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)

 

The work we did for the wiki-pages, both for the elections and for the final wiki project, made me reflect more on certain aspects of my culture and country which I didn't particularly consider before, such as the current political situation in Italy and its problems, such as the phenomenon of immigration. Doing research on that topic, I found out that political measures towards regular immigrants are still to restrictive as they don't enable them to fully integrate in our society, for example denying them the right to vote.

 

• Moments in which I felt uncomfortable: (what made me feel like this, with particular examples if possible) 

 

As I started doing skype quite later than the others (as I was part of the Poznan group) I felt quite lost especially when I had to talk about political issues with people I didn't ever met before. However, when I started skyping with Chiara things got easier as she always proved to be very helpful and nice with us.

 

• Moments when I felt comfortable:(what made me feel like this, with particular examples if possible)

 

I felt comfortable when we eventually managed to organize our work and this motivated me a lot in making our final wiki page.

 

B. Knowledge

 

The most important things I learnt about family life and/or life at school. 

 

Talking with Chiara, I noticed that many are the differences between Italian and American university life. For example, American students don't usually come back home during the weekend unlike Italian students. Most of them prefer staying in the campus housing and have parties in their fraternities.

 

The most important things I have learnt about the country, the nation, the state of the target language.

 

Thanks to the work for our final wiki project I have learnt many things about the role of women in both countries. Now I know more about their rights, their participation in the workforce as well as in the world of politcs. Analyzing the differences and the similarities between the two countries, I realized that sex discrimination at the workplace and gender pay gap are still rooted in both countries and many are still the problems that they have to solve, such as the situation of undocumented women immigrants, who are more likely to be abused by their employers and to be excluded from society as well.

 

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).

 

With Chiara we talked a lot about immigration policies in both countries. For example, she was very well-informed about American political situation and was very interested on our country as well.

 

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 think there wasn't any particular misunderstanding arising from the lack of awareness of the target culture. I only remember that when we had to decide our common topic each one of us had its own ideas and was determined to keep it, and it was not so easy to come to a compromise. For example, at the beginning Chiara wanted to talk about abortion as she was enthusiastic about this topic, even though it was quite difficult to subdivide this topic into 5 people. However, explaining to her our point of view and giving her some suggestions for her reasearch we managed to come to an eventual understanding. 

 

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 remember that talking with Chiara about the situation of undocumented Mexican women lead me to do more research on this topic.

 

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

 

Yes, I'm curious to know foreign people's way of life and experiences. I think that taking part in the ERASMUS study program helped me a lot open my mind towards cultures and habits different from mine, and the Skype exchange is another example of how shared experience and ideas could help us in our everyday learning process :-)

 

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:

 

Understanding different cultures and being able to look at my culture from different perspectives is still an ongoing process of my learning. I think that staying in a foreign country for some years could help me a lot improve this aspect of my intercultural competence.

 

 

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:

 

To communicate with a different language and  with people from different countries help me gain more fluency and awareness in expressing my point of view. Now I can better motivate what I want to say and how to convince people of my ideas. 

 

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 research for the wiki project of the elections, I've learned a lot of things about the American political leaders as well as Italian one. For example, now Iknow more about their life, career and political platforms.

 

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

 

I think that  this depends on with whom you are talking to and if the topic can be of interest for both of us. With Chiara, for example, I had no problems in engaging a conversation as she talks about anything! :-)

 

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: 
• As I said to you above, there was no particular misunderstanding arising from that, as we can say that Chiara is half Italian!

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

 

Thanks to the work we did and to all the documents we found, now I can better select the information I'm searching for.

 

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Self-Assessment of my Language Learning

 

Please provide specific examples of the following:

 

• words, expressions I learned in English:
•  
• far-sighted policy: being able to realize what will happen in the future and to make wise decisions 
• embroider: embellish  
• trenched: strongly established
• mock: to make fun of somebody 
  • editorial: in a newspaper it is the space given to the editor’s opinion about facts

    • words that I learned during our final wiki project:

    - c-section: caesarean section  

    -smuggling: illegal trafficking of people or goods

    -apprenticeship: a period of time working as an apprentice

    - pimp: a men who controls prostitutes and lives of the money that they earn low-skilled/high skilled immigrant: an immigrant who has a low or high qualification 

    - household jobs : domestic service

    - to have access to: to have the opportunity to use something (e.g. to have access to medical care)

    - operative: worker

    - to undertake: to start doing something (e.g. a project)

     

     

     

    • improvements in my pronunciation of certain words or intonation:
    •  I can better pronounce words like compare, pattern, pronouncing the initial consonant (p) with more aspiration.

    • improvements in my listening:
    • I can better distinguish English from American accent, and I can better understand dialogues in English.
    • changes in the way I speak Italian to non-native speakers:
    • I tend to pronounce each sentence more slowly than I usually do in order to be better understood
    • improvements in my reading doing the wiki project:
    • Thanks to the research I did now I can select better the information I'm searching for.
    • improvements in my writing doing the wiki project:
    • Thanks to the various tasks we did during this year as well as to peer feedback (both from Italian and American students) I've really improved my writing and adapt it to different contexts as well.

   

 

 

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