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
