We Italians have mastered the art of talking with our hands. We can, in theory, have whole conversations without exchanging any words, though the real purpose of our gestures is to animatedly emphasize–a proclivity that has become famous worldwide, so much so that one such gesture was added to the emoji dictionary. Rather unfortunately, the name fo...
READ MORETucked deep within the mountainous landscape near the Adriatic Coast in southern Italy, a language and a culture dating back 500 years are at risk of disappearing. Roughly 1,000 people in the towns of Montemitro, San Felice, and Acquaviva Collecroce speak Slavomolisano – or na-našo (pronounced “na-nasho”) as it is known in the language – a blend of...
READ MOREThere are many ways of transcribing and pronouncing this word that has no synonyms. The assonance with the term “hypochondria” can be relegated to an anatomical matter: in Greek, the word ypochondrios (meaning “under the ribs”) points to the precise spot where a pain was located, one due to deep discouragement, sadness, even depression. In the Neap...
READ MOREToday, we use the phrase “the die is cast” when we want to say we took a decision and we can no longer turn back. In Italian, it translates as il dado è tratto. While the expression is common in both languages, not everyone knows that, according to tradition, the first to utter these famous words was no other than Julius Caesar. Many of us learn...
READ MOREREGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN for “Teaching Italian Symposium/Workshops XVI: Activating SDGs in the Italian Classroom”– the 16th annual professional development program organized by the Coccia Institute for the Italian Experience in America and Prof.ssa Enza Antenos, Dept. of World Languages & Cultures, at Montclair State University. This year’s event w...
READ MORERenaissance Evolution has received a grant from the Italian government allowing the foundation to provide Italian language and Italian history teachers to selected American schools within five states: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi. "We are thrilled that the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has chosen Renaissance Evol...
READ MOREMr. Razzano is a third-generation Italian American with ancestral roots in Campania, Italy. In 2018, he met Dr. Federico Pacchioni, the founding director of the Ferrucci Institute for Italian Experience and Research, while attending the Italian Perspectives series. Impressed by the Italian Studies Program at Chapman, the two men struck up a friends...
READ MOREAn Italian teacher is marking 50 years of teaching at Lynbrook High School. Lenny Bruno started his career in September 1973. "Teaching is one, if not, the most noble profession because you are affecting the lives of many kids, getting them to grow in your discipline, make them more excited about learning," Bruno says. Bruno says foreign language i...
READ MOREThe Coccia-Inserra Award honors a teacher of Italian at the K-12 level, and is generously donated by Coccia Foundation in the name and memory of its founder, Cav. Joseph Coccia, Jr., and by Mr. Lawrence R. Inserra, Jr. Founded in 1994 by Joseph and Elda Coccia, and now under the leadership of President Elisa Coccia, Coccia Foundation aggressively p...
READ MOREThe Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board on Friday approved a Bachelor of Arts degree in Italian for the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. The state panel's decision, which the Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas system had approved earlier this year, comes after a recent decision by a separate campus -- the University of Ar...
READ MORE