A wonderful occasion!

Last Monday I went to Venice where I find qualcosa di bello, literally, I found her and her husband and we enjoyed together a bit of Venice. They are so kind, I don't know how to say, but I felt as if I already knew them. And then I found a post on her blog...



















This is the first day after Monday that I can see my blog and find the time to write a bit, I've put some pictures in the post I took on Monday, it was a wonderful day and we had wonderful weather!
I really want to thank them both for the wonderful, wonderful day!

Skype exchange: 2weeks in one post!

The topic Elena and I discussed last Thursday was the election in Us and in Italy. We talked about election last time too, but on Friday we focused on the candidates and I wanted to know a something more precise about American candidates, unfortunately she was able to tell me about the Democrats, but not about the Republican! Italian TV are not talking about republican candidate because of the primary for democratic party...For Italian people is quite strange to think about two different candidates running for the same party, and she explained me that Obama and Hillary have more or less the same ideas, but they are proposing a different idea of leadership.

Honestly, last time we talked, we discussed deeply about elections, and of course we finally even talked about the candidates, so after we hadn't so much time to spend on this topic, and I asked her a bit about her language learning experience with Italian. I was curious to know what are the main difficulties in learning Italian, I thought the verb system was the main one, but Elena (admitting it is difficult) does not think so! She 's making a great effort in this exchange and I really appreciate her courage!

This week we started talking about the final project, we are supposed to compare a cultural issue in Italy and in U.S., not that easy, eh?!
We decided to talk about electoral system, the idea is: I'll get some information in order to understand how the American electoral system works, and she'll get some information about the Italian one, then we explain each other and try to be sure of what we understood. Then we will work together on the comparison of the two!

Our final project should be written in English and Italian, I'll write the English part, Elena will write half of the Italian part and I'll do the other in Italian... I think it could be a great occasion, even though it will be hard work, mainly because we are juast two, while in the other group there are four people, se they can divvide more the job!

Anyway, that's all! I feel we'll do a great job!

My pleasures

One of the amazing things since I have a blog in my second language (English) is to click on my Feed jit map to go and see how many people from different countries come to read me! I can see that someone has probably written a wrong URL or has just clicked on a link without real intention to read what I wrote, but when I see those little falgs on India, Brazil, Australia, and from different places in Italy as well, I feel a bit "proud".
And I like very much the idea that I can reach people so far from me...

Near and far from America...

This week, our topic to discuss was Election. The election system in Italy and in America, the candidates and so on...
The first question was really difficult, because she asked me my opinion about Berlusconi, I wanted to be as objective as possible, but I'm not! The election will be in a week, and I've got an idea of who I'm going to vote, so I have even a precise idea of who I'm absolutely not going to vote. Anyway I tried to explain my reasons and that is my own opinion, and if you ask my class mates you'll find many different opinions.
Then she asked me about "quote rosa" because we wrote something on the forum about it, and again she asked my opinion... And again I tried to be as objective as possible, but I'm definitely against this "anti-discrimination system", because I do not think it is effective! I can't imagine to vote someone just because they are female (or male), and not because of their opinion or their value. It is anyway, unfortunately true that women have no place enough in politics, but I think we should try other ways!

I particularly enjoyed this discussion on Friday with Elena, because I asked her something about death penalty, it was a topic we discussed on the forum, and I understood she agree with it. It is something strange that two 20-something girls who live in the west have so different opinion on a topic like this. America is the country in which there are less cultural difference with Europe (I think...), but anyway we see it in two completely different ways.
I didn't try to convince her, and she didn't try to convince me, of course! But it made me think about how far we are sometime even though our origin is the same...

Yoga, nothing to do with the physical exercise!

I've been told since when I started University!
"You should be able to assess yourself."

I'm not! Or, at least, not without great effort! But I perfectly agree that is important to know how to assess your personal ability in order to reach new goals!
To assess my personal intercultural competence was particularly difficult, because there are many things that work in our mind without we are conscious of. Schemes, stereotypes, help you to comprehend the world around you, and they are not always a negative thing, but we are not always conscious of how much they influence our perception.

So, to assess my awareness of negative reactions to differences was quite a problem, how can I be sure that I do not think my reactions are due to the cultural differences when it is so?
Our mind sometime reacts in a very particular way (take an exam of social psychology if you don't believe me!) and we cannot be aware of that.

Anyway, I really reckon it is useful to value these different things (Awareness, Knowledge, Attitude, Language Proficiency and Skills), to stop and think about it let you know that these kind of mechanisms exist, and then maybe next time you'll be able to suspend judgement, or just to be aware that your judgement is due only to the cultural difference!

About technology

There is only a thing...

Today I've been talking for an hour with a girl who lives in the USA, thanks to an exchange organized by my Language course at the University.

This morning I had to take a train To go to Padua to pick up a piece of paper to do my Easter homework for my Language course at the University.

Technology is a strange thing!

Hello, are you there?

There? Where?
I don't know, but that was the first thing that came into my mind to be sure that our phone call started! at the beginning it was...awkward! Because we do not know each other, but we were supposed to talk about several things!

We started in English, so that Elena could feel at ease, and talking about University, and why she decided to study Italian, I understood that her family (or rather part of it) live in a city very near to my Rovigo!

Then we went on talking about the new topic: terrorism and immigrants. I learnt a lot of things!For example, I thought that the"typical" immigrant in US came from Europe, or China, but now there are a lot of people coming from Mexico!
I appreciate the opportunity to ask her how did she feel about 9/11, because in Italy we saw it was a tragedy, but probably we felt it as a thing very far from us. I think she was a bit disappointed for my answer about terrorism, but she asked me about an "experience" (my own or my parents') that I could not tell her. It is quite strange but these are events so recent that we didn't study at school, and we are too young, so we didn't experienced it!
We talked a bit about election too, because Iraq is an important point in the candidates' programs, and it is time for election in US.

It was a nice experience! Really I was worried to succeed (technology problems of any kind could emerge!), but everything was all right!
I enjoyed it.

Padova-Dickinson: task 3

Ok group,
our task for Monday is to come up as a group with an interesting question about American Culture, looking at the answers they've given to the questionnaire!

We can start from my blog, where I'll suspend "moderazione dei commenti" for this week, and then we will post to our course-blog the question!

Looking at the wiki, I read that two topics we were interested in are politics and immigrants, and those two are the more different visions between Italy and America.
Then, there is another interesting observation written by Alberto about the idea of individualism...

The thing is Sarah pointed out we should come up with a question that could provoke interesting discussion, not that easy eh?
So, start making comments to say what you think could be an interesting topic!
I'll be waiting for your answers!

listen to the music....

I'm working quite hard, and I have little time to write... But I'm not only studying... the 7th of March I will have a concert, so my sister and I are studying, or at least trying!!

We'll perform a very particular duet: bassoon and guitar! we'll play this Paçoca, among many other works of Brazilian authors. I particularly like Brazilian music, and so to make you forgive my absence I post this video, obviously a flute and a bassoon are very different, but I hope you'll enjoy!

That's why I'm not blogging...

Have you ever heard of "Le sudate carte"? Leopardi knew how hard University can be !

That's what is keeping me busy!
Hope to finish soon...