Former St Aloysius College students, Heidi and Lara scored 47 and 40 respectively in their Italian studies.
Last year, the duo also took out first and second place in the Dante Alighieri Society’s annual poetry competition.
In the leadup to the beginning of their tertiary studies, the talented twins visited Il Globo headquarters for a chat.
What’s your name?
H: Heidi Benkhauser.
L: Lara Benkhauser.
How old are you?
H: 18.
L: 18. We’re twins!
What subjects did you study in VCE?
H: I did English, Italian, Legal Studies, Further Mathematics and Chemistry in Year 12, and Literature in Year 11.
L: I did Literature in Year 11, and in Year 12, I did Chemistry, Further Mathematics, Biology, Italian and English.
What was your favourite subject?
H: Italian!
L: Italian was the most enjoyable subject.
Why did you choose to study Italian?
H: I went on a trip to Italy in Year 11 and I really liked the people I met there. I couldn’t speak Italian properly to my host family so I really wanted to go back to school and learn Italian properly so I could speak to them in the future. We’re still in contact.
L: I also wanted to be able to communicate better with my host family and return there. Our school has a sister school, Setti Carraro in Milan, and we stayed there for 10 days.
What was the most difficult thing about learning Italian?
H: I find listening in Italian really hard, especially because there are so many accents. It was also hard trying to grasp the flow of the Italian language and how to interpret it.
L: I found the grammar very hard. It’s easier than other languages I’ve learnt because it’s more structured and you can follow a pattern, but I still found it hard because I didn’t concentrate on grammar much in my junior years so I had to learn it all in one year. I also found listening very hard because I didn’t have much exposure to the language. Our teacher would always play us Italian pop songs to help with grammatical points.
H: I like Eros [Ramazzoti] best... and Albano and Romina.
What was your favourite thing?
H: It’s a really good feeling when you can actually express yourself in a different language and string proper words together to make a sentence. There’s usually just one method of learning with other subjects. With Italian you can be more versatile by watching videos or listening to music and podcasts on the bus.
L: Talking with my classmates and improving off each other. It’s a subject where there is competition but you can also help each other become better.
From a cultural perspective, what are the most interesting things you learnt about Italy?
H: Going to school in Milan, I noticed a difference in how Italian teenagers go about their daily lives. They finish school early and go home for lunch, they have more freedom, they can drink and smoke. They grow up faster there I think.
L: The schooling system was a bit of a shock, especially how schools are divided into different types (liceo classico, liceo scientifico etc.) I also found it strange that they focus more on arts and humanities rather than maths and science... in Australia it’s the other way around.
What advice do you have for this year’s VCE students?
H: Definitely revise your grammar. In the final exam, for both oral and written, they want to see the range of grammar that you use and they want to see that you make no minor mistakes.
L: Set your iPhone settings to Italian. It really works because you’re exposed to your phone all the time. Siri would talk to me in Italian and I would give her commands, which was really helpful with the imperative. You’re learning without realising.
What are your plans for this year?
H: I’m going to study Law Honours and Arts at Monash University. I chose to do Italian as one of my majors in my Arts course (German is the other). I want to eventually become fluent. I’ll also do a compulsory exchange program in Prato.
L: I’m moving to Canberra next week to study science. I want to find a way to keep studying Italian, so I’m going to join the Italian club there, or I might study it externally.
