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) 

 

Immigration aroused my interest. In Italy the majority of people, especially living in Venetia or in Lombardy, don't like immigrants and exclude them from society. Even young people consider them dangerous and do not distinguish between those who work seriously and contribute to the economic growth of the country and those who commit crimes. On the other hand, all American students consider immigration as a resource and attach a very positive connotation to this term. This made me reflect on my own culture, on how sad it is to talk with friends who have a lot of prejudice against immigrants. Furthermore, it is really curious to notice that the stereotypes are only for immigrants coming from East Europe or North Africa. 

 

 

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

 

Talking about immigration made me feel uncomfortable because I'm ashamed of the opinion Italian people have on this topic. In particular, I didn't know how to explain this situation to people living in a 'melting pot' society.

 

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

 

I always felt comfortable when I talked with Chiara, the American peer belonging to my group. Her parents are Italian, so she represents the prefect mixture of Italian and US culture. She knows very well Italian culture and could help me to better understand the differences between the two countries.  

 

B. Knowledge

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

 

American college life aroused my curiosity because I think that living together with other students is very important. You can learn a lot of things talking with university students and this experience can help you to mature.

 

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

 

America is a country of immigrants because at some point in the ancestral history a member of the family immigrated to the country. As far as the State is concerned, I learned that in the American election system there are two kinds of vote, that is the popular and the electoral one.

 

• 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).

 

Chiara was particularly interested in politics and women, two important and sometimes difficult topics to deal with.

As regards greetings, before starting the conversation with the American peer, we always asked her how things were going on and at the end we usually said 'Bye bye, see you next week'. When we spoke in Italian at the beginning we often said 'Ciao, come stai? Tutto bene?', whereas at the end 'Ci sentiamo la prossima settimana, buona giornata!'. 

 

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 encoutered problems explaining to Chiara why Maternity leave is paid in Italy, it wasn't easy to explain in detail the Italian welfare system.

 

• 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)

 

Fortunately I always understood Chiara when she explained cultural customs and beliefs, maybe because she can speak Italian very well and so she could explain us the concepts using our language as well.

 

 

 

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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'm interested in education, work, free-time, family and school life.

 

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

 

 

Differences between the states, stereotypes, habits and customs of each social group.

 

 

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:

 

As I said before, I could imagine their reaction knowing how immigrants are considered in Italy by the majority of people. 

 

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 personally think that this ability is difficult to achieve completely. In my opinion you should have a direct face-to-face contact with the people belonging to the other culture. Gestures and facial expressions play an important role in communication.

 

 

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: 

 

 Maternity leave, the US electoral system.

 

• I know how to engage in conversation with people of the other culture and maintain a conversation. Example:

 

 

I think that I'm able to engage in conversation with people of the other country and maintain it. In my opinion the most important thing to do is to interrupt the interlocutor and avoid long monologues because you risk to loose the thread of what your peer is saying, above all if he/she comes from a different country and she is dealing with topics you are not familiar with.

 

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:

 

 

For instance, Chiara didn't understand the topic she had to develop for the final project. Silvia had to deal with immigrant women and their problems at work, but Chiara, who was supposed to do the parallel section, didn't understand the topic and always wanted to focus on prostitution and abortion. So, at the end, to create parallel parts Silvia decided to change her topic, thus dealing with women and forms of exploitation. Maybe this misunderstanding arouse because in Italy immigrants have to face problems which are secondary in America.

 

• I know how to discover new information and new aspects of the other culture for myself. Example:

 

 

For example, for the final project I did researches on the Web, but not simply limiting them to Wikipedia. I search for more reliable websites that could give me more appropriate and specific information.

 

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Self-Assessment of my Language Learning

 

Please provide specific examples of the following:

 

• words, expressions I learned in English: caucus, super-delegate, primaries, political convention, platform, c-section, threshold. 

• improvements in my pronunciation of certain words or intonation:  I improved my intonation, putting the stress only on those syllables carrying the most important information in the sentence. 

• improvements in my listening:  At the beginning it was hard to understand all words, but then doing Skype every week and becoming more familiar with the American pronunciation I improved my listening skills.
• changes in the way I speak Italian to non-native speakers: I try to speak slowly articulating every syllable and choosing appropriate words.
• words, expressions I learned doing the wiki project: Maternity leave, fairness, to pass a law, to be debarred from rights, wage discrimination.
• improvements in my reading doing the wiki project: I improve my critical skills because I had to choose the most appropriate sources of information on the Web. Furthermore, I could improve the use of punctuation, especially the use of the semi-colon.
• improvements in my writing doing the wiki project: I learned how to write a clear, formal text avoiding Italian run-on sentences and developing the ideas in a logical and clear way. 

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