My Experience of the Exchange^{[http://inet.dpb.dpu.dk/infodok/sprogforum/Espr18/byram.html A record of my Intercultural Experience" href="http://tulanepadova.pbwiki.com/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)

• Moments in which I felt uncomfortable: (what made me feel like this, with particular examples if possible)

• Moments when I felt comfortable:(what made me feel like this, with particular examples if possible)

 

B. Knowledge

• The most important things I learnt about family life and/or life at school.

• The most important things I have learnt about the country, the nation, the state of the target language.

• 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).

 

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.

• 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 really liked the exchange, what a pitty that the one with the Poznam student did not work:-( I would have really appreciated to start the echange in the first semester. I've been chatting with my American peer for a few weeks so we did not talk a lot about American culture and their lifestyle because we concentrated n the topic of our wikipage. Anyway, my interest and curiosity were aroused through the use of dinamic and modern tools such as Skype and Facebook!They are funny tools that alow me to improve my English in a funny way!Sharing photos and pictures with the American peer was also nice and curious!Fortunately Idid not fell uncomfortable at all. when I talked with my peer about our life and also about the wikipage we chatted friendly and I did not find strong cultural differences that could make the dialogue bad or negative.

One of the thing that I've learned from Corina is that she cannot go to pubs or discos because she is 19 and so she cannot go out with her boyfriend, she is a bit sad.. Lots of American students, as also the ones I met by myself in London and Germany, live in college so they know each other quite well and spend lot of time togheter.The relation with their teachers is also different, more personal and friendly, I would say.

Actually I did not learn much about the country a part the heath care system, as I explained in our Wikipage.

As customs are concerned I learned that they use to go back home to their family for great celebration days such as Thanksgiving Day, Easter and Christmas. They are used to leave their home and go to leave alone or in college quite earlier than us. Girls are very kind when they talk and they like to talk a lot with their roommates and they like to be cool for parties!

Fortunately I did not have incidents or problems dued to different cultureduring this exchange, but sometimes I had and I do still have somo little problems with some of my friends who have not been abroad for quite a long period. they are not used to leave with people from other culture and they think that Italians are the best so I tried to explain them that they cannot judge people without trying to know them and try to appreciate their particualr carachteristics. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it is not...but..I love meeting people from all over the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:-)

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A self-assessment of my Intercultural Experience^{[http://inet.dpb.dpu.dk/infodok/sprogforum/Espr18/byram.html A record of my Intercultural Experience" href="http://tulanepadova.pbwiki.com/ICC_Assessment#footnote-3">3]}

 

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: You can say you really know other people's life and culture when you have leaved with them and moreover on the place. you have to be open minded and you have to show interest and curiosity. Unfortunately media show us many stereotypes and we should not simply believe them. I'm interested in how foreign people relate with their family for example, or how old are they when they go living with their boyfriend, or what they think about us as Italians..

• I am also interested in the daily experience of a variety of social groups within a society and not only the dominant culture. Example:

 

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: It is important to listen what other people think about us and we should be able to leave our mask and try to see our negative aspects and maybe ask them what should we do to be better. I think I'm quite open minded and this is due to the fact that I spent quite long time abroad so I met lots of people from different culture, I also leaved with a Japaneese girls and I learned to be even more polite with people from other culture. I like keeping in touch with them and when I see an Erasmus student in the street I cannot passe she/he by without try to meet her/him! Sharing our different points of view, customs and habits is so nice for me!!

 

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:

         Usually when I talk with someone from different culture I try not to have panic, I just talk without fear and if I don't fell confident with lexical choices for example I apologize my self and try to catch my "peer" simpathy:-) I try to be kind and friendly.

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 the echange with the American peers is concerned, now I know that they still suffer a lot for the 11th September, they cannot go to pubs till they are 21, most of them live in college, thei are evry interested in politics..

• I know how to engage in conversation with people of the other culture and maintain a conversation. Example: From the beginning of a conversation I show interest in their culture and ask them somthing particular.

 

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 know how to discover new information and new aspects of the other culture for myself. Example: If I have or want to discover new information and new aspects of the other culture by myself I do some research in the Web, in particular in the sites dedicated to erasmus people where Erasmus people contribute to the page and there are articles and forums for example. Otherwise I would read some "tesina"on line where maybe some students have done some researches about the topics I'm interested in.

 

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Self-Assessment of my Language Learning

 

Please provide specific examples of the following:

 

• words, expressions I learned in English:

• improvements in my pronunciation of certain words or intonation: I learned how to put the accent in some words as "participants", "request","insurance"

• improvements in my listening: I can distinguish better the words in a dialogue, even if they speak quickly and "mangiandosi le parole":-)(how do u translate it??)
• changes in the way I speak Italian to non-native speakers: I try to speak slowly and not use many difficult and technical words.
• words, expressions I learned doing the wiki project: lots of words connected to health care and hospitals
• improvements in my reading doing the wiki project:
• improvements in my writing doing the wiki project: I tried to use new, specific and precise words and put attention to think in English even when the topic or the sentence was a bit difficult:-)

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