Thinking about it....

For the end of this second semester we again have to reflect on our intercultural competence. To help us in this hard task we had a questionnaire.

It is always a good thing to stop and reflect on what you did, in order to understand what concrete goals you achieved, and in what way.

This exchange with American students gave us first of all an occasion to reflect on our own culture. I had to reflect on my culture, in order to explain her things in the most objective way, and then to add my opinion. I was always glad to answer her questions and discuss the "topic of the week". I like the idea of comparing our two lifestyles, but sometimes I had to remind me that she's younger than me ( Elena's 18, while I'm 24), and probably we have different approach to life.
I have never had problems or misunderstandings, even when we compared things different for our cultures. For example when we talked about death penalty, although our opinion were so different, we compare our ideas respectfully, I really appreciated it.
I learnt many things about their lifestyle, about education, and of course many about election system that was the topic of our final project.
Another particular thing was that those guys are children or grandchildren of immigrants, and so discussing with them about immigration provided a particular point of view, it was no more a matter of American and Italian culture.
I really appreciated this activity, and I think I was particularly lucky because doing it not inclass but in my spare time there were always just the two of us talking. I hope that Elena too had found it interesting, probably the fact that at a certain point we realized that we spent more than an hour talking together reveals that we enjoyed the conversations.

To whom it may concern...

... here it is the URL of our webpage on the wiki. I'm posting it just because in the latest comments someone told me that was interested in it.
The lay-out is almost fixed!

http://tulanepadova.pbwiki.com/ItaliaUSA_Election_System

Hope you find it interesting.

The three of us...

chatting together to organize our page on the wiki... a mess! Definitely a mess!

Elena is so kind, she wants to do more than what is her duty, because she's worried that Anna and I are doing too much! Anna is trying to understand our project and wants to make some changes, but it is no time for changing, our deadline is next Monday! She's doing an awesome work with graphic! She added marvellous pictures!

But chatting instead of talking was... such a confusion, because we were writing at the same time three different things, and when you're writing you don't wait until the other finish what she's saying...

"excuse me, can't we have a call?"

Oohh, ok girls, that works! We managed to decide who's going to do what...


Just to answer to some of your comments, after Monday I'll put a link to the page, so you can go and read a bit of stuff! Remember, part of it is in Italian!!

so much time...

... I haven't been writing for so much time!

But I was busy trying to understand what to do with my final project, and preparing the presentation for Prof. Taylor (also English), and trying to find something interesting for the final project with prof. Busà too. Yes, our English course consist of many different parts (this year only three, but in my last year before the degree there were 5 different exams to take and last year they were 4 written, and 2 oral parts to have the final mark for Lingua inglese I!), and I have to dedicate them time enough now, in order to do other exams in June, like German literature and so on...

This idea of comparing Italian and American culture through the analysis of a particular topic is really a good thing! The other great thing is that we're working with American students! Tomorrow I will be skyping with Elena to point out our job, what she is going to do, what I'm going to do and so on, and I'll make sure she has properly understood how the elections in Italy work, while she will be solving my doubts about American election system!

I keep on wondering in the blogosphere, and I always find something surprising! I've put a couple of new URL in my blogroll, and I visited different websites! And I'm still fascinated by the possibility of technology...

This week...

...no Skype! Elena and I decided not to skype this week in order to get some material for our final project. I thought I could have a bit of relax today, but eventually I decided to study a bit, considering what I have to do next week!



So, no relax for me, and a bit of study!

Today in Italy we are on holiday, it is the day in which we celebrate the liberation from Fascism, thanks to some real heroes that gave their life to have freedom for the whole country!

I've heard of some politician (man, or woman) who's not celebrating this day... I hope I have misunderstood...

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!