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 was really interested in taking part in the Skype exchange because I wanted to face with another culture. It was really interesting. Speaking with my American peer and reading the American forum, I realized that we Italians have very different ideas about the problem of immigration and multiculturalism. I was quite impressed when I realized that the American peers don't think about immigrants in a negative way. Personally, I appreciate cultural differences because I believe they can enrich everyone. But I'm well aware of the fact that many Italians don't think like that. This particular thing made me re-consider my own culture...Many Italians still have a long way to go.

 

• Moments in which I felt uncomfortable: (what made me feel like this, with particular examples if possible). At the beginning of the Skype exchange, I was supposed to discuss alone with an Amercan girl. She was very kind and nice, but I felt a bit uncomfortable at first because we didn't know each other. For this reason, there were some moments of silence and I wasn't able to keep the conversation going. So, in those moments I felt a little embarassed.

 

• Moments when I felt comfortable:(what made me feel like this, with particular examples if possible). I really liked the Skype exchange because I had fun. I really enjoyed the conversation in larger groups because I had the opportunity to establish a more friendly relationship with my peers. While speaking, we laughed a lot, so I felt very relaxed and at my ease. Moreover, I was a little afraid of speaking about politics and terrorism because I didn't know almost anything about that subjects. So, I felt comfortable when I realized that even my American peer had problems in speaking about that issues.   

 

B. Knowledge

• The most important things I learnt about family life and/or life at school. I learnt many things about the American college life. I really like their university system. They live all together in a campus and many of them live far from their families. they are very independent. Their education is very different from ours and I believe that this help them to broaden their horizons.   

 

• The most important things I have learnt about the country, the nation, the state of the target language. I had the opportunity to know more things about their political situation and their electoral system. I didn't know that there are different voting systems according to the state.  

 

• 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 don't think that American conventions of talking are different from the Italian ones. I simply began each conversation greeting my peer and asking:"How are you?". I had no problems in doing that, so I think it was quite natural for the Americans as well. As regards the topics, I must admit that we were more interested in speaking about our lives and costums rather then about politics. Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity of speaking about terrorism in the US, but some peers of mine said that the Americans didn't speak about that with pleasure. 

 

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 didn't notice an enormous cultural gap between me and my American peers. So, I never experienced 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). Once, my American peer and I were speaking about meritocrazia. My peer asked me what a raccomandato was and I had some difficulties in aswering that question. She wasn't able to understand the concept.  

 

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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 more things about the Americans' everyday life and their univeristy system. Even now that the in-class exchange is over, I ask Kelsey what is she doing this summer, how were her exams and things like that.

 

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: I really enjoyed the way in which my American peer sees our country: Italy reminds her of beautiful people, sun and beautiful landscapes. But we all knoe that Italy is not only sun and landscapes! ;-)

 

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 love speaking and communicating with people. But it seems to be a problem when I speak English because I don't think about grammar so much. I realized that I lack in everyday language. I don't know idiomatic expressions or intejections, so I feel like I'm not able to communicate in the way I'd like. Anyway, my peer helped me when I had troubles with English language!

 

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: Thanks to our final project, I learnt many things about America college life. For example, I found out that the students' parties usually take place in the fraternities houses and that the American students drink beer because is the less expensive alcoholic drink. Then, I found out many interesting things about American graduation costums.

 

• I know how to engage in conversation with people of the other culture and maintain a conversation. Example: The conversation works only if your interlocutor is collaborative. Personally, I didn't have any problem in keeping the conversation going.

 

E. Knowledge about intercultural communication

 

• I know how to discover new information and new aspects of the other culture for myself. Example: Thanks to the Web 2.0 tools we learnt to use last semester, I'm able to discover new information. Ayway, I think that the most useful way to discover information is collaborating with your peers.

 

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Self-Assessment of my Language Learning

 

Please provide specific examples of the following:

 

• words, expressions I learned in English: to find one's feet; to broaden horizons, to help someone to, to have a long way to go
• improvements in my pronunciation of certain words or intonation: Surprisingly, I improved my pronunciation and intonation as well. I would still have a long way to go but now I try to speak with a more English intonation. As for pronunciation, I learnt how to say more words in a correct way. For example, "variety", "to retrieve", "major".  
• improvements in my listening: improving my listening skills, was my main purpose. At the beginning of the semester, I had some difficulties in understanding what Sarah said. She has an American accent and I was mainly used to British accent. Now I can say that I improved in my listening a lot. I can easily understand what both my teacher and my American peer say.
• changes in the way I speak Italian to non-native speakers: since I study foreign languages, I'm well aware of how hard can be speaking in a foreign language. So, I tried to be as patient and collaborative as possible. While speaking in Italian, I tried not to speak very fast and to use words easy to understand.
• words, expressions I learned doing the wiki project: sorority, dean, cap & gown, to gossip.
• improvements in my reading doing the wiki project: To be honest, I didn't read many things to do our wiki project. We discussed a lot with Kelsey and many things I wrote are just a summary of what she said.
• improvements in my writing doing the wiki project: I started developing my writing skills since the beginning of the semester. Thanks to all this training, I'm able to write quickly and more easily now.

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