We should be intercultural....

Hi guys,

Unfortunately our exchange is over!!! I really appreciated the way in which our lessons were organized this last semester and I feel saying that to enter its culture, too, Is the best way to learn a language. I have already commented in class my experience with Skype so that here I summarise in brief what has the exchange given to me in terms of feeling, knowledge and language improvements.

As far as feelings are concerned, I was very curious at the beginning of the exchange and I was looking forward to speaking with the American peer. Our first conversation was about immigration in Italy and in America. Since our peer was not actually American but Spanish she provided us with information regarding immigration but from a European point of view. This led to a quite strange situation because we almost started to consider three different cultures in our conversation: she would compare the immigration in America with that of Spain in order to explain us more clearly the main differences among the two countries(Europe and USA).

There were no particular moments in which I felt uncomfortable. I appreciated the way in which we started our exchange giving a brief presentation of each other. The presentation gave me the opportunity to make me explain my origins and the reasons for being in Padua. This was a particular moment when I felt comfortable because I was able to notice some similarities in the way Rocio looked to the American world and in the way I, myself, looked to the Italian world; both as foreigners in those two countries.
Unfortunately the time to be spent on our exchange was rather brief so that I have not learnt so many things about my peer's culture and about the US, in general. Apart from the first time we met us in Skype, the rest of the exchange was all based on Dickinson college life. I have learnt a lot of things regarding American life at school and it was then that I had the chance to discover how big are the differences between the Italian university system and the American one.
I did not experience any sort of incidents or particular problems over the exchange because my Italian peers and I were sharing almost similar ideas with our Spanish interlocutor.
Once, when we were talking about the way students were assigned a room and a roomate within the campus I was not able to understand how that was happening at Dickinson and how could the college decide by itself for a student's roomate. Since, in Italy and in Spain nothing similar happens Rocio, too, had some troubles in explaining us how it was all carried out.
As regards the American culture, I was interested in knowing how the many ethnic communities such as the Mexicans or the Asians, live in the US. When facing another culture, I think it's important to consider how this culture accepts and hosts the variety of social groups within it. This is true especially when we face a large culture such as the American one, which is known to be very mixed. Looking at a big nation, which is supposed to host very different cultures, may be useful in order to open our minds and start considering the importance of intercultural exchanges in our life.
When discussing about immigration with my American peer, I asked her how were the different cultural groups seen in the US and how did American young people feel about such a mixed environment characterizing their country. She replied that those big differences were not seen, at all, by the majority of American young people because, they, too, come from different states or at least don’t have American origins . It was after her reply that I was definitely able to change my point of view towards American culture.
As far as our exchange is concerned, I did not encounter particular reactions to what I was saying or regarding the way I was expressing myself.
It was quite easy to engage in conversation with our peer because we established a friendly environment and this helped me to feel at ease.

A nice experience with Skype

Hi everybody!!!!

Yesterday I finally Skype with the peers in my group ad our America peer. Great!!! It was our first time in Skype with he American girl so we decided to participate altogether at a single Skype conference so to have the possibility to know each other. We discovered that our "American" peer is not American at all because she comes from Malaga and she is been studying at the Dickinson college and is going to remain there for a year, only.

After a brief presentation, we began to talk about "immigration": we found some diffculties because since Rocio was not American she could not explain us what's happening with immigrants in the US. Anyway, the intercultural exchange result positive as we gathered information from two different cultures, at the same time: Rocio tried to describe the immigration in the US from her point of view, based on what she could see over the period of her studies, then she also gave us a description of immigration in Spain.

I really enjoyed the exchange and I think that talking with people from a different country and with a different culture may be often more useful than reading a book about a foreign culture. If not more useful, certainly less boring and more exciting!!!!:-)

What about immigration???

I can't start talking about immigration without telling you something about my personal situation.
To use Sarah's words, I must say I'm not an extracomunitaria, anymore. How it all happens?
I was born in Istria, a region of Croatia which was under the Italian influence after World War I. Our history is too complicated to be explain in few words , but you need the piece of information I just gave you to know that my grandparents were Italian, as they were born in Istria when the region was Italian: their language was obviously Italian together with their costums and habits.

After World War II the region was occupied by the SFR Jugoslavia but my grandparents together with many other people were still there and they passed on their language and their habits to my parents. They did so not by chance but the truth was that they could not speak jugoslavene, it was a new language for them, too. The results was that my parents mother tongue was Italian, then they start, at school for example, to learn the jugoslavene. Differently from my grandparents, my parents did not own Italian documents, as when they born it was all under Jugoslavian control. But when I was born, only after 6 years, Yugoslavia broke up and Istria became under the control of a new nation, Croatia. This meant not only a new nation but obviously a new language, new customs and habits. Maybe I was not so clear in this brief description because many things would be there to say, but now it’s time to speak about the Italian autochthonous minority which is still very active in my native place. It embraces all the people who, like me, attend Italian schools, speak Italian as mother tongue language, etc.

This is why the Italian government decided, last year, to recognize us as Italian people (invaded by other populations) and gave off a law which states that we have the right to have an Italian passport thus, to have an Italian citizenship, although we are born and we live outside Italy. It was not so simple to obtain the citizenship because, as I mentioned before, my parents and me could only rely on my grandparents Italian documents to demonstrate our origins and justify our apply. But, you know, after three wars and three different nations, documents can easily disappear or get lost!!!!

So, this is my story!!! What about my opinions on immigration in Italy??? I read a number of articles and books on the matter and learn that over the years Italy has always faced the same kind of problems regarding immigration!!!!

I just feel free to say that the possibility to vote must be given to an immigrant who lives on the Italian territory for many years and at the same time the second generation of immigrants must own an Italian citizenship, without waiting for being 18.

That’s all for the moment! I hope to exchange some information about the topic with my American peers!!!!

Bye

My topic and reflections

Dear all,

it's been quite a long time since I wrote the last post on my blog. I would like to spend more time here with you all, but we are really bombard with a lot of work, in this uni!!!!! This time I would dedicate more to my private corner and let you know few reflections of mine, before starting with the point.
First of all, I should say I'm very curious to meet the American peers on Skype and to exchange ideas of any kind with them. I like the way Sarah has organized our lessons: it's the first time, after four years of University, that we have the chance to talk in the second language and especially with a native speaker. What 's more useful than practicing with a mother tongue, in order to learn a language???!! Moreover, I also like the idea of developing a wiki page. I've never thought about a wiki but, you know, if I think more about it, I'm an expert with wikipedia: with the huge amount of information around me, the wikipedia has become my 'best friend', by now. So , the idea of having a large quantity of information all on the same page , which can be edited by everyone who feels it, is wonderful!!!!
Ok, this was just a little vent; I hope I didn't annoy you:)!!! And now, more seriously, let me know you the topic I'm interested in.
Two years ago, we were supposed to write an essay in English with prof. Whigham on a topical subject. I, then chose to write about 'substance abuse'. It may sound a bit strange as I, myself, never reflect on healthcare and its implications. But, that time I was just talking with a friend returning from the US, after two years of studies, and among many other things, he confided me how he got upset seeing his peers taking a large quantity of pills of any kind during the time at the Academy. I got impressed, too, by his telling and asked him why were they taking all that staff and the answer was "for any sort of disease, including a brief headache, but above all because they were depressed!!!!". Here began my reflections for the topic to develop, but rather than talking about young people abuse I wrote about substance abuse in general, but remaining concentrated on the American situation.
This time I would like to, 'spread my first effort' and talk about substance abuse by young people. I think that it's not a simple issue to argue about, but I'm curious because nobody talks about it although, in my opinion, it's a big problem in our society. It's undoubtedly connected with the way we live and the way we are able to tackle problems in our everyday life. I think there is more than one reason for the substance abuse by young people, one can be, for example, the family context or more detailed the time parents have at their disposal to dedicate to their children rather than to their job, only.

As I said before, nobody talks about it, so I can’t say I know precisely what happens in Italy with the substance abuse. As for the Americans I found all the information on the Web, I would rely on it also for the Italians in order to learn more about it. Anyway, based on what I see and hear around me, I think that Italy is also facing the same problem with young people and it all derives from the way the society is perceived nowadays.

I personally try always to avoid taking aspirins, pills and all that staff just for a simple and brief headache or head cold and at the sae way I try to persuade my friends not to take them when it’s not extremely necessary. I prefer to rely on a hot tea and a spoon of honey, but people nowadays don’t have time for a rest: we are all in a hurry and need to overcome this kind of diseases as soon as possible, so a medicine is the best solution!!!!!!!

Political elections in different newspapers

This week we were supposed to follow political elections but with a wider view. In other words, we were meant to compare the elections and the way they are presented by three different countries.
I decided to follow the Italian 'Il giornale', which has a right inclination, the English newspaper 'the Times', and the Spanish newspaper 'El Mundo'.
At the beginning I thought of following just my candidates, Mc Cain and Berlusconi but I came out with some troubles: almost all the newspapers write about Clinton and Obama while Berlusconi and the Italian political elections are practically forgotten by those countries.
I must admit that this fact surprised me a bit; since the Italian tv and the Italian newspapers, in general, are all bombard with news about the national elections I expected more place for this topic even from abroad. A quite interesting thing that I noticed seaching for information about Italian political elections in the English Times was that the name of Prodi never appeared while that of Berlusconi was more cited. I think that this can be due to the fact that Berlusconi is more known all over the world but not only as a political figure but especially as an influent personality which has a great power among Italian people.
All the three newspapers contain a lot of information about the American primaries and often a special section is there to click on in order to get the latest events regarding political scenary in America.
As regards the amount of coverage, I saw that El Mundo prefers to give just fundamental news about the primaries and often concentrates more on the way they are held. Maybe this is due to the fact that not all the people in Spanish are concerned with the mechanism of the primaries so that the journalists have to specify some points which are not even taken into consideration by the Times, as they are thought to be understood by the English.

Berlusconi at the European Parliament

POLITICAL ELECTIONS

Hi, guys!

This time we are supposed to talk and reflect on political elections which are the main topical subjects both in America and in Italy.
I followed the candidates on the right and watched some videos about Berlusconi and Mc Cain's speeches.
I wasn't very informed about Mc Cain's life and political attitude so that I first check for information related to this candidate. On the contrary, watching at least two Tv news per day, I can say I'm informed enough on Berlusconi's life and political attitude. You know, in these days it is rather difficult not to find his face on a Tv programme!
I noticed that Mc Cain interacts with his audience using the expression 'my friends'. When he introduces a discourse he uses frequently expressions such as 'God bless you, God help you'.
There are some words which he points out with a higher stress such as 'We believe', 'courage', 'principles'. These words are repeated again and again in his discourses.
Regarding his phisical presence, Mc Cain is always smiley. I remember in particular a sentence with which he ended up one of his speeches: 'Tonight we celebrate, tomorrow we'll be back to work'.

Regarding Berlusconi, almost all of his speeches are based on attacks against the left party and what they did and did not do over their government. Like Mc Cain, he always smiles while talking to his audience and he frequently rises his voice in order to be more convincing. I think that one of Berlusconi's best characteristics is the irony he uses in his discourses, especially when he adresses other politicians such as Prodi or Fassino.
There are some words which are frequently repeated by Berlusconi such as 'famiglia', 'valori', 'tasse', 'giovani', 'la prima casa', etc.
Anyway, I think that the way politicians are represented by the Tv is not enough to know them. Most of the information here are filtered and not published by a Tv network so that some videos in YouTube really help us to discover the real personality and political attitude of those politicians.
I found out a video about Berlusconi and his speech at the European Parliament which has never passed on an Italian Tv network.
Watch it, it's rather shameful!!!!!!

Hi guys!!!!! So, the first semester is over, let's have our break!!!!!!!
I WISH EVERYBODY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW 2008!!!!!!!!!

My own way of learning

Hi girls!

I’m so sorry for being late with my PLE but I tried more than one time to download the Free Mind software onto my computer with no positive results, an error message would always appear on the screen.:(

What’s more, I don’t have my digital camera here in Padua and I have to wait for a friend of mine to borrow me hers. I hope to attach the picture of my mind map till tomorrow evening!

Anyway, I will describe it to you so that, for the moment, you can imagine how it looks like. I chose four categories for my PLE: people, places, context, actions.

Under the category people I put foreign friends, Erasmus students, professors, tandem peers, tourists. I often chat with my foreign friends in English even if they are not native speakers. For example, I usually meet my Egyptian friend online and we have long conversation on msn.

There are many Erasmus students here in Padua; it happens to me that sometimes I meet them in a bar or in the square (some of them are my roommate friends) and enjoy my free time exchanging my experiences with them.

Regarding tandem peers I had three tandem peers during my past three years University course, one of which was a Californian girl. I think that the tandem project may be a really useful resource for learning the second language as it gives the possibility to learn with a native speaker.

I wasn’t sure whether to put or not ‘tourists’ under this category but after I realized that they contribute to create my learning environment, too. Every time I find a tourist asking me for some information in the street I can check how much I have learned about my second language and how able I am to react immediately to someone else’s requests.

Then, professors obviously come to occupy this category as they followed and still follows my learning project.

As far as places are concerned I split them into virtual and real. During our course with prof. Guth we could realize that the virtual world is going almost to substitute the real world for the great quantity of information the former can offer to us.

I divided the category ‘context’ into formal and informal. These are larger categories because they contain different tools and various ways of gathering information in the second language. Sometimes there is no clear difference between the elements of the two categories so that an overlapping occurs. For example, I use e-mails most often in an informal context but it happened to me to have used the same tool in a more formal working context. The same happens with blogs, while my is a more informal blog there are blogs on the net which are written by high learned people and where you can find materials regarding specific fields, like language learning, medicine, environment, etc.

I chose to call the forth category ‘actions’. These includes everything I do in order to improve my second language (reading, writing, memorizing, taking notes, etc.). The two most useful for me are ‘giving feedback’ and ‘writing post-it’. I think that giving feedback together with receiving them may be a very efficient way to learn from our mistakes and to test how much are we able to correct others’ mistakes.

When I come in touch with a new word, I use to write it down on a post-it and to attach it on the board above my writing table. After a week or two I check if I have learned that word and if the result is positive I throw the post-it away, otherwise I leave it attached there until I don’t memorize it.

I think that building a mindmap of our PLE can be useful to organize our own learning. I must admit that it wasn’t a simple task to do because there were many things I wanted to enclose there but can’t find the appropriate category for them.

I hope you’ll enjoy it…

Bye bye