ICC

I just completed the ICC questionnaire and I have to say that some questions where difficult to answer. My personal experience is something very personal and sometimes it is difficult to see and judge what has changed. We are always evaluated by teachers and doing a self-assessment was hard.However I think that answering helped me reflect on this year's experience and on my knowledge in general.
This year I realised that our point of view is not always the one and only. Sometimes we think that the way we see the world and the things around us is natural and right. But in a world that is changing more and more, where sometimes boundaries make no sense, it is necessary to get a different perspective. What is more, we are studying languages and it is fundamental to gain intercultural competences and be open-minded. It is also interesting and funny to see how people from other countries look at your own's and sometimes this make you reconsider your thoughts about certain matters.
My answers to the ICC are all positive and this reflects the usfulness of this year's experience. All the things we did and learnt helped me enlarge my views, know more in depth American culture and realise the all the differences there are in the world make it so beautiful and intersting. The key is to accept all the shades and all possibilities you are offered when you get in touch with "the other", and to change ideas on all the things you took for granted.

Skyping with Hugo

Last tuesday Valentina and I tried to speak with Hugo about politics and the health care system in the United States. I wrote "tried" because Hugo was extremely tired and had some difficulty in following our conversation. I tried to ask why he was so tired but it seemed he didn't want to tell exactly what he did. He only told us he went to bed at four in the morning! Therefore the flow of the conversation was very slow and this was also due to the fact that Hugo had no questions to ask us. So we tried to talk a little bit about the health care system in the States. I told him that some time ago I saw Michael Moore's movie called "Sicko" and that I was really impressed by the story of a man who cut two of his fingers while he was woodworking. When he went to the hospital he had to decide which finger he wanted to be put back in its place because his medical insurance couldn't pay for both. Hugo told us that if you don't have a good job or if you are a student and you have a car crash or something like that, it could be a very serious problem. They would take you to the hospital but if you are not insured they could either let you die or decide to operate you. In this case, you may have to pay debts for the rest of your life.
Then we had to stop our conversation because there were some technical problems with our headphones and we let Hugo go back to sleep, since he had no classes that day.
I think that the topic of health care could be a good subject matter for our final project, since it has been a very debated issue in the States, especially during this period of political campaign.

Skype again!

Last tuesday I had an interesting discussion talking to Ann on our third Skype meeting (actually it was the second with Ann). She immediately started asking questions about Berlusconi, because they had a class about politics in Italy with their Italian teacher. Her first qustion was about what we think of him and how we feel towards his political program. I told her that he's not one of my favourites and I explained to her what his political campaign is about. She asked me how come he's one of the richest people in Europe (I think he's the third) and Alessia and I told her that he's good at business and he built up his own commercial empire through industries, television and soccer.

Then I asked her if she had seen the Obama girl video and what she thought of it. She hadn't seen it yet but she knew what it was about and asked us if there is something like that here in Italy. She said that Obama during his campaign is visiting lots of cities including Dickinson but I didn't understand if he went there in person or sent some representatives. We all agree about the importance of these kind of actions that brings politicians to common people and which contribute to create a better image of a candidate. The hope is that all this will turn someday in pragmatic facts and that their beutiful words aren't only virtual promises. We also asked her if she preferes Obama or Hillary. She said she hopes that Obama will win the elections because she thinks that he's a very "down to the ground" person. She also hopes that someday it will be possible also for a women to be elected but she doesn't think Hillary is the right person to be head of state. She said that lots of people are going to vote for her just because she's a woman and not because they really believe in her political program. Then Alessia asked her what she would do if she was elected president. The first thing she said was the universal health care for everybody but we couldn't going much deeper in the matter because the time for our conversation was up. I think this will be an interesting starting point for the next skype meeting.

Image from United States Senate

Second Skype Meeting

Today is the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war and yesterday Alessia, Ann and I talked about terrorism and politics in Italy and America. We started making some questions to Ann about how she feels about terrorism and what has changed in the United States after 9/11. She told us that security measures have generally increased everywhere, above all in the airports. She went back home for the spring break and she had to arrive at the airport three hours early because of all security controls. Another consequence of this situation is represented by the creation of bad stereotypes regarding muslim people and Arabian in general. This happens not only in America but also here in Italy and in Europe in general, I think, because we know that religious extremists of the Middle East hate the western part of the world for various reasons. Then she asked us if we knew other types of terrorism existing in Europe and we told her about the "anni di piombo" in Italy during the seventies and about ETA in Spain.

Then we started talking about elections and politics in general and we expressed our feelings about the present situation. Many politicians here are corrupted and sentenced to prison but they keep their positions thanks to their privileges and this is not fair. Some time ago the governor of New York Elliot Spitzer was caught in a sex scandal and he resigned. Ann told that he was always talking about morality and family but his actions prove that he was not who people tought he was; we vote for people we trust but most times they leave us disappointed.

This skype meeting was more useful to me than the last because I could speak more in English; Ann was very nice and in spite of our topic of conversation we laughed a lot. She had some difficulties with Italian language but I hope she could understand most of the things Alessia and I said. This exchange is becoming more and more interesting and I think I will have learnt lots of thing from my American peers by the end of this academic year.

Questionnaires

I think that the questionnaires were an interesting way to provoke useful discussions about different topics. Through word association and sentence completion you can see what people from different cultures think about the world, people, politics and other contemporary issues. In some cases there are clear differences but sometimes we seem to have a lot of things in common. The first example I can think of regards the answers about "people from the south". Many of us said that they are cheerful and hospitable but there were also negative comment saying that they don't like to work and are more relaxed. Americans in their responses seem to be very worried not to give stereotyped definitions but in many cases their answers coincide with Italians'. Another field in which we seem to have pretty much the same ideas is politics. Negative words strongly prevail over positive ones.

It is also interesting to see what they think about us and our lifestyle: we appear very similar to their people from the south (relaxed, take it easy), but I think that this image is mainly influenced by the fact that Italians depicted through movies and TV series are people from the south. Personally, I think that Italian people from the north are very different from the stereotyped image Americans have.

I think that through next conversations on skype we will come to know other things about American culture and we will have the possibility to deepen our discussion about stereotypes and false beliefs about each other's culture and way of life.

Skype!

Last tuesday we did our first Skype session and I have to say that it was really fun. Unfortunately I couldn't speak English a lot because in the first half of the lesson I didn't have the password to login, and I could join the conversation between Marina and Michelle when they started to speak Italian. However there were some words and expressions Michelle couldn't remember and I spoke English in order to help her. We talked about our lessons, parents, movies and our plans for the next future. It was exciting because I had never talked on the phone with an American girl before and I was happy to because I could understand everything she said. It could seem a banal thing but when I watch a movie in English, for example, I always check the actors' mouth movements but on the phone it's obviously impossible! That's why I'm looking forward to do another skype exchange because I want to speak more in English and test my listening skills, learning interesting things about culture and life from our colleagues on the other side of the ocean.

Back to everyday life :-(

Hi everibody! I just came back from my holidays in Egypt and I'm so depressed. After a week of sun and sea it was awful to see the rain again. Not to mention the fact that the exams are approaching. Well, that's life and there is nothing we can do about it. Here there are some photos showing how wonderful it was!