My Experience of the Exchange^{[http://inet.dpb.dpu.dk/infodok/sprogforum/Espr18/byram.html A record of my Intercultural Experience" href="http://tulanepadova.pbwiki.com/ICC_Assessment#footnote-2">2]}

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) I was interested in knowing more information about University life and Political system, as well as the weather , the way how students study on their own  etc...

• Moments in which I felt uncomfortable: (what made me feel like this, with particular examples if possible) I felt uncomfortable when  someone wrote that Italians are lazy and that they just commit illegal activities. But then I tried to explain how is the real situation in Italy.

• Moments when I felt comfortable:(what made me feel like this, with particular examples if possible)  I felt really comfortable when , speking with my American peer, I noticed that she wanted to find out more and more things about Itay; indeed she shown me her real interest in italian culture and all is concerned about Italy. For example she wanted to know more about our university life in a very detailed way, starting from our own life( if we live in a campus or if we share a flat)  and ending with a lot of things about our class'organization; then she asked me almost at each skype exchange about the weather( strange but for me is a particular way to show interest for a different country)because the weather there it wasn't so good, that's why she asked me about the weather so often;Then another important thing I want to underline is that my Ameriacan peer tried more than once to speak in Italian,and even if she realized that she wasn't so good in doing it, she did an effort to keep talking in Italian, That's nice I think. And this shows that she really wanted to share something with me even if we were so far away.

 

B. Knowledge

• The most important things I learnt about family life and/or life at school. I learnt that American students are all overachiever: They study all night long, they have no time to eat, they sometimes go to the university with their pyjama for attending classes and they drink a lot of coffees to stay awake.

• The most important things I have learnt about the country, the nation, the state of the target language. I learnt that they don't know almost anything about politics;they were quite reluctant in talking about the war in Iraq; another thing I got from our skype exchange is that America is a very large country and I've never realized before about the distances that there are between east and west coast( my peer told me that to move from a coast to another it takes 5 hours by plane more or less!!!)

• 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). I learnt that for example, talking about University life, that what we see from medias, or from tv series is not the reality: I mean, campus life is not so easy and enjoyable, they don't organize parties avery nights etc...Another important aspect I got from my peer is that campus rooms are not so well-equipped like we see from the television; they don't have single rooms, they don't have hearth, thay don't have big or new tables and so on....

 

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 tried to explain her the real political situation in Italy, because In America or aborad in general they gather just some parts of our real situation and the conclusion is that they have a wrong idea of what happend in the past ( during Berlusconi's government) and what has just happened ( during The last failed Prodi's government). She didn't know almost anything about causes that led Prodi's government to the failure. I tried to explain  her all  causes and all  problems the previous government had to deal with.

• 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 did a lot of questions to my peer, but one in particular was about her political preferences; I asked her the reason of her decision and she explained me that she would have voted for Obama because of his challenge programme that is no war, more human rights for everybody...in few words because he is the most democratic candidate then to the others.

 

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A self-assessment of my Intercultural Experience^{[http://inet.dpb.dpu.dk/infodok/sprogforum/Espr18/byram.html A record of my Intercultural Experience" href="http://tulanepadova.pbwiki.com/ICC_Assessment#footnote-3">3]}

 

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'm interested in other people's experience of daily life, particularly the way they study, the way they prepare and do their exams( lots of essays, no oral exams etc).All these things are not usually presented from 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. Example: Actually we did not talk about any daily experience of a variety of social groups.

 

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 could notice by talking with my peer about University life that our University system is not so good as I thought.I mean, my peer told me about her daily participation to every events the University organizes for students( conferences, cultural meetings, parties etc), Moreover , they have a human relashioship with their teachers  who help students in organizing all stuff thay need for their exams etc...and if students have some other problems, they are followed by teacher until they haven't solve that specific problem.And this is possible because their classes are not so numerous like ours...in Italy we are just a numeber and often teachers don't remember about every single students.

 

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: When I keep a conversation generally I try not to do any kind of comments in order not to offend the person who I'm talking with; I know that sometimes I tend to judge the other by doing a comparison  with my own culture, but I learnt form my own experince that this is a very bad way to interact with someone because like this you show that you are not open in knowing some other cultures..

 

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: Yes, I learnt from my peer some notions about the American electoral system that I did not know before.

• I know how to engage in conversation with people of the other culture and maintain a conversation. Example: During my skype exchange I tried to engage the conversation just by asking to my peer a lot of questions about America in general and avoiding to do any comments in order not to get my peer afraid about her answers. I just wanted to make feel my peer free to answer as she felt to do.This is a good way to open your mind because if during a conversation you criticize every single thing someone says then the conversation cannot exist, because this means that you have prejudices.

 

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:I think that if this  will happen to me I will be able to resolve it just by trying to explain things from another point of view, as I did during my skype exchange when me and my peer were talking about the real political situation in Italy.She explained me her point of view on the basis of what she gathered from medias, and me from my part, i tried to expalain her better how is our real political situation and who are both Berlusconi and Prodi.

• I know how to discover new information and new aspects of the other culture for myself. Example: First of all I do  some researches on my own in order to have some basic knowledges about the other culture; then if I'm still curious about some particular aspects I ask directly to my peer ( as in the case of our skype exchange where I usually did some comparisons between two aspects of our countries and then I asked to my peer for some more explications to make me understand better the topic we were analyzing.

 

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Self-Assessment of my Language Learning

 

Please provide specific examples of the following:

 

• words, expressions I learned in English:

• improvements in my pronunciation of certain words or intonation: I learnt the right  pronunciation of the main word of the topic we've chosen for our wiki page that is " pregnant "( in particular the diphtong GN )

• improvements in my listening: I improved my listening as well because I was not used to listen an American accent( I just was used to talk with Welsh people) and since the two accents are quite different I had some problems at the beginning. The American one is much more fluent and the consequence is that there are a lot of omissions in words( or ellipsis).
• changes in the way I speak Italian to non-native speakers:I tried to speak as slow as I could in orer to make her understand  what I was talking about.
• words, expressions I learned doing the wiki project: I learnt the word EEOC (Equal Employment opportunities commission)an the word FMLA( The Family and mediacal leave Act)
• improvements in my reading doing the wiki project: I was able to read every documents I found for developping my topic because they were very similar to  Italian ones( I mean the expressions we have found were very similar to Italian ones)
• improvements in my writing doing the wiki project: It has been a very good exercise for me writing for my wiki page, I had the possibility to constantly improve my English.

 

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