If you’re in the Cairns area at 5pm on a Saturday, tune in to Radio Cairns FM 89.1 to hear ‘Sempre quella’.
During the show, Grace Meyers and her colleague Jemma chat in Italian about the contemporary music scene in Italy.
The show airs the latest hits from Italy as well as the latest music news.
Meyers is a student at Cairns School of Distance Education, where Year 12 students are studying Italian as a second language this year.
Her interest in the Italian language came from listening to music.
“When I started playing the piano, I became interested in opera and came across Andrea Bocelli,” explained Meyers.
“From that moment on, I wanted to study Italian in order to be able to understand the lyrics.”
Even though Meyers prefers classical music, on air she plays songs that are for a younger audience.
“At the moment, my favourites, after Bocelli, are Irama and Pinguini Tattici Nucleari,” said Meyers.
Every week the two girls prepare content and music for an hour of entertainment in the Italian language, a very large task for them both.
“Now Jemma’s started uni away from Cairns, so I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to manage everything on my own,” admitted Meyers.
“It’s a huge commitment, especially as this year I’ll have exams.
“I don’t want to stop doing the show because the whole community has reacted in a really positive way.”
In the meantime, the student is looking to improve her Italian by reading novels, watching videos and speaking with all the Italians she knows.
Meyers claims that studying Italian has fostered her interest in the world of languages in general.
She’s currently considering doing her postgraduate study in the field of linguistics, perhaps in Italy once finished with her bachelor’s degree.
For Meyers, travelling around Europe was an important experience that underlined how every Australian needs to visit the old continent in order to gain different perspectives.
On that occasion, she had only just started learning Italian.
The next time she’s in Italy, Meyers will be able to fully immerse herself both culturally and linguistically.
