Hello to all friends today we are in Basovizza a fraction of the municipality of
Trieste on the Karst plateau a few meters from the border with Slovenia so much so that
in this area most people are bilingual: Italian and Slovenian. In fact, today
we have the honor of having Lara here as a bilingual girl. Hi Lara welcome hi hi Giulia
how are you? Well the weather has improved in sex there is no longer that heat then here on the Karst it
is usually always cooler yes but let's say that this summer was quite hot in the
evening you could breathe and during the day it was hot here too. Very well tell us a little bit then you where are you from where were
you born? I was born in Trieste and I have lived for most of my life Gabrovizza which is a
town in any case near here will be 10 kilometers from Basovizza I was born to Italian citizens
like me but belonging to the Slovenian minority who lives in Trieste I do not know how many years
but in any case many years and by the grandparents also in any case of the Slovenian minority even
born under Austria because my grandfather was born in 1910 my grandmother in 1913 after the Second World
War the borders were however redefined and Trieste remained with the part of the karst plateau,
let's say it remained underneath Italy so I was born and raised in Italy from the
exact so you are an Italian citizen but you speak Slovenian yes an Italian citizen belonging
to the Slovenian minority exactly tell us how it is that she learned it Slovenian?
At the time I spoke in Slovenian dialect at home, however I did all the schools from kindergarten
to high school with Slovenian teaching language obviously Italian was compulsory Italian
and Slovenian and the two main languages ​​so much importance was given to the teaching
Italian? Of course, because in any case we have in Italy and it is ... anyway I consider Italian as the mother
tongues of Slovenian according to our experience instead we can say that in Italian schools
Slovenian is not taught let's say that until recently at least it wasn't there not even
the option to choose it as a foreign language at school when I was a child surely there
was no option to choose the Slovenian language in Italian schools now I know that in
some at least I have heard that someone can choose to study Slovenian I know that in
any case many parents who do not speak Slovenian but perhaps Italian speakers now send their
children to Slovenian schools this yes but when I was there usually either we were all parents of
Slovenian mother tongue or maybe Slovenian mom and Italian dad or vice versa this yes but the parents
both Italian it was difficult for them to send their children ... it was difficult yes even if I remember in
elementary school in classes like there was a little boy who had both the Italian parents, however, living
on the Karst had sent him to Slovenian schools well I still lived in Muggia which is a village
right on the border with Slovenia and the school closest to my home was still the Slovenian school in
addition to the help of the school such as did you learn Italian? I learned Italian at home because in
any case my relatives are almost all mixed marriages and they automatically spoke Italian in Trieste,
in short, a mixture of Trieste and Italian, however my parents have always
worked in Trieste my mother in an Italian company and my grandfather also however she worked in the
province of Trieste my grandmother still had a kiosk in Piazza Ponterosso so they always had
to deal with people of Slovenian and Italian language and therefore it was normal for me to
learn all languages ​​before entering school so you you were already bilingual even before going
to school yes I went to school I already knew Italian of course ok and what language do you speak at home
with your parents, Slovenian, Italian or a dialect? A dialect that is a mix of Slovenian and
Italian a dialect that is difficult in my opinion to understand for someone who does not really know the Slovenian
language it is difficult to understand each other when we speak if perhaps a Slovenian citizen not only from
Slovenia across the border listens to us has difficulty in my opinion to understand it certainly because we still
use Austrian words even so if we speak a narrow dialect in my opinion
they don't even understand if I speak to someone from Ljubljana or one from Celje or one from Maribor he does n't
understand in my opinion what we speak ok so the dialect would not understand it , no. There are different
dialects in every part of Slovenia I guess yes yes they also speak different cadences
as in Italy also there are different cadences as accents let's say Tuscan is different from
Trieste are very different things and you, however, live in Trieste in Trieste il dialect is very important
is used in everyday life by practically everyone by everyone yes, and you use it? Do I
use the dialect so much yes, almost more than Italian? Yes, even in the workplace among colleagues
we communicate in exact dialect here the dialect is very well established very well established yes right now
we try to speak in standard Italian also because working in a company where there are
people from different places we try to speak Italian exact standard however of this step it must
also be said that the dialect will be lost in my opinion yes because we are more and more used
to trying to speak exact Italian so if parents do not teach it to their children and so
on unfortunately sooner or later yes unfortunately sooner or later it goes to get lost exactly. What are the benefits
of being bilingual here on a borderland? In my opinion knowing languages ​​is an important thing
indifferent which languages ​​is one more thing knowing languages ​​is a great wealth is a
great wealth in my opinion knowing languages ​​then here near the border since there is still
Slovenia and Croatia Serbia and all these languages ​​come from the Slavic lineage in my opinion it is
a more than positive thing also in certain jobs especially when you work with the countries of the
former Yugoslavia in my opinion the Slavic languages ​​are very important. Do you feel more Italian or more
Slovenian? So I am an Italian citizen I have only Italian citizenship I do
not deny belonging to the never renounced minority but in the end I feel Italian Italian
of the Slovenian minority but are you proud of it? Yes, yes I've never been ashamed of who I am,
never. And then a question arises spontaneously how is the relationship between the two peoples, so what do Italians
and Slovenes think of Slovenes in their land? I understand that sometimes it
is difficult to accept but minorities especially on the border lands they have always
been everywhere I have not had big problems let's say maybe as a child there was some problem
there was some episode now maybe less and less but not I can say that everyone accepts
this thing one hundred percent no I cannot say this thing many however do not accept that
there may be a minority here there is also a famous term that is used to offend
unfortunately not always but sometimes yes as a child unfortunately I suffered from it is a term
that was used very often and now a little less but we still hear it. What are the advantages
of living on the border? Meanwhile, not to language problems when you move beyond the border that
is no longer there there are no problems for those who are Slovenian mother tongue there are no problems
even for Croatian Serbian you still manage to understand understand maybe there is some difficulty
to talk but still you can communicate once there was I don't know the petrol that was
cheaper well still today you still give the petrol today yes however we still have a bonus a bonus
of the subsidized petrol yes but also I don't know things of primary necessity I don't know how about milk, bread,
meat according to yeah everyone still goes to Slovenia to get meat, yes because
anyway we say that maybe it's still a little bit .... meat is good in Slovenia and it costs even less ;
I don't smoke cigarettes but I know that many go for cigarettes so that they cost much less and then also
you often go to eat in Slovenia where not only do they eat grilled meat the lubianska,
the cremeschnitte cream which is that good cream with the cream and cream and palečinke
omelette well but here also the Italians say it's normal ordinary palačinke instead of
crepes yes they say in the restaurant they say palačinke this is true without using the term palačinka
to order the crepe or omelette as we say in Trieste. Thank you so much Lara for sharing
your personal experience here with us it was truly a great pleasure to have you on our
channel! Hi Giulia thanks for giving me this opportunity and good continuation to you too!