Italian in the Workplace Day

On Tuesday 9 May six Year 9 Italian students participated in the Italian in the workplace day held at the UniSA City West Campus. The objectives of the day were to inspire and encourage students to keep studying Italian at school and promote Italian as a fundamental language to expand students’ career opportunities.

Students listened to several presentations and then were able to interact with mentors in a “Speed dating with mentors” session where are several people spoke to them about how Italian has helped them in their careers. I asked the participating students to write a summary of their experiences on this day and I have included some excerpts below.

“I found the Italian in the Workplace excursion particularly useful as I was able to be exposed to those who have grown up in a situation like me, learning a foreign language whilst at school, and then seeing now as they are adults. I took out some advice today that really changed my perspective on learning a second language, including the fact that learning a 2^nd language can take you many unimaginable places in life.”

“I received a lot of knowledge about why we should learn Italian, why knowing Italian is helpful in life, and how being able to understand and communicate Italian can help us in our future jobs.”

“This day was extremely enlightening and broadened my perspectives to the uses of being bilingual in various work fields. Having already an idea of my future work field, my assumptions of a fruitless workshop were proved entirely incorrect. I learned about the benefit of using Italian in fields of law, medicine, computer science and much more. It was most eye-opening being able to speak to people who have used bilingualism in their work and become extremely successful. I now have decided that I will continue Italian in the Senior Years, as even if my desired work field does not go to plan, this ability can continue to support me in many other areas, work fields, social interactions and even more than I could ever imagine.”

Special mention to Lucia Venturin who won the Italian Bingo Quiz, competing against 18 other schools on the day. Congratulations Lucia!

Rocco D’Onofrio
Teacher of Italian