Field Trips Allow Students to Practice Italian

Students in introductory Italian courses at Meredith have had opportunities to experience the language through field trips.

This spring, a group of students and Adjunct Instructor Sandra Pesoli attended a performance of the opera Tosca at Raleigh Memorial Auditorium. In the Fall 2018 semester, Italian students attended a film festival in Charleston, S.C., that focused on new Italian films.

Two students who participated wrote reflections on the experience.

In her article about attending Tosca, Jennifer Riggs wrote that while she was initially skeptical about watching an opera sung in Italian, she found herself being able to understand the performance thanks to her Italian coursework.

“I recognized some grammar and vocabulary as soon as the show started and I noticed myself not having to look at the subtitles,” wrote Riggs.  “I was learning how to enhance my listening skills for the Italian language.”

Student Dinah Gorodezky wrote about attending the film festival, during which students got to watch five different films set in Naples, Italy.

Every movie we watched at the festival taught us the relationships and culture of people from Naples in different settings,” wrote Gorodezky. “This experience has made me even more curious about Italy and all the Italian regions and their differences in film and culture.”

Read Jennifer Riggs’ article about Tosca

Read Dinah Gorodeky’s article about the Nuovo Cinema Italiano Film Festival