Retaining their American culture has also become an important aspect in their day-to-day lives. Both Joseph and Tobias also have had similar experiences meeting new kids in school because they could also speak Italian and they played local sports. In school, “it was easy, very easy to meet new people because I already spoke the language,” says Bruno. School also ends at lunchtime rather than in the afternoon.Īfter finishing the first year, Bruno noted that Italian kids, “go to school like they are going to work.” Tobias adds, unintentionally exaggerating, that “Italian schools have no holidays, and they have no type of celebrations like Halloween or Valentine’s Day.” Other national or religious festivities are, of course, marked by days off from school, but the boys have learned that studying in Italy is a serious matter.īecoming friends with Italian children could also have posed a challenge due to the cultural divide, but the boys stepped up and met the challenge. The boys attend school Monday thru Saturday. The academic system is different here from what they were used to. School in Italy was another hurdle that the children overcame. Read Next: Adjusting to Family Life in Italy “Italy was not hard to get used to because we would come during the summer to see my Grandma,” says Joseph. The transition to Italian life was not difficult because of earlier summer visits to Acqualagna and nearby Fano on the Adriatic coast. In Acqualagna, the boys’ lives changed again, where they embraced their own “other” culture, Mom’s.Īfter years of speaking Italian with their mother in Miami, the boys quickly began to integrate into their new society. “Playing was fun in America because we lived on a closed-off street,” says Joseph.Īfter eight years in Miami, the Mine family moved to Acqualagna, a small town in Italy near where the mother grew up. When Tobias was a year old, the boys moved to Miami where they learned English and began being infused with one of the cultures that they would come to call completely their own.īaseball, soccer, catching lizards, exploring the neighborhood, and following their favorite team, the Florida Marlins became their daily activities. Joseph, 11, learned Italian in Italy and Tobias, who is 10, learned English in the United States. Bruno, who is now 13, as a toddler learned Spanish in Guatemala, where his father was working. On top of that, they have had three different first languages. These boys have an American father and an Italian mother.
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