Day 8

Name: Riccardo Binetti

Profession: Italian professor

Location: 117 Ryder, Northeastern University

Question: Why are you here?

Answer: This is home.

365Debuts (3D): What are you doing here? Why are you here?

Riccardo Binetti (RB): Why am I in the United States?

3D: Sure!

RB: Because I wanted to go to university and I wanted to learn English. I came here first to study English. And then I went to the university to get my degree. And that’s it.

3D: Where did you go to university?

RB: I started Syracuse University then I went, uh, UMass.

3D: And you studied teaching at UMass?

RB: No. First I study English, then I study GIS, Geographic Information System. Got my degree in geography. And then I went to get my master’s degree in education.

3D: Did you do anything with geography?

RB: Yeah, I taught at the high school in the beginning, then I changed from geography to earth science. I started to teach Italian, and then I got stuck with Italian, and here I am.

3D: And how did you end up at Northeastern?

RB: Well, I applied for a job. I used to teach at different places, from middle school, high school; Brookline High School, Burlington High School, Gloucester Middle School, Gloucester High School. Then I was teaching an evening course to adults, then one of the adult persons in the evening classes actually worked in Boston University, so when I left the high school of Gloucester High School, the guy said, ‘Hey! We have a position at BU.’ So I says, ‘Okay!’ I went to Boston University. When I was at Boston University, I wanted to have more classes, so I decided to ask around who needed classes. So I ended up working at Simmons College. After that, I have no idea how, but somebody calls me from Northeastern and maybe, I don’t know, a friend of a friend, says, ‘Hey Riccardo! There is this opening. Would you be interested in teaching at Northeastern?’ I said, ‘Okay, sure.’ So I was teaching at Boston University, Simmons College, and Northeastern University at the same time. It’s a long story. Then I drop BU, then I drop Simmons, and I came here full time. And that’s it.

3D: Which group of people did you like teaching the best?

RB: All of them. They’re all something different. Middle school kids are very energetic. High school, they’re more complex, psychological figure kind of thing, so you have different problem, different issues. Adults, they usually do it because they love it. They just going to socialize. They don’t care sometimes too much about the language. As far as they can see each other and grab a couple of words. At the university level, you have a mix of everything. People that needs the requirement because it is a requirement for graduation, maybe, or a foreign language. Sometimes because they really like the language. It’s all different. There’s no really preference.

3D: How often do you go back to Italy?

RB: Usually once a year, during summer. Sometimes twice a year because I go for Christmas, not really often. But I usually go in the summer for three or four weeks.

3D: Why haven’t you gone back their permanently?

RB: Because I don’t like it! [Laughs] No, because my life is here. I been here for twenty years. My dad is here, my mom is here, so the house here, the dog’s here. I decided my life to be here. My work is here. I find myself feeling more at home almost here than in Italy.

3D: Do you wish you felt more at home in Italy?

RB: There are advantages and disadvantages. Both country have something nice. Part of my heritage growing up and my friends and most of the things were linked to Italy, so I can see myself as being kind of Italian. I think the first year of your life kind of influence the country you really belongs to. Your traditional links. But there are many things, when I’m in Italy, I miss about the United States. ‘I don’t want to be here’ kind of things. It’s a great place. The most beautiful country to retire in the world, probably. To live, to work kind of things, no. It’s too complicated. Too much mess down there.

3D: Do you want to retire there?

RB: No, I’m fine here. But I’m saying it’s a nice place. If you don’t have any links with bureaucracy, with politics, any sort of matter of things, it’s a nice place. It’s like, sometimes it’s easier. Sometimes it provides more things to you. Not the same level as here, probably, but for example, retirement at this point is probably easier or better at this point of Italy than is here. So, I mean, there are advantages. The food is definitely better. [Laughs] And, um, you know, speeding tickets don’t count as much as do here! [Laughs] But they might steal your car more often and other problems. It’s different. And here you have more space. It’s a big country, more for younger people, entrepreneurial. People who want to work it offers more stability, more chance to do that.

3D: What would you tell someone who had never visited Italy but who wanted to move there?

RB: They did! They did. Actually, at the Berlitz Language Institute, another place I taught. There is this couple. It says, ‘We have this heritage, background,’ and they were a young couple. She was probably twenty six. He was twenty eight. And then they say, ‘Hey! We want to go there, so that’s why we’re learning Italian.’ Like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ It’s like, ‘No, no! We want to learn Italian because we’re going to move there! Next year we’re going to move there!’ And so, like, ‘Okay…’ And so I says, ‘Hey! Great! Travel! The world is fantastic.’ And they took the chance of spending one year over there, and they liked it. They stayed there. They never came back. They come back to visit parents, but they’re kind of settled down, down there. I would tell them the truth. I think it is more difficult to get a job, kind of things. There are some of that disadvantages, kind of thing. Of course, a foreign culture, sometimes very attractive. Because it’s something different. It let you be a baby again, and rediscover all the things like when you were a baby. So it’s an amazing experience. If you have no link, if you don’t like it, you can just go back. I mean, I’m here, but if I get fed up one day, I can go back to Italy. There’s nothing really stopping me. Sheep, house; I mean everything. It’s just six hours straight. That’s it.