English 101-000 Project 1

Giovanni Garboni Penha Dr. M. Suhr-Sytsma Emory University

Parler italiano (I will speak Italian)

My grandfather, whose name is also Giovanni, was born in Italy during the Second World War. Matteo, my great grandfather, scared of the horrors of the most destructive war in history, started planning to move out of Italy to South America. One night, he took my great grandmother, Anna, my grandfather and his sister, Graziella and one large sized bag packed with their belongings and moved out of Trieste (north of Italy) and went by boat to Venice. From Venice, my family went aboard a ship anxious to leave Europe, as Benito Mussolinis alliance to Nazi Germany devastated the beautiful country that Italy was before 1939. Originally, Matteos goal was to go to Argentina, where some of his friends had moved. However, when the ship made a stop in Brazil, in the cidade maravilhosa (wonderful city) of Rio de Janeiro, something changed my great grandfathers mind. Upon his arrival, the people of Rio were so welcoming and sympathetic to the Italian immigrants that he decided to stay in Rio. Slowly, the Italian side of my family adapted to the Brazilian life. You might be asking yourself why on Earth did I just tell you about part of the history of my family. Being the grandson of Italian immigrants, I feel a certain obligation to learn how to speak Italian. Not knowing the language is partially embarrassing. When I introduce myself to people, occasionally people say something in Italian to me, and since I do not speak the language, I have to tell them that even though I have Italian blood, I do not know how to speak the language. I want that to change. I am tired of feeling bad about myself for not speaking the language. I will learn Italian.

English 101-000 Project 1

Giovanni Garboni Penha Dr. M. Suhr-Sytsma Emory University

This is a beautiful culture that I have a great desire to be a part of, but not knowing the language is preventing me from connecting to my roots. The time I first realized that was when I visited Turin (in Italy) as a child, I stayed at my cousins home for around two weeks. It was a good experience, Turin is an amazing city, but the language barrier proved to have a negative impact: I just could not communicate in an effective manner with my own relatives. This situation made me feel emotionally detached from my family, and that made me feel like I was losing part of my own identity. Not being able to talk to my family because I had not learned the family language made me question who I really was. I felt more distant from my family origins and that bothered me. One of my life goals is to learn Italian at some point during my four years in college. I will take intro to Italian. I will leave college fluent in the language. It will allow me to become closer to my family in Italy and reconnect the part of the family who moved to Brazil to the part that stayed in Europe. Learning Italian will open a window of opportunities to me. It will also help me reclaim part of my Italian identity and help preserve it in future generations of my family. I will be more fulfilled as a person knowing that I am not letting the Italian culture die in my family.