Hello from Italy
Jan 26, 2015 1:33:59 GMT 9
Post by Alessandra on Jan 26, 2015 1:33:59 GMT 9
Hi,
I’m an Italian native speaker, I was born in Italy from an Italian family, and Italy is the place where I live at the moment. However I’ve always loved knowing more about different languages and cultures, discovering different ways of living and seeing the world.
I studied foreign languages at university and graduated in Japanese and English and took a master course in Tourism. I spent two years of my life in a wonderful Japanese city called Ito, where I went to teach English thanks to the Japanese JET Programme. It was a strange situation because all the other foreigner teachers were English native speakers, but that year something unusual happened, that Japanese city had a sister city in Italy, so the Board of Education decided to look for an Italian teacher of English. The result was that I was there, alone, in Japan, just my luggage and me. Scared? Not at all, it was my dream and was coming true. I have great memories from that period; it totally changed my life and gave birth to my passion for teaching. It could sound strange, but the fact that I was an “Italian teaching English in Japan” drove my students crazy, they were so excited because I was “like them”. I mean, I was a non-native speaker who studied, learnt English language and thanks to that had the chance to travel and have friends from all over the world. Anytime they told me “I can’t speak English because it’s not my language, I’m Japanese”, I answered them, “It’s not true! English is not my language either, I’m Italian, but I studied and now I can speak it. So, go back to your exercise and do it”.
After Japan, I stayed for a while in London where I worked as an interpreter and translator, and took a Master course in Media and Arts. Then I came back to my hometown in Italy, I thought it was just for a break before moving again toward other destinations, I was thinking about Canada… But something really unpredictable happened: love. I fell in love, got married and started working as an English teacher for several schools and organizations. Five years ago I was pregnant, there was this little boy growing inside me and I realized I wanted to give him the chance to become a multilingual world citizen, who could appreciate and celebrate diversity in cultures. So I started reading a lot about bilingualism, its myths and benefits, ideas, inspirations.
As a non-native speaker I was worried, a lot. I knew it would be hard but I decided to go through it. I thought “Now is better than then, and a little is always better than nothing”, switched on the computer, visited the Amazon website and bought lots of books, CDs, toys for babies in English.
Now my boy is 4 and he can understand English quite well (more than the average Italian junior high school student). In our house most of the books and DVDS for kids are in English, because playtime is in English. I’ve always played in English with him, because I wanted to associate English learning with fun, with joyful and pleasant activities.
My problem was time exposure and contest. There was no English-speaking contest in the place where I live and my husband doesn’t speak English, so his English time was just the time spent with me and it was not too much. OK - I thought - I must find a solution. I quit my job, tried to find other parents in the nearby interested in raising their children in two languages, and founded “Dodo in the box- Bilingual Education”. Now I run English playgroups for kids (2-10 years old), we have English parties and events, English summer camps, English storytelling time, English movie nights, English whatever… I always try to create new activities where we can have kids, or parents and kids, speaking English.
I’m trying to do my best, it’s a wonderful journey, but sometime it’s hard and frustrating. Fortunately, in the bad moments I can switch on the computer and find the great support of amazing people like you.
Thanks,
Alessandra
I’m an Italian native speaker, I was born in Italy from an Italian family, and Italy is the place where I live at the moment. However I’ve always loved knowing more about different languages and cultures, discovering different ways of living and seeing the world.
I studied foreign languages at university and graduated in Japanese and English and took a master course in Tourism. I spent two years of my life in a wonderful Japanese city called Ito, where I went to teach English thanks to the Japanese JET Programme. It was a strange situation because all the other foreigner teachers were English native speakers, but that year something unusual happened, that Japanese city had a sister city in Italy, so the Board of Education decided to look for an Italian teacher of English. The result was that I was there, alone, in Japan, just my luggage and me. Scared? Not at all, it was my dream and was coming true. I have great memories from that period; it totally changed my life and gave birth to my passion for teaching. It could sound strange, but the fact that I was an “Italian teaching English in Japan” drove my students crazy, they were so excited because I was “like them”. I mean, I was a non-native speaker who studied, learnt English language and thanks to that had the chance to travel and have friends from all over the world. Anytime they told me “I can’t speak English because it’s not my language, I’m Japanese”, I answered them, “It’s not true! English is not my language either, I’m Italian, but I studied and now I can speak it. So, go back to your exercise and do it”.
After Japan, I stayed for a while in London where I worked as an interpreter and translator, and took a Master course in Media and Arts. Then I came back to my hometown in Italy, I thought it was just for a break before moving again toward other destinations, I was thinking about Canada… But something really unpredictable happened: love. I fell in love, got married and started working as an English teacher for several schools and organizations. Five years ago I was pregnant, there was this little boy growing inside me and I realized I wanted to give him the chance to become a multilingual world citizen, who could appreciate and celebrate diversity in cultures. So I started reading a lot about bilingualism, its myths and benefits, ideas, inspirations.
As a non-native speaker I was worried, a lot. I knew it would be hard but I decided to go through it. I thought “Now is better than then, and a little is always better than nothing”, switched on the computer, visited the Amazon website and bought lots of books, CDs, toys for babies in English.
Now my boy is 4 and he can understand English quite well (more than the average Italian junior high school student). In our house most of the books and DVDS for kids are in English, because playtime is in English. I’ve always played in English with him, because I wanted to associate English learning with fun, with joyful and pleasant activities.
My problem was time exposure and contest. There was no English-speaking contest in the place where I live and my husband doesn’t speak English, so his English time was just the time spent with me and it was not too much. OK - I thought - I must find a solution. I quit my job, tried to find other parents in the nearby interested in raising their children in two languages, and founded “Dodo in the box- Bilingual Education”. Now I run English playgroups for kids (2-10 years old), we have English parties and events, English summer camps, English storytelling time, English movie nights, English whatever… I always try to create new activities where we can have kids, or parents and kids, speaking English.
I’m trying to do my best, it’s a wonderful journey, but sometime it’s hard and frustrating. Fortunately, in the bad moments I can switch on the computer and find the great support of amazing people like you.
Thanks,
Alessandra
