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)

• 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)

 As far as feelings are concerned, I was very curious at the beginning of the exchange and I was looking forward to speaking with the American peer.  Our first conversation was about immigration in Italy and in America. Since our peer was not actually American but Spanish she provided us information regarding immigration but from a European point of view.  This led to a quite strange situation because we almost started to consider three different cultures in our conversation: she would compare the immigration in America with that of Spain in order to explain us more clearly the main differences among the two countries(Europe and USA).

 There were no particular moments in which I felt uncomfortable. I appreciated the way in which we started our exchange giving a brief presentation of each other. The presentation gave me the opportunity to make me explain my origins and the reasons for being  in Padua. This was  aparticular moment when I felt comfortable because I was able to notice some similarities in the way Rocio looked to the American world and in the way I looked to the Italian world; both as foreigners in those two countries.   

 

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).

 Unfortunately the time to be spent in our exchange was rather brief so that  I have not learnt so many things about my peer's culture and about the US, in general. Apart from the first time we met us in Skype, the rest of the exchange was all based on Dickinson college life. I have learnt lot of things regarding American  life at school and it was then that I had the chance to discover how big are the diffrences between the Italian university system and the American one. Our peer, was mostly interested in knowing the way in which students live in Padua (apartments vs dormitories) and the way they party around.

 

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 did not experience any sort of incidents or particular problems over the exchange because my Italian peers and I were sharing almost similar ideas with our Spanish peer.

Once, when we were talking about the way students were assigned a room and a roomate within the campus  I was not able to understand how that was happening at Dickinson and how could the college decide by itself for a student's roomate. Since, in Italy and in Spain nothing similar happens  Rocio, too, had some troubles in explaining us how it was all carried out.

 

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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: Regarding our exchange I was interested in the way students live within a campus and in the relationships which are establish in such a large and crowded environment. Generally, I am usually interested in understanding the way in which people carry on their daily life, as for example, knowing where they work and how is their working environment; another thing that may interest me regards the way people spend their spare time. Concerning the latter, I think it's quite curious to compare what people can do with their spare time in a very big city versus things done by people living in a smaller context. I usually considered big towns as those offering the opportunity to do many things , but over the yers I have changed my thoughts: big cities offer much opportnities but, at the same time, they may also deprie people of a lot of things.

 

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

Example: As regards our exchange, I was interested in knowing how the many ethnic communities such as the Mexicans or the Asians, live in the US. When facing another culture, I think it's important to consider how this culture accepts and hosts the variety of social groups within it. This is true especially when we face a large culture such as the American one, which is known to be very mixed. Looking at a big nation, which is supposed to host very different cultures, may be useful in order to open our minds and start considering the importance of intercultural  exchanges  in our life.

 

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: When discussing about immigration with my American peer, I asked her how were the different cultural groups seen  in the US and how did American young people feel about sucha  mixed environment which charactrizes their country. She replied that those big differences were not even seen by the majority of American young people because, they, too, come from different states or at least have not American origins . It was after her reply that I was definitely able to change my point of view towards American culture.

 

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: As far as our exchange is concerned, I did not encounter particular reactions to what I was saying or regarding the way I was expressing myself. But, I think this is the most interesting prt of an exchange where you communicate ina different language with a differen culture. I have a friend from Egypt with whom I communicate mostly using the chat and it often seems to be a hard work. We share the second language; actually we communicate in English, but what really differentiates us is the enormous cultural diversity. For this reason, in order to avoid his bad reactions I have to be very precise and clear when expressing myself on particular kind of topics.   

 

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: Now I know that American students living within a campus cannot choose  a roomate by themselves , at  least for the first year of their college life.

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

Example: It was quite easy to engage in conversation with our peer because we established a friendly environment and thishelped me to feel at ease.

 

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 did not experience such sort of misunderstandings in the exchange but I think iI woud be able to resolve a situation of this kind. The best way to avoid misunderstandins is to avoid ignorance so to get informed and updated about things concerning the other culture.

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

Example: I usually explored the Web in order to discover new information and aspects of the American culture as, for example, to get familiar with the American electoral system.

 

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Self-Assessment of my Language Learning

 

Please provide specific examples of the following:

 

• words, expressions I learned in English: campus-off, adviser

   

 

 

• improvements in my reading doing the wiki project: We did not use many resources to collect information for our wiki page because we mostly relied on our peer as a source of information. Anyway, I visited a number of websites where I could read some specific information about stdents' life at the Dickinson college. Furthermore, I enjoyed reading through my peers' writing.

   

• improvements in my writing doing the wiki project: The wiki page has given me with no doubts the opportunity to write a lot and to receive my peers' feedback, which I think is an important part when learning a language. Differently from the blog, we were supposed to write in a more formal register so that I was able to improve my formal writing.

   

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