III generazione

Some of the third generations are still connected to Italian because of their parents (2nd generation).

Here an example of the 3rd generation:

 “Q: Do you speak Italian?

  A: Yes

  Q:  How did you learn?

  A: My Dad taught me when I was little and we speak mostly Italian to each other and at home and with my grandparents “

However, others want to learn Italian for different reasons: some want to travel back to Italy and feel comfortable with the language when they talk with their relatives or with the community. Going back and visiting the country is considered one way to keep connected the next generations with their culture. Indeed, many after visiting their country, feel proud of being Italians, because Italian culture, architecture, food, and art is everything that can make them proud.

Taking Italian courses are considered an opportunity to learn the language, thus the culture. Therefore, some take Italian classes to learn about their background and others think that it will be easier for them to learn it since their parents can help them. Therefore, they believe this will benefit them in studies and also in the workplace since knowledge of many languages is often required.

However, some parents, sometimes, are not able to help their children in Italian assignments and here the reason:   

 “Q: So, you speak English?

A: Yes……but I enrolled in past in a class in an Italian class in my high school because I wanted to learn Italian.  I thought Oh yeah that is  gonna be great because if I ever have any questions in Italian class I can always ask my parents right and my parents like yeah yeah we’ll help  you with your Italian assignment if you need it you know, I was like ok great and then my first assignment comes up in like I don't understand how to do this and they're like well I can't help you with it, I was  like what do you mean… and then they told me that they learned things from dialects…whenever I was learning is different from their dialect…so they weren't able to help me with my assignment…”

Furthermore, some of the third generations mentioned their grandparents as the reason for learning Italian.
In the families where both parents worked, the grandparents often looked after their grandchildren.
We know that in most cases the first generation knows only Italian or dialect, hence they used their language to talk to their grandchildren, and many of them used to tell stories in Italian/dialect. Here some examples : 

1. “ Q: Do you speak Italian ?

     A : Yes!

    Q : How did you learn ?

    A : My grandmother spoke Italian to me when she took care of me when I was younger. “

2. “Q : Is there something that your parents/grandparents show you to keep your     interests in Italian culture or to push you to learn Italian?

A : yes,

Q: What is?

A :Going to Italy and hearing stories about my grandparents growing up there makes me very interested in keeping our Italian culture. “