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) First of all I must say that the fact of having the chance to do an exchange with an American University is something really interesting and useful that by itself is able to arouse my curiosity and interest. I think that the way the whole course has been built up is very exciting because it is different from anything done before; moreover, what struck me the most was the fact that we used so many tools available online for a language learning purpose, which I think is great, provided that they're so easy to find and use. As far as the exchange is concerned, I've been very interested in knowing how they live their college life in the US. Moreover, given the fact that I've been working on the issue of marriage, I was very interested in knowing how young adults in the United State deal with this kind of issue, and I realized that for them it seems to be something easier than it is for us; this may be due to a number of different reasons, but it actually made me re-consider our way of dealing with the whole marriage thing, which is maybe given "too much" importance in Italy. 
• Moments in which I felt uncomfortable: (what made me feel like this, with particular examples if possible) Actually I never felt uncomfortable during the exchange, but maybe there have been moments in which we didn't know what to say or how to behave because of the difficulties we had with the setting up of the computers. However, during our discussions about politics, there may have been moments in which it was quite difficult to explain how things are actually different from the way they're perceived in other countries. For instance, our American peer had a very limited knowledge about Italian politics, and she only new the left wing candidate's name, Silvio Berlusconi, whom she considered just as someone linked to the "mafia". I must admit that I probably felt uncomfortable with our peer's astonished reaction when we explained to her that Berlusconi is a politician and not a "mafioso". 
• Moments when I felt comfortable:(what made me feel like this, with particular examples if possible) I felt really happy and comfortable all along the exchange, which has been for me a very interesting experience, absolutely worth doing and repeating in the future. It was absolutely great to see how easy it was to establish the communication with people we had never seen or met before, living on the other part of the ocean and belonging to a different culture. Moreover, what struck me the most was the fact that, apart from some obvious differences linked to the fact that we live in two different continents, it was really easy to talk to our American peer, we were able to understand each other perfectly, and we realized we had so many things, habits, tastes and knowledge in common I would have never believed. 

B. Knowledge

• The most important things I learnt about family life and/or life at school. I started skyping with the Americans while we were discussing politics, so that at the very beginning I didn't learn quite anything about their life, apart from the fact that politicians go in the schools to meet the students and do their speech, which is something unbelievable for an Italian student. However, while discussing our topic for the final project I learnt so many things about the way a young adult lives in the United States; for instance, I learnt that they pay incredibly high university fees, that they all live on their own from the beginning of university, that they tend to move much more easily and frequently than un and that they prefer renting a house and cohabit when still young, rather than affording a mortgage and get married. Last but not least, I learnt that Americans hate being compared to the characers of some famous TV series, such as Beverly Hills 90210 or O.C., which we tend to consider as examples of the American society and reality. Obviously this is just a short summary of what I actually learnt, but it can be useful to understand how such an exchange can allow students to relate to a different culture.

• The most important things I have learnt about the country, the nation, the state of the target language. The most important things I have learnt about the country are probably linked to the way Americans deal with politics, which is very different from the way Italians do. Everything in the US seems to be more clear and democratic than in Italy, and they do have a totally different approach towards politics and politicians.

• 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). First of all I would like to say that our American peers had a very friendly and extremely polite attitue, which I particularly appreciated. As a consequence, I tried to be as nice as possible, given the fact that I was communicating in a foreign language with people I didn't know. As far as topics are concerned, I noticed that there was much more interest when talking about college or daily life, habits or tastes, rather than politics, which is a bit difficult because you don't know exactly how to behave while dealing with such a delicate issue., which can often generate misunderstandings.

 

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. Apart from the "technological" incidents caused by the setting of the computers for the skype sessions, we had some misunderstandings only while dealing with politcs, but we soon resolved them by expressing our point of view or by providing explanations about our country and culture. 

• 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). Apart from asking explanations about some terms I didn't understand properly or asking questions to keep the conversation going, I only asked for a clarification one time. Actually I wanted to know something more about the institution "Common Law Marriage" because of the project, but unfortunately our peer didn't know anything about that; as a consequence, we've decided to avoid mentioning it in our wiki, because it is probably something uncommon in the US.

 

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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: Daily activities; attitudes towards school, family, job, future; college life; tastes and habits.

• I am also interested in the daily experience of a variety of social groups within a society and not only the dominant culture. Example: I am really interested in the attitude towards the so called "lations" in the US, which is something quite strage to us, given the fact that Spanish speaking people are extremely well perceived throughout Europe. 

 

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: The American culture is not so different from our European perspective, so that for me it wasn't so difficult to understand it. More difficult was, as far as I'm concerned, looking at my culture from their perspective, especially as regards common places. For example, it was quite difficult to explain the characteristics and weirdness of Italian politics, given the fact that they're not so clear to me too.

 

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: I feel I'm perfectly able to cope with reactions of people from different cultures according to the way I express myself; as far as the exchange is concerned, I must admit that our American peer was really nice, kind and helpful when we had some difficulties in expressing some concepts or when we made some mistakes.

 

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: I feel I know much more than before about American politics, American college life and lifestyle.

• I know how to engage in conversation with people of the other culture and maintain a conversation. Example: I feel more comfortable while engaging and mantaining a conversation with people of another culture , given also the fact that our conversations during the exchange took place with Skype (and all the consequent technological problems) and with people we had never talked to before.

  

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: As I said before we had some misunderstandig while dealing with politics, which have been soon solutioned with explanations and contextualizations. 

• I know how to discover new information and new aspects of the other culture for myself. Example: Now I know an incredible quantity of Internet references where to discover new aspects of the other culture. 

 

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Self-Assessment of my Language Learning

 

Please provide specific examples of the following:

 

• words, expressions I learned in English: It may sound stupid, but I learnt to use properly some expressions linked to oral conversation (such as "you're welcome" or "nevermind") which I rarely used because of the fact that I do not have many chances to engage a conversation in English. Moreover, I learnt some words linked to the semantic field of politics (such as delegates, primary elections, election campaing) and of daily life (such as mortgage, for example).

• improvements in my pronunciation of certain words or intonation: I surely improved my intonation.

• improvements in my listening: I feel I can easily understand any kind of speech in English, both formal (see political speeches) and informal (as in conversation, for instance).
• changes in the way I speak Italian to non-native speakers: I obviously tried to speak slower than how I normally do, but the comunication was always much more succesful when we spoke in English, rather than we they tried to speak in Italian.
• words, expressions I learned doing the wiki project: I learnt many new words linked to semantic field the topic I've dealt with for the project, such as cohabitation, common law marriage, marriage rates, households, long - term relationships and more.
• improvements in my reading doing the wiki project: I don't feel I've particularly improved my reading skills; perhaps I've only learnt to read faster.
• improvements in my writing doing the wiki project: I feel I really improved my writing skills, not only with reference to the paragraphs I wrote, but also with reference to the treatment of sources, quotations and footnotes. However, writing in the wiki has not been so simple because of the number of problems I had with it (for instance, it happened twice that all my work got lost because I only pushed one single wrong button; what a frustration!)

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