For the third episode of the column “Chat between the social media”, we return to Turin, evident forge of talents, and “we cyclical” (as he would say, with a positive meaning of course), with Marco Ballarè, creator of the social page @Marco.dixit
Master in Turin on digital communication, of those who have a very long name, until a couple of years ago, was a consultant for companies as Social Media Marketing Manager: “Digital Strategy and Social Media Manager”, or, as he ironically self -denial, “the homino of social media “. Until May 2021, when a little for fun, a little for challenge against the self -styled communicators of dubious morality and competence, he published his first video.
Foolish, bindlery, pusignar, gruff messenger: These are just some of the now disused words, to which Marco Ballarè gives new life, proposing them and explaining origin and curiosity in his profile @marco.dixita page full of rare, forgotten, useful and precious words, but above all, a page full of knowledge, a knowledge explained in a clear and kind way.
We use the term “kind” not surprisingly, because it is the adjective in which Marco would like to identify, indeed, in which he fully identifies himself, adjective considered the mantra of his way of sharing his knowledge.
Marco, I know that you care a lot to communicate and share your content in a kind way (among other things in total harmony with your physical appearance).
“That’s right. For me there is a fundamental aspect in communicating, which lies in placing yourself in a courteous, extremely calm way. In addition to the quality of the content, this aspect is essential: today you scream a lot, you shout too much, it is gripped, making a random sensationalisms, the people smug you in your face their physicality. This has never liked this to me.
Has this passion for the origin of words accompanied you since you were a student?
“Yes, and among other things it is a kind of illness, a scar that all students or former students have the classical high school: sooner or later they have to let you know they have attended it!” – He tells us smiling. “At high school, I had the opportunity to carry out a project, which we can define the minor little brother of Arasmus, which consisted of cultural exchanges with other high schools of the European Union, and the contextual realization of projects and written texts. I was in the team whose task was to analyze the origin of the Italian words that derived from Latin and Greek: practically, an infinity. For me it was a kind of electrocution: for example, discovering, Single Latin word, ten Italians can come out, it had struck me a lot.
A passion that only waited to be discovered and shared. What are the findings you are getting?
When I started, in 2021, I thought of everything I was doing this it became my job. Even now sometimes I struggle to believe it, but I absolutely don’t say it with self -celebration. I was positively impressed by how much interest people have for this type of theme, which in my head assumed a dusty, almost boring. Instead I discovered that this is not the case. Many, many I can say, are interested in the theme of the Italian language, the forgotten words, to those that are no longer used, simply because they want to learn new words. And this applies to the band between the thirty and forty years, the most attentive to the profile, but also students and over 65. The findings are well beyond my expectations, even the most rosy I could have “.
Do you remember the first word you explained the etymology? Your first “protagonist”?
“The very first word from which it all started, it concerned the etymology of the term: “phenomenon”. From the Greek Phainō, to show himself, to appear, and the reference was not accidental: I had chosen it in response to those who, in my work, felt a phenomenon (Phainomenon), masters who spread great (and somewhat absurd) promises with online communication, the “I do everything”, appearing too much too much.
And some unexpected derivation, who surprised you?
“I hook to this question to say that in this work there is really a continuous discovery. I do the videos in front of my library, and the shelves that do me as a background, overflow with manuals and historical vocabularies, ancient texts, on which I spend time looking for new words, sifting them over one by one, first of all for personal culture. And then from there I leave to make analysis and insights, to see if I find something interesting. So profound the material from which to draw, that I could go on for five other lives and would still not be enough to know everything! If you fixed your interlocutor straight in his eyes, in his pupils, you will see your reflected and small small small image, like a mini doll “.
This indiscretion on the term Pupilla is also present in your book released a couple of years ago, entitled “With your words”. It is not obvious that a book on words is well written, and even less, that it offers smoothness in reading. Your, however, is like this: cultured, but with the ability not to take too seriously.
“The goal is precisely to completely detach myself from the idea of passing notions or attending meetings in a boring and inpolous way. Even when I create my contents. The most difficult thing is to be able to find the right information that can be summarized in a video of 40 seconds. The level of in -depth analysis, precisely for the grammar of the vehicle, will never be equal to that offered during a university lesson; Kindness, without being bright.
As Marco Dixit writes in his book, in fact: “Curiosity is not only a small intellectual itch that disappears after being sedated, but it is to be understood as the first step towards knowledge. Without curiosity there is no knowledge. And without knowledge, there is no progress”.