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)
The fact of having the chance to put our language skills to the test in a real conversation sounded extremely exciting to me and it definitely worth the anxiety I felt the first time I said a tempting “Hello…” to my American peer! Then, I worked on the issue of death penalty, which offered me the possibility to investigate on a topic that has always aroused my curiosity. I surfed very interesting websites (such as that of Amnesty International) to find information about people’s opinion and I was surprised by the fact that a large part of both American and Italian population agrees with the use of the capital punishment against criminals. This corroborated my conviction that the Italian system of justice needs to be reorganized in order to make the citizens feel safe and protected without having to restort to such extreme measures.
  • Moments in which I felt uncomfortable: (what made me feel like this, with particular examples if possible)
I felt a bit uncomfortable during my first Skype exchanges because, unlikely some of my classmates, I had to talk with my American peer alone. This, on the one hand, allowed me to speak constantly, without having to wait for my turn, but on the other hand it made me feel a bit uncomfortable and embarrassed because there were some moments of silence! My American friend and I didn’t know each other, so it was not always easy to keep the conversation going. On the contrary, when I started skyping in larger groups, the conversation was livelier and more stimulating thanks to the comments and interventions of all the participants.
  • Moments when I felt comfortable:(what made me feel like this, with particular examples if possible)
As I said before, I particularly enjoyed the times I skyped with the other members of my group: although I didn’t know Sara and Artem, I immediately got along with them, as well as with Alessandra, and there was a relaxed and friendly climate during our conversations. We cooperated in the realization of the wiki and for me it was important to know that I could rely on the help of capable people to develop the project properly.
 
 
 
B. Knowledge
 
  • The most important things I learnt about family life and/or life at school.
As I already thought, I had the confirmation that life in a university campus is completely different from the kind of experiences we associate to university in Italy. First of all, for the American students it was absolutely normal to spend months far away from home to study and in this way they learn faster what being autonomous and independent means. Secondly, American universities seem to be very stimulating places to live in: they are attended by people not only from all over the United States, but from all over the world as well! In this way, I think it’s easier to broaden your horizons and to grow up without prejudices.
  • The most important things I have learnt about the country, the nation, the state of the target language.
One of the things I’ve learnt is that Americans are quite disillusioned with politics and many of them don’t consider the possibility of electing their representatives an important civil right. I noticed that in America, as well as in Italy, young people are more and more indifferent to political issues: some of the students I talked with didn’t even know the system of election of the president or the electoral programs of the main candidates. Unfortunately, in both countries there is an alarming degree of disinformation on current affairs.
  • 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 can say I felt free to talk about anything with my American peers. To be honest, both of us were more interested in talking about our hobbies and everyday life than about the death penalty and the problem of immigration, but even when we did so most of the times they seemed eager to cooperate and to say their opinion. One thing that surprised me was the easiness with which they expressed their political preference: in Italy this is often a “taboo” we prefer to avoid while talking with someone we don’t know, while for them it was not a problem to say that they agreed or disagreed with one candidate or the other. I also noticed that they tended to be a bit “cold” at the beginning of the conversation, but this was probably due to the fact that for them the exchange was very early in the morning!
 
 
 
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 never experienced these situations, but I can tell I talked a lot with the American students about the year they are going to spend in Bologna and the way in which Italians tend to deal with foreigners. I explained to them that unfortunately English is not very used and spoken in our country and that in general Italians seem to be not very keen on languages, so they compel foreigners to communicate by the use of gestures and expressions. This is mainly due to the fact that since only a few years the teaching of languages from the very early levels of education has started to be considered fundamental in order to facilitate the exchange of knowledge with other cultures. Therefore, most of adult people can hardly speak more than one language. However, I told my peers not to be worried about that: in this way they will be able to learn Italian faster at least!
  • 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)
Once my American peer asked me how Italian politics works and I was a bit disoriented because the question was very wide! I also noticed that all of them knew who Berlusconi is, but they had no idea of who Romano Prodi is! It sounded weird to me, given that in Italy mass media usually transmit a lot of information about American politics. Evidently, in the US there is a different system of information.
 
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:
I was particularly interested in knowing the organization of courses at university, how students live in a college, what they do to prepare the exams and so on. We are all university students, but there are many differences between the two educational systems.
  • 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 had the fortune to talk with Artem, a Ukraine boy who went to the US to study. He explained to me that Americans’ attitude towards foreigners depends mostly on the country they come from and on their salary wages: immigrants coming from Europe are generally well accepted since they are thought to go to the States to work or study; Caribbeans and Latin Americans, on the contrary, tend to be excluded from society because they come from poor countries and “steal” the work to the Americans accepting lower wages.
 
 
 
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:
Once I asked Leah what she associated with the word “Italy”: she answered that she thought about beautiful sunny lands and enchanting landscapes, good food, relaxed and laid back people and very beautiful dresses. It was funny to see my country with the eye of a foreigner!
 
 
 
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:
One thing I found particularly difficult was to translate idiomatic expressions in English: they form integrant part of young people’s way of speaking and I couldn’t help thinking about them when I needed to express my feelings and thoughts. I sometimes used the Italian words and then I translated their meaning, asking my peer if he could understand and if there was an equivalent in English. Anyway, I always made sure that the American students understood what I said.
 
 
 
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 learnt that the electoral system in the US is different from state to state and I studied more in depth the issue of the death penalty in that country.
  • I know how to engage in conversation with people of the other culture and maintain a conversation. Example:
It depends on the degree of collaboration of the partner, of course.
 
 
 
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:
One of my American peers asked me once about the use of a bad word in Italian that he had heard. I explained to him that this kind of words are very frequent in Italian, but they are admitted only in familiar contexts. Their use in a formal context (written or spoken) makes the speaker seem rude and very impolite.
 
  • I know how to discover new information and new aspects of the other culture for myself. Example:
It was easy for me to find an share information about the death penalty with my peers thanks to the tools we learnt to use in the past semester (del.icio.us., bloglines…) .
 
 
Self-Assessment of my Language Learning
 
 
Please provide specific examples of the following:
 
  • words, expressions I learned in English: to get far, I got it, a hard exam, to be done with something, to get passionate about something, that’s way too bad/good
  • improvements in my pronunciation of certain words or intonation: I tried hard to listen to the American pronunciation and get rid of my tremendous Italian accent, but there’s still a long way to go, especially if I compared Artem’s way of speaking with mine (and we are both non-native speakers!). I tried to speak more fluently and to imitate my peers pronunciation of words.
  • improvements in my listening: I found that Artem’s speech was quite easy for me to understand, while Leah sometimes spoke very fast and it was more difficult to follow. Maybe it depended on the fact that native speakers tend to “eat words” when they speak, while non-natives try to be as clear and precise as possible to get the message through.
  • changes in the way I speak Italian to non-native speakers: I learnt to speak calmly and slowly, selecting the words to use in order to avoid the terms that a beginner can’t know. I also tried to simplify my thoughts and to communicate the general gist. Of course I made sure that my listener had understood, stopping at the end of each sentence to ask if my words were comprehensible or not.
  • words, expressions I learned doing the wiki project: to deter, life imprisonment, to execute, to be in the grip of fear/ rage, recidive, to be sentenced, heinous crime, inmate
  • improvements in my reading doing the wiki project: in my opinion, we chose quite a difficult topic to develop, which compelled us to enlarge our vocabulary and to learn expressions and constructions we didn’t know before.
  • improvements in my writing doing the wiki project: reading and speaking a lot in English helped me to write more easily and quickly because I know more synonyms to express what I want to say.
 
 


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