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Article: Say `chic' in Italian // Once maligned, this language is suddenly booming
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- October 23, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright (null) Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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NEW YORK Italian, a language of fierce passions and few pretensions,
is moving out of the nation's working-class neighborhoods into the
salons of high society.
W magazine, self-appointed arbiter of all that's trendy, has
given the language of Rome, Venice and Mulberry Street its stamp of
approval by declaring that the hot ticket in chic is to speak fluent
Italian.
This sudden transition from earthy to exalted is not news to
Berlitz, where average enrollment in Italian classes at the chain's
60 language schools jumped 38 percent last year.
But it is a pleasant surprise to many of the millions of
Italian-Americans who shied away from speaking or learning the
language as children for ...