This is Inside British Council Italy, episode 1. In this episode, we will introduce you to Mike who is the Facebook coordinator for our British Council Roma Facebook page. 

Q: What's your name?
A: My name's Michael Ivy.
Q: Where are you from?
A: I'm from London in the United Kingdom. 
Q: Why did you come to Italy?
A: Because the British Council offered me a job in Naples in 1980.
Q: How did you decide to be an English teacher?
A: Because like many people, I was interested in travel and seeing new countries. I first taught in Algeria then in Spain and then I came to Italy and stayed here.
Q: What do you like best about your job?
A: The creativity that it offers, the opportunities to be creative and invent new ways to communicate ideas to the students.
Q: Is there anything you don't like about your job?
A: The antisocial hours and lack of personal space in which to work.
Q: Where do you live?
A: I live in Rome, in the southern part of the city.
Q: What's your favourite thing about your city?
A: I think the antiquities that are all around you and are still very much part of the fabric of the city rather than being mere museum pieces. The cosmopolitan atmosphere. It's twice over a capital, both religious and political. So there are many people of different origins living here. The countryside is nearby, very easy to get to. And there is plenty of art here, plenty of art exhibitions, movies, theatre. 

Thank you for listening to Inside British Council Italy, episode 1. Don't miss the next episode in which you'll meet me. I'm Suzanne, the Facebook coordinator for the British Council Milano page.

Inside British Council Italy - Episode 1

How do you pronounce the word 'steak' in English, a or b?

* Original photograph by  Geoff Peters 604 http://www.flickr.com/photos/gpeters/3393793141/.

Steak pronunciation

M: Christine Melia, you're currently Country Director Italy. Where are you originally from in the UK?
C: I'm originally from a place called The Wirral, spelt W-I-double-R-A-L.
M: And that's in the north-west of England isn't it?
C: That's right.
M: Opposite Wales.
C: Right opposite Wales, on the River Dee.
M: OK. And how did you decide to work for the British Council?
C: I was teaching English, in Italy actually, over thirty-three years ago, and ... walked into the British Council in Milan; the staff and everyone I met there were so nice that I decided to make a few enquiries about the British Council, and made an application straight away.
M: And how many countries [have you worked in]?
C: I've worked in Romania, and Brazil, and West Africa, and Jamaica, and Spain, and now in Italy, and of course I've also worked in the UK, in London, but also in Oxford and in Manchester, for the British Council.
M: Very nice! Erm.. which country have you enjoyed the most?
C: That's a very difficult question. I love all the countries I work in as I get to know the people there. But the one that stays, I suppose, in my mind, for all the most fond memories must be Brazil.
M: What expectations did you have of Rome before you came here?
C: Well, as I said, I have lived in Italy before, but I lived right down in the south and in Milan so I'd only visited Rome once before ... I hadn't really any idea - everyone thinks they know Rome before they come here because they've seen so many pictures of it - I have to say I found it different from my expectations, um, quite a bit different.
M: [In] any particular way that you can think of?
C: Well, much richer in history than it appears in the tourist guides. There's much more beneath the surface of Rome than any tourist sees, and I'm enjoying exploring that at the moment.
M: What do you like best about your job?
C: I work in Italy and I manage the British Council in Italy, but I also have a responsibility for Slovenia, Malta, Croatia and Greece and Cyprus, so what's great about my job at the moment is that I can visit those places too.
M: OK. Is there anything you don't like about your job, perhaps I should say, like a bit less about your job?
C: Well, the same as I've just said, really: the travel's great but it's quite tiring and it keeps you away from families and friends rather too much at times.
M: And what would you like to achieve while you're here?
C: Well, I'd like to achieve a Christine Melia legacy in the British Council in Italy whereby we have a prosperous, peaceful, comfortable place for everyone to work in.
M: Thank you very much indeed.


Interview with Christine Melia, British Council Italy Director.

Michael: You're Naomi Matthews, and .. What's your role here at the British Council?
Naomi: Tes.. I'm a Senior Teacher and I have responsibilty for marketing in the teaching centre.

M: OK... And where are you from in the UK?
N: I'm from a place called Altrincham which is about eight or nine miles south of Manchester.

M: And how did you decide to work for the British Council?
N: When I came to Rome, which is fourteen years ago now, I'd heard that the British Council was a good employer, and so I came and I left my CV, and I was given some work, and then about a year later I was given a permanent contract with them, a full-time contract, rather.

M: I see, so you've been in Rome for fourteen years. And have you worked for the British Council for most of those years?
N: I have indeed; I've worked for the British Council for all of those years actually. I've also worked in other countries: I worked for a year in Brazil, and I worked for about six months in Hong Kong, but not with the British Council.

M: And which of those countries did you like the most?
N: Um... I think they're all enjoyable in different ways. Hong Kong, China, was very exciting at the time because it was 1996 which was the year before the handover, so before Hong Kong was handed over back to China, so it was a very exciting time and a real kind of party atmosphere; Brazil was very interesting but very, er, quite dangerous as well, so Rome, Italy, is probably the best of the three.

M: I see. And did you have any expectations of Rome before you came?
N: I'd already travelled a lot in Italy so I knew the country well and I knew the language quite well, so, yeah, I don't think I had particular expectations, I think I probably didn't expect things to be quite so complicated as they can be sometimes, and quite as frustrating as it can sometimes be to live in Rome, but obviously at the same time it's a great place to live.

M: Yeah.. What's your favourite thing about Rome?
N: Um... it sounds very very obvious, and today it's absolutely pouring down with rain, but the weather in Rome is beautiful, and I love the mornings in Rome, the sky especially in the winter, you know, when it's a very clear, sunny day; er... it's nice as well coming from Britain that you live in a country where you know that every year you will have a good summer. So small things obviously ... that the food is also great, so those things really.. they sound slightly clichéd but they are quite important to your well-being.

M: Er... what's been your experience of raising a family in Rome?
N: Erm... yeah... my experience is that obviously I don't have anything to compare it to, but I know that my experience of raising a child has been that I've had a lot of help from other people, both from the family, so my partner's family, also from friends as well, so I think that I've got a very good support network as far as raising my child is concerned. Which I may have had there, but as I say, I've done it here, and the family's always ready to help.

M: Tell me about your job: what do you like best about your job?
N: I like my job because it provides me with a lot of variety, I get to do lots of different things, also still being a teacher as well as part of my role, I like having the contact with people. That's probably the best thing actually.

M: Right ... is there anything you don't like so much about your job?
N: Erm.. yeah! It can sometimes be a little bit frustrating, it can be hard to get things done sometimes, so I think, you know, you do need to have quite a lot of patience and, er, tenacity to keep things moving.

M: Right! Now, do you think you will retire here in Rome?
N: I don't know! Very hard to say... I know that I will probably stay here at least until my daughter is older, until she's old enough maybe to go to university or go and live somewhere else, but I don't know if I'll retire here. I'd quite like to go somewhere else, so if I did decide to retire here, it would maybe be via another country first.

M: Right, well, thank you very much indeed.
N: Thank you!

Interview with Naomi Matthews, responsible for marketing at the British Council Rome.

An interview with Stephen Benians, Director of Programmes at the British Council Rome.

Stephen Benians final

ll British Council è l'ente culturale del Regno Unito, presente in 110 paesi nel mondo, in Italia dal 1945. Sedi a Roma, Milano e Napoli.
Corsi di inglese, aggiornamento degli insegnanti, certificazioni linguistiche internazionali come IELTS e Cambridge ESOL, eventi culturali e didattici nel segno dell'innovazione.

British Council Italia

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