Introduzione

In middle and high school one of my favorite classes was Latin, I enjoyed learning about the culture of the Roman empire as much as I did learning the language. However, while we went into depth studying the subtleties of grammatical forms and Roman culture in order to better understand the nuances of Cicero, Julius Caesar, and Homer, we never focused on speaking the language or interacting with the culture ourselves. As Latin is ancient dead language, with only written works remaining as primary sources, there wasn't much focus on learning to listen and speak it. While I enjoyed learning lingua Latina, when I came to Duke I knew one of the things that I wanted to out of a language course was to learn not just a spoken language, but one with an active contemporary culture. My Latin teacher had talked about visiting Italy several times and it sounded like a beautiful country and interesting culture. Taking Italian seemed like the natural continuation of my language studies. Hopefully one day I might even be able to visit Italy and use some of my language skills.

I have long been interested in the visual arts, and am now pursuing a Visual Arts minor. I think that one day it would be a great experience to visit Italy and see the works I have studied about for myself. To see the works of famous Italian masters and preserved Roman architecture would be amazing, and knowing Italian would be invaluable in travel and tours. At home my mother greatly admires the arts, and I grew up with pieces including a glass sculpture on one wall that was made by Beverly Albrets, who was inspired by the artist Chihuly. Chihuly was an American glass artist who in turn was inspired by Italian glass work when he studied in Florence, Venice, and the world famous Venini factory on the island of Murano. Visiting the Murano glass factory would be a amazing experience which relates to a personal interest of mine, and now not only being able to speak Italian, but also having a introductory understanding of Italian culture would help me in this goal.

When I came to Duke and choose a language to study, I decided then to pursue Italian. I had enjoyed Latin in middle and high school and wanted to see what the culture and language of the Italian peninsula was like today in modern times. I also wanted to learn a language which would relate to a personal interest of mine, such as art, and would be beneficial in future travels. The act of learning how to learn another language in a formal setting is an invaluable skill which helps open one's eyes to other cultures and can prepare one to learn other languages in the future. I think my experience with Italian at Duke has been a positive experience which has contributed positively to my ability to communicate and prepared me for learning other languages if I should choose in the future. Overall, I have enjoyed my experiences in Italian and looking back at my work in 101 I feel that I have come a long way in my language experience. I look forward to the future in Italian!

(Blog background is a photograph of Chihuly's Glass Comet sculpture displayed in Murano. Header image is of an Italian tomato field planted with poppies)