WTI Magazine #62    2015 June, 12
Author : Berardo Paradiso      Translation by:

After the General Convention Of Italian Language in the World, held in the beautiful city of Florence in 2014, I felt the need to investigate more accurately the status and potential teaching of Italian language in the US. The subject is complex, so it will face in various stages to be able to cover comprehensively.

I will start by saying that the Board of Directors of IACE in New York shares the goal identified by the current Italian government to spread in a more uniform way the Italian language and culture abroad as vehicles to support Made in Italy, but above all as vehicles of growth in exports of Italian products to countries and people who love Italy and speak Italian.

In North America the descendants of the historic Italian emigration are numerous, but few speak the language of Dante. Italians of recent immigration and the new leaders are fluent in Italian, but the most important group is formed by Italophiles that for various reasons express an interest in our language and culture.

Before going deep into the heart of the matter, let me give you some data on Italian Americans in the United States. Since the last census conducted in 2010, about 20 million people in the United States identify with Italy. Considering that the current population in the US is about 330 million people, we can say that about 6% of the population is of Italian origin.

More interesting is that 75% of Italian Americans are concentrated in ten US states: New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Florida, Illinois, Connecticut, California, Ohio, Texas and Maryland.

Of these 20 million people, about one million communicates in Italian, while the remaining 19 million are very sensitive to our culture and language.

A closer analysis shows that the young Italian Americans who attend schools at an age by between 5 to 17 years are about 15% of the total: we are talking about 3 million of young people. If we add up the Italophiles to the 3 million Italian Americans we reach a pool of about 6 million of potential students of our language and culture.

Our sources suggest that we are one of the most popular foreign languages and with the largest percentage of increase, but well away from these numbers: in fact, students of Italian language in the United States do not exceed 200,000.

About 100,000 of these students attend classes in the Tri-State Area (NY-NJ-CT) where IACE is run like a business thanks to the work done by its Board of Directors, and with the help of the Foreign Ministry, the Italian Embassy in Washington and the Consulate General in NYC.

IACE fulfills its mission of promoting the study of American schools in the three states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, operating with government funds and with private funds. In my opinion a language is like a product: you have to make it attractive to compete with other languages offered in public schools.

Three things are needed to conquer a market: a quality product, a receptive territory, and a marketing strategy for the product.

As for the product, no one can doubt that Italian language and culture represent a unique asset: according to UNESCO, 65% of world art is concentrated in our country. As for the land, that's it: we are in America, a friendly country that loves us. Americans have come twice to get us out of wars, invasions and bad choices. There is no doubt then that the Italian influence touches not only the twenty million mentioned above, but at least twice as many Americans. But of course all this is not enough. You cannot have a great product and keep it at home, you have to take it on the shelves! In short, it is essential to motivate the choice of our language and create synergies between all the actors responsible for the spread of the Italian language and culture in the States: entrepreneurs, Italian American associations, both Italian and American universities, and why not, also the church with their own private schools frequented by Catholics of Italian or South American heritage.

The great world of the "Italian descendants" in the US helps to maintain alive valuable traditions, as some dialects that no longer exist in Italy, but above all as the old recipes of their grandmothers. The return to the language and culture of their ancestors strengthens people's mental and physical balance.
We in America have a challenge right now: there is an image of Italy that is overwhelmingly positive. We do not always translateit into an adequate economic advantage. It's a matter of working better and working together not only among government agencies, but also with local governments that are now the main protagonists of the promotion of bilingualism.

At IACE we found out that there is a parallel between the increase in enrollments to Italian language courses at American public schools and the increase in Italian exports to the US.

According to data published by the US Department of Commerce, in 2013 imports of Italian products have registered a total value of no less than $ 38.6 billion dollars. The increase compared with the figure for 2012 was nearly $ 2 billion.

Among the countries supplying the United States, in 2013, Italy is at 11th place (going up again in the ranking from 13th place in 2012 and 15th place in 2011) with a balance of trade surplus of 22 billion dollars and a market share growing from 1,62% to 1.7%. Among EU countries, Italy holds the fourth position as a supplier, following Germany, the United Kingdom and France.

Among the most informed American people, Italy is seen as a country bearer of beauty and elegance, design and lifestyle: promoting the teaching of our language and culture will greatly enhance our image.