Italian as a foreign language and culture in Hungary
Overview
In a remote past, Italian was an elitist language
restricted to a small number of educated foreigners. Later in the 20th century, the Italian taught to non-Italian speakers is
associated with the Italian immigration abroad. Around the beginning of the second millennium the locations where the Italian language is used were reorganized and a new scenario for language learning appeared, as a result of events of both cultural and social nature in Italy and in the rest of the world. First, the influx of foreign laborers in Italy has also contributed to the current situation of language learning. The target group is made of both child and adult non-Italian speakers enrolled in mandatory classes. Also, the diffusion of the tertiary education and the student mobility has created a new public of foreign learners. These learners often get specialized in one of the many fields of the Italian language after they have been through the introductory phase. The interest in many of the economic sectors present in Italy (industry, tourism and commerce) has created a significant number of learners as well. Finally, the creation of the UE has called for the need of learning new languages, which should lead to a more widespread penetration of the languages spoken in Europe, including the Italian.
In Hungary, as well as in other countries from East Europe, the current situation of learning and teaching has a peculiarity. In the late eighties, new locations where the Italian language is used were open when the Soviet hegemony collapsed and Russian stopped being favored over other languages.
The Hungarian Aspects
During the research to make this article, we realized that there is a long history of cultural exchange and the long tradition of diplomacy between Italy and Hungary. Hungary keeps to this day almost uninterrupted relations with Italy, which have been even intensified lately, thanks to tourism and commercial exchange. These factors have made many businessmen move to Hungary. Just mentioning as a curiosity: the number of Italian residents in Hungary in the year 1999 was about 1200.
The cultural connections between Italy and Hungary are, however, in films, music and soccer. Although the presence of Italian books or its translations is limited, as it is the presence of newspapers and other publications in Italian.
In Hungary, people normally study Italian and some times French after they have learned English and German. Also, the Italian language is present in many elementary schools, two bilingual high schools and in many universities and private schools. In the city of Szombathely, a survey about what motivates the
students to learn Italian revealed that in the local high schools the reason is essentially personal pleasure and interests like music and fashion, while in the universities the reason is work and study.
There are many teachers associated with the “Dipartimenti di Studi Italianistici” (Departments of Italian Studies, inter-university organizations dedicated to divulgate Italian language and culture) in the universities of Budapest, Szeged, Pécs and Szombathely. Regarding the material used in classes, the students are allowed to use books or exams published in both Italian and Hungarian, but the Material in Italian is more expensive and that may affect their choice. Teachers in Hungarian always try to enrich their classes with other didactic materials on paper or on audiovisual media. They employ a Grammatical/Translation methodology approach, but they are more open to Western methodologies than others countries from Eastern Europe. Many of the readers of my articles (teachers) notice a great deal of passiveness during their classes, especially when they ask a question to their students and none of them have an ready answer. Another one of my readers, who also happens to collaborate on this article, noticed that if she lacks of tutoring during classes, her students “although willing to open up and participate, often seem to go through the class passively instead of actively participate”.
Some interference of linguistic and paralinguistic nature has been noticed. They are not only a result from the difference between the native language and the Italian, but from all the romance languages known and also from the English language. These interferences are often associated with lexicon, morpho-syntax, pronunciation and literature. Frequently recognized sources of mistakes are, for instance, the subjunctive, which is absent in the Hungarian language, the pronounce of the vowels and diphthongs, the use of concordances and prepositions, the accents and the intonation. Not really a mistake, but worth mentioning: almost all of my readers have noticed less use of gesticulation in communication in their students when compared to native Italian speakers.
Concluding, Italy is seen by the Hungarian people as a wonderful country, rich and warm, a place where everybody can enjoy holidays and dress stylish.
Sources
”Studi Italiani di Linguistica Teorica e Applicata”, Volume XXVIII, 1999, Number 3.
“Italiano come lingua straniera nell''Est Europeo: risultati di una indagine svolta da giovani lettori italiani in Russia, Georgia, Ucraina, Bosnia e Ungheria”, Author Pierangela Diadori.