Sassari In Sardinia, those who know the German language could have an advantage in terms of employment. Just look at the alarm raised by tourist guides, fewer and fewer, increasingly older, and sometimes forced to refuse jobs from tour operators because demand exceeds supply. Yet in linguistic or economic-receptive high schools, students persist in snubbing German courses, focusing instead on the more popular English and Spanish. The result is that very few schools manage to have sufficient membership to form a class and activate German lessons.
An example among all is the Devilla Technical Centre Sassari, an institute that is growing enormously, with more and more members and a wide range of educational choices. Yet, even here, German does not take off. «We tried in every way to launch this language – explains the manager Nicoletta Puggioni – and to make people understand the potential of German. But nothing to do. The kids don’t think in perspective, but in the present and think about the simplest choice. So they put aside German, which is more complicated in grammar and pronunciation, and prefer to continue with the languages they have already studied previously.” In short, there is no escape from the English-French or English-Spanish pairing. «And when in third grade they have the possibility of including a third language, the trio still remains unchanged: English-Spanish and French».
Even the hotel institute, which should churn out staff for tourist-accommodation services, has raised the white flag: «I have been a school director for four years – he says Antonietta Piras – and so far I have not yet managed to collect 20 registrations needed to form the German class. We have the teacher’s desk, but we do not reach the number of students. This despite the efforts during school orientation, and the information given to families.” Thus the German teacher is diverted for support hours or other activities. Instead, German is taught at the Castelvì linguistic high school: «We have five classes – explains the director Gianfranco Strinna – and next year we will have a premiere too. In the international Spanish course we also have three other classes that teach German as a third language, a total of eight classes and around eighty students studying German. The teachers are exceptional, but despite this it is still difficult to train the class. The importance of German in Europe and even more so in the tourism sector of Sardinia does not enter their minds.”
The north west of the island is more active on this front, with the Ipsar Costa Smeralda institutes and the Gramsci high school in Olbia, where German courses exist. «Kids and schools should also focus more on French – he warns Sophie Vannucchi (Sardinia tourist guides) – there is a lot of demand from groups coming from France, Switzerland, Belgium and French Canada and it is difficult to cover the service. We are talking about extremely organized and demanding tourists, who arrive in the low season, and spend money to learn about the culture, traditions and history of the island. It would be very serious not to meet the needs of the only tourists capable of extending the season.”
Unfortunately, the small number of German students in high school has repercussions on their university career: «In our Department – explains the director Lucia Cardone – German is, together with French, the third most studied language by members of Linguistic and Cultural Mediation”. An almost automatic choice on the part of the students, who once again put English and Spanish first. Instead, not focusing on the peculiarities of the Sardinian tourist context, where German, Russian and French could have greater success.
