Summer wind

Things are changing in our English class: our Skype experiment with Dickinson College just finished and today we've our last lesson together.

What did I learn from my exchange experience? Answering isn't so easy...I can't talk about intercultural competence as it was something I can touch, I can measure with the metre bar: it's more like a huge picture I'm always painting.

I didn't encounter misunderstandings, probably because we both are Western cultures, but I discovered something interesting.
At the beginning, when I talked with my American peer for the first time, I was quite frightened and worried, because I spent five years writing at university, but I rarely speak in English. However, I perfectly knew that it was a great opportunity to improve my skills and to know more about the USA, so I started this exchange with enthusiasm.
I was lucky, because my American peer, Kelsey Taylor, was very nice, open and ready to share with us something of her culture. My stupid fears of being treated with a sort of veiled superciliousness just because the USA is the main power in the world, were absolutely groundless.

I noticed some interesting things by skyping with Kelsey. For example, I discovered that American youngs know quite anything about politics of their own country (exactly as, I'm afraid, Italians), they don't like talking about the war in Iraq and university fraternities may also be genuine groups and not just mixture of drinking, sex and violence as they often seem in movies.

I liked this experience very much and I believe that it 's one of the most useful activities I've ever done at university.

After the end of our collaboration with Dickinson College, our time together is going to end too. This is the end of this demanding but very, very stimulating course and also the end of something else...

Summer wind is blowing. And things are changing.

I remember my first day at the elementary school...I looked at the the plate on the door of my classroom: "I C"...it was so high for my child stature. Then, faces, homeworks, school plays, pencils and papers, exams, unforgettable good and bad moments...and the last ring of the schoool bell at the beginning of summer...

All this is dancing in my heart, now...Because I know, you know this time the ring is a bit different...it sounds a bit like a closing door...

Summer wind, take care of us.

Thank you all.

Alberto

And what about the weather?

We have been subdivided in some groups of three-four Italians (Serena, Martina, Alice and I) and a student from Dickinson (Kelsey) in order to start working on our final project...(what a lovely confusion skyping in five is!). Unfortuantely, my idea has been dropped: the American dream isn't the right topic for us. Alice and Kelsey liked what I proposed, but our teacher thinks that finding aspects of American dream in Italy isn't impossible, but quite difficult, so we decided to change subject... :(

Then, the disaster! A topic, a topic! Somebody suggest us a topic!!! Immigration? Too many people is already thinking about that! Education? ...Uhm...No, too much boring! Sanitary system? too much complicated! Oh my God, our hour together is going to end and we're still without a subject!...Well, well, and what about univeristy life here and in the US? Confraternities, parties...Is it ok? It must be ok: we've no time!!!

After our Skype session, I was talking with a friend of mine, in class:
- "What's your final project about?"
- "Death penalty. And yours?"
- "Ehm...Immigration?" :)

Last games

I must start off by saying that this post is NOT an arraignment against American or Italian youngs: it's just a reflection on how politics is seen by them.

Last Wednesday, Serena and I skyped with Kelsey about elections in Italy and in the USA. For the scond time, after our talk with Leah, our nice interlocutor said that she knows quite anything about American politics and its election system. I don't know if their answers reflect the general situation in the USA, but the fact that only 54% of eligible voters really voted during the last four decades of presidential elections, makes me think. Why the first democratic country in the world reveals lack of public spirit? It seems to be a contradiction.

In Italy, things are a bit different, in my opinion: a lot of youngs, as in America, don't know very much about Italian politics, but our turnout is very high. This is another strange fact, isn't it?

Youngs' interest in the most important aspects of their own country seems to be discouraging, but I believe (and hope) that politics is going to become a more important part of their lives in their near future.

So, keep an eye on them, world, but don't worry: this is just a period, I think. They're (and what about me?) just playing their last games: all the toy trains and the dolls are going to end in a box in the storeroom soon and a new, more sinsible time is going to come...

Technology and me

My computer has some problems...again...That (and my work in a polling station) are the reasons why I've not done my task 6 yet. I'll remedy as soon as possible.

C U!

Alberto

A country that's changing

Immigration is quite a new experience for Italy, that, for centuries, has just been an emigration country. Nowadays, a lot of people decide to leave their own home in order to look for a better future. Italy started a big changing process in the 80's and it's still changing. So, our actual social survey is very different from as it was, for example, just twenty years ago. Things changed, are changing and will continue to change. So, I think that pretending that our reality is always the same would be quite silly: we all should awake to what's really happening to utilize new Italy's potentials an to prevent problems.

Immigration is an important resource for a country and its economic mechanism. Italy needs immigrants for those indispensable jobs Italians unlikely chose and their work is also fundamental to pay pensions in a country in which the number of old people is continuosly growing. Moreover, there're also important consequences from a cultural point of view: sharing different cultures and styles of life surely is an opportunity to enrich us.

However, things in real life are a bit more complicated. Italian politics has always had huge problems in regulating immigration phenomenon properly and the consequences of this "lassez-faire" policy has been disgraceful. Criminals for poor countries decided to move to Italy, mingling with honest people, encouraged by unclear laws and short-sighted behavoiur of some politicians. So, things started going wrong and discrimination feelings were born. Someone believes that the presence of different cultures in the same country is going to destroy Italian traditions and doesn't understand how immigration is necessary for everybody.

The way in which immigrants are often treated, saddened me, because I perfectly know that the majority of them are honest workers that just hope to leave in peace. But a lot of Italians maybe don't know it (or acting as if they don't, is simply easier...). This is what came out from our elections, in which a quite racist campaign, such as "Lega Nord"'s, took a lot of votes. I'm scared about this fact. I strongly hope immigration is going to be carefully regulated, so fear and anger shadows will be defeated.

As regards the voting right for immigrants, I think that everybody that works and pays taxes should have the right to vote. Obviously, they should know something of Italian culture, before voting. This is the reason why I think that they should wait for some years (4-5?) to obtain this important right.

Sarah, you can't vote, but we all know your situation is completely different...That's how things work...

American dream?

Well...I've been reflecting for days, but I must admit I have some problems in identifying a good idea for my paper. I've just an undefined topic in my mind that may be interesting, in this moment: the American dream.

I'm curious about this topic, because I believe it's at the basis of American society and it someway also involves our country, that, for different reasons has always seen the USA as a sort of "beacon".

What does "American dream" mean? How did it shape American society? What did it become when it was imported in Europe and in Italy, in particular? Does it still exist nowadyas? And if it does, is it different, someway?

These are just some questions I may use as starting points, to explore this issue.

Do we really know our own country?

This time, Serena and I talked with another Dickinson student: Michelle Mercaglione. Our issue, this week, was election systems in Italy and in the USA. Things are very different in these two countries from this point of view. Election system is not the same in the whole USA: American states are subdivided into proportional system states and winner-takes-all system states and people vote directly the politician they prefer. In Italy, on the contrary, the system doesn't change region by region and we simply count all the votes at the end of the elections to designate the winner. Then, the seats in the Parliament are assigned in proportion to the percentage of the votes received by each party. We can't vote directly the person we'd like to be the Prime Minister, for example: we just vote a party and if that party wins, its members chose the Prime Minister among them. However, in fact things are a bit different: in every political coalition there's a leader and we all know who really can become Prime Minister..

Michelle is just eighteen, so she wasn't very prepared in her election system and in politics in general. I think that this probably is a common characteristic of Italy and America. Youngs are often not vey interested in politics, but I think that we all should pay a little more attention on it because it's the base of our civilization. However, don't worry, Michelle, I think I knew anything about politics when I was eighteen...

La mia Italia

After Berlusconi's and Veltroni's questionable campaign jingles, here's my personal answer.

I hope a day I'll be able to post a song, somewhere, that will be beautiful like this one, bur more postive.
Waiting for that moment, that's how I see my motherland...

Learning to become part of...

Intercultural competence. What a meaningful, topical and controversial term! Nowadays we all continuosly hear words like multiculturalism and globalization, but what do they mean? Our society has changed a lot and is still changing: immigration and new media have radically transformed our old concept of order, based on single countries with their own definite identity, creating a more complex reality. So, the way we used to know our world doesn't exist anymore and we've to deal with other situations, with their own benefits and challenges. But how do we do it? Here is our intercultural competence. That's the way in which we move into our contemporary jungle, trying to understand who we are and who are the others, looking for a way to live in peace together. Learning how to deal with others in our own or in their own context, is important for everybody, but it's necessary (and I hope, also normal) for languages students, like us.

I've always thought to my intercultural competence as something continuosly changing inside me and difficult to weigh up. So, this is the first time I've had the opportunity to assess it thanks to a form: YOGA (an acronym which stands for Your Objectives, Guidelines and Assessment form). It's subdivided into five main areas, that reflect the “dimensions” that compose our intercultural competence: awareness, attitude, skills, knowledge and language proficiency. Each of them is further subdivided into four levels, in order to estimate people's degree of knowledge of a foreign culture, with reference to their personal experiences: educational traveller, sojourner, professional, and intercultural/multicultural specialist. Unfortunately, I’ve never been abroad for long periods, so I had to skip some parts of the questionnaire.

I generally am a bit sceptical about tests like this one, or, for example, the European Portfolio, since I believe that learning is a continuous process and we don't need to assess it point by point, in a so strictly way. We can't weigh up everything and that's the reason why these types of test generally are very long and take a very long time to fill in, in my opinion: they simply try to deal with every aspect of complex issues like learning or intercultural competence and that's no possible to do. However, they might be very useful for other reasons: for example, they can offer some occasions to reflect about what we do and how we do it.
In fact, from this point of view, I found this YOGA form very interesting, especially because it presents some aspects I've never considered before, such as awareness and attitude of learners. It made me reflect about the way in which I generally match my culture with another one. So, I realized that's there are situations in which my intercultural competence is more lacking and how I can try to improve it...waiting for the moment in which I'll become a little part of the worlds I'm dreaming about...

Shhh!

Our Skype exchange with Dickinson College goes on...This time, Serena and I talked with Leah Barreras. The topic we had prepared for that day was "terrorism". We discussed about terrorism of the present day, September 11th 2001 and how life in the USA have changed after it, but we also talked about Italian "lead years" ('70s) and Red Brigades. I particularly enjoy this type of exchanges, because I believe that when we study a language we also need to deal with historical and social aspects of its country. I think it's a fundamental step to really understand and give a sense to what we study every day on the books. It's incredible how little we know of the rest of the world, even of those countries like America, that thanks to movies and its leading role in international questions, has always been present in our lives, someway.

Obvoiusly we also talked about other things. Since it was the first time I Skyped (I do love using "Skype" as a verb!!!) Leah, we sarted talking about our universities, families and lives in general.

If I have to be honest our exchange was a bit strange at the beginning because we (Italians) were talking in a room where there was another lesson in the same time. So, our teacher told us to chat instead of talking, until the end of the lesson, but...it was impossible! The situation was more or less like that:

TEACHER: - Please, chat instead of talking until the end of the lesson...ok? - ALBERTO/SERENA: - Ok... -

ten seconds later...

ALBERTO/SERENA: - Hello? Leah? Hel...Do you hear us? Le...Ha ha, yes, technology is not our field, ha ha ha! -

TEACHER: - Shhh! -

ALBERTO/SERENA: - Ops, sorry -...(in a whisper) - Leah, we've to chat,ok? -

LEAH: - Oh, ok! Why? -

ALBERTO/SERENA: - Because there's another less..-

TEACHER: - Shhh! -

ALBERTO/SERENA: - Sorry! -

ALBERTO/SERENA: - (in a whisper) Let's chat! -

click , click, click...five seconds later:

ALBERTO/SERENA: - Ha ha ha! -

TEACHER: - Shhhhhh!!!! There's another lesson!!! -

ALBERTO/SERENA: - Oh, yes...Sorry! - ... - Oh, can you repeat, Leah? We didn't unders...- -Oh, yes, sorry, sorry, sorry -... - Leah,we've to chat...Eh? Ha ha ha!!! -... - Oh, why is she looking at us this way? Oh my God, we're talking again!!!... -

We must seem stupid! :)

Happy Easter!

Mmh...You may say I love dogs with hair bands...Well, I love dogs with hair bands! Anyway, happy Easter friends, classmates, teacher and people in the Web !!!

Waiting for Skype...

No Skype this week, :( but all our activities with Dickinson College made me meditate. So, while we're waiting for another exchange, I'd like to talk about an issue that may sound strange if handled by a foreign languages student: the other side of the coin of intercultural competency.

I do love languages and discovering new cultures, ways of life, knowing how people live, work, stay together, laugh and cry and why they do it in countries so far from mine. I like figuring the world like a series of stars in the same sky or a series of snow flakes in a winter day and I like finding that my life as I know it, is just one of infinite possibilities. This thought doesn't diminuish the love I feel for it, but makes me curious about others. I believe we're all at the same level of a huge, beautiful mechanism called life. This is the reason why I decided to study languages and I hope to go round the world.

Nowadays we can improve our intercultural competency very easily: the Internet and its potentials let us to share thoughts, pictures and experiences and put us in touch with the rest of the world as if we all were in the same room. No walls, no distance...no difference. Current tools are an important opportunity for us, but I'm afraid they also represent a great risk, that's the loss of our greatest richness: our differences.

I do love discovering others, but I think that everytime we share we also drop something of ourselves. We grow and it's good. And it's normal. And ineluctable. But I think that my grandparents know anything about India and somewhere in India, other grandparents know anything about Italy. And it's perfect exactly as it is, in my opinion.

Let's Skype!

After a loooong examination session, here we are again!

Our first Skype exchange has gone…and I do love it!
When I read the descriptions about the projects that Sarah proposed us, I thought they both were interesting, but when I found out that just the project with Dickinson would enable me to use Skype, I had no doubts. I had heard about this chance at the beginning of the course and I was very impatient to try it. It’s definitely my favorite activity, this year .
We generally don’t have many opportunities to talk in English and very rarely to do it with native speakers. This is the reason why I had (and still have) great expectations about this exchange.
My group is composed by Kelsey Taylor, Serena Santi and me.
When we came in contact, I think I said something like “Oh...Hi!...Well, yes...mmh..hello?”. It’s incredible how the first thing that came up in mind as I heard my voice was: “I can’t speak English any longer!”,
- “...Kelsey? ...mmh...I’m Alberto...” - “Why the evil I said my name with an Anglophone accent?!...I must be totally insane...”-.
Fortunately, after my initial mental confusion, things went on well and we started a real conversation. I perfectly know I make a lot of silly mistakes when I’m talking in a foreign language, but experiments like this are necessary, in my opinion, to really understand at which level I am and in addition, they spur me to improve.
We talked about the differences between public and private universities in the U.S., how’s life in a campus and how university system is organized in Italy and in America. However, I admit we didn’t talk just about education (that was our topic), since we were also interested in other, more general, issues, such as hobbies and family. I think that developping topics like these is a good first step to make somebody’s acquaintance.

I look forward to do another exchange!

Snowow! (snow + wow) :)

It's snowing!!!

Congestion? Cold? It doesn't matter...I DO LOVE IT!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!