be correct-ed!

When we were having our student exchange with American students, Sarah told us to pay attention when we talk Italian with them, not to talk too fast, not to use strange words and structures, and not to correct them too much when they talk!

Then, I asked Elena whether it was all right, in our exchange, the way I talked to her, the words I used, if I was too quick. That was mainly because Sarah told us they were intimidated by our English, and their Italian was not at the same level (consider they've been studying Italian only for 4 years).
I've always said to Elena that she could feel free to correct me any time I deserve it, she's never done it, not because I didn't deserve it, just because she's very kind! I corrected her only if she said incomprehensible words or totally failed the structure, and that happened rarely too.
I noticed that sometimes native speakers avoid doing so. When I talked to Sarah, or with my cousins, I realized that I had said something wrong (always after having said it!), but they never interrupt me. I like the idea of finishing my sentence, but I also appreciate the opportunity of improving my language, so I don't feel uncomfortable when someone corrects me!

I didn't. Last week I had an oral exam on linguistics with an American (native speaker) teacher, she's never corrected me while I was talking about the subject matter, but when the exams finished she corrected me 3 times while I was asking about my other marks... I made some very silly mistakes (...she didn't told us...), and I felt so irritated! And I thought about those things Sarah told us about correcting people that are learning a language...

I still think I need corrections, probably what irritated me so much is the particular relation I have with that teacher, and so it was not the correction, but the one who was correcting me! But probably I've also learned that when you are learning a foreign language you need to talk, first of all.
My best friend went to live in Germany, and when she was trying t learn German her boyfriend's family always corrected her mistakes (German is a very difficult language!!), and she hates them doing so. I tried to explain her that they probably had the best intention, but without a real success.

Italian and German are not so popular as foreign languages (German is becoming more popular, but still schwierig!), and so Italian and German people are not used to talk with people who are learning their language, while English people are used to, and so a bit more polite, probably.

Anyway, probably you shouldn't correct each and every words one says, but sometimes I found useful that someone, politely, underlines my mistakes, to help me improving!

my boring, boring studying....

Once again I'm studying hard for my exams. Today and the day after I'll be sitting German (tomorrow I'll have a 5 hours written test: a torture!), then it will be English (linguistic) then German literature first and second part and English literature. And then I have finished for June and July, because I've done some continuous assessment during the lessons...

I don't have much energy for these exams, I hope they'll finish soon, but I know I will be feeling guilty in the end because I haven't done so many as I wish...

Anyway It has been such a full year for my learning that I can be satisfied!

Blogging or not blogging?

Actually, I've already found an answer to this question but the thing is: Will I be able to do this without Sarah asking me to write a post every week?

One could say that if I like to write my blog (as I've said more than once...)... well, Yes I can (It seems to bring luck, this slogan... not in Italy!)

Those little flags...that's the kind of help I need... and comments (also corrections!!), of course!

Will you help me?!

I am 1716

It is an experiment, to see how long it will take to get 1,000,000 blogs to list themselves on this site.
Now, I'm 1716, go and sign in if you find it interesting!

My personal language environment/2

Here we are thinking about our way of learning, the opportunities around us, and how to use them properly. Here we are, again.
I don't think there is much difference from the first time I analysed my personal language environment. The greatest change is that I am going to finish my classes at University (I hope, let's see my next exams...), and so the larger part of it will be informal. Those new tools I have added during this course, and in my years at the University, will play a different role. I have found many new occasions of improving my language and to test my intercultural competence, and I had the opportunity to decide what is better for me. I won't attend regular lessons (perhaps), and so I have to reflect on how keep on learning, and I'm ready to reflect on it,because I have many different tools.

I think the blogosphere is going to play a great role in my future learning experience, because I found an enjoyable way of training my skills, I found people who are (surprise, surprise) interested in what I write, and who give me advice and opinions. Relating my learning experience to people is a great way to keep on learning, because I'm always interested in communicating with other people and because, as someone told me recently, 'life is all about people'.

Learning grammar...

Male student: "You sure do make love good."
Female teacher, in bed next to male student: "Well. I make love well."

Grammar Snobs are Great Big Meanies-June Casagrande

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...