Istituto Fillipo Smaldone- We Make a Start

You wouldn’t know it by the view from its ample terrace that looks out on all of Naples with Mount Vesuvius in the background, but our school is in one of the poorest and oldest neighborhoods of Naples, known as la Sanità. This terrace may be the place to come to lower the blood pressure after a day of work with some extremely adorable, extremely loud, bambini sordi (deaf children) and bambini udenti (hearing children).

My resume set me up. Our school serves about 120 students from 3-13 years of age. Forty of them are deaf. When they saw that I was a teacher of the deaf for the first twenty years of my career, it was decided to put me at Smaldone to work largely with the deaf students. I can understand on the surface how this looks like a good idea, but I can tell you that the overlap between LIS (Italian Sign Language) and ASL (American Sign Language) is minimal. I am rather rapidly picking up LIS signs on the job and those signs are sticking with a speed and ferocity that new spoken Italian words do not. It is fight or flight, sink or swim, kill or be killed. Pick your expression.

The age old controversies, oralism vs. Sign, cochlear implants vs. You are not cutting into my child’s head, are as alive and well here as in the U.S. The languages are different. The issues are identical. The deaf of deaf (deaf children of deaf parents) generally do not have cochlear implants. They tend to excel in language, just as they do back home. They seem to have more self confidence and less frustration. They are the leaders.

This is my job: Teach English to deaf Italian students. Really? How do I do that. Do I pair the English words with the American signs, as opposed to pairing the Italian words with the Italian signs. With the older kids I can use the written word. But what about little Serena with the enormous brown eyes. She is all of five. She doesn’t read or write yet. She has some hearing, but her parents are deaf, and they refuse a hearing aid for her so….what do I do with Serena? And is it even appropriate at this point to be pulling her out of her class to teach English when, to me at least, it seems more important to work on her Italian vocabulary.

By the end of the day I do not know which end is up. I forget who to speak Italian to, who to speak English to, who to speak LIS with, or ASL. And my head is exploding from the four languages that I have to manage throughout the day.

A drink is in order. I have added this Italian expression to my vocabulary- aperacena. It is the marriage of aperitivo (aperitif) and cena (dinner). Because in Italy when you order a drink, they bring you, at no extra charge, an assortment of appetizers, which often turn into all the dinner you need.

It is time for an Aperacena