| ORIGINAL | ENGLISH | COMMENT | CITATION |
|---|
| gaku- 学 [JA] | knowledge, learning | This term is essential for understanding the various terms used for our educational works in Japan. The romanised form and the Chinese ideograph are used here as part of the explanation. If we add -en (or -in), meaning essentially a garden or pretty place, but then a building, we get gakuin 学院 or school, hence Salesio gakuin, Salesian school. kyu-gaku 共学 is together-learn, or co-education. shugaku would be primary school (school for small ones). kutugaku is Senior High, a three year course. senmon gaku (from senmon, special) is a Vocational College. Daigaku (dai, big) is university and daigakuin a postgraduate course. | |
| Generala [IT] | The Generala | Correctional institute mainly for juveniles, located towards Stupagini outside of Turin, in DOn Bosco's time. Loitering, vagrancy and begging accounted for over 50% of the cases referred to the ''Generala''. On the whole, it could be said that in the 1840's Turin was a city of 'poor and abandoned' rather than criminal juveniles. | Dbps:..riformatorii dello stato. Pigliando per base le carceri correzionali della Generala di Torino, e riducendo la |
| geniale [IT] | brilliant, gifted, clever | Beware: a typical 'false friend' difficulty - often glossed as 'genial' which has another meaning altogether. | CG24:..coadiutore, "geniale creazione del gran cuore di Don Bosco" |
| GEX (Giovanni Exallievi) [IT] | GEX (Young Past Pupils) | Has been adopted in Europe at least and in Latin America, simply as GEX. | |
| giaculatoria [IT] | invocation | The more obvious term 'ejaculation' is now hardly usable because of its sexual connotations. | CG20:...spontanea o preghiera giaculatoria. Nell'uso della giaculatoria, secondo lui, si fonda la grande opera della... |
| giardino di ricreazione [IT] | recreation park | Don Bosco employed this term occasionally for public authorities when describing the playground at the Oratory. It was a term in current use for playgrounds at the time but represented a different concept - a small space usually, where youngsters stood around in small groups playing relatively non-physical games under a teacher's supervision.Don Bosco's idea of the playground was very active, where boys could choose their own games, and where the teacher was expected to take part actively, without failing in his/her supervisory role. DB himself would appear at most recreations - he did so until the 1860'. | |
| ginnasio [IT] | secondary high school | In the Casati school reform (1859) the five-year course of secondary studies was called ''ginnasio''.. In time the term came to designate middle school. Nowadays it is much less in use. Divided into a lower section of three years and an upper section of two years, ending with a comprehensive examination and diploma (''licenza''). Note: ''licenza'' here not to be confused with the ''licenza'' or masters degree from UPS. | Vecchi ACG368:..Chiese infatti di farsi salesiano e nel 1927 entrò; nel noviziato di Czerwinsk. Seguirono gli anni del ginnasio e della... |
| gioia [IT] | joy | The term appears with some frequency in the Constitutions of both SDBs and FMAs (along with the adjectival form 'joyous'). Not to be confused with 'happiness' or with 'pleasure'. The term appears with 'optimism' in the phrase 'joy and optimism'. | DBdomsav:.. raggiungere, ed allora egli con gioia lo portava |
| Giona [IT] | Jonah | The name given by DB in MO to Jacob Levi, a Jewish student friend. After his baptism at Chieri 10th August 1834, he altered his name and surname to Luigi Bolmida (surname from his godfather). | |
| giorno della comunità [IT] | community day | Established as a regular weekly practice in Salesian communities. From GC23 onwards. | Viganò ACG348:... Con il CG23 si indicato anche il giorno della comunità, |
| Giovane Provveduto [IT] | The Companion of Youth | The English gloss is now standard, but it does not exactly translate the Italian title. The Italian title is much longer, as was the custom in those days to provide a title which described the contents more fully. Authored by Don Bosco. 1st edition 1847, and the final edition in his lifetime was in 1885. There were more than a million copies produced over that period. It is probably less well-known that Don Bosco also wrote a similar work for girls (''La Figlia Cristiana Provveduta''), that did not have quite the same success. | DBGiovprov:.. [BOSCO G.,] Il giovane provveduto per la pratica de' suoi doveri degli esercizi di... |
| giovanetto [IT] | youth, young boy | A range of terms seem interchangeable: ''fanciullini'', ''fanciulli'', ''giovani'', ''giovanetti'', ''giovinetti'', or in Latin, ''adolescentes'', ''adolescentuli''. ''Iuvenes''. Opposed to these would be ''giovani'' ''grandicelli' which in at least one text by DB is determined as being from 16-30 years of age. | DBBesucco:..questo giovanetto a manifestare nei suoi discorsi un grado di scienza ordinariamente |
| giovanotto [IT] | young man | DB uses these two terms (this and the one above), usually in the plural form. | DBValentino:.. aver altro a fare lasciò il figlio solo a discorrere col direttore. Alla vista d'un giovanotto |
| giovani [IT] | young people | For DB the term had a male only reference. But depending on the context it was a term that might have much more attached to it. An example comes from the famous saying "''Ho promesso a Dio che fin l'ultimo mio respiro sarebbe stato per i miei poveri giovani''" (I have promised God that I will be for my poor boys until my last breath). Synonymous terms: ''adolescenti'' (adolescents), cf above for giovanetto. N Cerrato (''Vi Presento Don Bosco'' LDC 2005) points out that Desramaut's comment that the original formulation employed ''poveri orfanelli'' rather than ''poveri giovani'' does not thus discredit the MB version (Vol 18). DB, he says, was almost certainly speaking Piedmontese where he would have used ''povri fieuj'' not the unusual ''povri orfaneij''. ''povri fieuj'' translates as ''ragazzi'' or ''giovani'' in Italian but carries the Piedmontese meaning of 'poor and abandoned' and probably orphaned. | DBGiovprov:..allontanare i giovani dalla virtù. Il primo è far loro venir in mente |
| giovani a rischio [IT] | young people at risk | People who, because of family and social culture to which they belong, or personal conditions in life, relationships with peers and difficulties with various reference institutions (school, services, public safety), present the high probability of being outside channels of instruction and formation and possibility of employment, and so risk social exclusion and marginalisation. | |
| giovani di strada [IT] | street kids | Cf. also ''giovani a rischio'' above. | |
| Giovanni [IT] | John | John Bosco's baptismal name. He would often use a variant ''Gioanni''. | |
| Giovanni Paolo II [IT] | John Paul II | In the words of Fr Chavez, Rector Major at the time of Pope John Paul's death: He leaves us a spiritual testament - his constant defence of the human being, who only finds his full significance and reaches his true goal in Christ, true God and true Man - and a pastoral testament, that magnificent 'navigation chart' for the Church at the dawn of the 21st century, which is ''Novo Millennio Ineunte''. 'John Paul the Great?' | |
| gioventù [IT] | youth | The collective term. cf individual terms. | DBCircolari:...abbiamo fatto in questa terra, specialmente a vantaggio della povera gioventù. |
| globale [IT] | overall, global | In general avoid glossing with 'global' unless it is clear that this is the better choice. | Viganò ACG305:..Prese atto dell'accettazione globale che le Costituzioni rinnovate avevano avuto da parte delle Ispettorie |
| globalizzazione [IT] | globalisation | Cf. also mondializzazione. When both ''globalizzazione'' and ''mondializzazione'' appear together in our texts (e.g. ACG 387 p. 15) we have to assume they are synonyms but distinguishable. It is a relatively new term in Salesian usage - only since Vecchi. There are attempts to distinguish the two concepts such that ''mondializzazione'' emphasizes the existence of the nation-state and its need to have arrangements with other nation-states. The existence of the UNO then becomes an example of ''mondializzazione''. ''Globalizzazione'' appears to have a more negative feel about it involving the worst aspects of economy, internet and communications, language etc. | Vecchi ACG364:...costumi trasversali e dalla comunicazione sociale. Nell'ambito economico ha luogo una "globalizzazione", |
| governo [IT] | government | In today's Salesian discourse the term is readily recognizable, especially in conjunction with animation (''animazione e governo''). In Don Bosco's time it was more likely to be a description of the actions involved in 'governing' a religious community, terms such as ''comando, dirigere, giudicare'', even ''correggere''. The language today is very much that of the service of authority. | SSCS:..Infine, il "Progetto di Animazione e governo del Rettor Maggiore e del suo Consiglio |
| Grignolino [IT] | Grignolino | A grape type (name of wine) typical of the Monferrato region around Don Bosco's home town of Castelnuovo. | |
| gruppo di ispettorie [IT] | group of provinces | The term is technical and distinguished from a provincial conference. The classic concept of a 'group' in this sense is that group of provinces which forms a region. In the EAO region, for example, there are widely disparate provinces in terms of culture and geography. In the case of a group of provinces there is not the commonality of situation that warrants a conference, and the link is largely that between the provinces and the centre. | ACG 388COLLABORAZIONE INTERISPETTORIALE:...gruppo di Ispettorie della stessa nazione o conferenza o regione |
| gruppi [IT] | groups | The term may sometimes be found capitalised especially when it refers to specific groups such as youth groups or groups in the Salesian Family.Cf. also associazionismo. But it is significant in Salesian literature especially because it is a precise methodological choice in Salesian educational approach, to deal with youngsters in groups and to teach them the value of working in groups. In this sense, then, Salesian groups offer a positive experience of groups rather than the experience of 'pressure' groups. | EG13-L'archivio ispettoriale e gli archivi delle case:..Altri Gruppi della Famiglia Salesiana |
| guai [IT] | disorders | The term is found in the BM and MO. Note that ''disordini'' is 'abuses', not disorders. More frequently the term is part of a phrase - ''guai a noi'', for example (woe to us) | MO:..dei guai avvenuti in mia famiglia, |
| guida della comunità [IT] | guide of the community | The term refers especially to the rethinking of the role of the rector in the post-Vatican II community as pastor and guide, part of his service of authority. The term refers always to one who, according to our charismatic tradition, exercises ministerial priesthood and has pastoral experience. | | (:nl:) |
