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Italically your [sing] new family. Good morning Stefano, how are you? Good morning Luca, is everything okay? You? Very good. We're at episode number 6 of our legendary podcast Italicamente with the legendary Stefano. And what are we talking about today, Stefano? So Luca, if I told you that yesterday I attended a meeting where we talked about business and they gave me a briefing on my task deadlines, what would you say? It makes me want to throw up. So, what Stefano just demonstrated is the massive use of terms. The widespread use of Anglicisms in Italian is sometimes annoying, but there are some things worth highlighting because some terms are so much a part of our language that when we use it we
don't even think about it, we don't even realize it. Others, in my opinion, are forced especially by Italians who perhaps don't know English but want to make themselves look good. What do you think, Stefano? Yes, there's also this, there's also this factor, eh, it's not just sometimes it 's not just the ease of using an English term instead of looking for the Italian translation, but sometimes it's also a bit of a way to make yourself important, right? eh to use more modern terms, as if English terms were more modern than Italian ones. Um and so yes, there is also this aspect. By the way, I wanted to point out something I didn't know, a historical tidbit, let's say, that during the fascist era, in the 1930s and 1940s,
the Italians-let's say this- this tendency, this infiltration of English not only into Italian, but into many languages, almost all of them in the world, had already begun to appear, but it was only after the Second World War that English took hold. However, the fascists, in a way that is, in an exaggeration opposite to the current trend, tended to Italianize even English names, for example. So there was, you know, a boxing match [clears throat] between an Italian- American and an American and the Italian- American gave him an Italian name, even though he was, you know, John Spears, back then they called him Giovanni Spada, which was very interesting. So, let's say, languages then influence each other,
Italian with English, English with Italian. If we look, there are Gallicisms in Italian, there are Anglicisms, there are many things in Turkish and Hungarian with Turkish and with other languages, in short, the languages are all united in some way and connected, right? Yes. So, it's fine to use English, but I repeat, briefing for the task, then with the 100 Milanese which might bother some Romans. Guys, we did the briefing, we did this, there's the deadline and we're going to get out of here. Okay, my Milanese center isn't that great, but be careful, there are two types of language assimilation. One is the one we just demonstrated, which is to
take a term from the other language, in this case English, and slap it, throw it into our Italian sentences, partly out of laziness, partly out of snobbery, whatever you like, as they are, no, the English expressions, as they are, briefing, deadline, etc. And then instead there are expressions that are calques, it is said that they are calques of English and these are a little annoying, I must say, that they bother me, that they bother me too and that is, things like eh, that is, verbs used ehm eh as they sound in English but with a completely different meaning. I'll give you some examples right away, otherwise it won't be clear.
Use the verb introdursi instead of presentarsi. from the English to introduce yourself, eh, or to apply for, in the sense of applying for a job, so I applied, but that's not how you say it in Italian, right? So there are many more. We hear more and more often about confidence. Well, in sports, for example, they say: "Yes, today I had more confidence," but in Italian we don't say confidenza, we say sicurezza di sé. Um, and there are obviously others of these in my opinion are the ones that will change the language in the long term. Well, but maybe we'll come back to this on this topic towards the end of I totally agree. In 20 years, "confidenza" will probably be an Italian word, but this is part of the
transformation of languages. By the way, I 've always wondered whether fluenza, which rhymes with confidenza, is really a term used, for example, to speak fluently in Italian. There are people who say that or speak fluently, that's fine, but in my opinion it's a good translation from English. In Italian, in my opinion, we use terms like "mastering Italian," "mastering a language," or " speaking it with ease." fluently also very similar to curamo which is a typically French term but I don't like to speak fluently sincerely or speak with fluency I've heard it a couple of times more rarely but I said to myself mother of God, what's happening to us exists in other languages someone
made the calque precisely the couple exactly among other things calque is a very interesting word that stuck in my head because our professors at the conference interpreting school in Paris, eh they hammered us on the use of calques and they beat us every time we used a calque, especially from French, because living in France French was everywhere, right? Anyway, to recap, they are expressions, let's say, in calques, in common use. For example, in Italian, not using the word computer is strange. The French use the ordinator, they say, no, eh but for them it is normal very often to replace French terms. It's true that many Anglicisms have entered French, but they have more resistance than us, don't they? tend to offer more resistance.
Anyway, this phenomenon exists, it 's not the end of the world, but it's part of the transformation of languages, right? of language integrations. This was the first point we wanted to address. There's also another very interesting point, always within, let's say, the transformation of languages, which is the aspect of artificial intelligence and what impact it has on spoken Italian, but above all on written Italian, for example, on writing, if someone wants to write an essay, but also on creative translation, right? on the translation. I know, Stefano, that you are a translator, so I would like to know what you think. I said it in Milanese style.
You think. We say what you think, but we'll talk about the ands and the os. Oh, definitely. Yes. Tell me a little about your thoughts on the impact of artificial intelligence on Italian, translation, and all the other things you can talk about. Yes. Well, definitely a note on translation needs to be made because, as a translator by training, I have an interest in this field. But I, you know, was lucky enough to leave the world of translation by chance, by chance, by luck, at the right time, that is, before artificial intelligence took over the translation field. So I haven't experienced the transition firsthand, but I know, eh, by hearsay, eh, that creative translation is having less and less space and the translator's role is
increasingly becoming one of checking, of verifying automatic translation, no, done by artificial intelligence which in recent years has made progress that is absolutely impressive, unimaginable. Well done, unimaginable until a few years ago, I'd say. Well, the only area where, and this may be interesting as a point of discussion, well, the only area where creative translation holds up is precisely the literary one, right? Well, that is, novels, stories, etc. There I believe at least that such a clear transition to artificial intelligence has not yet taken place.
I heard about it from a former Greek roommate of mine who is a philologist and he was talking precisely about the fact that literature has not yet been affected as much as other areas by artificial intelligence. Speaking of artificial intelligence and its impact on the Italian language, I also have to highlight the impact on writing, in the sense that, um, there's a very heated debate right now about whether artificial intelligence is an advantage or a disadvantage. In my opinion, it is a sterile debate, in the sense that every technology, every type of technology brings and brings advantages and disadvantages and in my opinion it depends on the use that is made of it. So it's amazing.
However, if we rely too much on technology we end up delegating to machines and starting to think less and less with all the problems that this brings. For example, a 14-year-old boy who goes to school and has his essay written by artificial intelligence doesn't learn much. I consider the motto to be that we learn through mental effort. If we don't make any effort then it's no good. So for me the key thing is to use it, just to give an example, to write your own essays, but artificial intelligence can provide the necessary feedback to then write them better, but it all depends on the person's will. If the person sees the topic as a pain in the ass rather than a moment of growth, it depends on the mental approach, in my opinion
. This is fundamental. So it's like fighting a waterfall with your hands. You can't stop water, you can't stop time. However, you can ride the wave if you have the mindset to do so. And this is the case of rich people, as the English say, getting richer. Poor people who lack education become even poorer because they don't know how to use these tools. Well, this is what I feel like saying. Oh my, you absolutely hit the nail on the head because like everything we've seen progress in recent decades, it all depends on how you decide to use the technology and the tools that are made available to you. I think you absolutely
hit the nail on the head here. Thank you. It depends, once again, let's say it depends on us, right? Of course, it depends on us, it depends on us. However, it must be said that you have children, I don't have any, that digital natives and your children are undoubtedly digital natives, that is, they were born in a period in which they have never lived in a world without the internet. Yes. And in that case, I think parents are also needed, but society should invest in teaching them how to manage the tools we have, right? I'm very happy to have been born in the 80s and like you, erm Stefano, because we lived between two eras, between the era without the internet and the era with the internet, so we saw the
advantages and disadvantages of both, but I'm very attached to books, despite artificial intelligence. I recognize not only the value of books, but the value of studying. Artificial intelligence is that plus, that addend, that final factor that makes the study even more exciting. Well, this is my opinion. Well, as parents we have to do everything we can to pass on these things you just said to the next generation, so the importance of reading on paper, the importance of knowing how to express one's ideas with one's own words and using the tools that technology makes available to us just to solve small problems or
to have that little something extra, right? It must not replace our effort because without effort we learn nothing. Exact. It has to be a complementary tool, right? Yes, yes. Once again, it is up to us, even as parents, to teach these things to our children and ensure that they too grow up in the healthiest way possible, that they use technology only to solve problems. Once again, it is education and upbringing that makes the difference, the one upstream. And by the way, and here we address point number three, which is the debate outside the question, the dilemma, whatever you want to call it, on the transformation of
languages. If the language of Dante, our most famous poet, becomes a hybrid between English and Italian, it will become something different in the next few years. What do you think, Stefano? I think that all languages are in transformation, in evolution, and it would be absurd to think that we can stop time and prevent a language from transforming. That is, they have always transformed and there is no reason why they shouldn't continue to do so. Well, and so in many years it is likely that the expressions we mentioned at the beginning of this episode will become accepted and part of the Italian language and will be found in the Italian language dictionary. Let's not forget that the
dictionary is not something that prescribes, that is, that tells you exactly how you should speak, but it is a tool, again, that describes how the language is used every day by Italians. So I wouldn't be surprised at all, in fact I know that it will happen like this and like all languages it will transform. After all, it has been doing so for centuries and will continue to do so. Beautiful Stefano and I agree with you once again. Languages are a bit like people. You can't expect a person to stay the same throughout their life; they change, and that's beautiful. I don't have much to add to your personal opinion
because I completely agree, for a change. However, I wanted to end this episode on a personal note, and that is, I wanted to know, um, I'll tell you mine now and then you can tell me yours, and I wanted to know what are the words that you really can't stand, the English ones, the Anglicisms that people use that you can't stand. As far as I'm concerned, it's deregulation, that's what we call it, deregulation and governance and policy. I can't stand them. Now everyone has personal tastes, but when I watch the eh when I watch the TG1 or the TG or the TG1 news of RAI, RAI is our eh in our national television channel, eh I counted once the number of Anglicisms they use. I got to 36. 36 in an hour and I was amazed and
overwhelmed, right? And I can't stand these words. However, I wanted to add one last thing before I leave you the floor: my problem is not so much inserting English words because I try to do it as little as possible. The problem is, and it's one of the things you were pointing out before, is that English is a dominant language in my head, because I use it a lot. The fact that Italian is my native language does not mean that I do n't have any problems using it, especially in contexts like language learning where the dominant language is English, because I've been speaking it on YouTube for 20 years and I write and use practically everything in English. So very often when I find myself doing live broadcasts in Italian, making videos in Italian,
the first words that come to mind in certain contexts are in English and so this in technical terms is called c switching and the term is in English, so I use it in English because there is a mix, in quotation marks in my head in the use of languages for reasons of linguistic hierarchy and usage. The more you use a language, the more that language is available or is more available eh right on the tip of your tongue than the others. So English and Italian compete for first place depending on the context. When, who knows, it passes, we'll talk about it, someone crosses my path, who knows, someone cuts me off while I'm walking, the first language that comes to mind is that, the emotional reaction, Italian, or rather
Roman dialect, is still my first language. However, in more intellectual contexts or indeed when talking about language learning, English words come up. Well, that's what I wanted to say Well then maybe mine is a form of code switching too. I must admit that I find myself using English verbs and adjectives in everyday life, when these verbs or adjectives express concepts that if I were to use Italian eh to express them I would have to use many words, so it's called a paraphrase, right? I should describe, er, describe the concept in Italian, but in English they're just one word, for example cringe, for example trigger, spoiler, focus. Eh, so I find myself using these eh these words and I don't know if it's more a search for efficiency, you know?
Linguistic efficiency is when a given language with fewer words is able to express concepts that other languages, eh, where other languages, eh, need many more words. So on the one hand I like to think it's just for linguistic efficiency, on the other hand perhaps there's also a good dose of laziness on my part in not wanting to make speeches that are too long. Well, who knows which of the two is more important. In my opinion it's a mix of these two things. Exact. It's the same for me too, but I don't use cringe very often, but there are you've brought examples focus etc. cheocus I find myself using it against my will sometimes because either I'm tired or sometimes for example yesterday I
was cooking, at a certain point I ask my roommate, can you pass me the egg plants? And because I didn't get eggplant, so eggplant. This is another, this is another thing. Ok, thanks a lot Stefano. So, to sum up a couple of things with the usual summary, eh, what did we talk about, Stefano? You do the summary. Today we talked about Anglicisms and how they have entered everyday language with a vengeance. which ones are more, um, which ones trigger us more and which ones trigger us less. Then we talked about the influence of artificial intelligence on our ability to write, especially, but also to solve everyday problems, and why it's important to continue reading and writing ourselves instead of delegating too many tasks to
artificial intelligence. Ale, although technology is obviously a great advantage. And finally we talked about the, um, Anglicisms that bother us the most or that we continue to use out of laziness or for linguistic efficiency. This again, let's say that the debate is still open. Thank you very much Stefano. Yes, also point three about the evolution of language and that all languages evolve, right? This was point three. Okay, then we also talked about the words we hate. One last note, folks, if you have any questions or opinions, please let us know about Anglicisms in Italian, Anglicisms in your language, if they bother you, if there are any words you can't stand, and what you think about the future of Italian, other languages, and the impact of
artificial intelligence. If you'd like a note on the future of humanity, or if you're feeling philosophical and want to share your opinion, please let us know. Thanks so much Stefano, see you in episode number 7. Have a nice day. Thanks to you Luca and thanks to everyone.
