Peter Caldalano—Italian Language

The post-war mass migration initiative by the Australian Government attacted a great number of people from many European countries. Peter Caldalano was one of them.

Although some Italians had difficulty adjusting to the new language and culture, they brought to Australia art, culture, technical development and their work ethic.

To Peter, the inspiration to cross to the other side of the globe came neither from Christoforo Colombus nor by reading his compatriot Raffaelo Carboni's accounts of the gold rush and the Eureka Stockade. Rather he was motivated by the exploits of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan.

Peter landed at Port Melbourne on August 1968. He worked in an appliance factory in Brunswick before moving to Sydney to work as an electrical fitter. From Sydney he moved to Cooma where he was employed as a radio mechanic for the Snowy Mountains Authority. Later, back in Sydney, he wass employed by NEC.

He attended Sydney Technical College for seven years to update his knowledge and specialise in new technology. This led to employment as a Technical Officer with the NSW Government's Technical Services Branch, then Australia Post and City Rail. He also participated in activities at the Sydney Olympic Village.

Peter has been active all his life and continues to be so today. He now teaches Italian with U3A. He recognises that there are many treasures in Italian literature and he is pleased to share these with us.

La Mia Italia  “My Italy” is not just a different way to say things in everyday life. For example few people know that to say DANTE ALIGHIERI is a different way to say Italy. The Dante Alighieri Society has been in Australia since the year 1925. It is an organisation that promotes the Italian language throughout Australia. Dante was a master in poetry who remains unequalled, even after seven centuries.

Western civilisation is profoundly indebted to Italy for law culture across the world.

Peter's Italian Language Class for Seniors is held from 10.00 am to 12.00 noon every Monday.

What do you learn? We can enumerate a few from the large cultural treasures accumulated over the last 3,000 years. The course is shaped in a way that, at any stage, a student can join in. The language has many “variegations”. That means the sentence can be expressed in different forms. It is up to the assembler to choose the most efficient and musical dialogue.

English and Italian grammar agree on many occasions, but also sometimes strongly disagree. Italian has no need of spelling. The syllabic form ensures everyone understands what is meant. There are many prefixes and suffixes upon which the verbs depend.

Italian is not only a simple way of communicating but is also a source of Art, Grace and Clarity (Ars Gratia Lux). There are many books on the market about learning the language. Many are misleading, others are too academic. At U3A, the adopted reference book is “Collins Easy Learning Italian Grammar”. It is available at Dymocks.