First words: ragazzi, ragazze

Turn back the clock, eighteen years: it’s summer. It’s hot. I pace in front of the blackboard. I hate the thing, after three hours I’m covered in chalk dust. Back and forth I go and wonder where my students are. They file in, in their camouflage gear , greens and khakis. Twenty conscripts entering the quonset hut for their obligatory English lesson. They don’t want to be here. Do I?

There is only one window, at the back of the room and the sun is beaming through it. I can make out a bobbing sea of heads but nothing else with the light shining in my eyes. I beam, the not-quite-yet-perfected stage smile: “Ciao ragazzi!”. One of the few phrases I know in Italian. The more enthusiastic among them answer, “’ello teacheerrr.”

Roll on to 2016, it’s lunchtime and I’m sitting in reception.  Head office calls: “Are any of the ragazze there?” asks Clara in her cherpy voice, just too high pitched to be genuine. I pause. Ragazze (girls)? I know who she means so I say: “No, they’re at lunch.” 

September, the month when we do the level testing. I’m whiling away the time in the staff room when one of the secretaries  calls me “there’s a ragazza in reception waiting to do her test.”  Mentally I imagine a child then dismiss that as children are called ‘bambini’. So, I think, a young teen, maybe a university student? I round the corner and face a woman whose girl-hood is long past.  

Have I reached the land of eternal youth? 

The term ‘ragazzi’ can simply mean ‘guys’  as in ‘hey, guys’ which was the use I made of it back in the days when I was going from army base to army base, entertaining  (i.e. teaching)the conscripts. The Italian military didn’t know what to do with them so English lessons. The following year obligatory conscription was done away with.

The term ‘ragazzi’ or ‘ragazze’  (singular: ragazzo or ragazza) seems applicable to everyone provided the interlocutor is older, or considers themselves in some way ‘superior’. This last is in itself a hard concept to assess as it is often a figment of the speaker’s imagination.

University professors may call exams, forget to cancel and not turn up. The next session for that exam will be in six months’ time. Never mind,  the ragazzi (university sudents) who have studied for it, stressed over it, will understand. Company bosses may forget to cancel meetings, never mind the ragazzi, their employees, won’t (can’t) complain.

Many people consider it a friendly gesture, there’s nothing wrong with calling a group of adults ‘ girls’ and ‘boys’ whatever their age. But  it is also a not-so-subtle belittling. The language makes sure people are kept in their places.  

Italy is an ageist country. Magazine articles have the ages of the people in brackets beside their names. Much debate goes on about the relative youth or not, of public figures, with the attendant comments on their appearance, even more markedly so if a woman (ragazza) is being talked about. 

At job interviews age is mentioned alongside other topics which in many countries are considered inappropriate. 

Then at a certain point in a persons life the notion that age confers automatic respect comes into play. Thus, the indignant, “how dare you say that to me. How dare you speak to a person of my age in such a way.” Never mind the speaker may only be a few years older. Never mind that the person has done nothing to deserve respect.

I’m looking forward to playing that card!