languages, prompting some school districts to reduce language programs to free up funds for so-called "core subjects."

• Students don't necessarily have the time or desire to tackle new languages. Williamsville offered Japanese for more than eight years, but dropped it when enrollment dipped to as few as three students.

"The bottom line is that students have to sign up," said Linda Cimusz, assistant superintendent for instruction. "We absolutely could not sustain it."

• American attitudes toward foreign language are notoriously self-centered.

"People here think: "Why do we have to learn their language? They can learn ours,' " said Charles E.M. Kolb, president of the national Committee for Economic Development. "That's an insular and arrogant attitude that has to change."

The United States is one of the few industrialized nations in the world where large numbers of students leave high school conversant only in their native language, said Martha Abbott, director of education for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

"That's pathetic," she said.

New York State requires students to take at least two years of a foreign language by the end of ninth grade and to pass either a Regents exam or a less demanding competency test. It is one of just 16 states with foreign language graduation requirements, and has a relatively high level of language study.

Sixty-three percent of New York's high school students studied a foreign language in the year 2000, compared with the national average of 43.8 percent, according to a study by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Only Nevada and Pennsylvania had higher percentages than New York.

However, 88 percent of the New York students who studied a foreign language took either Spanish or French.

Without being critical of Spanish and French, educators say there simply is not enough choice or diversity.

"Why aren't we teaching Asian languages?" said Jacobs of the Center for Applied Technologies in Education. "In the context of language, we haven't tapped the potential - it's not even close."

Demand from the public is beginning to come into play.

Representatives of the Chinese-American community recently presented petitions to the Williamsville Board of Education urging instruction in Chinese.

The push for Chinese on Grand Island was initiated by a districtwide task force.

Economic and political realities will drive a more comprehensive approach to language studies, said Lackawanna Superintendent Paul Hashem.

"Because of what's happening globally, things are going to have to change," he said. "Foreign languages are going to become as necessary as math and science."


e-mail: psimon@buffnews.com

Italian language course: Crossing the language barrier

Sunday, June 11th, 2006


Berlin, June 11 (DPA) Ghana’s Sammy Kuffour is keen not only to take three points from his AS Roma teammates in Monday’s Group E clash against Italy, he is also hoping to make some serious money after having placed several bets.

World Cup referees need not worry that they will not be able to communicate with each other and players. They have received a six-language football dictionary. They will find the German translation for dive (Schwalbe), or the Italian word for free kick (calcio di punizione).

German fans are also being helped by the language departments of high schools in the World Cup venues. Phrases like: ‘Pass the ball’ or ‘dream goal’ feature in 15 different languages, amongst them Arabic, Japanese and Czech.

italian language course: Europe's Nerve

Posted 6/7/2006

War On Terror: A European report charges 14 countries with "collusion" with the U.S. on the interrogation of terrorists. Is Europe so spineless that it considers waging war against the enemies of civilization a crime?

In the wake of the 9-11 attack, the Central Intelligence Agency reportedly established covert sites in Eastern Europe to interrogate dozens of major terrorism suspects.

The Council of Europe, which calls itself Europe's "human rights watchdog," says Cyprus, Germany, Spain and Turkey were used by the CIA as "staging posts." Britain, Ireland, Greece and Portugal, meanwhile, were utilized as "stop-off points." And Bosnia, Italy, Macedonia and Sweden allowed suspects residing in those countries to be seized.

The report's author admits that "proof, in the classical meaning of the term, is not as yet available" in regard to the report's allegations, and he concedes that "we are still far from having established the truth."

This is remarkable coming from a famed lawyer used to presenting watertight cases. As a prosecutor in the Italian-language southern region of Switzerland, Dick Marty busted a billion-dollar drug dealer-money laundering ring in the late 1980s, causing Switzerland's first female justice minister to resign.

Marty now chairs the council's Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, but his view of human rights is rather qualified. In 2003, he drafted the Council of Europe's "Marty Report on Euthanasia," pushing for legally assisted suicide throughout Europe.

So while terrorists' human rights are of great concern to Marty, the mercy killing of Europeans is another matter.

Marty saves most of his ire for Poland and Romania, suspected of actually hosting the CIA facilities. Their governments deny the charges, but let's note for the record that the Polish and Romanians suffered greatly under Nazism and communism, in the Poles' case after being sold out by the Allies at Yalta.

Marty and his fellow Swiss, by contrast, were comfortably neutral in both world wars.

Today's terrorists are just as bloodthirsty as Hitler's and Stalin's henchmen. And finding a way to interrogate them without an ACLU lawyer standing watch has undoubtedly been a help in foiling some 10 or more al-Qaida plots since 9-11.

Europe's bureaucratic do-gooders want it both ways: to be protected from terrorists, but without getting their hands dirtied. As usual, the U.S. is doing the dirty work for them. The least Europe could do is say "thank you" and stop whining.


Related Resources:

Continue your investing education at the IBD Learning Center.

For a wealth of detailed investment insights and successful investor profiles, go to Investor Education.

italian language course: World Cup interest growing in Brevard

Pubs open early for soccer games

BY KAUSTUV BASU
and DONNA BALANCIA
Enlarge this image

Soccer stock up. Troy Evridge, team sports associate at Dick's Sporting Goods at Melbourne Square mall, stocks the soccer ball display Wednesday. The World Cup soccer tournament begins Friday in Germany. Rik Jesse, FLORIDA TODAY

Simon Wells says everything else will stop for him when the World Cup matches start Friday in Germany.

Wells, the co-owner of the Dog 'n' Bone pub at Cocoa Village, will be following the monthlong soccer extravaganza, with teams from 32 countries playing 64 matches.

Several billion people worldwide will watch on television. In Brevard County, many of the most avid viewers likely will be expatriates from countries that have deep soccer roots.

Wells who is British, already has arranged for a big-screen television at his pub. On the days England plays, he expects a full house. Some games will start as early as 9 a.m. Eastern time.

"During the European Cup two years ago, this place was jumping," he said.

Local soccer-gear retailers also anticipate a boost in business from the World Cup.

"We brought in some jerseys from Brazil, Mexico, Italy and USA. We're ready," said Michael Werner, team sports associate at Dick's Sporting Goods in Melbourne. The store also carries a full line of soccer equipment including balls, pumps, soccer shorts, cleats and shin guards.

The growing popularity of youth soccer is likely to help boost the interest of the World Cup in this area.

"Soccer is one of the biggest sports down here for little kids," said Mark Zmayefski, manager of The Sports Authority in Melbourne. "The kids will start looking up their favorite players on the USA team. I think the kids are getting into more of the world soccer. It reminds them of the Olympics.
They like watching USA beat other teams."

"All you have to do is look around the county and see the demands for facilities. You have new soccer fields popping up everywhere," said Rusty Buchanan, executive director of Space Coast Sports, which works to bring sporting events to Brevard.

"We're a sports-driven country, and this is a huge event that happens only once every four years," he said. "They were even talking World Cup on David Letterman."

Home countries

Peter Collett, owner of The Pig & Whistle English Pub in Cocoa Beach, believes he'll get a lot of crew members off the cruise ships coming into his establishment to watch the teams from their home countries playing in the World Cup.

"I expect most of the games to bring a good crowd," Collett said. "I know that, because we have people phoning up from the cruise ships, asking if we'll be showing the games.

"We'll be opening in the morning at 9 a.m.," he said. "We've had three deliveries of beer already. Obviously, everyone's hoping to see America do well. But a lot of the crew members are the soccer fanatics."

Wells at the Dog 'n' Bone pub said locals who did not follow European soccer soon became involved.

"I am rooting for England and America," he said.

As the tournament progresses, the pub will start offering drink specials.

"If you pick a team, and your team scores, you get a free drink," he said.

Change coming?

England has won the Cup only once -- in 1966 -- but Wells feels things might change this year.

Wayne Savage, president of Brevard Caribbean American Sports and Cultural Association, said people from the Caribbean are excited because Trinidad and Tobago has qualified for the World Cup for the first time.

"For the next few weeks, we are all Trinidadians," he said.

Savage said some members will be watching the games at a Beef 'O' Brady's in Palm Bay.

"It is a good feeling," he said.

The Cup is a bonding experience for many expatriates.

Tania Valverde, a Melbourne resident of Costa Rican descent who plays soccer on Friday nights, said, "It's a big deal," and many Americans "do not realize how big it is in the rest of the world."

Costa Rica plays the first game of the Cup on Friday against Germany (11:55 a.m., ESPN2).

Defending champion Brazil has won the World Cup a record five times since the tournament began in 1930. Its fans not only own the bragging rights, but tend to be among the most passionate and colorful.

West Melbourne resident Beto Schaffert might be the quintessential Brazilian soccer fan.

This month, the systems engineer at Harris Corp. is going to start work early and take a break when Brazil plays its matches.

"I will go back to work later," he said.

Once the second round begins, Schaffert is off to Belo Horizonte, Brazil, to watch the games with friends and family.

"I just do not want Brazil to play the United States," Schaffert said. "My dad is American; my mom is Brazilian."

Ready to watch

In Titusville, Peter Olivo, who owns Valentino's New York Style Pizza & Restaurant, said he will be watching some of the games at his Searstown Mall restaurant with his patrons.

But that is not enough for the soccer aficionados in his family.

They will be following the Cup on an Italian-language channel broadcast through the Dish Network.

Brian Rye, president of Central Brevard Soccer, admitted there was a huge difference between interest in other countries and here.

"That's their culture. They have grown up with it," Rye said. "But more people here know about the World Cup than before."

Contact Basu at 242-3724 or kbasu@flatoday.net.

italian language course: Business in Italy

ITALIAN LANGUAGE. CIAMPI AWARDED "ILICA" FOUNDATION PRIZE
(AGI) - Rome, May 16 - The 'ILICA Man of the Year 2006' prized, awarded by Italo-American foundation ILICA, was awarded to former President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. An acknowledgment of Ciampi's commitment to enhance Italian language course and culture abroad. ILICA's goal is to strengthen and spread the Italian language to convey art, science and culture in the US, promoting it in schools and in public awareness. Enhancing the Italian language abroad is considered a must in the inevitable globalisation process, and Italian language will be in the spotlight for two days, 7 and 8 June, in Villa Mondragone, Monte Porzio Catone, at the event dedicated to Lorenzo Da Ponte, Mozart's lyric-writer, to promote Italian culture in the US. Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749-1838) was the first - he wrote so himself - "to introduce and spread Italian language in the US", and was actually the first Italian language teacher there. The event in Villa Mondragone will therefore be an opportunity for ILICa to present itself better to Italy, creating an event showing how Italian culture can spread as it did where it originated, Rome, centre of the Roman Empire, the cradle of civilisation and progress. The funds collected by ILICA will allow to organise master courses in Italy for US professors who teach Italian in the US, at all levels. The convention will be attended by Tor Vergata university president Alessandro Finazzi Agro', and presidents of the university for foreign students of Perugia, Stefania Giannini, and of the university for foreign students of Siena, Massimo Vedovelli. Other prizes will be given to Rome deputy mayor Maria Pia Garavaglia, Brebemi president Francesco Bettoni, MP Carlo Giovanardi, and Tg2 Salute director Luciano Onder. (AGI) .
161725 MAG 06
COPYRIGHTS 2002-2006 AGI S.p.A. Invia questo articolo

italian language course: George Clooney To Learn Italian Language

May 22, 2006 9:14 p.m. EST


Som Patidar - All Headline News Contributor

Los Angeles, CA (AHN) - Hollywood actor George Clooney is reportedly desperate to learn the Italian language course and he spends most of his nights at home repeating useful phrases.

The actor admits he struggles to get his tongue around the language, and fears it will be years before he is proficient.

He says, "It will take an eternity! But it's embarrassing to live in a country where you don't know the language."

The actor has a house on Lake Como, northern Italy, and is reciting lines from language CDs so he can converse fluently with his neighbors.