An overview spanning from Florence to Munich in order to take stock of the new challenges and strategies in disseminating the Italian language abroad was organised in Germany as a follow-up of the ‘States General of the Italian Language in the World’ held in Florence in 2014 and promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) in conjunction with the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) and the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism (MIBACT). In the wake of the work started by the MAECI two years ago and betting on the potential appeal of the “dolce lingua”, the Institute of Italian Studies of Munich’s Ludwig Maximilian University, in partnership with the Association of Italian Language Teachers in Germany, the Italian Consulate General and the Italian Institute of Culture in Munich, have organised the “States General of the Italian Language in Germany”. It will be a one-day event scheduled at the Ludwig Maximilian University in order to take stock of the entities involved in teaching Italian, survey the potential of teaching Italian on the German market and understand the perspectives of an inter-institutional dialogue. The event will be subdivided into several panels aimed at taking stock of the situation of Italian as it is taught in the University Departments of Italian Language and Literature, in inter-departmental language centres, in the courses organised by Consulates and other organisers, in the Italian Institutes of Culture and in the schools of the Dante Alighieri Society.
The Italian Language in Germany
Germany, with its 309,680 students, is the Country in the world with the largest number of people studying Italian. It is followed by Austria, in second position, with 207,921 students, which is in turn followed by the United States, in third position, with 142,970 students. The ranking was based on the “State of the Teaching of Italian in the World” report which was presented at the conference “Riparliamone: la lingua ha valore” (“Let’s Talk About It: Language has a Value”) promoted by the Italian Foreign Ministry and held in Florence 20 October, 2015.
