Specials

Joseph Sciame has been an active promoter of Italian culture for several years. Among the manifold organizations he is affiliated with, he is a former National President of the Order Sons of Italy in America, and is currently director on the board of the New York City Italian Heritage and Culture Month and Vice President of Community Relations at St. John’s University.

As someone who works within a university, do you see a difference between the level of interest in Italian among high school-age kids and college kids?
“The involvement at St. John’s University, where I work, is high. There’s an enrollment of over 400 students in Italian. I also see involvement at younger levels, in an out-of-classroom environment. In other words, there are elementary school children who study Italian after school. As for high schools – many of them offer Italian, but need to make more publicity efforts. Italian classes would only benefit from higher enrollment. It’s just a question of publicity. The earlier the kids enroll and start learning Italian, the better. Honestly I think it’s a win/win situation.”
Have you ever studied Italian?
“I myself have never studied Italian. It just wasn’t offered; the choice was between French and German. My parents grew up in families that spoke Sicilian dialects, but I am a product of my generation, where unfortunately it wasn’t common to learn a second language. I even studied Latin and Greek at one point, but never Italian.”
Why do you think it isn’t a standard second language in American education?
“Many people, even years ago, were pushing for Italian in schools, and it never worked. But they were never really banded together and there was a cost problem. Indeed, the excuse I always heard was that there wasn’t the money to hire enough teachers. And then to make matters worse, when teachers were hired, they weren’t Italian speakers. French and Spanish teachers would be brought in. Now, however, we’re a united front working to promote the Italian language. Mr.Tamburri, for one, has been making huge efforts toward this.”
Why do you think promoting the language has always been more difficult than promoting the culture?
“It’s true, Italian American organizations have always promoted the cultural part, but not so much the language. For instance, the Italian Heritage and Culture Committee that I work on has always been a big success with its yearly cultural themes—we just did Garibaldi and we’re going to do Meucci next. But culture really goes hand in hand with language. And now, actually, there’s a program that offers both. In New Hyde Park, right on the borders of Queens, there are Saturday courses under the auspices of the Aurora program, that teach young kids Italian and Italian culture at the same time.”
As for the AP Program?
“We must keep PRing it. There’s increased interest, starting from a young age, but you can’t see results in just two years if students aren’t in the pipeline.”