Candidates' key words, speech and gestures
 
 
 In examining each candidate it is important to take into consideration not only the verbal language, but also their body language, their attitude and the way they relate to the audience, their slogans and hymns: in other words, it is fundamental to study these politicians from different points of view and consider important elements such as words, speech and gestures. We decided to use a table in order to clearly compare the differences between the candidates.
As gestures and physical appearance are very subjective, we reported this kind of information as we perceived it: they are just our  personal observations.
 

 
Words
Speech
Gestures
Physical appearance
John Mc Cain
family, justice, children, democracy and other terms typically used by the conservative party that are  freedom, exportation of democracy, "endurance freedom" and terrorism;
addresses his audience using the expression 'my friends';
always starts a discourse with expressions such as 'God bless you' or 'God help you';
 
Has an aggressive behaviour;
Has a way of speaking which might appear irritating;
is not able to interact successfully with the audience;
is not able to interact successfully with the audience;
 
 
is rude and does not consider his look at all; he is more casual;
 
Silvio Berlusconi
famlily, values, the need of reducing taxes;
 
when speaking to his audience he frequently rises his voice in order to be more convincing although he is definitely popular among Italian people;
uses a lot of irony in his speeches, especially when he addresses the members of the left party;
almost all of his speech are attacks to the left party and to what they did and did not do over their government;
 
always smiles and assumes a position which conveys dominance;
very self-confident;
can successfully interact with his audience;
 
gives a lot of importance to his look (he always wears suits and uses make up);
 
 
 
 
 
 
Barack Obama
nation, young men, safe, hope, democracy, dream;
 
his language is very influential and creates a collective emotiveness;
makes people believe in themselves by using strong words and detailed phrases regarding the American history;
uses a lot of rhetorical questions and in this way he excites the audience, who usually  answers with a great applause;
tends to use more abstract key expressions: 'our time has come'., 'we can turn the page of politics', we can stand up', 'we can dream big dreams', 'yes we can' ;
 
 
is a great communicator: he tries to put people at ease, he has great smiles and a great warmth;
 
always wears a black suit and a tie;
Hillary Clinton
economy, US leadership, education, children;
 
never forgets to point out that she is the best qualified and experienced person to run for the office of President;
 
appears very self-confident, smiley, happy, friendly, kind, pragmatic and competent: it seems that she keeps the situation under control and that she isn't scared by her rival Obama;
waves arms and hands, she is willing to interact with her audience and she focuses on helping unprivileged people and chooses negotiation and mediation over conflict; 
 
 
uses a bright red lipstick which helps pointing out his femininity;
Walter Veltroni
change, hope, innovation, unity, young people, women;
full of repetitions and adverbs as well as series of ambiguities;
only occasionally pronounces the name of his main antagonist Silvio Berlusconi whereas both Obama and Hillary often point out the weak points of Mc Cain policy;
 
 
is static on the stage;
has an old-fashioned style

 

Giada Guazzo

 

Monica Ferrara

Elena Carlet

Valeria Fagan

 

Our weak points

  • paragraphing
  • the use of linking words
  • the use of present perfect, past perfect, simple past
  • prepositions
  • word order
  • punctuation: the use of semicolon
  • a specific use of a word in English
  • definite and indefinite articles

 

Class discussion of YOGA form and intercultural awareness

 

  • What did you find most difficult about completing the YOGA form?
 We found some difficulties in completing the questions concerning attitude, awareness and skills because we think it's not so simple to rate our intercultural competence: it was the first time we were faced with such kind of questions concerning culture in general. 
  • Which parts were you unable to complete?

     We were unable to complete the last part about language proficiency because we were not familiar with the abbreviations used.

     

  • Did any question/part in particular make you reflect on things you had not previously considered? If so, what?

     The part regarding knowledge made us reflect on intercultural differences. For example, we have never thought about articulating the general history and some sociopolitical factors of the host culture.Actually,  when we are abroad we interact without considering the importance of these factors as we act spontaneously.

     

  • Compare your answers. Did you provide similar answers or are they different? Either way, what are they and why are they similar or different?

     After comparing our answers, we came up more or less with the same results; there were no meaningful differences.

     

  •   Considering that most of you, at least for now, are not planning on going to stay abroad for an extended period of time, what can you do from Italy to try    and improve your intercultural competence. Make a list of goals and ways to achieve them.To improve our intercultural competence we could:

 

search for a tandem partner to share  the language and the culture of our countries;

meet erasmus students;

watch foreign channels, such as BBC news, documentary film;

reading newspapers and books;

surfing the net and entering foreign blogs.  

 

  •  Please provide a group-consensus definition of intercultural competence using your own words and based on what you have considered in your     discussion.
In our opinion, intercultural competence is the competence one achieves when he/she is able to interact with people of other culture without judging and overcoming stereotypes. An intercultural attitude is based on the awareness of the existence of differences, which have to be accepted and compared with our native culture.

 

 

 

Glossary

 

  •  caucus- According to wikipedia Caucus is  a meeting of supporters and members of a political party or movement. The origin of the  word can be found in  a North American Indian word  which means meeting of the leading tribal chiefs.  The caucus is meant to chose the delegates to participate to the convention of their own country. They will later select the delegates at the at the party delegates' assembly.

     

  • superdelegate- is an informal term for some of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention, the Presidential nominating convention of the United States Democratic party. They are seated automatically, based solely on their status as a current or former elected office holders and party officials.
  •  primaries- are political elections where a party nominate candidates for the following general elections.  They can be close primaries or open primaries: the former  mean that  they  are conducted by government on behalf of their parties while the latter are open to other voters, too. 
  • convention- is a meeting of a political party held on a national level and then on a federal level 

 

 

 

Differences between youtube videos:

The  American videos seem to be like a satire and their aim is just to provoke and make people laugh while the Italian videos are supposed to convince the electors to vote that party. In the former, a fundamental role is played by the girl half naked while the latter is more realistic  and it faces the more common

aspects of the Italian life such as underpayed workers. The music used in the videos is different: Obama girl's song is more pop while  Berlusconi's  hymn  is more  traditional and  Pd's song  is very famous among all the people in Italy although it is not an Italian track.

As we know that Italian politicians are very 'pure' there are no half naked girls and  no  big breasted women. Moreover,  there are no immigrants because they can not vote and so it is not important to attract their attention.

 

 

 

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