Two teachers from the American Overseas School of Rome have added English language instruction to the ICBIE’s curriculum. After Rosa de Bellis started the program last summer (with an unprecedented wave of enthusiasm), during the month of May, Michelle Falcinelli offered another round, with two five-day-per-week classes, one for younger students (starting at ten years old) and another for young adults (the oldest was 49-year-old Carlos, Ribeira’s famous green grocer). Despite a frustrating inconsistency, Michelle found great satisfaction from, in her words, “those few super consistent, super hard workers who took lots of initiative, participated a lot, did everything I asked and… were awesome.” Her greatest challenge came from pronunciation: “especially “th” … one night after hearing too many “birFdays”, I decided to tell them what a BARF BAG was, and the pronunciation, versus birTHday and its pronunciation. Everyone got a laugh out of that one! Another unexpected pronunciation difficulty was with “R” at the beginning of words, so for them Restaurant was Hestaurant, and so on.”
As always, Michelle was swept away with the the wonderful community of Ribeira, and her description captures the intense human rhythms:
“I have loved all the people I have met, and they have been many. I am already a pretty outgoing person, so I am always out and about either taking walks, or riding one of the bicycles here; plus I found the Catholic churches to go to, so I met loads of people: I know the cashiers at the two closest supermarkets, a lovely couple at the fruit shop, the guy at the newsstand, who knows me as the one who buys Marlene a copy of A Tarde every Sunday morning, plus all the church ladies and the priest of course, who then took it upon himself to introduce me to anyone he knew spoke English. Then of course Joseph at the bar across the way (Pietro’s “Teatro”) and Silvio at the orfanatrofo, who also yabbers at me in Portuguese even though I have repeatedly told him NON INTENDO NADA (because poi alla fine faccio finto di capire since they take no notice and continue talking). Not to forget Orlando and Nailton, who are two waiters at one of the locales where we found the cheapest caipirinha; the padrone of tres irmaos pizzeria; and Cristian and Daniela who make beijous at the weekend. There are others but I can’t forget Lu. She is amazing. I went to her evangelical church last Sunday, and THAT was interesting!) Then Gilberto from the bike shop, who took me on an all day giro a couple Sundays ago, reminiscent of The Motorcycle Diaries: we wound around and around thru all the worst neighborhoods because he knows I have this passionate interest in the poor and understanding their lives…mamma mia, I cannot believe how many people I have gotten to know, seriously, every time I go out even for just ten minutes, I see someone I know who stops to chat at least for a few min…”
Michelle finished her courses on May 30th, but because the next day was her birthday, everyone came back for a party!
At least the kids won’t have to wait too long for their next round of English lessons, as AOSR’s Daniele Dattilo will be arriving in about three weeks. He will also teach a course in beginning French!
(Photos by Davide Diacci)
