Thursday, January 24, 2013

Italian Lessons and Cultural Re-Education


Uggh….. After a 2 week layoff from my blog I’m not sure where to begin.  If I were to create a list of all the fun things that DIDN'T happen in the past two week I’m sure I could imagine a fanciful list, unfortunately the past two weeks were far too confining for that.  The week of 1/14 was spent in a classroom at the Koine school for Italian lessons; the last day of class I caught some nasty cold virus that has been attacking all the English speaking newbies in town.  Today I crawled out of bed for my longest stint yet. 

The Italian lessons were interesting and challenging.  I struggled with a lot of the vocabulary but this is where Angie’s self-study program prior to us leaving the US really paid off for her – that and also having been an Elementary school specializing in grammar and reading.  She did very well.  Now that I can read something for more than 5 minutes without falling asleep I plan to review all the course materials and my notes over the next 3 weeks, then go back to school for another week.  The school is very well organized and our course instructor, Cosetta was outstanding, I hope she teaches the next class.

After that I’m hoping to be ready to start one of the language exchange programs – these are local online bulletin boards where you sign up as an English speaking person who is learning Italian, and meet face to face to practice talking to an Italian speaking person learning to speak English.  Meetings are usually one hour with half the session in one language and half in the other.  There are so are many people in Florence seeking to improve their English (many of whom are students, Florence is such a college town) that it should be easy to connect with someone.

I got over most of my cold just in the nick of time as Angie and I had an appointment at the Prefetturadi di Firenze.  We joined an auditorium full of Italy newbies where we sat through a series of video lessons on the various Italian Police agencies, how to apply for the type of VISA best suited for you, the significance of obtaining a Residence Permit (Permesso di Soggiorno), how National Health Care and a variety of other social services work for non-citizens, and even how to get along peacefully with your neighbors if you live in a condo.  So at this point if you are wondering why we elected to join this class, let me point out this is mandatory education for anyone seeking to live in Italy more than 3 months.   We were told that we would report to the Prefetturadi, and when our presence was required.  

Long story short – Italy takes Immigration seriously.  The U.S. could take some lessons in this regard.  Italy’s Integration program to assimilate non-citizen long term Residents (that’s us) into the Italian cultural and national identity is not only formally structured, it is graded.  You have two years to earn a minimum 30 points on the Integration scale, proving education in civics and proficiency in speaking the Italian language at the A2 level (as established by the Common European Framework for languages).  If you have not earned at least 30 points at the end of the two years, your Residence Permit may not be renewed – if that happens you have to leave Italy.

So far Angie and I have 16 points.

Angie and I have some hiking planned for next week, providing the weather cooperates, and I’m hoping to be posting more pictures soon. Ciao!

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