Against the backdrop of greater business interaction, cultural ties and growing tourism, careers in the Italian language have become attractive to Indian youth

Although recently Indo-Italian diplomatic relations have soured over the marines issue, the two ancient civilizations have a history of trade relations going back 2,000 years. Today, the bilateral trade between the two countries has crossed Euro 8.52 billion (Rs.59,640 crore), and 140 large Italian companies have their footprint in India including big names like Fiat Auto, Piaggio, Kinetic, Impreglio, Perfetti, Isagro (Asia) Agrochemicals, SAI India, with many more waiting in the wings. Italy is among India’s top five trading partners in the EU and cultural ties between the two countries are growing, with an ever-increasing number of Indian tourists visiting Italy and vice versa.

Against this backdrop of greater business and cultural relations and flourishing tourism, it’s no wonder careers flowing from Italian language learning have become attractive and are gaining currency with Indian youth.

The most popular Italian language programmes are offered by the Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IICCI) under the auspices of the Italian consulates in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Goa and by the Italian Embassy Cultural Centre, Delhi. The study programme known as CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages covers learning, teaching, assessment) and follows the guidelines used to teach foreign languages across Europe. The language learning programmes offered at four levels — beginner, intermediate, advanced and diploma — are scheduled for morning, weekend and evening batches. Faculty members are native Italian teachers who teach vocabulary, grammar and conversational Italian. Exams are held for each level and students completing the full programme are awarded a diploma certificate. Programmes offered at each level are of three months’ duration.

Several Indian universities including Mumbai, Delhi, Kerala, JNU (School of Languages) and Jamia Millia also offer diploma, certificate and degree programmes in Italian language and literature. The admission eligibility requirements differ but most degree programmes are open to graduates in any discipline. Course duration varies from six months to three years.

With Italian businesses gaining a foothold in India, graduates with proficiency in the language can work as teachers in academia, interpreters and translators vitally needed by Italian companies operating in India, international organisations and the Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Translators, foreign language teachers and interpreters should preferably have a bachelor’s degree, usually followed by a postgraduate qualification in Italian. Full-time job opportunities are limited but there’s a huge demand for freelancers, written work and oral translators. A specialist translator or interpreter should not only be fluent in several languages but should also have a working knowledge of law, science, music, computers, technology etc.

Proficiency in Italian is also useful for employment as tourist guides and in the tourism departments of government and private travel agencies. Travel agencies hire the services of linguists as escorts for tourist groups to coordinate their travel plans and arrangements and make their tours successful and enjoyable. Hotels and airlines also look out for multi-lingual individuals.

Felicity with the Italian language is financially rewarding with even diploma holders earning between Rs.40,000-50,000 per month, and individuals with higher qualifications and experience earning twice these amounts.

“Italian language learning programmes offered by the Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Panjim and at the Italian Embassy Cultural Centre in Delhi, are growing in popularity. Once people are well-versed with the language, they can decide whether they want to be translators, interpreters or teachers. Moreover, there are plenty of full-time assignments in Indo-Italian joint venture corporates,” says Manoj Bhatkar, head of the language department of Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IICCI), Mumbai where he has worked for 16 years.

A commerce graduate of Kirti College, Mumbai (1990) Bhatkar joined Air-India and a few years later landed a job at the IICCI where he acquired expertise in Italian by passing all exams and attaining a diploma. “This is a happening career and I’m enjoying my challenging work. There’s a huge shortage of English-Italian bilingual technical writers, translators, tourist guides etc even as work opportunities have increased with the substantial presence of Italian companies in India. Currently there are more than 30 Italian collaborations in Pune alone. We receive plenty of enquiries for Italian language professionals and outsource all our translation work to them. Moreover, the embassy awards scholarships to promising students to study at famous Italian universities such as Sienna and Perengra,” says Bhatkar.

For students with a yen for travel, Indo-Italian cooperation and study of arguably the richest culture, history and literature of any Western nation, proficiency in Italian offers the prospect of la dolce vita (‘the sweet life’) in a rapidly globalising world.

Indra Gidwani (Mumbai)