It is therefore rather "grating" when the "uninitiated" talk about the 
revival/rebirth of the teaching of the ITALIAN language, and use that long 
time, but inaccurately used french term. 

I know not what others may do, but I intend to forthwith refer to that Italy 
"induced" European cultural rebirth as the "RINASCIMENTO". I will explain my 
position by referring to the french term as inaccurate and "passe".]
=======================================================
AN ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
A Romance language is reborn here for a new generation

By Matthew Daneman
Rochester, NY Democrat and Chronicle
Tuesday, August 14, 2001

The picture book about a smiling family of frogs would have been child's play 
for a 10-year-old from Venice.

For Erin Muthig of Fairport, whose Italian is mostly limited to four summers 
of language camp at Nazareth College, it was an understandable struggle.

"If it's not too difficult, I can follow it," the 10-year-old said.

Italian runs deeply in her family. Her grandfather, Joseph LoCurto, was born 
in Italy and was one of the people behind the creation of Nazareth's Casa
Italiana, a language and cultural center located on the Pittsford campus.

But aside from her maternal grandparents, "nobody in our family speaks
Italian much," Erin said.

While the number of adults speaking Italian locally seems to be on the
wane, students here and across the nation are increasingly interested in
learning the native tongue of their grandparents and great-grandparents.

"Now maybe second-, third-generation Italians are looking back with pride
on their language, their heritage. That's caused a lot of ... clamor for Italian," 
said Christopher Kleinhenz, president of the American Association Teachers
of Italian.

Italian roots run deep here. The Rochester metropolitan area has the ninth-
largest Italian-American population nationally, with 170,910, according to
the National Italian American Foundation, citing 1990 U.S. census figures.

Newer census figures won't be available until next summer.

According to Greater Rochester Metro Chamber of Commerce statistics,
German ancestry dominates the Rochester region, accounting for about 22 
percent of the population. Italian ancestry accounts for close to 13 percent.

In the 1920s, Rochester boasted its own Italian language weekly newspaper,
La Tribuna di Rochester.

And Rochester native Jerre Mangione's 1942 memoir about growing up in a
Sicilian neighborhood on the city's northeast side, Mount Allegro: A Memoir 
of Italian American Life, was a best-seller.

It's unclear how much Italian still is spoken in the area. But while a 
substantial portion of the population has some Italian background, probably
90 percent don't speak a word of it, estimated Roseann Centanni, director of
Casa Italiana.

"It's not spoken in their homes anymore," she said. "In many cases, even
the grandparents don't speak Italian anymore."

The pressure to assimilate is the major cause, said Frank Salamone, a
Rochester native, professor of sociology at Iona College in Westchester 
County, and author of The Italians of Rochester, 1900-1940.

"You couldn't get by in the broader world without speaking English. You
didn't want to be different," he said. "The whole idea was you had to fit in."

However, Italian instruction is going through something of a renaissance.
According to Kleinhenz, the number of students taking Italian is at a record
high. Enrollment in college Italian classes is growing while languages such
as French and German are declining.

Schools nationally are adding Italian programs. McQuaid Jesuit High School
started offering Italian this past school year, with 48 students in a pair of
Italian 1 classes.

This coming school year will see two more Italian 1 classes and two
Italian 2 classes -- alongside the Latin, Spanish and French offerings there.

"As long as we keep getting kids enrolling in Italian 1, there will be an
Italian 2 and Italian 3, ad infinitum," said Gena Stoll-Ewart, chairwoman
of the McQuaid foreign language department.

Franca Cinelli, vice president of the Italian Teachers Association of
Central New York, said she thinks more Italian is being spoken at home now
than when she started teaching more than 20 years ago.

"I'm getting students who speak it very well, and they say they speak it
at home," said Cinelli, who heads the foreign language program in the Gates
Chili Central School District.

Italian still lags more established modern languages in schools, however.

Only five of the 17 Monroe County school districts -- East Irondequoit,
West Irondequoit, Greece, Gates Chili and East Rochester -- offered Italian
classes in their high schools this past school year, according to the Monroe
County School Boards Association. A sixth, Webster, allows independent
study of Italian.

All the county school districts offer French and Spanish. Six school districts
offer German. And 10 teach Latin -- the root of Romance languages but still
a dead language.

Casa Italiana has offered Saturday morning classes to youths for almost a
decade. Seven years ago, it branched out to the weeklong summer camps.
Since 1994, more than 200 youths have gone through Casa Italiana, "which 
is a lot for an organization our size," Centanni said.

The demand is strong, she said. Casa Italiana rarely advertises the program
beyond its mention in the periodic newsletter that goes out to members.

Nazareth plans to add a program this fall for adolescents and young teens
that would meet for 90 minutes or so once a week after school, offering 
Italian language and culture classes.

Much of the growth has come as interest in Italy in general has boomed,
with books such as Under the Tuscan Sun topping best-seller lists, said 
Phyllis Franklin, president of the Modern Language Association of America.

Mary Gifaldi didn't learn Italian growing up but was interested enough to
study it while attending the University of Rochester.

Now the Holley 21-year-old can read newspapers and talk to people 
speaking Italian "if they're patient."