The XXII edition of the Week of the Italian Language in the World in Australia has ended.
The initiative took place from 17 to 22 October and saw the coordination, by the Embassy of Italy in Australia, of all the subjects involved in the dissemination and promotion of the Italian language and culture in the Country.
This year’s theme, “Italian and the youth. Come scusa? Non ti followo” asked cultural operators to explore the ways in which the various languages and communication tools are evolving from generation to generation.
The program offered by the Capital Territory on Wednesday 19 and Thursday 20 at the Yarralumla Bilingual School was completely dedicated to the proposed theme: the Dante Alighieri Society of Canberra, created an exhibition of Italian books at the school, The Italian Book Fair, a play in Italian by the students, and a seminar for teachers of Italian entitled “Beyond the monolingual paradigm: translanguaging and multilingualism in the Italian language classroom” by Prof. Francesco Ricatti, in collaboration with ACT Italian Teachers Network and Australian National University Italian Program.
In the State of Victoria, the Consulate General, in the framework of a wider network for the promotion of the Italian language and culture which includes the CO.AS.IT, the Italian Cultural Institute, the Dante Alighieri Society, the Com.IT.ES Victoria and Tasmania and the Association of Italian Teachers in Victoria (VATI), coordinated many events, organized by different subjects operating in the territory: several online events on issues related to the evolution of our language and some conferences, organized by the Italian Cultural Institute of Melbourne . The Dante Alighieri Society of Melbourne proposed a lectura Dantis, entitled I giovani leggono Dante. Finally, the Com.It.Es of Victoria and Tasmania arranged the conference Italian and dialect in Italian society and in the new generations of Italian-Australians. The Week was preceded by an opening event.
In New South Wales, the Italian Cultural Institute promoted a competition for university students, consisting of a Neologism Competition, reserved for students of the University of Sydney, University of Technology of Sydney and University of New England; in collaboration with Macquarie University, the Italian Cultural Institute has, finally, proposed the event Children in the world of work. The denunciation of Giovanni Verga in “Rosso Malpelo”, conference by Dr. Annamaria Pagliaro (Monash University).
In Western Australia, the Language Week culminated in the singing competition “Sound of Italy”, the theatrical show “Beato fra le donne”, the national conference of teachers of Italian in Australia and two competitions announced by the Consulate. Australian singers of all ages participated in the singing competition and performed some songs of the Italian musical tradition. Finally, during the Week, numerous schools in Western Australia where Italian is taught carried out various activities, many of which were coordinated by the Italian-Australian Welfare and Cultural Centre.
Perth hosted the meeting of the “Enti gestori” ; it has been the occasion to discuss the operative challenges and the programs (photo).
In Queensland, two conferences were held: one on the theme Italian and the youth, organized by the Italian Language Centre, and the other on the figure of Renato Guttuso, an event organized by the Dante Alighieri Society of Brisbane; the Week offered also training courses for teachers and awards for the following competitions: Studitalia Prize and Italiano d’Australia.
Finally, in South Australia, the Consulate proposed: Un aperitivo con Pier Paolo Pasolini, a meeting/conference on Pasolini, with a reading of some poems by the artist, organized by the Dante Alighieri Society; a reception hosted by Flinders University of South Australia to celebrate 50 years of language teaching at the university, where the Consul awarded a prize to the best Italian student, and an opera event, entitled Masquerade concert, a musical performance organized by the Com.It.Es. of Adelaide.
The Week of the Italian Language in the World ended on Saturday 22 October, with the VII Conference of Italian teachers in Australia, Italian is a young language, which took place in Perth, at the University of Western Australia, an event co-organized by the Embassy of Italy, the Consulate of Perth and the Italian Cultural Institute of Melbourne, with the collaboration of the Department of Italian Studies of the University of Western Australia (photo).
It represented an important opportunity to discuss the numerous challenges related to the role of young people, linguistic evolution and the multicultural contexts in which teachers operate. The works opened with the introductory video on the XXII SLIM provided by the Ministry, followed by the opening video message of Ambassador Paolo Crudele, who shared, with an attentive audience, the current situation of teaching Italian in Australia and future perspectives in the short and medium term. The speakers focused on the concepts of integration, mixing of genres and styles, awareness of the plurality of uses of our language, continuity of study from primary school to university, identity of emigrants and intra-cultural exchange. In addition, within the conference, the first three classified in the Italian contest “Premio Italia”, coordinated by the Embassy, were announced: the Italian Cultural Institute in Sydney offered the winner a $ 2,000 voucher for the purchase of a return flight ticket to Italy; the winners of other two competitions for Western Australian teachers and students, organized by the Consulate in Perth, were awarded.
