Il Pranzo Ongi Venerdi` (Lunch Every Friday)
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| The View Out Our Classroom Window |
Our third week of class was a mixture of success and brain
failure. As Julie put it “Brain overload… Failure to connect.” While we have
had many “light bulb” moments that have pulled together concepts Ugo and Gerri
have taught us at home, there are things about the Italian language that just don’t
make sense to English speaking students. The Italian language is a very
specific, yet at the same time word meanings often change depending on their usage.
Italians don’t ‘get’ anything. In fact they don’t even have the verb “to get” in their language. Italians take coffee
and do or make showers. They don’t ‘ride’ anywhere; they go by car, by horse and by bike. Italians never miss a train – they lose it. They don’t wear clothes; they
carry them on their body. When a table has food on it, it is a tavola, but
remove the food and it becomes a tavalo. Italians don’t like things; things are
pleasing to them. When we go – they come… I consider the study of the Italian
language to be a form of preventa-tive medicine aka Alzheimer prevention.
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| Il Primo Pranzo: Leann, Julie Mauro, Annette, Me Sabrina (left to right) |
Each school week ends with students and staff coming
together for a lunch fatta in casa [homemade
meal]. Italians have an expression Che
aria di casa. It has to do with the experience of feeling at home. While
observing the various conversations taking place around the tavola, combinations of humor and warmth, I thought to
myself, “This is part of what the school provides – lingual education, cultural
experience and an aria di casa, the
experience of family and community thousands of miles from home.”
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| Julie, Annette, Me, Greg, Tracy, Camille, Sharon, Elletra, Amon, Mauro, Sabrina (left to right) |
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