The gifts of bilingualism

"My parents Giovanni and Enrica Triarico and myself in the front garden of our home in Thornbury in the early 1960s" Source: courtesy of Elizabeth Triarico

Elizabeth Triarico was born Elisabetta in Carlton, the iconic Italian heart of Melbourne. She feels lucky because her parents never stopped speaking Italian at home.

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Elizabeth was born in Carlton: her mother came from the North of Italy, her father from the South. They did not share the same dialect, therefore standard Italian was spoken at home during her childhood.

"My mother Enrica, brother Michele and my father Giovanni Triarico holding me at my bothers Baptism party in the early 1960s at our home in Thornbury" Source: courtesy of Elizabeth Triarico

During her early years Elizabeth spoke Italian every day. When she went to school, a progressive teacher encouraged her mother to keep speaking Italian at home. It was a stroke of luck in hindsight, according to Elizabeth, because at the time it was common to maintain that speaking a minority language at home would stunt children academically.

Both Elizabeth and her brother attended the Saturday school to learn Italian, and later Elizabeth studied Italian during high school and university.

The Triarico family also spent a few months in Italy when Elizabeth was around seven or eight, and she had the opportunity of studying at an Italian school.

"Myself, my mother Enrica, my father Giovanni Triarico on the ship travelling to Italy to stay in the 1968-1969" Source: courtesy of Elizabeth Triarico

It was a period during which she learnt a lot, Elizabeth recalls, but when she came back to Australia she had to enroll with younger kids in grade 2, at Rathdowne Street Primary School in Carlton, because her Italian schooling was not recognised.

School photograph of Rathdowne Street Primary School Carlton, Grade 2a in 1970. Elisabetta is 5th from the left in the 2nd row wearing a tartan top and skirt Source: courtesy of Elizabeth Triarico

As an adult, Elisabeth never lost her love for Italian and the Italian language, but when her parents passed away Elizabeth started to miss the everyday contact with our language. She therefore joined the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Melbourne and, after a long career working at several museums in Victoria, she started to work at Coasit in Melbourne, as a manager of the Italian Historical Society, which is still her role.

“Sono andata a 20 anni in Inghilterra e in Italia: quando sono arrivata in Italia mi sentivo proprio a casa (...) quando sono andata in Inghilterra anche! Mi sentivo a casa in due Paesi”

Speaking Italian has let Elizabeth keep a strong relationship with her origins and her family, and now, thanks to her professional role, she keeps nurturing and strengthening her ties with the Italian language and culture.

Sincere thanks to Elizabeth Triarico for sharing her story and her family pictures

Elizabeth aka Elisabetta in our studios Source: SBS Italian

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