Ashamed...

I decided to study languages because I believe in communication: I think it is a great opportunity the ability of talking with people of different culture. I like the idea of meeting people with different tradition and to communicate with them.
I was very happy, last year, when I came in contact with these technological tools that could help you to learn a language, but also to get in touch with different cultures.
Last week I was talking with a friend of mine, a not-very-technological woman, and I was explaining her that all I have done for Christmas, so far, was finding a new template for my blog. She stared at me, and said: "You have a blog?!" and I felt a bit ashamed of saying "Yes, I have".

Of course, there is nothing to be ashamed of, but my attitude to this kind of thing is that. None of my friend know the URL of my blog, and I don't want them to know it. Not because of what I write here, but...

Probably is because of the way people think about this kind of tools, and about people who use them. I don't write much personal stuff here, and I don't use it as a personal diary, but I don't want to explain every time what is the difference in my use of this things... That's probably why...

Nice trip into science world!

No photo this time!

Another meeting for bloggers, but without any evidence! I'm just back home (well, I had dinner before start writing!) from Pisa, where I met A.C. and qualcosa di bello, and her "baby"! We spent a beautiful day trying to understand something about scientific research. If You have any question ask qualcosadibello, she knows!

It is always a surprise that there are so many different ways to get in contact with people, and that just writing some random thoughts, you have the chance to meet such beautiful people.

I have no other words for tonight, (I had few words during the whole day!)...
but thank you!

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'.

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.

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...

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!

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!

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!

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...

Our last activity... or just latest?

Hi guys!

Have you seen Sarah's post? We're going to work hard during Christmas Holiday!!

Anyway, she suggested us to get peer feedback before sending the papers, so... probably it would be useful to know our e-mail addresses!Thinking about it... you can send a comment on this post with your e-mail address, as you now perfectly know I read them before publishing (moderazione dei commenti is active on my blog), so I can read your addresses, then I'll send you an e-mail with our group's e-mail, and then I won't publish your comment, so that I'll be the only one able to read them!

Hopefully it will be easier to do than to explain!

Let me know whether you agree or not!
bye

My personal learning environment

This idea of environment where you learn is.... amazing! I've never thought of it, but actually I'm learning more from what I do in my everyday life than from the number of lessons I attend, and attended in the last years. I'm not saying that those lessons were of no use to me, rather I spent more time out of those lessons, so it is important to define a Personal Language Environment in order to keep on learning!


Let's start identify my Personal Learning Environment at University: my formal education consists of mainly two kind of language lessons at University, one is normally called 'lettorato', where we are supposed to train our language skill, and then there are Language Lessons in which we reflect on the grammar and its rules.
The first are occasion of speaking, and also writing in English, we did activities such as translation, or peer revision, so you can learn from your mates, you can collect suggestions and you learn also correcting them (we make almost the same mistakes...). Our mother-tongue teachers indicate us the best tools to improve our English even outside the lesson.
The second are the classical idea of an English lesson, where we learn the general rules and how to apply them when we're writing and speaking.
Another important part of my formal education are literature lessons, the aim of these lessons is not to teach us anything about the language, but of course they are a way of learning a lot about the culture of the language we're studying, and considering that, mostly in the final years, our teachers speak in English during the lessons, they are surely a way of improving our listening skill.

Then we can go and see the things I do to improve my English... First of all related to those Literature lessons I was talking about, I read a lot of books, and many of them are in English, for example I read all the seven volumes of Harry Potter in English, and that caused me the impossibility of talking about Harry Potter with anybody who read it in Italian, because many of the names of the characters, and of the places are translated (try and guess how many of my friends read it in English...). Normally I like to read in English when it is the language in which the book is written, I would never read any italian book in another language it would sound too strange to me!

Sometimes I read articles from English newspapers, my favourite is The Independent, because it has an easy site to navigate and it is not as formal as others like The Guardian, or full of rumours like The Sun.
I like listening to the music, and of course many of the songs are in English... I'm not convinced that listening to English songs help you that much to improve your language, but surely you update your knowledge because they contain a lot of contractions or informal use of the language!
I'm not forgetting my blog, and all the tools that this first semester provided me, but they are the latest! First of all my blog, where I write once a week to do my homework, but that would be part of my formal education, the thing is that I'm really enjoying this activity, and I started wondering the blogosphere or reading other blogs, and I even subscribed those blogs with Bloglines, so that I track them!
I'm not using so much podcasts, but I'm watching different videos on YouTube and some of them are in English, but that was an activity I did before my latest discoveries on the net, because sometimes I like to watch films in their original language!
Unfortunately I've no great opportunities to travel, but sometimes I go abroad, and those are the best occasion to test your use of the language, and to improve your ability.
I wish I could test my ability more often!


P.S. my personal computer is... in the hospital now, so I couldn't use my scanner to graphically write my PLE, I'll do it as soon as possible!
bye

Social Bookmarking

That is one of those tools you can obviously say "It is helpful", because it helps you to find quickly exactly what you are looking for. When I look for a particular website or web page I usually go to GOOGLE, but sometimes I spend a lot of time checking in the huge amount of results that google provides, without finding what I was searching. Using del.icio.us, I can see how many people have chosen that site, how they labelled it, and I can read some description of it before even seeing it! I spare a lot of time!

Searching for websites that could help us to learn English, I chose dictionaries and particularly slang dictionaries, because it is something that must be updated continuously, and the web gives you the opportunity to update information, and consequently to find updated information!
Many of my mates chose websites similar to mine, or the same as mine, and that's of course because we're interested in the same kind of things!

Some of course were different, and I particularly appreciate one where you can test your level of English, or another where you can see some typical errors. Serena marked a very "peculiar" web page about Beowulf, I found it strange because I don't relate it immediately with language learning, but of course literature, and culture, are part of it! Laura chose one about quotations, it could be useful when you're translating from Italian to English, if you are supposed to render a particular expression.

And finally I succeded!!

I spent a lot of time to understand what a feed aggregator is and how to use it (and still now I'm not sure of it!). There are mainly two reasons:
the first is that I didn't attend our last lab lesson;
the secon is that I don't like to read instuctions!

I know what you're thinking, if I don't want to read the instructions properly why am I complaining? But the point is that even when I decided to read the instructions I found some words that had no meaning at all to me!!

Anyway I eventually decided that I couldn't be overwhelmed by a machine, and exploring the site after my registration I managed to do it!!

What is the moral? Next time first read the instructions, then turn on the computer... (but the instructions are on the blog, well, I'll think about it next time!)