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: 
• I think it was very interesting to talk about politics in the U.S., especially the part of Health Insurance. I knew there are difficulties regarding this topic but I had no idea the problem was so widespread. The shows on TV , especially those for young people, always present the rich society of America but no-one talks about the problems of every-day-life concerning the American middle class. It was very shocking to hear that even people with "good" jobs, such as teachers, do have issues regarding health insurance and medical assistance.

   

• I am also interested in the daily experience of a variety of social groups within a society and not only the dominant culture. Example:
• The first group of people that comes into my mind are university students. When I "skyped" with my American peer Anne, she told me she spent almost the whole night in the library until 2 o'clock in the morning. I was quite surprised by that because the libraries I usually go to, here in Italy, close at 6 pm and I have to go home. That was an interesting fact that I learned of American university life which is completely different from Italy. Then we also talked about our interests in media etc and we found out that there are not so many differences between young adults in America, Italy (and Germany). We pretty much like the same things on TV and in our freetime

          and it was very nice to notice these similarities because even if we live so far away from each other and grew up in two completely different cultures there are still many things young people have in common anyway.

 

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:
• Sometimes it is important to step back and try to see things from a different point of view. Let's take the electin campaigns in the U.S. Initially, it was strange to see people's reactions when the candidates where speaking. There was fanatism and cheering and just anything but reactions Italian (or even German) voters would have had. However, as I made my research on my topic "news" I started to realize the American way of making and presenting news. People are used to see politics from that media-trouble-point of view and they want it to be in that outgoing and eye-catching way. I guess, they would say that election campaigns in Italy are boring and not effective enough. 

 

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 think there were no problems when I was talking to my skype-peer Anne from the U.S. I definitely made some mistakes in grammar or pronunciation but Anne always understood perfectly what I meant to say and I really enjoyed to have the possibility to talk to a Native speaker of English by using Skype. At the beginning, I was a bit nervous because talking on the phone is more difficult than a face-to-face conversation but it turned out to be a lot of fun.

 

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:
• As I mentioned before, the fact that stroke me the most is the situation of Health Insurance in the U.S. I think all the other facts, e.g. that the shows for young adults present just the rich part of the society or that American news are different from those in Italy, were rather clear to me. Of course, I learned more about these topics as well, but the political reality in the U.S. is something that I was not so familiar with before.

• I know how to engage in conversation with people of the other culture and maintain a conversation. Example:
• I think my skype calls with Anne always went very straight forward. There were no problems in understanding each other. As I said before we discovered to have quite the same hobbies and interests and so we talked about TV, immigration, university life and studying. When I was having conversations with her she did not feel different to me. She could have been just a good friend of mine saying "have you seen that show yesterday, wasn't it amazing?" etc. So therefore, we always knew how to maintain the 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 think you should never take things too personally. It's important to realize that you are a part of a certain culture and you have to identify yourself with it but it's always important to try to understand why/that people have a lack of knowledge. I used to get angry when people did not understand some aspects of my culture or when they made fun of my mother tongue. I always felt I had to defendmy culture. Now, I just try to explain thingsto people and make comparisons with other cultures. I think it is not even important to convince people of what you are thinking but to make them reflect and at least understand that there can be different ways in doing things and seeing things. Of course, everyone has to decide on his/her own which is the best way but it's very important to be aware of differences and opinions.

• I know how to discover new information and new aspects of the other culture for myself. Example:
• The internet is always a good way to look for information and making research. It might be too general for some aspects, e.g. everyday life in the U.S., but there's always the possibility to find some blogs or even people in the internet that are interest in cultural exchanges. In my opinion, for me as a language student doing skype  was a good way to discover new aspects and even having a native speaker teacher is very helpful, as well. I think travelling is importantand to get in touch with people. I can read so many books on culture and politics all over the world but to see how people live and to talk to them is much more effective.

 

 

 

My Experience of the Exchange^{[http://inet.dpb.dpu.dk/infodok/sprogforum/Espr18/byram.html A record of my Intercultural Experience" href="../../../ICC_Assessment#footnote-2">2]}

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) 
• My interest was aroused when I spoke to Anne about immigration. We were talking about how people react to immigrants from different parts of the world. She told me that immigrants from Mexico are seen slightly different from immigrants from Italy or Germany. There are stereotypes which we are familiar with here in Europe regarding immigrants from Eastern Europe. Of course, stereotypes are always dangerous and way too general but it was interesting to see how they exist in the same way and in the same context in another part of the world.

   

• Moments in which I felt uncomfortable: (what made me feel like this, with particular examples if possible)
• I don't want to be repetitive but, again, it was the conversation on immigration. It is not very easy for me, considering the history of my country, to talk about immigrants who come to Germany. I think this is a sort of German problem. I have this awareness of the terrible history of my country and how much anger and sadness it caused. Therefore, to talk about immigrants and strangers is not that easy because you always have to keep that in mind. 

• Moments when I felt comfortable:(what made me feel like this, with particular examples if possible)
• I think the fact that Anne has more less the same age and that she's a student,too, made me feel comfortable. We sort of were in the same shoes and had to do the same tasks. I think that was the most important thing and there was nothing else that made me feel particularly comfortable.  

 

B. Knowledge

• The most important things I learnt about family life and/or life at school. 
• Actually, it's not that I learnt so many things about the culture because the time was simply too short. But I think that it's important that I learnt that there are NOT so many differences. As I said before, Anne and I have the same interests as TV programs are concerned or studying etc. I think it's partly due to the globalization process. We have the same TV programs here in Italy and we listen to the same music.
• To tell the truth we were mostly concentrating on our topic "news" and did not have time to talk about family life or too personal issues.

   

• The most important things I have learnt about the country, the nation, the state of the target language.
• Due to our topic which was "news" I made  research on the internet and I found out a lot of things about how news are presented in the U.S. and the influence television news has on politics and the public opinion.
• I don't think I learnt anything in particular regarding the language. I think it's always useful to write and read in the target language in order to learn a language, but I can't think of anything in particular that I have learnt regarding language during the exchange.

• 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).
• I talked to Anne only three or four times and, unfortunately, I never got to talk to her personally so, I have to say that I did not learn how American people greet and leave each other. I did not have the impression that there were any topics to avoid or not to ask about. As I said before, my peer just had the same TV interest as I have which are just very common and usual for young women.

 

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 think when we talked about Italians on American TV shows there were some (very small) misunderstandings. I remember I told Anne that characters of Italian descent are seen as real Italians here in Italy, e.g. Joey in "Friends". Whereas Anne explained to me that this character is not at all seen as Italian in America. He's simply of Italian descent and likes to eat good food, but he is completely American to American viewers. I think he's seen as Italian in Italy in order to identify with him and to think that he is "one of us".

• 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)
• As far as my topic is concerned I did not have to make any particular questions. I just asked Anne which TV news are the most successful and then I started my research based on her answer (CNN, FOX TV).

 

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Self-Assessment of my Language Learning

 

Please provide specific examples of the following:

 

• words, expressions I learned in English: dormitory (when I was skyping with Anne), anything else concerning politics ( caucus, platform, delegates)

   

   

• improvements in my pronunciation of certain words or intonation: intonation in general when listening and "copying" Anne

   

• improvements in my listening: phone calls (You have to concentrate a lot on your interlocutor.)

   

• changes in the way I speak Italian to non-native speakers: I speak very slowly.

   

• words, expressions I learned doing the wiki project: dormitory

   

• improvements in my reading doing the wiki project: none

   

• improvements in my writing doing the wiki project: writing short and clear clauses and giving only the most important information.

   

 

 

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