Educating Today's Youth, Italian Style

“Jake! What is pizza like in America? Are there nice beaches in America? Why don’t Americans study Italian?” These are some of the questions that my Italian high school students asked me during my first week of teaching. I could see the excitement and curiosity of each student as I walked into the classroom and introduced myself to them. Many people in Matera and the surrounding towns have never encountered an American before. Suddenly, a young man from a mysterious state called “Pennsylvania” would now be in their class on a weekly basis to help them learn the English language. Although there was plenty of excitement, I could tell that the students felt intimidated by my presence. Southern Italians don’t speak English much, and now the students would have class with a native speaker. I imagined their thoughts like, “How will we understand him? What if he judges our pronunciation?” To ease the nerves in the classes, I told the students that I graduated college with a degree in Italian, so if they had some complicated questions, they could ask me in Italian. However, I told them something even more important: that I am a patient person, and that my goal is to help each and every one of them in their journey of learning English.

The first month of my English teaching job has been full of new adjustments, challenges, and rewards. I honestly had no idea what to expect of the job. I currently split my time between two vocational high schools—one specializes in tourism services, and the other specializes in agricultural/animal work. I spend 16 hours per week between the two schools, and I rotate between 4 and 6 classrooms at each school. Each school has a focus on hands-on learning for the students. For example, when I arrived to the tourism school on my first day of work, a group of students welcomed me as if they were hotel secretarial staff. At the tourism school, there’s a program for becoming waiters/waitresses as well as a program for the culinary arts. At the agricultural school, students spend time in the outdoor greenhouse where they learn about horticulture and plant various crops (like strawberries). Although there are similarities between Italian and American high schools / vocational schools, there are so many differences in the school structures and education system. Here are some major differences that I’ve noted:

1. Students stay in the same classroom while teachers move around the different classrooms. I never knew that this was common practice in Italy until I arrived to my first day of work. It seems strange that teachers do not have their own classrooms. In the U.S., each teacher makes their classroom a creative space to enhance student learning. There are spaces in the Italian schools for teachers to convene and plan their materials (when they have a free period), but they don’t have their own spaces.

2. Italian students (at least at my schools) attend classes Monday-Saturday. Fortunately, I do not have to work on Saturday’s, but it must be difficult to only have a one day weekend. The school days are a little shorter than in the U.S. (usually 8am-1:30 pm), so they have time in the afternoon to relax. However, many of my students work, and they tend to live in smaller towns about 20-30 minutes outside of Matera.

3. There is no lunch break in school. Since the students leave school around lunchtime, there’s no need for a traditional “cafeteria” break. Students do have 2, 15-minute pauses during the school day, and often they bring a sandwich and some snacks from home.

4. The English textbooks are in British English! Obviously, textbooks in the U.S. are in American English. I should’ve realized that Europeans learn British English in school, but I had never seen a non-American English textbook. There are some noticeable differences between American and British English (for example, in Britain they use the phrase “have got” for possession, instead in American English we say “have”). The main teachers help the students understand the differences between American and British English as I only speak/teach American English (also, in British English they say “canteen” instead of “cafeteria” like in American English).

I’ve adjusted to the main differences between Italian and American high school after one month of teaching in the classroom. The teaching role is new for me, so I’m continuing to adjust and improve my work. Previously, I completed a virtual English teaching assistantship with a high school in Bologna, but that experience was/is not the same as in-person instruction. Luckily, I work with supportive teachers who help manage the classes while I teach my lessons. There are difficult times where the students are tired or not in the mood to continue learning for the day. However, there have been plenty of rewarding times where the students enjoyed the lesson activities, and I could see their genuine interest in improving their language skills. For example, I taught a lesson on American high school, and before the lesson I played Taylor Swift’s 2009 music video for “You Belong with Me”. The video features many stereotypical aspects of American high school (like football games, cheerleaders, and the prom), and the video helped my students understand a typical American high school experience. Now, my students want me to play a song for them before each lesson, so I try to find songs that relate to the topic (for example, I played “Party in the USA” by Miley Cyrus to introduce a lesson on American geography). I want to make my lessons as interactive and enjoyable as possible, so I try to gauge the interests of the students (and they happen to love American music). I’m looking forward to evolving my lessons and slowly helping the students become more independent and confident in the English speaking abilities.

Moving forward, I will be writing more blogs on my teaching experience, and I will discuss in-detail about specific lessons. Overall, my first month of teaching has been a whirlwind of experiences, both challenging and rewarding. However, as many of you know, I love a challenge.

A dopo,

Jake