When did I start "teaching" Italian? And above all, why did I even bother starting doing it?

Wrong Italian

We have to go back to 2005's Italy, experiencing the first waves of mass immigration.

I was not very used to hearing foreigners and their “wrong” Italian. For me, correcting them sounded absolutely natural. Especially, since I hate being corrected without understanding “why” something is wrong, I would do the same with them.

I used to explain to them what was wrong, and why, adding also a pinch of etymology here and there, because it makes everything more logical (on average) and fascinating.

I still do it, so if you’ll ever have lessons with me you know what to expect!

But actually: why did I do it instead of shutting my mouth up and letting them in peace?

Nobody asked me to do it.

Peculiar concerns

Honestly, what drove me was Italian public security 😅 

I’m one of the children who grew up with 9/11 and all the waves of terrorism afterward. I was very sensitive to the stories of people with identity crises, lacking integration, being socially isolated, and so on.

I felt really concerned.

In those moments when I was listening to their struggles and their mistakes in my language I thought: “If their Italian is too bad how are they going to integrate? Who is going to hire them unless they start their own business?”. 

In the end, I was right because, in the last couple of years, I have met more than one person who was sacked after a trial period or simply rejected at an interview because of their Italian.

The same for foreigners looking for “side jobs” during their studies in Italy just to earn some money: knowing “a bit” of Italian is often not enough, but people usually realize it too late and I don’t really believe in intensive learning.

My worry was that if they didn’t get out of isolation and achieved the objectives they had in mind when they came to Italy, ultimately they would end up hating the country - and the Italians, of course. 

I was worried for real.

At the same time, I also realized that I was fond of doing it, but until 2020 I never thought it was possible to turn it into my full-time job.

My idea of language learning: the beginning

Coming back to the multinational classmates, in those moments I started laying the foundations of my idea of language learning.

I focused a lot on using the language correctly and not just getting myself understood because, according to the job, one would look for it may not be enough.

There can be exceptions: where English is not the official language, but it is widely spoken or where more than one language is currently used, lower standards are accepted, but in homogeneous countries like Italy, France, or Germany, no way it can be enough.

The hyper-international environments like the ecosystem of the European Affairs in Brussels can be an exception as well. As a migrant especially if you are from the upper class they can be your first place to be, but you never know what can happen and you may be forced to look for a “normal” job at some point. 

That’s the main reason why I learn Dutch.

I don’t need it at the moment but you never know! I am well aware that in case of an "emergency" and should I have to look for another job that would be a relevant asset to have. I have seen people trying to learn the local language properly after 6-10 years of living in a place: having to fix all the stuff you have learned incorrectly and that is now deeply fossilized in your mind is awful and frustrating. 

If you need to deal with clients, from a simple café up to working in sales in a company speaking correctly is usually crucial.

In the case of those migrants: even if they wanted to get a simple office job, they should have been able to write emails correctly or read and understand documents properly.

When I hear somebody complaining about these requirements I would ask them if they would hire someone who speaks the language at their level…

I have never been replied to with a “yes”.

What happens when you don't believe in your passions

Why?

On the one hand, I imagined the language teachers like people having to study tons of literature and then somehow inventing a way to explain stuff to foreigners who obviously don’t give an f about literature 😅 and for me, the idea of studying those stuff at university was really not attractive at all.

On the other I had zero self-confidence, so by default, I thought that doing something pleasant was not possible for me as a job 🥲 but also didn’t know about all the opportunities that came out later…

Actually I see a sort of a path.

I would have probably hated teaching languages the way it was usually done before COVID and I started considering a possible full-time job only after the first wave.

Sometimes it really looks like there is a path outlined by “who knows what”.

It’s incredible, I feel like a ton of things in my life happened at a certain moment that turned out to be the best moment possible, but just shortly before you would have thought that everything was lost or that you were stuck and there was no way out of that limbo.

I just need conversation classes...

Moreover, let’s remember a fundamental point: unless you are already at a very high level, improving your active skills (speaking, writing) by pure practice doesn’t really exist.

It’s just a dangerous idea that just makes people lose a lot of precious time.

It may work if somebody has an amazing memory and perfectly imitates and gets all the nuances on his/her own, but a very limited number of people can do it.

Languages are not plants and don’t improve on their own just by getting sun and oxygen in a different country.