Dear friends of piazzasquare, welcome to a new super special video!
We are located in New York. Now I'll show you the view from the balcony of my apartment.
You are ready?
Here is Manhattan behind me. Guys, for today's video we have a special guest,
he's from New York, he speaks Italian ... maybe you already know him!
Now I present it to you. Let's go and discover with him in the streets of Little Italy if Italian is spoken in New York.
I am walking the streets of Little Italy and it is spectacular, that is, I really feel at home.
In the Italian neighborhood in New York, let's find out in the streets if we really speak Italian here.
I speak Italian ... But what a coincidence eh ... Look, the world is small!
Weilà, weilà raga! Like summer guys? Look where we are!
Great WeilàTom who is taking me around the streets of New York
To find out ... what will we discover?
If you really speak Italian here in Little Italy! Will Italian be spoken?
Do you want to participate in a YouTube video? No, brother, I have to work ... But are you Italian? No ... Chinese!
We have already met a New Yorker who speaks Italian ... why do you speak Italian?
I come from an Italian family and therefore we always speak Italian in the family, but then I studied it ...
So great WeilàTom who has a YouTube channel with more than 100,000 subscribers ...
and then I'm on YouTube for ten years now ... On YouTube for ten years?
Exactly! I teach Italian and then I started teaching English to Italians,
but then I noticed that there is a crazy desire for those who want to learn Italian ... and so here we are!
What do you think of Little Italy? Does it really reflect Italy?
In my opinion not, but it shows the Italian-Americanity ... I just created this word ...
which was something that existed like in the 1920s, right?
So it is a place for tourists, but still beautiful!
Is Italian spoken in New York or not? All languages ​​are spoken in NY. Caput Mundi is New York!
How is the Italian reality? There are Italian immigrants from Italy, there are Italian Americans ...
and everyone is welcome here ... if you are good!
I felt at home a little, the atmosphere reflects a bit the Italian one ... maybe the Italian one of the past
... ... because after a while the Italians have all gone away, and then Chinatown has expanded, so now Little Italy is just one street,
which is called Mulberry Street. It's not an Italian word but it fits, it's cute!
Do you speak Italian in NY? I speak little Italian, I'm Albanian! but my grandmother is from Venice, my dad is Albanian!
So ... we are here in a Neapolitan pizzeria and we have found a person who speaks Italian ... bye!
Hi, nice to meet you! it was really a pleasure to hear the Italian language spoken as if I were in Italy!
Do you think Italian Americans are proud to speak Italian?
Yup! Particularly nowadays, because there was so much discrimination in the past.
For example, as an Italian teacher, I teach a lot of Americans who said
Look ... in my day I couldn't learn Italian from my family, because everyone wanted to speak only English.
Now it's like a way to claim ...
So it's a very special thing for all descendants of Italian migrants.
How did you feel when you heard us speak in Italian?
I said "Maria!" I hope they do not understand that I am Sicilian, I speak Sicilian!
So are you from NY or where are you from?
No, Italian-Canadian. Do you speak Italian or Sicilian at home?
I speak many languages: Sicilian, Italian, English, and a little French.
What did your grandfather tell you the first time he saw your YouTube video?
I was so happy to show my grandfather one of my first videos on YouTube
and instead of smiling he got angry and told me: you were born here, you are American, you don't have to show people that you are Italian!
and I said: no, but look, grandpa, today it is a very positive thing to speak Italian
and then over time he understood.
But on the one hand, it makes me feel really sad because he suffered from discrimination, doesn't it?
the very nice thing is that it is now a very positive thing, and therefore for me as a teacher, it
fills me with joy every time I see that one of my students is so happy to study this language
and to say: wow! long last! if only my grandfather could see me ... they tell me ...
so yes, she is beautiful!
The language of the heart, the one that connects you to the family, is it?
Sicilian, narrow dialect, from the 60s and 70s ... fantastic!
A reason to be proud and a way to reconnect with the family ...
Exactly, the story is complicated, but in the end the nice thing about today is that we are truly united in the sense that ...
You feel Italian, and by now that everyone goes to Italy to study abroad, we have the internet, we can interact ...
language unites us! and therefore it is an amazing thing, what to say ... Say
hello to the friends of piazzasquare in Sicilian!
Hello beautiful, we are waiting for you here in New York, and if you are bored to come here, we are in Toronto! Greetings to all!