Sicilian Culture: The News: Italian Renaissance: A Romantic Language Is Reborn Here for A New Generation

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Italian Renaissance: A Romantic Language Is Reborn Here for A New Generation
By Matthew Daneman, Rochester, NY Democrat & Chronicle
[RAA Note: Since the "so called" Renaissance originated in Italy and Sicily in the 14th century (and spread to the rest of Europe, and lasted through the 16 century), "RINASCIMENTO" is a FAR more appropriate term for that Period.("French was "au courant" at that time)
It is therefore rather "grating" when the "uninitiated" talk about the revival/rebirth of the teaching of the ITALIAN language, and use that long time, but inaccurately used french term.
I know not what others may do, but I intend to forthwith refer to that Italy "induced" European cultural rebirth as the "RINASCIMENTO". I will explain my position by referring to the french term as inaccurate and "passe".]

AN ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
A Romance language is reborn here for a new generation
By Matthew Daneman, Rochester, NY Democrat and Chronicle
Tuesday, August 14, 2001 - - The picture book about a smiling family of frogs would have been child's play for a 10-year-old from Venice.
For Erin Muthig of Fairport, whose Italian is mostly limited to four summers of language camp at Nazareth College, it was an understandable struggle.
"If it's not too difficult, I can follow it," the 10-year-old said.
Italian runs deeply in her family. Her grandfather, Joseph LoCurto, was born in Italy and was one of the people behind the creation of Nazareth's Casa Italiana, a language and cultural center located on the Pittsford campus.
But aside from her maternal grandparents, "nobody in our family speaks Italian much," Erin said.
While the number of adults speaking Italian locally seems to be on the wane, students here and across the nation are increasingly interested in learning the native tongue of their grandparents and great-grandparents.
"Now maybe second-, third-generation Italians are looking back with pride on their language, their heritage. That's caused a lot of ... clamor for Italian,"said Christopher Kleinhenz, president of the American Association Teachers of Italian.
Italian roots run deep here. The Rochester metropolitan area has the ninth- largest Italian-American population nationally, with 170,910, according to the National Italian American Foundation, citing 1990 U.S. census figures.
Newer census figures won't be available until next summer.
According to Greater Rochester Metro Chamber of Commerce statistics, German ancestry dominates the Rochester region, accounting for about 22 percent of the population. Italian ancestry accounts for close to 13 percent.
In the 1920s, Rochester boasted its own Italian language weekly newspaper, La Tribuna di Rochester.
And Rochester native Jerre Mangione's 1942 memoir about growing up in a Sicilian neighborhood on the city's northeast side, Mount Allegro: A Memoir of Italian American Life, was a best-seller.
It's unclear how much Italian still is spoken in the area. But while a substantial portion of the population has some Italian background, probably 90 percent don't speak a word of it, estimated Roseann Centanni, director of Casa Italiana.
"It's not spoken in their homes anymore," she said. "In many cases, even the grandparents don't speak Italian anymore."
The pressure to assimilate is the major cause, said Frank Salamone, a Rochester native, professor of sociology at Iona College in Westchester County, and author of The Italians of Rochester, 1900-1940.
"You couldn't get by in the broader world without speaking English. You didn't want to be different," he said. "The whole idea was you had to fit in."
However, Italian instruction is going through something of a renaissance. According to Kleinhenz, the number of students taking Italian is at a record high. Enrollment in college Italian classes is growing while languages such as French and German are declining.
Schools nationally are adding Italian programs. McQuaid Jesuit High School started offering Italian this past school year, with 48 students in a pair of Italian 1 classes.
This coming school year will see two more Italian 1 classes and two Italian 2 classes -- alongside the Latin, Spanish and French offerings there.
"As long as we keep getting kids enrolling in Italian 1, there will be an Italian 2 and Italian 3, ad infinitum," said Gena Stoll-Ewart, chairwoman of the McQuaid foreign language department.
Franca Cinelli, vice president of the Italian Teachers Association of Central New York, said she thinks more Italian is being spoken at home now than when she started teaching more than 20 years ago.
"I'm getting students who speak it very well, and they say they speak it at home," said Cinelli, who heads the foreign language program in the Gates Chili Central School District.
Italian still lags more established modern languages in schools, however.
Only five of the 17 Monroe County school districts -- East Irondequoit, West Irondequoit, Greece, Gates Chili and East Rochester -- offered Italian classes in their high schools this past school year, according to the Monroe County School Boards Association. A sixth, Webster, allows independent study of Italian.
All the county school districts offer French and Spanish. Six school districts offer German. And 10 teach Latin -- the root of Romance languages but still a dead language.
Casa Italiana has offered Saturday morning classes to youths for almost a decade. Seven years ago, it branched out to the weeklong summer camps. Since 1994, more than 200 youths have gone through Casa Italiana, "which is a lot for an organization our size," Centanni said.
The demand is strong, she said. Casa Italiana rarely advertises the program beyond its mention in the periodic newsletter that goes out to members.
Nazareth plans to add a program this fall for adolescents and young teens that would meet for 90 minutes or so once a week after school, offering Italian language and culture classes.
Much of the growth has come as interest in Italy in general has boomed, with books such as Under the Tuscan Sun topping best-seller lists, said Phyllis Franklin, president of the Modern Language Association of America.
Mary Gifaldi didn't learn Italian growing up but was interested enough to study it while attending the University of Rochester.
Now the Holley 21-year-old can read newspapers and talk to people speaking Italian "if they're patient."

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