Dear blog-friends,
this post inaugurates a new experimental section of our web blog which will be dedicated to posts written in foreign languages.
We are sure that a fair part of our readers (whose number is constantly increasing, it is worth saying) is wondering what a foreign language section serves to. And this is not a silly question.
After all we are Italian, we deal with arguments which typically belong to the area of Italian civil law. Several times we refer to topics of local interests, given the fact that our blog is geolocalized in Pesaro. So, what writing in English (or in another foreign language) would be worth for?
Well, let’s say you are traveling on business, from Pesaro to Rome, to deal with a major hearing before Supreme Court in a rainy morning of April. You are comfortably seated in your first class coach (you reserved your place too late, so first class seats were the only kind of seats available) idly looking around.
What can you see then?
On your right, stands a young fair-haired businessman, who seems Dutch, deeply engaged in typing something on the screen of his tab device. You glance at what he his writing, not because you are curios, but just to spend your time. Well, guess what? He’s using English language in his text, (report, letter, article or whatever it is) .
In front of you, a couple of young Japanese has just arrived. They seem just married, or at least engaged, and they look quite anxious. They are abroad after all. In a country which welcomes lots of Japanese citizens every year, whose inhabitants do not speak a single word of Japanese language (and very little English as well) . They ask you – in good English despite the strong cadence – if that one is the right train to Rome. You just answer: ” yes it is”. And they sigh with relief.
Finally there is a couple of French people on your left. He is not tall, but looks distinguished and smiles gently. She is a middle aged lady, very elegant in her Nike sneakers and Prada handbag. They speak French while playing cards with a brand new pack. It looks as if they are used to life abroad.
In the end, you suddenly realize that you are the only Italian native speaker in your area. The other players of the picture are people from abroad, both inside and outside UE borders. And this imaginary scene is happening in your town’s railway station: getting on the train was enough to throw you to another kind of world, in which you are the foreigner.
But is that really true?
Actually it is not. The example draws a scene of an ordinary day of an ordinary life. A scenario to which you are neither stranger nor extraneous. And the only thing that impedes this correct perception of this simple reality is that you do not see/feel it. Therefore the problem resides in finding the correct answer to the following short question: why?
“I was born in Pesaro. So I am an Italian citizen. So I speak Italian. Why should it be different? “
This is, at least according to my opinion, a wrong answer to the foregoing question, in which the expressions “Pesaro”, “Italian citizen” and “Italian (language)” constitute three points of a deadly dangerous triangle able to hide the reality around you as fog during wintertime.
“I was born in Pesaro, which is a nice town belonging to Marche, Italy, Europe, World“.
This is the right attitude towards the matter. The way through which you can drive away the strange sense of being extraneous to your own life that emerged from the example sketched above.
Of course you should be sincerely interested in talking to and listening to everyone. And you should be able to speak at least another language besides your native one. No matter how well, fluently and appropriately . And no matter if it is not immediately useful in your profession, business or daily personal routine. Just for the pleasure of understanding and being understood. A feeling that owns its intrinsic value that, in comparison with the sensation of unfamiliarity considered above, tastes – or should taste – like a great reward in itself.
That is the reason why our group has seriously considered the idea of opening a foreign language section of this blog: the intent of enlarging our perspectives and allowing other people to do the same thing, if only they are willing to. Which brings with it a couple of consequences of whom are worth talking about.
The first is that the spirit of this initiative makes it naturally open to contributors even in languages other than English used in this post (provided that they concern legal topics and their contents is verifiable). The second is that, as not mother tongue, we shall write our posts in “our” English or French, German or whatever language it is. But we are sure that the result will repay a certain degree of imprecision (which as you have certainly already noticed, pertains to this post as well)
To cut a long story short, we hope you will appreciate our experiment and that you will cooperate with us to make this section permanent, whatever language you are able to speak.
So, once more, keep in touch…
Admin 😎 .
