A Roman lawyer with a global outlook

My student of the month is Raffaele Torino, a commercial lawyer based in Rome, Italy.

Raffaele practises law from his elegant offices surrounding beautifully landscaped gardens situated a stone's throw from the President's residence, the Quirinale palace. Here Raffaele, as a partner, works long hours taking care of legal matters for some of Italy's most important companies. However, Raffaele's professional life also sees him work is a professore, or lecturer, specialising in international comparative law at the city's RomaTre university.

And indeed, this academic role is the main reason why Raffaele has to study English. " I have to give lectures in English, you see..." he explains sat in his office, surrounded by shelves containing dozens, no hundreds of law books "My university operates several academic exchange programmes, which involve other universities overseas. I must travel to these universities in order to deliver lectures to their students. Then their lecturers come over here and lecture for us. For example, in a few weeks I'll be travelling to Australia where I'll deliver a series of talks at different universities in Sydney and Adelaide about the Italian Legal system. Then I'm going to Argentina to do a similar seminar in Buenos Aires".

But delivering lectures isn't the only reason why Raffaele needs to study English. "I do a lot of research, both of books and using the internet, to inform and prepare my university lectures on comparative international law. If I want to understand legal developments in, let's say, the United Kingdom, then I need to be able to consult the original English language documents relating to these developments. The same applies to my work in other languages."

Studying comparative law and travelling so much, Raphaele has plenty of opportunities to compare Italy with other countries. "I was born in Rome, but both of my parents are from Naples. I spent every holiday down there until I was 13 years old. When I see the problems of Naples today, with the streets full of rubbish...well...let's just say that whilst I have a great sympathy for Naples and the Neapolitans, I'm also their strongest critic".

Raphaele has visited Britain many times and describes himself as something of an anglophile. But what specifically does he like about Britain? "I like your British way of life. Your freedom. You can breathe the freedom in the air in the UK. For example, once I went into a bank in London. I needed to change some money. The cashier was very helpful, and whilst he was counting the money to give me I noticed that his wrist was covered in tattoos. It sounds like nothing, but I realised that in Italy it would be impossible to get a job in a bank if your wrist was covered in such things. In Britain people don't place such importance on aesthetics".

Listening to Raffaele I'm very impressed by the fluency and accuracy of his English. I thought he must have focused his foreign language studies exclusively on English for many years. However, he had a surprise in store for me."I didn't study English at school-instead I learned French for eight years! My mother was an English teacher, and she decided that she was tired of teaching English all day, so she didn't want to teach her son as well when she got home. So she made sure that I learned French instead of English".

So where did Raphaele learn his very good English, then? "...I studied English at the LUISS University (a private university in Rome), and after graduating in 1993 I studied in England and have continued my English over the years". Had he suffered from not learning the language at school? "Not really. In Italy the state school system teachers aren't very good on the whole. So most people arrive at university speaking little English. To speak the language well you must continue to study independently, going to English speaking countries".

Raphaele's very modest about his English. When I compliment him, he says instead how he'd like to improve. "I want to learn all of the words that I possibly can", he says, "..but I realise that speaking more than one foreign language one doesn't always speak them so well, which isn't such a good thing. In the future I'm sure that the world will only speak more and more English, not less. In fact, for the first time, we're starting to plan legal courses at my university in Rome which will be taught exclusively in English".

Raphaele finds time to ask my opinion about another language which he's learning with a passion. "I'm learning German, to help me with my studies of international comparative law. Do you think I can continue to learn German and also English....?". The only answer that I have for Raphaele is 'Yes'. When someone's as talented and good at languages as he is, the sky really is the limit.