My Experience of the Exchange
Description of my feelings, knowledge and actions during the Exchange.
A. Feelings
- Ways in which my curiosity and interest were aroused: (examples that made me re-consider my own culture) I was surprised by the fact that our life during university seems to be freer than that of our American peers: I mean, I live on my own in a flat and my everyday life is not linked to the university. I also enjoyed the possiblity to know and discover a world that is very far from ours and that we can only observe in its false representation shown by the media.
- Moments in which I felt uncomfortable: (what made me feel like this, with particular examples if possible) The difference of age between us and the American students has been a little bit bifficult to deal with. It seemed to me that we Italians were more interested in the exchange, in particular as regard the possibility to improve our second language! I also felt unconfortable when we were supposed to talk about serious topics, such as terrorism or war, and the Americans did not answer to our questions with more than just "yes" or "no". A concrete example was the conversation about 9/11 with Ugo: he lives close to Ground Zero and all he said was that terrorists are bad people...
- Moments when I felt comfortable:(what made me feel like this, with particular examples if possible) Conversations about college life, parties, everyday life were very interesting and also relaxed. I appreciated the interest that my group has shown in the final project, in particular when we had to decide the topic and the division of our tasks.
B. Knowledge
- The most important things I learnt about family life and/or life at school. I was surprised to see how much important is Thanksgiving day to them and that at university you are request to express your own opinion and not only to listen to the teacher and write notes. It also strucked me the fact that the campus is open and everybody can go inside, even somebody with a weapon!
- The most important things I have learnt about the country, the nation, the state of the target language. It is amazing for me that the American political system is so complicated and requires such a long time to know the new president's name. It is also interesting that, as Ugo told me, you can vote in the State you prefer: you are not supposed to go back to your home and vote there.
- What I have learnt about customs and conventions of talking with people (topics which interest them, topics to avoid, how to greet people and take leave from them). All these aspects depend on who you are talking to: during the majority of my conversations the American students avoided those serious topics such as terrorism or war, while, as I said before, they easily talked about their everyday life. Immigration and politics are very interesting themes to them, maybe because they know very much about them. It was a little bit embarrassing for me their hurry to leave the lab at the end of the conversation...
C. Actions
- Incidents or problems which I resolved by explaining different cultures to people, helping them see the points of view of different cultures and how misunderstandings can happen. I did not experienced problems or incidents with any of the students I talked to; in case of misunderstandings, which happened often while talking in Italian, we just repeated the sentences again and asked if they were clear or not.
- Examples of times when I have had to ask questions and work out my own answers (from ask for clarification to understanding cultural customs and beliefs) I had many questions to ask because some aspects were strange to me: for example, I was confused about the possibility to carry a weapon, the political system and the difference or similarities between Italian and American politicians.
A self-assessment of my Intercultural Experience
A. Interest in other people's way of life
- I am interested in other people's experience of daily life, particularly those things not usually presented to outsiders through the media. Example: In my opinion, the most interesting aspects are how our culture is seen, how much different are college and university and how they see immigrants.
- I am also interested in the daily experience of a variety of social groups within a society and not only the dominant culture. Example: We did not talk about other social groups.
B. Ability to change perspective
- I have realised that I can understand other cultures by seeing things from a different point of view and by looking at my culture from their perspective. Example: I had never thought that somebody in a campus, which is always shown as the beautiful, perfect and funny place where American students enjoy their brilliant college life, would envy my small room in a flat with other twelve families and a very annoying and noisy woman who talks to her pet the whole day long!
C. Ability to cope with communicating in a different language with a different culture
- I am able to cope with a range of reactions people from different cultures may have to the way I express myself and what I say. Example: It was so funny the students' embarrassment when we talked about how we see our politicians: they did not understand our disapproval and why we were so negative about them!
D. Knowledge about another country and culture
- I know some important facts about the other culture and about the country, state and people that I did not know before. Example: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are in the same party! I could not believe it! They fight against each other but they have the same ideas! I cannot understand why they have not worked together.
- I know how to engage in conversation with people of the other culture and maintain a conversation. Example: Well, this has been difficult: it all depends on the fact that people should be both interested in the conversation! If the American peer is having a parallel conversation in a chat with one of us, how can we maintain our conversation?
E. Knowledge about intercultural communication
- I know how to resolve misunderstandings which arise from people's lack of awareness of the view point of another culture. Example of misunderstanding and solution: I don't remember any misunderstanding because of this reason! All the students I talked to are studying a foreign language and also a foreign culture: I think it is almost obvious that they are aware of the existence of other points of view.
- I know how to discover new information and new aspects of the other culture for myself. Example: It is important to ask! Even though you think a question is silly, do not be afraid of asking! And I have noticed that if I am asking many questions the other person will feel happy and will answer with pleasure! My silliest question has been: which party do Obama and Hillary represent?
Self-Assessment of my Language Learning
Please provide specific examples of the following:
- words, expressions I learned in English: Our conversations have been very informal and on a very low level. My American peers have never corrected my mistakes, so I have not learned new words or expressions...
- improvements in my pronunciation of certain words or intonation: As I said before, the Americans did not correct me, exept when I explicitely asked them the correct pronunciation (for example the word "genre").
- improvements in my listening: My listening has improved a lot, especially because the Americans did not speak slowly or in a easier way! I was also fascinated by their expressions during a conversation: for example, when we do not know how to continue a sentence we say ehm or eeh, while they say ahm or aah!
- changes in the way I speak Italian to non-native speakers: No, because Ugo spoke Italian very well! The other two students I talked to spoke only in English! When they had to speak Italian we had to repeat every sentence and translate them in English.
- words, expressions I learned doing the wiki project:
- improvements in my reading doing the wiki project: Our wiki is about movies so we did not read that much!
- improvements in my writing doing the wiki project: I think we did a good job, also because we could ask Allyson to check our texts and to suggest us corrections! She has been very good, she has not changed our pages without letting us know it!
As a conclusion of this experience I just want to thank my Group because I really enjoyed working with them all. I am very satisfied with our project, not only because of the results, but also because we have been able to work together and create something that is, I hope, good and interesting!
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