Interculture Wiki / Elena Boscaro_ICC

Before trying to answer the questions regarding ICC, I must say that I had just little time to actually do the exchange with my American peer so my intercultural competence developed more through the reading of the forums or the wiki pages than through the direct interaction with people from America. I belong to the Padova-Poznan exchange that unfortunately never started and so I spent half of the semester creating a wikipage on the American and Italian political elections and then I had the opportunity to do Skype with some guys from America. In brief, I only did Skype two times with a girl from Dickinson and another time with a Spanish girl studying in America. So, I'm going to deal with the forums and news from the net as well. In my opinion, my exchange experience is too short to say something worthwhile but I'll try to answer the questions all the same.

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 really appreciated dealing with the issue of immigration because Italy and America have two completely different approaches towards immigration. As in Italy we are all quite skeptical when we talk of immigration, it was very interesting to know the point of view of people coming from a country which is mainly made up of immigrants. I mean, I know that there are a lot of problems in American too but I think that Italy should learn something from the cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic American society and try to move on.
Moments in which I felt uncomfortable: (what made me feel like this, with particular examples if possible) Every time I was not able to carry on with the conversation, every time I got no reply and every time I didn't know something important for the other culture

Moments when I felt comfortable:(what made me feel like this, with particular examples if possible) I felt comfortable when the conversation was dymnamic and when there was no silence. I felt at ease when my American peer was interested in what I was saying and when she told me her opinion or give me suggestions.

B. Knowledge

The most important things I learnt about family life and/or life at school. Well, I learnt a lot of things reading through the wiki pages and the forums. There were things I already knew about and others that were completely new for me. While doing Skype, most of the times it was not very easy to talk in general with our American peer and so we chose mainly to focus on the development of our final project and we didn't talk a lot about other things, expect for the organization of university in America or the timetable...

The most important things I have learnt about the country, the nation, the state of the target language. More or less, it is the same of the previous answer. In particular, the forum was a very interesting tool to compare the approach of two different cultures on the same social and political issues.

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 think that it is quite subjective and it the depends on the personality of the person you're talking to. As far as what I experienced in this exchange, I can only say that with the Spanish girl it was quite easy to talk about anything and to discuss of social and political issues as well while with the American girl it was harder to shift the conversation from the discussion of our final project to other general topics, whether they be personal interests -holidays, job or family- or social and political issues.

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. The organization of the university system in Italy and in America can be an example of this because, while doing the comparison between the two systems, we had first to agree that our Laurea Specialistica is considered like a a Master degree outside Italy... This is just an example of one of the points in which we had to explain and compare the two cultures in order to avoid misunderstandings.

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)

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: Undoubtedly I'm interested in those things! In fact, I tried to ask my American peer some questions regarding her life as a student in order to find out something more of the life of the American students.

I am also interested in the daily experience of a variety of social groups within a society and not only the dominant culture. Example: Yes, I remember the conversation with the girl from Spain on immigration when we talk about daily life of immigrants in Italy and in America and we tried to figure out what job opportunities they have in the two countries.

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: Of course, I improved my understanding of different cultures and I'm more willing to accept them and point out the positive aspects of them. I'm not sure to be able to look at my culture from their own perspective provided that I still don't have a detailed knowledge and understanding of the other culture. In my opinion, this exchange provided me with only a initial -I dare say superficial in the sense that I need to go more in depth- understanding of the American culture and so at this point I can't say that I'm able to judge and comment on my own culture with the eyes of an American guy.

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 so and I appreciate when the other person correct me or say "Do you mean ...?" giving me the exact word that I didn't know.

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: Yes, of course: the electoral systems, the biographies of the candidates to the general elections in America, how university is organized on America...

I know how to engage in conversation with people of the other culture and maintain a conversation. Example: In my opinon, I know to engage in a conversation and maintain it. The difficult point comes when the conversation is mono-directional, that is when there's just one person speaking and the other replies only with yes/no questions. This happened several times while I was doing Skype and I felt quite embarassed and unease because I thought that my American peer didn't care about what I was saying. I think that even a simple reply such as "And you?" can be important to carry on with the conversation and to keep it lively but if nothing happens it is very hard to manage with it.

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: In my opinion, the best solution to resolve those kind of misunderstanding is to explain better what we want to say. I remember that, while developing our final project, we had some doubts on the years of compulsory school in the two countries. The problem was that compulsory education last a certain number of years but, then, the student can carry on with his/her studying as far as he/she likes. So, we talked to each other and tried to figure out the years of compulsory education dividing compulsory school from further institutions that provide education.

I know how to discover new information and new aspects of the other culture for myself. Example: Yes, because I know where to retrieve information and I'm able to evaluate the authoritativeness and reliability of a source of information (for example, sources on the net: websites, blogs, wikis, etc.)

Self-Assessment of my Language Learning

Please provide specific examples of the following:

words, expressions I learned in English:There area lot of new words and expression that I learnt during this semester: for example, a lot of words dealing with politics (political platform, caucus...) and the university system (major field, minor field, freshman, sophomore..)

improvements in my pronunciation of certain words or intonation: Yes, of course because listening to native speakers you're likely to imitate their intonation

improvements in my listening: I definitively improved my listening because I had the opportunity to listen and interact with American people talking as fluently as they do in everyday language
changes in the way I speak Italian to non-native speakers: I tended to speak slower, trying to pronounce the words better and stressing the most important element of the sentence
words, expressions I learned doing the wiki project:
improvements in my reading doing the wiki project: I learnt how to retrieve relevant information from a great deal of different information
improvements in my writing doing the wiki project: Undoubtely, I improved my writing, my formal writing above all, because in a wiki you have to organize information in a clear and coincise way. So, I learnt to subdivide a topic into subtopics creating different paragraphs and using subtitles.

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