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Eat, drink and learn a language

A former sportscaster shares his love of Italy by teaching. It starts with the food.

By PAUL SWIDER
Published March 14, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - Judy Mancuso had always wanted to get in touch with her Italian lineage, but a career at Xerox got in the way.

When she retired here last year from Chicago, she knew the time was ripe.

"I knew I wanted to go to Italy, and I wanted to learn the language, but I just couldn't find the time," said Mancuso. She enrolled in an Italian class last week and is planning a trip to Sicily this fall.

Mancuso's teacher followed a similar path. Roberto Alvarez spent years as a sportscaster at WTOG and in New Orleans. But he yearned to teach and share his love of Italian culture. Four years ago he retired, brushed up his sales and marketing skills, and started Learn a Language Inc.

"I am on a one-man crusade to keep Italian heritage alive," said Alvarez, 51, who is an itinerant Italian instructor, finding students and classrooms all over the Tampa Bay area. "Part of my goal is to let people know Italian culture is more than Mafia and meatballs."

Mancuso met Alvarez at the opening session of a four-lesson Italian course at Mazzaro's Italian Market. Alvarez quickly learned that students are more enthused about class if he provided dinner. And wine.

"Sitting around the coffee bar, it just felt right," said Mancuso, who is relearning the words she heard as a child of Italian immigrants on Long Island. "I can't imagine doing this in a classroom."

Alvarez works the room like a performer - telling jokes, using restaurant props, drawing on a white board, and gesticulating with nearly every syllable. His students sip and nibble, but mostly smile.

"I can see he really enjoys teaching," said Gennaro Contaldo of Treasure Island, who is also there to recapture part of his Italian heritage. "I felt a real sincerity."

Alvarez studied Italian in Bologna. Before changing careers, he took several trips, traveling Italy. Now that he's teaching, he incorporates personal experiences as tools for instruction.

"Two things you're going to do in Italy: buy and eat," he said. Because many students are planning trips, Alvarez makes sure to give them skills in shopping and food, but he also teaches some history, art and economics.

Most Italian immigrants came from southern Italy, Alvarez said, because the north has always been more industrial and had more jobs to keep people at home. Consequently much of what Americans know of Italy is the south. Some of that bleeds into what Alvarez calls the "New York-New Jersey version" of Italian.

"It burns my ears when I hear people say 'muzzarelle,' " he told his students. His teaching of Dante's formal Italian doesn't allow pronouncing "capicola" as "gabagol."

But he's no taskmaster. There are no tests because those who want to learn will, he said. The $200 course is less like school than a dinner party. He encourages students to speak fearlessly as a way to learn quickly.

"I've been to Italy many times and I've never seen language police," he said. "Don't be afraid to make a mistake. How many of us speak perfect English?"

Teaching Italian hardly seems like a way to get rich, but Alvarez has business ambitions. He started offering Spanish lessons nine months ago and even arranges to have teachers go to businesses and teach staff necessary words and phrases. He said he aims to add German and Chinese as soon as he can find the right teachers.

"I'd like to be the Berlitz of the new millennium," Alvarez said, "but I want learning to be fun."

Paul Swider can be reached at 892-2271 or pswider@sptimes.com or by participating in itsyourtimes.com .

If you go

Learn a Language Inc.

Phone: 1-888-386-5764

E-mail: Roberto@Learna Language.us

Online: learnalanguage.us

Learn a Language, Inc.

Phone: 1-888-FUN-LRNG

[Last modified March 13, 2007, 22:44:42]