SELF ASSESSMENT OF MY INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE

 

 

 

Description of my feelings during the exchange

At the beginning I wasn’t so enthusiastic: I had some problems with my timetable so I considered the exchange ‘another thing’ I had to do.  Then, once I started the skype experience, I started to enjoy everything. Thanks to  technologies such as skype, the wiki, e-mails and blogs, the exchange was really meaningful.  My knowledge of the American culture before the exchange was quite superficial. Of course, now I’m not an expert but I know what people of 20 years old think about some topics (immigration, political elections, stereotypes in general).

 

 

 

 

 

A. Feelings

 

 

 

• Ways in which my curiosity and interest were aroused: (examples that made me re-consider my own culture). 

The fact that many students have Italian origins and visit our country regularly left me stunned. I had the opportunity to speak with three different American students and they all have a great consideration of Italy in terms of culture. I was really curious to know what foreign people perceive Italy.

 

 

 

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

   

Well,  I’ve never felt uncomfortable. I sometimes felt embarrassed, especially at the beginning. It was because the lack of conversation:  I didn’t know what to say (and the American student too!!!). 

 

 

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

   

I felt particularly comfortable with Sharon. I entered the group for the final project. While waiting for Eleonora, we talked together to introduce ourselves. She really made me feel at ease: she was so friendly and welcoming that I thought I was important for the group.

 

 

 

B. Knowledge

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

   

The most obvious one: American students leave their homes and live in the campus. They do not choose the nearest university but the one they prefer.

 

 

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

 

         Actually, It was interesting to learn something about the USA from a native person. I mean, it was her     

point  of view, her perception of things. Information was not filter by media for example. That was great! I

         really enjoyed our conversations on immigration because it was the topic of our final project and we could

         analyse it very 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).

        Since we hadn't formal conversations, there were no particular convetions. However, I noticed that

Italians  tend to overlap people while they are talking while the American students (or at least Sharon)

         wait till the other  has finished. With Sharon we talked about everything.

 

 

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. 

       Fortunately, I've never experienced such feelings and misunderstandins. 

 

• 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) 

 

          It happened when we talked about illegal immigration. I had to ask for clarification while I was writing on

          the phenomenon in the USA. I usually asked Sharon to confirm the data I found surfing the Net.

 

 

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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: 

        Over the exchange I was really interested in my peers' way of life. One of the reasons is because it's very

         different from mine. As I wrote before, university life has been one of the topic I liked the most. I was very

         curious: I even visited Dickinson college web site in order to have an idea of how things are there and I really

         enjoyed reading the wiki pages devoted to this topic.

 

 

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

     Well, talking about illegal immigration in the USA, we mainly talked about Mexicans.  Mexicans are a

         big ethnic presence in this country and they don't belong to the dominant culture.

 

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:

I have surely improved my ability to change perspective thanks to the interaction with the American peers.

    I was really curious to know who other people look at my culture. I was impressed by the fact that

    stereotypes  are not so widespread: the American students tried to go further (as we did). So it was

    interesting to listen to their opinion in topics such as the Italian political situation or the mafia issue.

 

 

 

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: 

 I've never experienced such a situation because I paid attention to the words I used. For example I 

 usually asked before starting a discussion: 'What do you think of...?' so that I could guess the opinion and 

the feelings of my peers. If I didn't agree with them, I did all my best to use the right words to  express myself.           

 

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:

 

Well, now I know something more about illegal immigration in the USA, but also I had some direct

information about the political elections, the university life and so on.

 

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

The most important thing is to do not have any prejudices while talking. The attitude I hadduring the Skype sessions was to listen careful without expressing a judgement. Of corse everyone has its own ideas but it's important to make people feel at ease so that they can express freely what they think.

 

 

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:

Actually, I never experienced any misunderstandins in the skype sessions. It was sometimes necessary to clarify things or to explain them again. For example Sharon didn't understand the concept of 'traghettatore'. In these cases, I usually wrote her an e-mail with a detailed description of the concept.

 

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

Before this exchange, I looked at the Internet only for official sites. For example, for our  wiki page I visited the official sites of the American government. However, for the wiki, I used some informal sources too, such as forums. It was really interesting because it was like doing a survey to know what people think.

 

 

 

Self-Assessment of my Language Learning

 

Please provide specific examples of the following

 

• words, expressions I learned in English:

to be fed up with, the problem should take care on itself, widespread unrest

 

• improvements in my pronunciation of certain words or intonation:

in the same period we started our skype exchange, I started to work for an English private shool where there are only native speakers. I think my intonation has improved a lot fr all these reasons. Of course, the skype sessions were very useful to improve our oral competence in informal conversations.

 

• improvements in my listening:

I can see some improvements in my listening competence too. The first time I skyped, I was really impressed by the speed of the conversation. Once I got used to that, I had no problems at all.

 

• changes in the way I speak Italian to non-native speakers:

Now I speak very very slow and I try to speak as clear as possible, without using slang or dialect expression. In other words, I tried to speak a standard Italian.

 

• words, expressions I learned doing the wiki project:

to be ethically bound, to be in the limelight, entrant, alien

 

• improvements in my reading doing the wiki project:

I can't say if I improved my reading skills but I read a lot! I certainly improved my comptence of finding the best sources for a given purpose.

 

• improvements in my writing doing the wiki project:

I improved my writing skills thanks to what I read and the new expressions I learned and thanks to peer feedback. I am usually sceptical about peer feedback but the help of Sharon has been really meaningful because she is mother tongue and a student.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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