• Ways in which my curiosity and interest were aroused: I think that most depends on our own personalities: if you are curious in your ordinary life, you are certainly so when you have the opportunity to deal with non-Italian people. Every topic (from food to school, from TV programs to politics…) can make you start to reflect on your and other’s culture
• Moments in which I felt uncomfortable: When you write or talk to foreign people you are afraid to say silly things or do foolish questions, even when you deal with superficial topics such as movies, vacations…
• Moments when I felt comfortable: Probably you can feel comfortable when you have collected enough knowledge, information, read enough, surfed enough the Net….Only in this way you can know a little more how to behave, what to say…

• The most important things I learnt about family life and/or life at school. Reading questionnaires and comments posted on forums you can know and understand lots of things. For example, thanks to the last assignment, you can read your Italian and American peers’ work and learn about American lifestyle and how American students see our society through their pieces of writings.
• The most important things I have learnt about the country, the nation, the state of the target language. Politics has been the main topic during the last months. Surfing tens web-sites and watching American candidates’ speeches on Youtube has proved to be a very hard (but also) and useful opportunity to understand how American campaigns work, and, of course, to learn a specific vocabulary.
• What I have learnt about customs and conventions of talking with people. Since I have never communicated via Skype, I have no much to say about this. My experience is limited to movies, videos on Youtube…and all I can say is that there is always a certain pragmatism, a certain “concreteness” also in human relations.

 

 

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. Aside from Skype, I think it is very easy to fall into cultural misunderstandings: everything, from eye-contact to intonation, to body movement…, from greetings topics which are allowed or not to dealt with…are possible cultural obstacles. I think that it is absolutely necessary to be careful and to take for granted nothing.
• 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 think that to ask for clarification means really to try to understand someone else’s point of view or cultural matters…It is a way of admitting your gaps in knowledge and of trying to amend to that.

        For example during the second semester I had some problem with some political issues, in particular with healthcare…I was not to able to understand how it worked 

          in America

 

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2.  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 am also interested in the daily experience of a variety of social groups within a society and not only the dominant culture. Example:  For example, if you read personal blogs, you can discover lots of things which are out of the “institutional” culture. There, you can read personal experiences, ideas, different points of view on different matters…

 

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. I think that this kind of awareness is not easy to reach. It requires much work on your personality, culture, life…, deep reflection on cultural differences and so on. I think that a year course at the university cannot help a person very much to acquire such a complex and cultural sensibility.

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. As I have not had direct experiences of this kind, I cannot say much about this.

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. As our main topic during the second semester has been elections, I have found out aspects that Italian mass-media do not explain, report…If you read lots of stuff, inevitably your language, reading and written skills improve.

• I know how to engage in conversation with people of the other culture and maintain a conversation. It depends on the situation, the interlocutors, topics…There are always a lot of factors that create a context…

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: It depends on people. Some want to understand which mechanisms underlie a behaviour, a tradition or reaction; some want to persist in their convictions and do not want to change their minds.

• I know how to discover new information and new aspects of the other culture for myself. Technology (computer, phones, cameras…) offers many tools, means….to gain all the knowledge you want.

 

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3.  Self-Assessment of my Language Learning

Please provide specific examples of the following:

• words, expressions I learned in English:a great deal…words related from computer science (ex. Social bookmark, to post, blogosphere, podcasts…) to politics (eviction, platform, caucus…)

• improvements in my pronunciation of certain words or intonation:Attending a mother-tongue teacher’s lessons, watching videos on Youtube…are certainly helpful for improvements in pronunciation, intonation and listening as well.

• improvements in my listening:As above!
• changes in the way I speak Italian to non-native speakers:I think I’ll continue to speak slowly and to use simple words in short sentences.
• words, expressions I learned doing the wiki project:insert plugin, wikiquette
• improvements in my reading doing the wiki project:If you keep on reading web-sites, others’ work…
• improvements in my writing doing the wiki project:Every time you have to write an essay, a paragraph…you have to pay attention to the lexicon , punctuation, coherence, cohesion, references and quotations…

 

 

 

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