The Italian Language in the World Week [Settimana della Lingua Italiana nel Mondo] is an annual event promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in countries where Italian is taught. It takes place in the third week of October. This year the 13th Italian Language in the World Week will run from 14 to 20 October.
This year’s programme will highlight the theme ‘Research, Discovery, Innovation: Italy as a Country of Knowledge’, and will feature an Italian book exhibition and sale in the Gulbenkian café (15 October), and a talk by Roberto Bonzio, a journalist from The Guardian and The Independent, entitled ‘Italiani di Frontiera’ [Frontier Italians], a story telling travelogue about Italian talent (16 October), followed by an Italian party.
There will be an online competition (in the form of a multi-author blog) with the prize of winning a new language course in Italy, the bursaries offered by Italian language schools.
Of last year’s winners, student Luca Piercey summed up his prize course in Scuola Babilonia, Taormina: ‘I loved the Italian course, I did an interview on camera for them and wrote them some good feedback.’
Another winner from 2012, Vita Minichiello wrote of her prize course in Scuola Il Faro, Venezia: ‘I’m currently here, and I finish my course tomorrow. It’s been really good, I’ve really enjoyed it. Everyone has been really friendly, and the course is really well aimed at a personal level for each student. I’ll have some photos when I get back, which I can send to you. But I would highly recommend it for next year!’
To enter the competition, and to find out more about the programme, please see the page here: http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/italian/