DESARROLLO DE LA METODOLOGÍA .1 Formulación del problema

In the sub-section above, I explained my hypotheses regarding the involvement in translingual practices to perform identity connected to the realm of adulthood. Thus, I showed post-2008 crisis migrants’ ability to exploit their newly acquired linguistic resources to rene- gotiate identity roles belonging to their cultural heritage. I seek here to show the relation be- tween adulthood, independence and the English language acknowledged by my informants. In the following extract, I lead the participant towards a reflection on her recently acquired inde- pendence and maturity, and its link with her changed linguistic repertoire.

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Segment 25. Becoming independent in another language

01 02 03

Giulia è comunque stato un passaggio da:: una fase di infanzia a una vita da adulta?

it was anyway a passage fro::m a child stage to an adult life?

04 Maria sì più o meno sì yes more or less yes

05

06 Giulia anche tante cose di responsabilità saranno cambiate no? also many responsibilities must have changed, mustn’t they? 07 08 09 10 11 12

Maria ah sì quello sicuramente <.> sì dover avere a che fare o comunque amministrare cose anche in un contesto non italiano certe cose tipo la casa e va beh il

bank account e boh tante cose

ah yes that surely <.> sure having to deal or anyway managing things in a non-Italian context also some things like the house and well the bank account I don’t know many things

Maria agrees with me about the new responsibilities this life brings along with it. Maria stresses the context in which she had to take on obligations (line 08-10) and she uses translanguaging (line 12) to exemplify the new tasks the adult life requires. She does not need to continue the list of burdens as, with the English item, she immediately identified the inter- esting (for my interview) semantic area, and, due to my belonging to the group, Maria relies on our shared knowledge and experience to establish an agreement on the extension and the indexicality of such an item. In the following segment, our discussion continues.

Segment 26. Becoming adults in another language

01 02 03

Giulia però ad esempio se devi parlare della casa dell’affitto delle questioni di vita pratica

but for instance if you have to talk about the house the rent the matters of practical life 04

05 06 07 08

Maria ah sì:: anche quelle <.> ah sì quello sicuramente se dovessi tornare in Italia e dovessi sbrigare delle faccende di tipo burocratico anche lì mi mancherebbe il vocabolario

ah ye::s also those <.> ah yes that for sure if I had to go back to Italy and I had to deal with bureaucratic matters also there I would not have the vocabulary In asking this question, I was connecting my own experience with Maria’s, following her suggestion reported in the previous segment. Maria explains here how having acquired inde- pendence in a foreign country has affected her linguistic repertoire. Therefore, she is justifying her translingual practices linked to the management of her new life by hypothesising a return to Italy (lines 05-06). This element is fundamental. In previous turns of the interview, not re- ported here due to space limitations, Maria presents herself as an independent woman, restless, free to behave as she wishes, and able to manage new aspects of her life. On the contrary, a

174 return to Italy is imagined (at least linguistically) in negative terms. She focuses on her linguis- tic disadvantage to implicitly express her ignorance of the Italian system in which she does not have experience in dealing with bureaucratic tasks. Later, Maria admits that she has contradic- tory feelings towards the changes in her linguistic repertoire. On the one hand, she appreciates the power that learning English gave to her, but, on the other she regrets the loss of purism, of her perfect eloquence in her mother tongue. I have noted the same tendency in the participants with a very high level of education. In producing this last turn, Maria lowers her tone, com- municating a certain sadness for her absence of vocabulary. In reality, though, the acceptance of translingual practice as an index of the new adult life is widespread within the sample. I report here a naturally recorded conversation in which some participants discuss the application process to obtain the Indian tourist visa.

Segment 27. The terminology of adulthood

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11

Alessandro lo faccio da qui:: sì in pratica l’India ha esternalizzato a una società che se ne occupa a Londra devi fare va beh un

application online e

prendere appuntamento io ho appuntamento lunedì alle undici e mezza e e poi se sei residente a Londra da più di due anni conti come un residente

I can do it from here:: yes basically India has given the responsibility to a company that deals with this in London you need to do well an

online application and book an ap-

pointment I have an appointment on Monday at half past eleven and then if you have been living in Lon- don for more than two years you are considered a resident

12 Simone [minchia così difficile? [what the hell so hard? 13

14 15 16

Alessandro ma avrei bisogno che M** mi mandasse degli utility bills quindi diciamo che sono residente a Londra da ieri

I would need M** to send me some

utility bills so let’s say I have been

living in London since yesterday

17 Simone [laughing] [laughing]

18 Domenico [laughing] [laughing]

To obtain a visa, Alessandro would need the help of his previous flatmate in order to prove his residence in London. However, owing to the unreliability of this person, M**, this task seems unachievable. The contrast between Alessandro’s responsibility, indexed by his appropriate involvement with the host country’s language, and the inconstancy of his ex-flat- mate, creates the comical effect, which produces an amusing outcome (lines 17-18). Engaging

175 in translanguaging here is for Alessandro the most natural way to explain the application pro- cess (line 14) and it shows the introduction of English in his repertoire for everyday topics. The preference for the English language for this type of object, the utility bill, suggests the link between his actual adult life, in which he pays the bills for himself not having his family to do it for him anymore, and the language index of such a new phase of his life.

As a final example of this connection between the newly acquired independent identity and the acquisition of a new linguistic resource, I report here an extract from an interview, in which the participants were asked to reflect on the changes their linguistic repertoire underwent after migration. This segment suggests how not only English is the language of adulthood, but also translanguaging itself has a powerful value in order to promote one’s adult persona.

Segment 28. Saving money

01 02 03

Andrea si tratta solo di modi di parlare certo uso delle parole inglesi in mezzo a discorsi italiani

it’s just a matter of ways of talking sure I use English words in the middle of conversations in Italian

04 05 06

Matteo ma usi anche parole in italiano che abbiano senso in inglese quello sì è vero

but you also use words in Italian that make sense in English that yes it is true

07

08 Andrea vero <.> ora i soldi io so che li salvo e non li risparmio true <.> now the money I know that that I rescue it and I don’t save it In his initial turn, Andrea belittles his new linguistic repertoire. He addresses this change as a natural process, by mentioning the fact that this is “just” a new way of talking (line 01). Andrea then diminishes his behaviour pointing out only the use of lexical insertions. Matteo, on the other hand, is keener to reflect on the full range of changes his repertoire underwent. In lines 04-06, he describes the loanshift process (see footnote 31). We understand that this translingual practice is widespread, since Andrea quickly provides an example to support Matteo’s claim. It is interesting to analyse the loanshift he recalls, as, once again, we note a parallelism between participants’new independent life and their linguistic change. Andrea ut- ters the loanshift salvare (line 08). In Italian, the verb salvare can only be translated with the meaning “to rescue”and not “to save, to economise” (Collins Italian Dictionary, 2018). How- ever, due to the morphological similarity, the Italian item absorbed the semantic ambiguity of the English one. Therefore, Andrea feels entitled to use this verb with its English meaning to indicate his ability of putting money aside. Of the many examples he could have provided, Andrea proposed the one that locates him in an innovative dimension. Andrea moved to Lon- don due to the scarcity of job opportunities in his region. He admitted several times that in Italy

176 he was not able to become independent owing to the impossibility of saving money. Therefore, if we relate this element of his personal background with his example’s choice, we can specu- late on the type of persona Andrea wants to show the researcher in the context of the interview.

Moreover, it is important to remember that for those who learned English only after mi- gration, proving their linguistic competence has even a stronger value. As I mentioned before, some of my participants were already competent in English before migration, and therefore, for them, English only acquired a new indexical meaning after their arrival in London. Con- versely, for those who learned the language through their migratory experience, English pre- sents a real opportunity to show their development.