Sometimes it happens that the American dream lurks in the most recondite assumptions, so much so that – listening to the events – one wonders where the illusion ends and reality begins. This is the case of Raffaella Galliani, a native of Bergamo and now Foreign Language Instructor & Curricula Developer at the Speakitaly school in New York City that she founded, after long peregrinations imbued with feelings and bureaucracy. To better understand the seemingly nonexistent link between these two chapters of life, we ask her a few dutiful questions.
But is it true that you came to the US as early as 17 years old? You had clear ideas then….
“The truth is that my parents reluctantly sent me to New Jersey 20 years ago for an intercultural exchange within which I was supposed to take an English course to make up an educational debt. Paradoxically, I found myself in another family, not the one that was originally supposed to take me in, as the latter was stranded by a hurricane in Florida. And this is just the first in a series of coincidences that have shaped my personal and professional destiny.”
And then why did you decide to come back?
“I started by taking a month-long vacation, then I fell in love and went back to my host family every year until the year I decided to rent a room by myself in New York, and that’s when I met my future husband. I returned to Italy, took a job as a waitress in a nightclub and put away as much money as I could to return to New York. From Italy I sent CVs in the hope of a sponsor and thus a job opportunity. I landed in New York and went to my first interview at the YMCA in Central Park West where, excited to hire me, they quickly changed their minds as soon as they realized I did not have a work permit. The next interview was with a private language institute where the manager actually had no staffing needs but offered me a little job when she realized I was looking for work for love — and I agreed to give myself to leafleting, walking blocks and blocks with my backpack on.”
From teaching to leafleting is quite a leap, but then what?
“One day, while on the subway, I got a call from school: they urgently needed an Italian teacher, so I rushed into the classroom and got such positive feedback that the kids asked to continue teaching with me. After the first month’s trial in which I found success, the head teacher decided to sponsor me and to train me to be a teacher of Italian as a foreign language. One big downside to all this: my one-year work visa expired without my realizing it, and since I was no longer eligible to stay in the U.S. for work purposes, I received a letter saying that I had 30 days to leave the country and, with it, my fiancé as well. I had to stay away from the States for many, many years, as after that visa you have to let 3-4 pass before making a new application.”
It must not have been a walk in the park. Once you reunited what did you do?
“I sent my cv to several schools in Milan that dealt with teaching Italian to foreigners, and in 2006 I had the opportunity to gain access to one that was located in the Porta Venezia area. At that time I finished my university studies by discussing the four exams I was missing and had the opportunity to reevaluate Italy quite a bit. As a very young girl I wanted to escape from the “province”; from my small village in the Bergamo area, but Milan was different and I was happy to be there. During those years I also acquired my teaching certification and worked with the Marines at the U.S. Consulate in Milan.”
There is a Venditti song that goes, “Some loves don’t end, they go on immense laps and then they come back.” Had you managed to forget your emotional and working ties to the Big Apple?
“Basically I would say no, as that man is my husband today and I was able to develop my own solid business right in Manhattan. Meanwhile, I was busy studying my master’s degree at Sapienza in Rome, but in the role of a commuter from Milan, because above I was starting to have a lot of alumni and I didn’t want to give up my earnings. In the meantime, my husband was sending me messages on msn saying “you should come home, but when are you coming to New York?” and I never answered him. Then I went back to him on a tourist visa with the specific intention of finally closing a chapter in my life and leaving him behind once and for all but, as soon as I met him, we realized that we still liked each other. In those days I returned to my “old” school where I taught and, reading about the many experiences I had accumulated over time, it was proposed that I return there on an H1B visa for highly specialized personnel with a high level of education: I certainly did not let this opportunity pass me by.”
And then it was all downhill?
“Far from it. Already getting H1B is a lottery, since the sponsor is, first of all, drawn. After that one has to fill out and turn in a document that consists of a declaration of one’s “excellence.” Finally on September 20, 2012, I was able to set foot in the U.S. again as a professional and called my husband to tell him I was coming home. The contract, however, did not have a very good salary level, so I tried to resume giving extra private lessons. Things went well, so much so that my name as a teacher of French, Italian, and Spanish was walking from mouth to mouth among many families, even in circles of well-known personalities.”
Speakitaly è la scuola di lingue fondata da Raffaella Galliani
But how did you come to start your own school?
“After almost five years in New York I organized a Sunday lunch where I invited all the students I had met over the years. We ate pizza together at a restaurant in the East Village, and that day I had the epiphany: from there it was possible to create an event; “The Sunday Lunch.” I opened the Facebook page and ran it among students, attracting new people. I even went so far as to post the lunch on Eventbrite! My students were increasing day by day, and my events were also successful, so much so that my contract with the institution was cracking. In 2015 I also opened the Instagram page, turning Sunday Lunch into a kind of “school,” and the name Speakitaly came out. On February 14, 2016, I opened an aimless company and found a microscopic but beautiful room: $1700 a month where I could receive students, because I couldn’t stand going up and down looking for a place to sit anymore. When this parallel activity reached the ears of my boss, came the firing on the spot. In the meantime I was billing more and more and a journalist wanted to push me for free by publishing an article, simply because she liked me.”
Speakitaly was born almost by accident, then. Is it the true American dream?
“I think I embody the American dream perfectly: I arrived with nothing. no visa, no money, no sponsors, and started a company without knowing where I was going. Today in Speakitaly we are a team of 14 people, 280 students, and New York chose us.”
The article Business by chance: if the American dream overcomes roughness comes from TheNewyorker.
