Being Italian

It is getting so difficult being Italian. I am not talking about citizenship, of course. I am talking about being proud of living here, of being part of this country.

Election day is getting closer and closer, unfortunately that takes out the wrost of our politicians...
I keep on wondering what is the image of our country from outside Italy, and I can guess it is not that nice. I don't want to go through each and every thing that has been said in the last month, that would be of no use. But I would like to see someone else on that stage.

I would love to listen to a dream, to a wind of change... Even something idealistic, and too much to become true!
I cannot see where is going my country until we keep on voting the same people, sharing the same ideas, expressing old values...

I want something new just because I really love my contry, and by the way I feel proud to be Italian, and I want to feel even more proud. Not only of past things, of our great culture and ancient times... I want to be proud of what we are and going to be.

But I can see no way to realize it at the moment...

Language education

I live in the north-east of Italy, in Veneto, the Italian region were the local dialect is used the most, as I learnt from my latest exam. My family is a mix of different cities inside this very same region, my father’s family is from Rovigo (the city where I live), but my mother’s family is partly from a village near Venice and partly from a village near Treviso (I’ve already talked about where they live). Anyway part of my family live in Verona, and others live between Mantova and Ferrara… And they are only those with whom I am in contact.

At home wespeak Italian, and that was the language that we, children, were supposed to learn, but of course when we get in contact with our granpas and granmas we hear other languages. In my father’s family a chair is a ‘carega’, but in my aunt’s house (near Ferrara) there were other objects, ‘scarana’ (chair-sedia), ‘granadel’ (broom-scopa), ‘bagaj’ (thing-coso/a). And different ways to say things, another language…

I learned Dialect when I was grown-up, I used to spent much time with my granparents and the only language used at home was dialect; my sister didn’t like it, she insisted to speak Italian, and sometime reproached me for my talk. At school, no doubt, Italian was the only language allowed, and also with unknown adults. My granma worked as a tailor, there were many people at any time of day at home, and I could appreciate moments in which (and clients to whom) she spoke a fine Italian, and others when dialect was possible.

Until high-school I’ve always used Italian at school, but then in my class I was the only one coming from the city (if we can talk about city…) and all my mates came from villages around Rovigo and Padua the language used among us was definitely dialect. I still remember a group of girls from another class saying “How rough, they speak dialect!”. That’s how it was considered.

Venetian dialect is the language of great writers and artists through different centuries, and part of this language became Italian in the long process called “questione della lingua” that started with Dante, went on with Manzoni, until the language that is now called Standard Italian. So, it is clear that it is not rough or anything, they were (and probably still are) a group of posh girls!

Now, I speak Italian the most, with some of my friends I speak dialect, at home I know that there are different dialects to use with different people, and there are still words that are unknown to me in some of my family languages. But dialect is a kind of code for me, I cannot recognize the code-switching moment, but when I use it I feel at home. I consider it much more expressive, because is the language in which I usually express feelings, bad feelings most of all. When I’m too nervous to control what I’m saying I don’t use a proper Italian….

If you ask me, I speak a very good Italian, I can speak a good English (or i hope so!), and I get angry in Dialect.

A merry Christmas

My sister did her best to arrange the tree and Presepe! She did a good job indeed!

A merry Christmas, full of laugh, of people, children happy to receive so many and wonderful presents, friends smiling and joking, my family joint together, delcious food prepared with love, new traditions to carry on... That was my best Christmas present!

What about you? did you have a Merry Christmas?

Love and peace be in your heart in these days of Joy!

Buon Natale

Trick or what?!

I have already written about Halloween... I have nothing against this day, but I can't stand children wandering asking trick or treat...
I spent few lines to explain what importing a tradition from another culture means to me, and I don't want to repeat it again...

This evening I was going shopping and I saw some of this children dressed as witches or monsters. The first thing that came into my mind was :"Why here?! There are no Houses here around!" The second was: "If they dare even think about coming to my door I'll throw them rotten eggs!"

I don't hate children, mind you! And I can perfectly see that it is not their fault, but that's not a celebration of our culture and I cannot see any serious reason to celebrate it...
Thank God tomorrow there will be no more Halloween!

This week...

...no Skype! Elena and I decided not to skype this week in order to get some material for our final project. I thought I could have a bit of relax today, but eventually I decided to study a bit, considering what I have to do next week!



So, no relax for me, and a bit of study!

Today in Italy we are on holiday, it is the day in which we celebrate the liberation from Fascism, thanks to some real heroes that gave their life to have freedom for the whole country!

I've heard of some politician (man, or woman) who's not celebrating this day... I hope I have misunderstood...

Near and far from America...

This week, our topic to discuss was Election. The election system in Italy and in America, the candidates and so on...
The first question was really difficult, because she asked me my opinion about Berlusconi, I wanted to be as objective as possible, but I'm not! The election will be in a week, and I've got an idea of who I'm going to vote, so I have even a precise idea of who I'm absolutely not going to vote. Anyway I tried to explain my reasons and that is my own opinion, and if you ask my class mates you'll find many different opinions.
Then she asked me about "quote rosa" because we wrote something on the forum about it, and again she asked my opinion... And again I tried to be as objective as possible, but I'm definitely against this "anti-discrimination system", because I do not think it is effective! I can't imagine to vote someone just because they are female (or male), and not because of their opinion or their value. It is anyway, unfortunately true that women have no place enough in politics, but I think we should try other ways!

I particularly enjoyed this discussion on Friday with Elena, because I asked her something about death penalty, it was a topic we discussed on the forum, and I understood she agree with it. It is something strange that two 20-something girls who live in the west have so different opinion on a topic like this. America is the country in which there are less cultural difference with Europe (I think...), but anyway we see it in two completely different ways.
I didn't try to convince her, and she didn't try to convince me, of course! But it made me think about how far we are sometime even though our origin is the same...

Viva Viva la Befana!

As far as I know La befana is a whole Italian tradition, and once it was the only occasion in which children were given gifts! The Coca-cola hadn't provide Santa yet! (Before I was born, of course!)
When I was a child I accurately chose the socks to put near the window (we haven't a fireplace, so...). They had to be long, and strong enough to stand the weight of all my sweets... Before the 6th I wrote a letter to her explaining what a good girl I had been, but I've always found a bit of coal inside, which is the gift for those children who didn't behave very well, probably it was a way to explain that we can always improve!


Once, I saw her coming to our house, she arrived not flying on a sweep, but with an old Fiat Cinquecento; me, my sister and my cousins were outside in that very moment, playing something or running, I cannot remember, but what I cannot forget is that I was so scared... My cousin, who was a little older, and couldn't believe in such things, went on claiming that she was a fake, but the thing was that all our relatives were there, so it was hard to identify her real identity. To my eyes she actually was the real Befana, and I think that was the better gift I could receive!

...something like 10 years later we finally managed to understand who she was, anyway that's not important, our parents organized a marvellous surprise!

La befana vien di notte
con le scarpe tutte rotte
col vestito alla romana
viva viva la Befana!

Merry Christmas!

I was quiet sceptical about writing a post to describe my Christmas celebration before reading the comment to my last post, but now that I'm sure there's at least one's going to read me, I can't avoid!

This has been a very lucky Christmas, I had marvellous presents, such as time to reflect on what this Christmas means to me, chance to look into my friend's eyes wishing them a merry Christmas... I've seen my little cousins opening their presents as if there is nothing else they want, I've made some of Christmas presents by myself, and I saw how surprised was who received them, while I was afraid they could consider them too poor as presents...

It has been a Christmas full of joy, and I managed to organize what I usually have to do for this celebration in order to have time enough to do everything! And that was the great present I made to myself! I've seen so many people around me to remember me that I'm so lucky!

I wish all my Christmas could be so full of joy and laughing!

And I wish you are spending great time during this holiday!

Should Halloween be imported to and celebrated in Italy or not?

I cannot stand those little boys and girls going around, shouting in the streets, pretending to know what Halloween is! I know that it could be unpopular as a position, but we're not importing and celebrating Halloween, we're just looking for another excuse to waste some money...

I think that importing tradition is a completely different matter. The reason why a culture usually import someone else's tradition is that two different culture share the same ground (not only physically), and they obviously begin to share part of their culture.

I perfectly understand that those people who came to live in Italy from that Anglo-saxon world that feel Halloween as a tradition continue to celebrate this day! But all those Italians who want to dress strange clothes to resemble someone else should remember that we do have our own traditional celebration of Carnival in Februar!