Anna Bordignon

Martina Urbani

Sushu Zhang

Enrico Stanic

 

 
Questions on elections and politics- Group 5 (1st April): 
 
1. What are the most important features a political leader must have?
 
2. Are you influenced by the political campaign or do you have a specific political idea?
 
3. Do you think you are really represented by your candidate?
 
4. Is the electoral system really effective?
 
5. What do you think about the means candidates use in order to promote themselves?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Questions for 18th March:

 

-         What does terrorism mean for you?

 

-         How do you feel hearing that in Italy there was terrorism in the 70s?

 

-         Had you ever felt threatened by terrorism before Sept. 11th?

 

-         How do you feel about mass shooting in schools like in Columbine School or Virginia Tech?

 

-         Do you feel safe knowing that everybody can easily buy a weapon?

 

-         Would/Do you carry/own a gun?

 

 

 

 

 

 

America

 

  • Both groups mention fast food and McDonald
  • only Americans talk about their national flag
  • Many Italians mention grande, grandezza

 

Italy

 

  • Both groups mention food, in particular pizza and pasta
  • Americans are more stereotyped (beautiful, mediterranean) but one of them mentioned the important difference of free health care
  • Italians are stereotyped too, but they also mention real problems (fuga di cervelli, immondizia)

 

American women

 

  • Both groups think that they are independent
  • Americans stand to consider that they are anorexic or fat and fake
  • Italians only consider them overweight, but stressed out

 

 

 A good education is...

 

  • Both groups agree on the fact that a good education is very important and it helps you for your life after school
  • Amercans think that education should prepare you for the future and their working career
  • Italians mention the fact that education should also consider the student as a person and is not so closely related to the future career

 

 

A good teacher is...

 

  • Italians write more elaborated answers based on an ideal image of a teacher
  • Americans are more realistic and focus on specific skills a teacher should have

 

American side

Perche` nelle vostre risposte dite che un buon professore non deve essere "raccomandato"? Noi abbiamo anche dei website (myprofessor.com) in cui gli studenti valutano i professori. Ci sembra che un professore raccomandato sia migliore di una altro. Ci spiegate per favore?

 

The word raccomandato in this case is not used with the meaning of recommended. In this context it indicates a person who, even though his skills and competences are not as good as possible, can obtain a job only because he knows one of the bosses (for example, his father is an important lawyer or a doctor). A teacher who is raccomandato could be not the best for his students!

 

 

 

Word Association

 

The three words I have chosen are:

 

 

  • Politics: both groups consider politics as a very complicated and confused aspect of life. It is very interesting to notice that both do not really trust politicians or politics, but, even though Americans presents positive and negative aspects (democracy, corruption, attempts for freedom, slutions, etc) Italian students mainly focus on the negative (corruzione, vecchia, falsa, ridicola)

     

  • Italian lifestyle: I chose this word because the answers are very different. American students focus only on the most stereotyped aspects of life, such as relax, no work, slow,lavoro, frenesia, caotico, lento, famiglia, etc. while Italian answers are almost the opposite and cover more aspects of everyday life, as for example 

  • Individualism: I don't fully understand why art, novels and journals represent individualism... Anyway, Italians and Americans quite agree on the definitions, and the answers are similar. In both groups there are people who see individualism as a positive aspect, and other who, on the contrary, really think that must be avoided as much as possible.

 

Anna Bordignon

 

 

Sentence Completions

 

  • A good daugher is someone who...: I chose this sentence because I like the answers. It seems that Americans and Italians came to an agreement and wrote the same... It is nice to see so many people who think the same as I do!

 

 

  • A good neighbour is someone who...: It's so very Italian to look for a neighbour who does not interfere with our businesses! I was surprised from the answers of the American students... I would never give a spare key to a neighbour! Maybe to a relative! I think that our answers are so different because we usually live in flats or in big houses with our relatives. Maybe Americans all live in their own house by themselves..

 

Anna Bordignon

 

 

 

 

 

 

# Enrico Stanic #

 

 

1)WORD ASSOCIATION

 

I chose:

 

American lifestyle & Italian lifestiyle: Both Italians and Americans tend to see American lifestyle as ‘busy’ and Italian lifestyle as ‘relaxed’. Americans tended to agree in their broad idea about their country’s lifestyle, while Italians showed a variety of points of view, usually pretty negative.

 

 

 

Freedom: Americans and Italians seem to see freedom in totally different terms. Interestingly enough, Americans associate freedom to ‘America’ itself or its symbols i.e.‘eagle’. No Italian associated (and never would think of associating!)freedom to ‘Italy’...!  

 

 

 

 2)SENTENCE COMPLETION

 

 

 

 

     1 – A good son is... I choose this sentence because Americans almost unanimously agreed on the fact that a good son ‘obeys’ or ‘respects’ mom and dad, while the amswers of the Italians varied quite a lot. Many mentioned ‘respects his parents’ but some also focused on ‘tries to be independet’. Honestly, I thought it would have been the other way around: the Americans mentioning independence and the Italians going for tradional filial respect..!

 

Btw, I loved the Italian answer ‘a good son is one who doesn’t introduce lots of girls to his parents’, it sounds very old-school Sicily ;)  

 

 

     2 – A good citizen is... In this sentence I noticed a very interesting difference. Both groups tended to say that a good citizensomehow plays a role in society, but only Italians seemed to show disillusion an cinicism in their answers. One mentioned ‘Beppe Grillo’ and another talked about ‘not being fooled by tax reductions’. I guess nowadays keeping a positive, idealistic view is not as easy as it used to be for Italians.

 

 

Questions to Chiara Olivi:

 

-How does it feel to leave home for college and live in the campus?

 

-Do Americans really care so much about firearms or is Michael Moore just making too big a deal about his dislike for Charlton Heston?

 

 

Martina Urbani

 

1) WORD ASSOCIATION
 
1.     American Women- Le donne americane:
I chose this topic because I find it very interesting. On the one hand, American students see American women as very independent and successful but also stressed out. On the other hand, Italian students agree with Americans students but without pointing out the consequences of a toot stressful like (e.g. depression, importance of the physical apprearence).
 
2.      The immigrants- Gli immigrati.
Americans consider immigrants as integrated in the society (e.g. learning american ways,) and stereotyped. Italian still see them as discriminated people.
 
3.     Politics- La politica
Both the groups of students have a very negative view of politics. On the average, the most frequent comets were: corruption, lies and complicated.
 
 
 2) SENTENCE COMPLETION
 
  1. A good neighbor is someone who…
Americansseem to love caring and helping neighbour (e.g. someone who cares about you and respects people in the community, will be willing to lend you some sugar when you've run out, keeps a spare key to your house for when you locked yourself out). Italians are more obsessed about privacy and respect and so they prefer a neighbour who minds his/her own business.
 
  1. People from the South... People form the North
The answers of both the group of students show that there are strong clashes and differences  between people from the South and form the South.
 
  
Questions to Chiara Olivi:
 
1.  Are you proud of having Italian origins? According to you, what are the positive and negative aspects of it?
 
2. Do you like Italian cultural heritage or not? If yes, do you think it still has an important role in our society?
 
3. What are the Italian habits which make the greatest impression on you?
 
 

 

 

 

 Sushu Zhang

 

 Word Association 

  • Americanlifestyle & Italian lifestyle:  I choose these two words because it is interesting to see the differences between the answers. Under the word Italian lifestyle, many italian students focus on the family. But for the American students they never mention it under American lifestyle. And the contrasts of the two lifestyles are also interesting. Both groups agree that the American lifestyle is busy, crazy and free, while the Italian style is slow and relaxed.

     

  • politics: Both groups notice that politics is complicated and corrupt. In both proups there is only one student think that politics is interesting. And for the American students, they choose to use more word without any connotation(right/left wing,opinion), while the italian students use more negative words(confusione,corruzione,falsa,noiosa)
     

 

 

 Sentence Completions

  • A good daughter is someone who... I choose this sentence because both the groups have the same idea that a good daughter should love and respect her paernts but keep her own idea. And in the italian group we also mention that a good daughter should help their parents with the house work.
     
  • A good job is a job... It is interesting to see that in the answers of both groups, the most important part of a good job is not the salary but the satisfaction. And the italian group also mention that a good job should have some spare time,which is truly important for Italian people but not that important for the people of American.
     
     
     
      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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