Self Assessment

I have to admit in this semester I have not been so constant and present as in the first one. Shame on me! Despite that, I found the exchange very interesting and useful in order to keep my English trained and got to know more about American culture.

I also have to admit that from the personal assessment of the experience I realized that many aspects were familiar to me. I mean, the questionnaire pointed out some achievements or experiences we are supposed to have made in this exchange, such as learning customs and conventions of talking with people, understanding other cultures by seeing things from a different point of view and by looking at my culture from their perspective, being able to cope with a range of reactions people from different cultures may have to the way I express myself and what I say, and so on. But I realized that I already learnt how to cope with most of these things last year that I was in England. When skyping with Claudia I actually never found myself ill-at-ease or experiencing misunderstanding and uncomfortable situations. This is true especially from the linguistic point of view. The only times when there was a bit of confusion were when the three of us were talking at the same time. But most of the times Elena and I skyped before Claudia came online, so that problem was rare.

Talking more in detail about the content of the exchange, I found very thought-provoking the discussion we had in class with the American student, were we compared our scholar systems and our way of studying. It made me think about the pros and cons of the Italian system and the American/Anglo-Saxon one. I also though on which is the school system that gives the best preparation, not only to face the job world, but in general to face life and its challenges.

Another occasion in which I re-considered my own culture was when talking about university life in the States, and the fact that young people leave home earlier than us. In general talking about the differences of young people in the two countries made me reflect on how less independent Italians are in contrast with Americans. Besides, I learnt better about college, and the process American guys have to face in order to find a college that accept them. I also learnt that young Americans are required to do a lot of activities in different fields in order to be more qualified for any kind of job.

My curiosity was aroused when talking about politics, as I was very curious on finding out how Americans see this topic and how much they know about our political situation. I was positively surprised to find out that Americans happen to fight over politics like we do so often here in Italy.

Moreover, I got a more precise idea of the fact that there are differences in habits and way of life among people from different parts of the USA. Of course I know it is a huge country that have differences inside, but we got from the movies and other sources the idea that America is all the same, and therefore Americans are all the same.

Skype discussion: politics

I was surprised reading the statement Sarah posted on our course blog: ‘Only 54 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots during the last four decades of presidential elections. Compare that embarrassing number to Italy's 90 percent,...’. That’s why I asked Elena if people she knows are interested in politics, and if they normally go voting. I was positively surprised discovering that Italians are not the only ones that get passionate and fight over politics! That’s exactly what happens to me every time I talk about Italian political situation: people think I am crazy cause I am so disappointed and annoyed by the present scenario in Italy, that I really get angry while discussing! Anyway, Elena explained to me that Americans in general are interested in politics, but they tend not to talk about it, as it would inevitably create tension and people will end up fighting. The same happens every time we gather with relatives and friends: we try to avoid the topic, as we all know it is going to be cause of fighting. Unluckily, this doesn’t work all the times though

I asked her if she is going to vote, and if she has already decided who is she going to vote for, even though elections are not close for them. She replied she is definitively going to vote, as most of her friends, and that she has already clear in mind her choice. Lucky! We discussed about the fact that in Italy elections for the Prime Minister are planned for next week end, and she asked me more in detail about the candidates and my predictions about the winner. But I have no crystal bowl! I can only keep my fingers crossed and go and give my tiny contribution!!

She told me they’ve watched in class the two songs-anthems for Silvio and Walter, those that Sarah posted on our blog, and she asked me if all political campaigns are like that. I felt so ashamed! Sometimes I really feel a complete idiot thinking of the impression we give to the rest of the world. I told Elena that Italian politics should be forget, eliminated from studies about Italy. I would like to give an advice to all foreigners that study Italian and Italian culture: look at our historical, artistic, geographical and culinary beauties, but leave alone politics! No kidding. I explained how candidates and parties present themselves during campaigns, and I told her about the ‘Par Condicio’ law. She told me they have no such thing in America, as who have money can do whatever he wants without limitations in that matter.

That's all, basically.
Byee

Idea about the final project

Considering an aspect of the two cultures (Italy-USA) I would like to explore further, in my opinion it would be very interesting focusing on IMMIGRATION. I believe a comparison with the American experience, would be helpful and thought-provoking. We all know America has always coped with issues coming up from the fact that people have different origins and belong to different cultures. In a way it can be said that Americans are all immigrants! Despite that, they are still facing problems with immigrants (especially from Mexico). In contrast, Italy has just started in the last 10-15 years to deal with all the problems caused by such a massive wave of immigration. We are still finding our way to cope with all this. America can be an example and a source of inspiration in this process.

Moreover, a very current issue in Italy is whether or not to give the Italian citizenship to immigrants that have been living here for a certain period now, and to children of immigrants that were born here. In fact, one of the first new government’s action will be considering the law proposal presented by Amato, which considers precisely these topics. On the other side, in America is very tough to get the citizenship. Since they. That’s why I think that these topics would be very interesting to get into.

ASSESSING INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE: A YOGA FORM

Since the title of our ‘corso di laurea’ is ‘LINGUE STRANIERE PER LA COMUNICAZIONE INTERNAZIONALE’, it is supposed that nobody more than us is aware of the importance of cross-cultural preparation to ensure intercultural effectiveness when communicating (in every possible way) with another culture. Moreover, as long as we are supposed to own such intercultural competence, it is important to possess an instrument to demonstrate and measure it. Here comes up the Yoga Form!

I I find it useful, even though everybody is aware of the difficulty of actually measuring the knowledge a person owns in a field. In particular, I always feel I cannot be a very impartial judge of myself, so I try to leave the judgment to the others. That’s why I absolutely agree with the Yoga Form’s authors when saying: ‘it is useful to have a native of the host culture rate you as well. Normally, the same individual will be perceived differently by the various evaluator. These different perspectives can spark important discussion, reflection, and learning’.

ü Despite that, I believe filling the Yoga form can make u aware of the capacities you already possess when interacting with people belonging to other cultures, but more important your lacks and possibilities to improve.

ü Personally, I find difficult to rate my awareness of how I am viewed by members of the host culture and how being in a different context can affect my behavior. I’ve noticed a predominant part of my personality is trying to put myself in the other’s shoes, and I practice that even more when coping with new situations and people who don’t share my own culture. Hence, I think I demonstrate a good empathy when interacting with members of the host culture, and a high willingness to learn more and more about every aspect of their culture. I also try continuously to adapt to what I learn, to overcome the possible awkwardness of dealing with the new, and not to judge. That doesn’t imply that I become passive in interactions and forget my beliefs and values. I just try to be as open as possible to what is new and different, trying to give it the same importance and validity that I give to my culture. In my opinion, getting to know other cultures doesn’t mean you have to give up in some ways your own, but rather it is always a possibility to enrich yourself.

ü Considering the SKILLS part, I’m not quite sure what they intend with ‘strategies’ and ‘frameworks’. It seems like we learn at school strategies and ways to obtain certain aims, while I believe it is all a matter of knowledge of the other culture and the each person find a personal way to interact and adapt to the various situations.

ü To sum up, it is my personal belief that the key instruments to successfully interact with people in general, and with other cultures in particular are knowledge and empathy.

Considerations about the mid-term paper

Hi there!

I would like to make some comments on the mid-term paper we got back and the corrections Sarah made.

I found it very useful, as reflecting critically on our language learning and considering our lacks and spaces for further improvement is very useful.

Considering the content of my paper, I was very happy to discover that I did a good job, as I was not completely sure if I had faced the matter from the right point of view. Talking about the writing, by the way, I am kind of disappointed with myself because of the mistakes I still make. I am aware of the fact that we (Italians) have a more formal and complex way of writing and organizing sentences than English speakers, and I do notice that I tend to do so in my writing. But despite that I still make stupid mistakes that are just caused by the fact that I still kind of thing in Italian when writing in English! One for all: I often don’t respect the rule ‘verb+object+adverbial phrase’. I remember my English teacher in High school was always repeating us: “you have to THINK in English!”. But how difficult is it, isn’t it?!?!

Anyway, now I know I have to keep even more attention about this particular thing in my writing, and this is the important thing! Someone said: ‘do know your enemies and you will be able to defeat them!”.

See you in class!

My Personal Learning Environment

Hi there!
I've really appreaciated this week e-tivity! I was not surprised to read in Sarah's post: 'studies have shown that only 20% of our learning actually takes place in institutional contexts whereas the remaining 80% takes place outside of the classroom in different periods of one’s life'. In my opinion this statement is even more valid when language learning is concerned. I've always had the impression that attending lectures, doing homeworks and taking exams was not enough to learn effectively a second language. That's why having a Personal Learning Environment is really useful. You can be aware of what actually helps you the most learning and improving (in this case) English.

Here is my Personal Learning Environment map. I've had some problems with my Computer in the last days, so I haven't been able to download FreeMind. I used good old Word to create my PLE ;-P
Right click on it and you should be able to visualise it fully. If you cannot tell me and I'll find out another way to pubblish it so that it will be more visible.


When thinking of criteria to organize all the activities that I adopt to improve my English learning, I found out that the best way I could think of was taking into consideration the four sides of learning a new language: writing, speaking, reading and listening. This involves that some activities belongs to different groups, which is a repetition. But I find it a good way for me to judge if I'm dedicating myself to improve all of the four skills.

If you have any sort of advice or comment, please let me know.
Byee
Anna

Judging Online Sources

Even if I’m ashamed of it, I must admit that normally paying attention on the reliability of information or the authority of a Web site is not one of my main worries when looking for information online. As the OWL site claims ‘We live in an information age. The quantity of information available is staggeringly huge’. For this reason, when I search on Google (the search engine I normally use) my fundamental purpose is to find what I’m actually interested in. Finding sites that give me useful information about the topic I’m interested in is already so hard sometimes, that checking for reliability ends to be secondary.

As the article ‘Evaluating Sources of Information’ suggests, I normally tend to ask myself some basic questions before actually starting my research: what kind of information am I looking for and where is it more likely to be found? In this way I decide where to focus: ‘Libraries? The Internet? Academic periodicals? Newspapers? Government records?’.

On the other hand, if my aim is to find material for an academic work, I try to be more concerned about judging the source I get the information from. For this purpose I find the 5 WH suggested by the ‘San Diego State University’ site the best way to summarize and remind the things to check in order to evaluate the source of information. It’s definitively my intention to use them in the future.

There they are, in the short version:

• WHO is responsible for the information and WHO is the audience?

• WHAT can be said about the text, its content, style, accuracy and so on?

• WHEN was the information published and last updated?

• WHERE else can the content be found?

• WHY was the information published?

What do you think? Does it happen the same to you?

Let me know.

Byee

Anna