YOGA form

Hello!
I have just finished reading and filling out the YOGA form…Wow, I must say I find the topic Intercultural Competence really intriguing! I am happy we are going to deal with it this semester.

As I read through the text, I was pleasantly surprised to notice that many reflections were not new to me. In the form there were some ideas which I had already expressed in the post I wrote on my blog two weeks ago :-)
I was already aware of the importance of Intercultural Competence in today world. I also agree that if you work in an international environment you need to be open-minded and to know how to cope with people with very different ethnic backgrounds. However, as I stated in my post, I am convinced that a whole life is not enough to get to know a culture/language which is not yours. That is why I completely agree with the statement that ICC development has no ending point. You can never consider yourself as “interculturally competent”, so in the end the aim is not KNOWING a foreign country but rather BEING AWARE of what is different there and why. Only if we learn to be critic we will be able to appreciate and accept diversity.

The YOGA form was quite long, so as I went on reading I stumbled across aspects I had never considered before. I am talking for example about the “double-edged” nature of the intercultural experience. It is pretty obvious that competence in another culture and proficiency in its language are part of the same process, but I had never thoroughly reflected on this matter.
I realized that when I talk or write to my foreign friends, I often tend to concentrate more on the language rather than trying to learn something new from them. I mean, I am a student of foreign languages so I just try to jump at any chance I get to speak them. Sometimes when I meet foreign people, practicing my English/German seem more important to me than getting to know their culture. But little by little I am learning that “language and culture are dimensions of each other, interrelated and inseparable”. (This was the sentence which struck me most.)

On the whole, I found the text about Intercultural Competence very interesting, but not so easy to understand, though. There were many specific terms I did not know (i.e.: endeavor, to be germane to etc…) and the concepts were not always straight-forward.
When it came to fill out the form, I had some difficulties as well. To tell the truth, I do not like judging my own competences in general. I may be wrong, but I have always had the impression the others can judge me much better. This was the first time I had to assess my Intercultural Competence and I must say it was a bit awkward to rate myself in such an issue. Actually, I am not sure you can even rate yourself in such an issue… :-)

Anyway, I tried to do my best….And I am eager to see where the YOGA form will lead us :-)

See you soon!

Second Skype exchange

Hi everybody!
Here I am again to discuss about my second Skype meeting.
As I had already talked to Sharon two weeks before, this time I did not feel ‘embarrassed’ at all and I suppose it was the same for her. In fact, we both started talking very spontaneously right from the very beginning.

First of all, she told me about what she did during her spring break and she asked me questions about my week (in Italian).

Then we shifted the focus to the main topic of this week: terrorism. We had a brief discussion about the film Buongiorno, notte! and the so-called ‘years of lead’. I tried to explain her what was going on between the Communist Party and the DC and why these upheavals led to Aldo Moro’s murder. I stressed the relation between what happened in those years and some of the main problems of today Italy; for example, I told her about the big scandal of “Mani Pulite”, in which many politicians, entrepreneurs and judges were involved. The huge debt we have now partially comes from that long period of corruption, although many Italians seem not to realize that.
From here we moved to the present situation: Sharon asked me about the elections (how many parties we have, who the candidates are) and who in my opinion is going to win ;-)
We drew a comparison between Italy and the US, since they are also having elections soon. We tried to figure out what the most important issues are (for the new Government/President): economic growth, health care (mainly in America), immigration (mainly in Italy) and, once again, terrorism.

Afterwards, we switched to English and talked about terrorism in the US and American politics in general.
As is well known, after the terrible events of 9/11th the American government tried to do whatever possible in order to ‘defeat’ terrorism and prevent other attacks to happen. This was President Bush’s main goal when he was reelected for the second time.
Unfortunately, most Americans think that Bush failed in his duty and would like the new President to pull all the troops out of the Iraq. That would probably help American economy bounce back since huge investments have been made in a war which is actually leading to nothing. In addition, people would feel safer and not constantly under threat of terrorist attacks.

As you may notice, in our conversation we did not strictly concentrate on the topic we were supposed to develop.
Last time we were to talk about university life, and so we did. This time it was much more difficult because we felt more confident and at ease; the conversation was very spontaneous so it was harder to stick to one single issue. We started talking about terrorism but then we digressed and talked more about politics and social problems in our countries. I hope the task can be considered fulfilled the same :-) After all, we talked ½ hour in Italian and ½ an hour in English and we learnt something new from each other…This is what counts, isn’t it? :-P

I am really satisfied about how this exchange is going on. We are just at the beginning but I feel we are on the right way. Contributing to the forum is a great chance to get to know something about life overseas and to find out things we do not know about our own country. In fact, when Sarah told us that this week topic would be the ‘years of lead’ and the Red Brigades, I was kind of puzzled. I realized I just had a faint idea of what was going on in those years; unfortunately, we do not usually study this period at school. So it was a great opportunity for me to learn something new about Italian history…I really appreciated it! :-)

See you!!!!

Mid-term paper

Hello everyone!
Before taking these few days off for Easter break, I would like to discuss about the mid-term paper I got back from Sarah two weeks ago.
I had a look at my peers’ works as well, so that I could get a general idea of what people thought about this course.

As regards the content, I was not surprised at all to read that all of us were satisfied and happy with what we did during the first semester. We all wrote more or less the same things and defined this course as informal and thought-provoking…Something pretty different from what we had been used to.

From the point of view of language, the papers were quite different from each other. Some of us used a more formal, some others a more colloquial style.
Although we all have a “bachelor degree” in English and should all be more or less at the same level, I noticed that there are quite big differences among the students.
I am neither a teacher nor a native speaker of English, so it is not my intention to judge anyone, but I must say some papers were much more accurate than others. Some people really came up with original reflections and went deeper into the matters, while others were a little bit superficial and the language was not always appropriate. What’s more, I had the impression that someone concentrated too much on the description of the ”e-tivities” and did not pay enough attention to the learning process (as we were supposed to do).

However, I realized that most of us made the same kind of language mistakes. We still have some difficulties with punctuation and verb tenses. In her comments Sarah often pointed out that we tend to mix verb tenses (simple past and present perfect); for me, after 13 years studying English is still hard to get these two tenses right since we do not have the same distinction in Italian.
In my paper there was also a lack of connectors, whereas some students used them either too often or in the wrong place (i.e.: ‘Moreover’ at the beginning of a new paragraph). In my first posts I used too many connectors, now I have tried to ‘reduce’ them but maybe I am exaggerating too much ;-) I will try to get better in this sense.
Another thing I noticed is that many of us misspell words sometimes. In my paper there are no spelling mistakes just because I always use a spell-checker (even when I am writing in Italian) and I would suggest that my peers should do the same. We all know that English spelling is not a piece of cake (I was also sure it was ’partecipation’ instead of ’participation’ :-/…); thank goodness, technology can help us avoid silly mistakes :-)

On the one hand, I think in my paper there are some mistakes I could (and should) have avoid:

• The repetition of the subject when it is the same in two coordinate sentences (I was told a million times about it…)
• The use of ‘consistent’ instead of ‘significant’ (I should have checked its meaning and thought it might have been a ‘false friend’)
• The use of wrong prepositions (you should always look them up as they can be really different from Italian)

On the other hand, I realized there are things which are not so straight-forward. For instance, although I studied all possible grammar rules about it, I am still not sure about the difference between ’also’ and ’even’. I mean, I do know there is a difference between the two and I think I have understood it, nonetheless when I write the choice does not come so naturally.
The same happens with prepositions sometimes: for example, ’to expect something FROM someone’ and ’to expect something OF someone’ are both possible…I read some sentences and I noticed they are slightly different, however this difference is almost imperceptible to my ’non-native speaker’ ear.
Let’s hope watching films and talking with my Skype-peer and other foreign friends will help me get better from time to time.

Last but not least, I would really like to thank my peers for providing me feedback. They gave me a lot of useful tips and good pieces of advice…Without their help my paper would have been much worse, that’s for sure!

OK, that was long enough ;-)

Happy Easter to everyone!!!!

BYE

Reflecting on "Intercultural competence"...

Hi there!
As the Americans had a few days off for spring break, there will not be a report about my conversation with Sharon this week. So this post is going to be quite different from the previous one ;-)
Today I’d like to concentrate on my personal learning…But not in the same way I did during the last semester. Ok, I’ll explain it better: I do not want to focus on my language skills, but rather on the aspects of America I am learning more about. From the very beginning I liked the idea of getting to know another culture and improving my English at the same time. I must say I was right…so far the exchange has been really stimulating!

Mmm…Intercultural competence…It sounds as something pretty difficult to gain ;-)
I have always thought it is quite hard to become familiar with any culture you did not grow up into. Even though you spend some time abroad, I think your idea of the country you are living in will always be influenced by your own culture. This often prevents you to get a clear and objective view of how things really are.
This is basically what I reflected on after our meeting with Chiara last Monday. And these three weeks working on the Wiki and reading the forum just confirmed this conviction.

I have realized that the world tends to have quite a distorted view of the US. I noticed it also when I was in Germany and had friends of many different nationalities.
On the one hand, some people see America as the country in which everything works perfectly: everyone has a good job, an excellent wage, everything is big, technology is high-developed and the economy is thriving.
On the other hand, some others see America as the root of all evil. They associate this country only with inequity, war, army, disaster and junk food. They think it is impossible to find something positive in this culture.
As regards my personal opinion and experience, I must confess it is hard not to be influenced at all by one of these two (extreme) views. To tell the truth, I used to be quite critical towards American society sometimes and I often wondered how Americans could be so presumptuous and think they were “the best“. These months spent with Sarah and the meeting with Chiara proved that American people are much more critical towards their own society as I actually thought.
Americans ARE NOT Bush (and Bush does not represent ALL Americans) ;-)

I really liked the discussion with Chiara last week since we stressed both the positive and the negative aspects of the US. It was made clear that both countries could learn a lot from each other.

As it came out in a discussion last semester, we (Italians and Europeans in general) seem to import only the worst things frm America...That is a real shame, and there is nobody but ourselves to blame.

So, after all it is always the same old story…you cannot judge something you really do not know.

See you next week

First Skype exchange

Hi everybody!

It has been quiet on this blog lately, but now…Welcome back :-)
Yesterday afternoon I had my first Skype meeting with Sharon, a first-year student of Biochemistry at Dickinson College.
A new exciting experience has begun… :-) Thank God I was already familiar with “Skype” since I have been using it regularly for the last two years. So in this post there won’t be a tedious description of a mysterious technology I had to learn to cope with…;-)
Anyway, I must confess I was pretty nervous while I was waiting for Sharon to call me. In “Skype” I usually talk with people I know, so the idea of having a conversation with someone I had never met before sounded a little bit weird to me. Fortunately, I felt at ease from the very beginning.

Before talking about our different school systems (that was what we were supposed to do), we both introduced ourselves (in Italian). Sharon has been studying Italian for four years because she loves our language and country. She would like to visit Italy one day and meet her relatives who live in Molise. Dickinson students are going to have spring break next week and Sharon is spending these days in New Jersey with her family.
I asked her some general questions about American school system: she told me they start university when they are 18 and it usually takes them 3-4 years to graduate. In the US the high school lasts four years and there they study a lot of subjects (as we do). In each State the education system is more or less the same, but some differences can be noticed between public and private schools.

Then we switched into English and talked about the importance of studying abroad. She asked me if we have exchange programs and I told her about my Erasmus experience. We reflected on the fact that spending some time in a foreign country enables us to become more broad-minded. We both seemed to appreciate multicultural environments where you meet different cultures and ways of living.
We also discussed about university life; I explained that in Italy we do not have a campus with dorms but we usually live with our families or share apartments with other students. That is quite different from the USA, where most students leave their home towns to go to university. We came up with the conclusion that both living in the campus and with your family has its pros and cons.
Sharon had me notice that when you all live very close to each other it is much easier to form deep friendships. Your peers become your family while you are away from home, so it is often at university that you meet your “best friends”. I realized that myself when I lived in a student hall during my Erasmus. I feel here it is the other way round (at least for me); we attend the same lectures, we go for a coffee or have lunch together but in the evening (or at the weekend) most of us come back to their own home and life. I think this way you meet a lot of nice people but it is quite tough to become close friends.
On the other hand, it is not always easy for American students to live so far away from their families for such a long time.

My impression of this first Skype exchange is absolutely positive and I really hope it will go on like this. I am convinced this is a great opportunity we just cannot miss!

Bye!