With the Covid emergency, while linguists deal with new words that have gained some visibility (lockdown, droplet, peak and plateau, infodemic, etc.), and the media deal with the categories most conspicuously affected (bars, restaurants and hotels in the first place, but then also tourist guides and even driving schools, not to mention the newspaper “La Repubblica” on the crisis of prostitution), is neglected, but I would say “of course”, what was invisible even in times of non- pandemic: I’m speaking of Italian language and culture schools for foreigners, strange entities that, who knows why, are completely unknown to our compatriots, but, what is worse, if they are vaguely perceived they are immediately mistaken for what they are not. Continue reading