Dr Stefania Tufi publishes new article on the linguistic landscape of Venice

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Liminality, Venice

Dr Stefania Tufi, Senior Lecturer in Italian, has had a new article published on the linguistic landscape of Venice, entitled Liminality, heterotopic sites, and the linguistic landscape. The case of Venice. Stefania tells us a little about it on today’s MLC blog.

It took a long time to see this project through to publication and in a way the process of writing itself (or, better, of working within the limits of verbal language for the task at hand) was as elusive as Venice. I started forming the idea of this article because every time I visit Venice, the experience generates a mix of contrasting feelings and reactions that range from astonishment (including the so-called Stendhal Syndrome) to claustrophobia – not many places on earth are able to provoke such a variety of responses, and all in one go!

After a careful observation of the local linguistic (and wider semiotic) landscape, I concluded that it contributed to the creation of a liminal space, a sort of in-betweenness which is neither here nor there, and the product of numberless representations and imaginings of Venice. This has been enhanced by historical characterisations, appropriations and recreations of Venice which are available to large audiences, and by the fact that nowadays tourists (and their languages) outnumber local inhabitants and vernaculars, therefore creating a peculiarly transnational space.

In the article I also refer to processes of language minoritisation (or deletion) that Italian is undergoing, both in the audioscape and in the written signscape (as exemplified in the images below), a phenomenon that participates in linguistic and cultural reterritorialization.

Sign on a church door featuring French, English, German and Italian, the latter in the least salient position

Finally, one of the frameworks employed in the article is that of tourist-as-pilgrim in the consolidated walkscape regimes that most day-trippers follow in pursuit of key artistic landmarks. This ritualistic itinerary along established routes where written signs are often replaced by objects (such as the ubiquitous – and signless – souvenir shops displaying Venetian glass and masks) causes a dislocation of (real) place and the creation of a heterotopia – ‘another place’, which is simultaneously real and unreal.

The ubiquitous city guides in a range of languages

Why do Germans call our bread ‘Toast’?! What is their bread and sausage obsession about? How do Germans feel about British queues?

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Blogs, Cultural differences, Denglish

Franziska Schmidt, one of MLC’s honorary associates in German, has recently started writing a blog about English/German cultural differences, in which she highlights the importance of embracing not only the language of a nation, but its food, music and customs as well. Franziska’s blog is written in both German and English, so both English- and German-speaking readers have the chance to understand each other’s oddities. Here, Franziska gives us a taster of what her blog is about.

Having lived in Liverpool for nearly 14 months (note the German preciseness), I have been asked questions about Germans calling bread ‘toast’, about German sausages, and about German attitudes to queuing on several occasions. While teaching German courses for Continuing Education, more and more questions about German oddities arose, differences between German and English customs were discussed, and I realised that language learning is a lot more than just studying grammar and vocabulary.

 

German barbecue, including those famous (and delicious) German sausages

When you move to a country, you usually know about some common stereotypes: British people love to talk about the weather; they drink black tea with milk; they are champions in queuing. On the other hand, Germans are direct and precise; they love bread and sausages; they lack politeness and the ability to partake in small talk.

Of course, nobody really wants to admit to being a stereotypical Brit or German. Yet, let’s be honest: stereotypes do not just appear out of thin air. Some of them can ring true.

Comparing my manners to British ones, wondering about how and why things are done differently here, and experiencing British life in all its facets not only improved my understanding of British culture, but my understanding of German culture as well. Yes – I am German. I am punctual, I miss German summers and winters, I plan my days very efficiently and I write text messages that read ‘Shall we meet at 2:25pm?’ and ‘I am on my way. Will be there in 7 minutes!’ And I am proud of it! By embracing English culture, I learned to embrace my own one. To truly understand a nation and to develop a feeling for the language, one needs to embrace its culture – that includes trying different foods, listening to the local radio station, talking to local people, and even adopting their behaviours.

For these reasons, I decided to start a blog about ‘Denglish’ oddities and culture in both English and German. Whether you are a Brit learning German, or a German living in the UK (and so you are missing baking with Vanillinzucker and Brezeln und richtige Brötchen for breakfast), or just an individual who is wondering about cultural understanding in general, please read my blog and comment and ask questions!

Laugenbrötchen und Brezeln

You will find a German perspective on English culture, German recipes, tips to improve your language, recommendations of German and British food, websites, TV series and more. My blog aims to help both English and German readers learn something about one another, to widen their understanding of other cultures, and to see and embrace the wonders of cultural difference.

You can read the blog at feelforlanguage.blogspot.co.uk.

Homemade German bread

Valentina Podda recounts Liverpool experiences

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Erasmus

In the second semester of the current academic year, MLC welcomed Valentina Podda, who worked as a Teaching Assistant in Italian. In this short blog, Valentina recounts her experiences of the department and of Liverpool in general.

Valentina (first from left) with students of Italian

Ciao! I am Valentina Podda, I am 25 years old and I come from Padua. Thanks to the Erasmus Plus Traineeship Programme, I am currently doing an internship in the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Liverpool, as an Italian Language Assistant.

I have an MA in History from the University of Padua. I graduated with honours with a dissertation on the Fascist Party in Padua, my hometown. Despite the fact that my professional education did not involve a language-related component, the staff at the University of Liverpool gave me the opportunity to live this international experience, which is proving to be extremely enriching professionally, socially and culturally, and of course, it is giving me the possibility to improve my English.

Since I started my Classical Studies, I have always been attracted to a career in academia and now I have the opportunity to learn how to teach Italian as a foreign language and to implement what I have learnt in my classes.

Through following the work of my colleagues at Liverpool, Rosalba Biasini and Federica Sturani, and by designing and teaching Italian language classes, I have been able, for the first time, to enjoy University life as a teacher and not as a student.

Valentina enjoying Liverpool’s culinary delights

Thanks to this international experience, I am improving my language skills day by day, growing professionally and getting to know many amazing people. From the Italian tutors to the students, everyone has made me feel at home.

Furthermore, living in Liverpool, I had  the possibility to discover a different side of the UK, which is quite unlike the tourist-centred hustle and bustle of London for example. Despite the typical English weather, Liverpool is a lovely, welcoming and multicultural city, and it captured my heart.

Having come to the end of this incredible path abroad, I would like to thank the Italian teaching team for having given me this opportunity.

I leave hopeful that we will meet again in the future.

Ana Almeida contributes to edited volume on innovative university language teaching

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Language Learning, Language Teaching, Litinclass

Ana Bela Almeida, Lecturer in Portuguese, has co-authored an article on the benefits of language teaching through literature with Dr Idoya Puig of Manchester Metropolitan University. The chapter is part of the volume Innovative language teaching and learning at university: enhancing employability, published by Research-publishing.net.

In their chapter, Ana Bela and Idoya focus on how teaching language through literature can have an important role in the development of specific employability skills, as it develops not only purely linguistic abilities, but also helps foster other soft skills such as intercultural awareness, problem-solving abilities and critical thinking.

The chapter is the latest output from the international research network “Litinclass” (Literature in the Foreign Language Class), co-funded and run by Ana Bela. This project was created with a view to exploring and sharing ideas on the numerous skills and benefits that can be derived from language learning through literature. More information on the project can be found at the Litinclass website. Ana has been putting this pedagogical approach into practice in her Portuguese language classes, with very positive learning results and feedback from her students.

Ana and Idoya are continuing their collaboration on this research project, and are currently creating teaching activities that will soon be available on the Litinclass website.

Giada Pierini recounts Liverpool experiences

In the first semester of the current academic year, MLC welcomed Giada Pierini, who worked as a Teaching Assistant in Italian. In this short blog, Giada recounts her experiences of the department and of Liverpool in general.

Ciao a tutti! I am Giada Perini and I am currently finishing my MA in International Communication and Cooperation at the University of Padua, in Italy.

During the first semester of this academic year, I had the opportunity to work as Italian Teaching Assistant at the University of Liverpool: being part of the Italian teaching team has been for sure one of the best experiences of my life so far. As a trainee, I had the chance to learn a lot about teaching, which I am now consider as future career. At the same time, I enjoyed the company of other language assistants, with whom I also went on a journey, engaging the European spirit of camaraderie. We worked together as a proper team and we involved students in all the different language cafés, which where the occasion for learning without really having the impression of doing it. Creating relationships, both with students and colleagues, was incredibly easy and it made me feel surrounded by humanity and kindness, which is what everything should be about – after this statement you can tell I have been studying international cooperation for several years now… and that is why I could not help but fall in love with Liverpool and its people.

Furthermore, I am currently carrying out a sociolinguistic research on Scouse, and I actually had the chance to meet local students and people working in the city, who were always kind enough to help me, proving the inner beauty of Liverpool. Nothing of this would have been possible without the constant support of the Italian teaching team, a small, but strong group of passionate people who believe in what they do and never miss the chance to improve themselves and the entire Department.

I arrived in the city with no idea about what I was about to do, I only knew I wanted to try something like teaching before graduating. I ended up coming back to Italy with a clear idea of the person I wanted to be and the things I wanted to do. Although I cried at the airport, as always when I leave England, I was happy and grateful for the opportunity I had and I knew it was just a “see you later”, well, a “see ya la’”.

 

Iberian and Latin American Studies receive Learning and Teaching Award

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Iberian and Latin American Week, IBLAS, Learning & Teaching Prize

Many congratulations to staff in Iberian and Latin American Studies, who as a teaching team received a Faculty Learning and Teaching Award this month. The award recognized IBLAS’s applied awareness of the diversity and plurality of the geo-political spaces that staff research, which manifests itself notably in the week-long series of events and activities that make up Iberian and Latin American Week. As reported on the MLC blog, IBLAW brings a taster of IBLAS’s shared knowledge and interest in the Hispanic and Lusophone world every year to students, through events that take place at the university and around the city, bringing students in contact with a range of practitioners, creative producers, and their texts, films, books, and music.

Iberian and Latin American Week enriches the curriculum and draws an audience from within the student body, across the University, and around the city. It raises the profile of IBLAS and enhances the student experience, as demonstrated in consistently high student feedback. Thanks to all guests and collaborators who contributed to Iberian and Latin American Week, and many congratulations to staff in IBLAS for this well-deserved award!

Ana Reimao (front row, first from left), Marina Rabadán (front row, second from left), and Niamh Thornton (front row, third from right) representing Iberian and Latin American Studies at the Learning and Teaching Awards

Diana Cullell reports on Eramus+ visit to China

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Erasmus+ Mobility, XJTLU

Diana Cullell, Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies, has just spent a week at Xi’an Jiatong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) as part of the Erasmus+ Mobility Scheme. During her time in Suzhou, Diana met with colleagues working in the Language Centre and in Internationalization, and she worked very closely with the team teaching Spanish language over there. Diana also taught on different modules offered by the Language Centre –which included sessions on Catalan culture; lectures focused on Federico García Lorca’s poetry; and Spanish Language classes for beginners and advanced students. Furthermore, she led a Professional Development session for all the staff of the Language Centre, focusing on enhancing language learning through cultural activities. This was a fantastic opportunity to share excellent teaching practice and teaching methods in modern languages, to discuss language teaching challenges in different contexts, to strengthen links between teaching staff in XJTLU and Liverpool, and to continue the productive relationship between the two institutions with many collaborative projects already in sight.

 

During her time in China, Diana also met many students from XJTLU who will be moving to the UK very soon to finish their studies at the University of Liverpool, and she is looking forward to seeing them in class again!

This was such a fantastic opportunity! The Erasmus+ Mobility Scheme allowed me to share teaching practices and different teaching methods with a team of exceptional language teachers in China. We have great collaborative projects for the near future, which will bring our student communities closer and enhance teaching and student experience in both institutions.

The Spanish team at XJTLU with Diana in front of the ‘Liverbird of Suzhou’

Dr Stefania Tufi (Italian Studies) reports on her fieldwork in Sardinia

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Catalan, Sardinia, Sardinian, Tabarchino

Last February, I spent a few weeks in Sardinia (Italy) in order to carry out fieldwork in relation to a project on local language use. Sardinia is a very interesting example of linguistic variety within a relatively small island region (1.6m inhabitants). In addition to a number of dialects which are grouped around two main types of Sardinian, an officially recognised minority language in Italy, there are internal minorities, such as those represented by Catalan (spoken in Alghero in the north-west) and Tabarchino, a Ligurian variety (spoken on Carloforte and Calasetta in the south-west).

The data gathered from informants looks promising and I’m very grateful to the people I met for their invaluable contribution. Any work in Sociolinguistics would not be possible without human input, and on this as well as on previous occasions, Sardinians were very generous with their time and always passionate about their language and culture. Pride in all things Sardinian was shown by all my informants regardless of age or social standing, as it transpired from discussions with groups of youngsters.

I met one such group in a high school in the south-east of Sardinia and was warmly welcomed by staff and students alike. I was impressed by the way in which the study of local language and culture was integrated into the national curriculum and full of admiration for the dedicated teachers.

I’ll be going back to Sardinia for more enlightening and stimulating discussions in beautiful settings, but in the meantime gratzias meda to all!

A group of final-year students at Instituto G. Dessì (Villaputzu) and teacher Bettina Pitzurra (second from right)

Professor Charles Forsdick gives Garnet Rees Memorial Lecture

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Garnet Rees Memorial Lecture, Transnationalizing Modern Languages, Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation

Last month, Professor Charles Forsdick delivered the prestigious Garnet Rees Memorial Lecture at the University of Hull. Endowed in honour of the former professor of French at the University, the annual lecture has now been extended to allow a range of scholars from across Modern Languages to explore the latest developments in their field.

Professor Forsdick first engaged with the work of Garnet Rees as a PhD student at Lancaster in the 1990s working on the author Victor Segalen, when he read Rees’s still definitive 1940 book on the French poet and critic Remy de Gourmont. The focus of his recent lecture was, however, a very different one, drawing on his contribution to the AHRC-funded project Transnationalizing Modern Languages and exploring questions of slavery commemoration in France and the French-speaking world.

Fabrice Hyber’s ‘Le Cri, l’écrit’ in the Jardin de Luxembourg

Professor Forsdick addressed the persistence of slavery in contemporary French politics, and focused on recent controversies surrounding the publication of L’Histoire mondiale de la France. The aim of the lecture was to show how the French memorialization of slavery is often reduced to a national frame – but that debates about reparations and memory inevitably entail more complex transnational considerations. He concluded with a study of museums and memorials commemorating slavery in contemporary France, constrasting for instance Fabrice Hyber’s ‘Le Cri, l’écrit’, unveiled in the Jardin de Luxembourg by President Jacques Chirac in May 2007, with the ambitious Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery inaugurated in Nantes in 2011. The lecture was hosted by WISE, the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation.

A section of the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in Nantes

Professor Eve Rosenhaft discusses her new translation of the memoirs of Theodor Michael

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Black Germany, Theodor Michael

Last month, MLC’s Professor Eve Rosenhaft answered a few questions put to her by Liverpool University Press on her new publication, Black German: An Afro-German Life in the Twentieth Century, a translation of the memoirs of Theodor Wonja Michael.

Theodor Michael is among the few surviving members of the first generation of ‘Afro-Germans’. He was born in Germany in 1925 to a Cameroonian father and a German mother, and grew up in Berlin in the last days of the Weimar Republic. As a child and teenager, he experienced increased racial discrimination under the Nazis in the years before the Second World War. Having survived the war, he became a journalist and actor in post-war West Germany. Since the 1980s, he has become an important spokesman for the black German consciousness movement, acting as a human link between the first black German community of the inter-war period, the pan-Africanism of the 1950s and 1960s, and new generations of Germans of African descent.

You can read more about Theodor Michael, his memoirs, and Professor Rosenhaft’s translation on the Liverpool University Press website: https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/blogs/news/the-moving-and-illuminating-story-of-theodor-michael-an-interview-with-eve-rosenhaft

A book launch to mark the publication of Professor Rosenhaft’s translation will take place next month, on Tuesday 2 May 2017, from 5pm-7pm at the Victoria Gallery & Museum. The event is free, but please register here to attend.