I've always been interested in different cultures, so I've found this exchange very exciting. I chose to be part of the exchange with Dickinson college USA for two reasons: first of all because the guys were mothertongue speakers and secondly because we were supposed to use Skype. This programm was not new to me and I use it quite often at home. That’s why the idea of talking "live" with someone from the other side of the world has aroused my interest a lot. Moreover, I was really curious about how those American people studied Italian, what was their level, how was their pronunciation and so on. We had many interesting topics to talk about, which made differences and similarities between our cultures very clear.
I felt quite comfortable during this exchange.Luckily I never had incidents or misunderstandings due to cultural differences. I think that intelligent people are more willing to overcome them than to limit to them. Moreover, I could make friends with Kristen, my American peer, and other people of my course I did not know before. I really appreciated when my American peer called me during the weekend just to hear from me and have a little talk together. That made our relationship more interpersonal and less mechanic. Another thing that I liked a lot was our meeting with Chiara, one of the Dickinson students who was in Padova on holiday: we had the chance to know directly someone we could only meet virtually (and she gave interesting useful answers to our questions).
During the exchange I asked many questions about life, culture and many other topics (not only the assigned ones). I love analizing differences and similarities between my culture and others. I had the chance to speak a lot (which never happened during five years of university) and learn many different things from the conversations with a native speaker.
Since I have many friends who come from different countries and have such opposite backgrounds, I am quite used to re-consider my own culture. Apart from comparisons, I’ve also learnt many new things about USA that I didn’t know before (or knew superficially). The most important topics we discussed are: family life, school system, university life, politics, electoral system and elections, immigration and multiculturalism, cinema and stereotypes (Italy-America and North-South America). Moreover, I’ve learnt something about customs and conventions of talking with people.For example, I realized that the typical Italian way of repeating "thank you" and "sorry" hundreds of times may sound terribly tedious, or that Italians tend to greet a lot, while the Americans tend to limit to a short "hi" and "bye". Another thing that I noticed is that sometimes when I tried to correct my peer's mistakes she was afraid to talk and when I asked her to correct mine she didn't do it. At that point I spoke to her directly and asked her if she was offended or intimidated. Her answer was no, of course, but since that I tried to limit my corrections, even if I would have appreciate her correcting me. As far as I am concerned, I tended to ask whatever I could. Many people are shy or do not want to bore with silly questions, but I've learnt not to care about it and ask. That's why when I couldn't understand something I asked my peer to write it down or to repeat it slowly.
In conclusion, my exchange experience was good. There were just a couple of things that made me feel uncomfortable, but I think they didn't affect my learning process. So I'm really happy I had the chance to take part in the project.
mercoledì 14 maggio 2008
venerdì 4 aprile 2008
Double reflective blogging post
Well, since I’m having serious problems with my connection at home it was quite impossible for me to do some of my work. However I’m willing to write this double reflecting blogging post. Why double? Because I’m going to put together my two past Skype experiences.
I haven’t changed my American peer yet, so I always spoke every time with the same student. This made everything a little more easy for me because I could get used to her accent and her way of speaking. I’m quite happy because I could understand…let’s say 90% of what she told me.
As far as the topics are concerned, I have to admit that we didn’t talk much about the assigned topics and we often shifted to something else (mainly personal experiences). In my opinion this is not that bad, since my goal is that of practising my oral and listening skills. Moreover, it’s sort of a challenge for me to change constantly from a topic to another, without focusing on a particular range of words and expressions.
I love Skype. I think it’s a very good tool for practising. I noticed that my peer appreciates a lot when I write things down to explain her the mistakes or just to let her see how to write things. This happens when speaking in Italian most of all: I don’t like translating my sentences in English, I prefer writing what she cannot understand, so she can get the meaning by herself. And this is what I ask her to do when I don’t get some of her words.
I hope I can get the best from this exchange and I hope I can also give back what I can to help people learn Italian, as well.
I haven’t changed my American peer yet, so I always spoke every time with the same student. This made everything a little more easy for me because I could get used to her accent and her way of speaking. I’m quite happy because I could understand…let’s say 90% of what she told me.
As far as the topics are concerned, I have to admit that we didn’t talk much about the assigned topics and we often shifted to something else (mainly personal experiences). In my opinion this is not that bad, since my goal is that of practising my oral and listening skills. Moreover, it’s sort of a challenge for me to change constantly from a topic to another, without focusing on a particular range of words and expressions.
I love Skype. I think it’s a very good tool for practising. I noticed that my peer appreciates a lot when I write things down to explain her the mistakes or just to let her see how to write things. This happens when speaking in Italian most of all: I don’t like translating my sentences in English, I prefer writing what she cannot understand, so she can get the meaning by herself. And this is what I ask her to do when I don’t get some of her words.
I hope I can get the best from this exchange and I hope I can also give back what I can to help people learn Italian, as well.
lunedì 17 marzo 2008
...reflection on my mid-term paper
I was really impressed when my teacher Sarah gave me the evaluation grid with her comments on my mid-term paper. I know I spent some time reflecting on my learning process and I tried to give my best while writing it, but I couldn’t imagine somebody would think it was “excellent”.
I went through it and I noticed that there were few errors but a lot of things I could have written in a better way. As the teacher pointed out, my style was quite informal. I’m aware of this, because I wasn’t expected to write it like it was a formal essay. At the same time, I’m aware that I often tend to write things down informally, so this is something I need to improve. I noticed some mistakes about punctuation (especially commas) and some related to vocabulary.
Two comments were identical: they said that it’s not good to start a new paragraph with a linking word that strong links to the previous sentences, because it indicates that I was continuing on with the same idea, instead of proving my will to start a new paragraph.
I went through it and I noticed that there were few errors but a lot of things I could have written in a better way. As the teacher pointed out, my style was quite informal. I’m aware of this, because I wasn’t expected to write it like it was a formal essay. At the same time, I’m aware that I often tend to write things down informally, so this is something I need to improve. I noticed some mistakes about punctuation (especially commas) and some related to vocabulary.
Two comments were identical: they said that it’s not good to start a new paragraph with a linking word that strong links to the previous sentences, because it indicates that I was continuing on with the same idea, instead of proving my will to start a new paragraph.
lunedì 10 marzo 2008
...exchange Italy-USA
Last week we started our exchange with Dickinson college. I remember that day for two basic reasons: first of all, an awful weather! The day before seemed a spring day: it was quite warm, sunny and my mood was positive (allergy apart!). But, the following day…my God…it was so cold and windy! Moreover, it was raining and I couldn’t keep my umbrella open for the wind, so I walked around Padua searching for the lab and I got there all wet! Consequently…a little bit of fever and a crazy headache for the next two days!
Secondly, we started this exchange through skype. That day my peer was a nice sweet girl from L.A., California with Chinese origins. Well, for both of us it was our first time doing such a thing, so we were a little embarrassed at the beginning, but then we chatted for about an hour.
Although we were asked to talk about education, we needed time to introduce ourselves, so we just talked about the campus and the opposite situation we have here in Padua, where all the university buildings are among those of the city. We talked half in English and half in Italian. I noticed we had more difficulties in talking in Italian, but I think she was good, because she told me she has studied Italian only for a year and a half. I tried to slow down and I think we managed to understand each other, technical problems apart. Nice experience!
Secondly, we started this exchange through skype. That day my peer was a nice sweet girl from L.A., California with Chinese origins. Well, for both of us it was our first time doing such a thing, so we were a little embarrassed at the beginning, but then we chatted for about an hour.
Although we were asked to talk about education, we needed time to introduce ourselves, so we just talked about the campus and the opposite situation we have here in Padua, where all the university buildings are among those of the city. We talked half in English and half in Italian. I noticed we had more difficulties in talking in Italian, but I think she was good, because she told me she has studied Italian only for a year and a half. I tried to slow down and I think we managed to understand each other, technical problems apart. Nice experience!
lunedì 10 dicembre 2007
...let's reflect, PLEase!
This time I was asked to develop a mindmap of my PLE, that is to say my Personal Learning Environment. For those of you who have never heard of a PLE before, it can be defined as ““a combination of the formal and informal tools and processes we use to gather information, reflect on it and do something with it” (Martin, 2007).
In other words, I had to reflect on my personal approach to my language learning process and draw a mind map summarizing my analysis through personal categories.
Here is my PLE:
This activity has been very useful for me. I wasn’t used to reflect on my learning process in such a way and I think this is something I will keep up. Once you are aware of what you are doing and conscious about your “modus operandi”, everything seems to be more meaningful and easy to approach.
venerdì 30 novembre 2007
...surfing the net as detectives
Communication has been improving a lot up to now. Nowadays we have many possibilities to exchange information, which I think is a real privilege for us as people of the 21st century.
Man has been working hard to improve knowledge and to find ways to spread and share old and new information. In particular, telecommunication is spreading so fast that we can hardly be informed about every enhancement.
Internet is one of the best inventions for communication in my opinion. It provides many different sources of information and everybody has the chance to express freely and add a personal contribution to general knowledge. Today the amount of information on the net is really huge, almost unlimited, and Internet has become one of the most used sources for research.
But this freedom can become dangerous when the information you find is confusing, wrong or even voluntarily misleading. So it becomes necessary to judge what you come across and verify if the source is reliable or not.
Apart from books, I often use Internet when I need to do research. Of course, I’m well aware that I may find all kinds of information, so I always need to check if what I’m reading can be trustworthy. I usually do this by doing extra research on the author of the essay I’m reading or the organization which published the article. Usually big names grant us reliability.
Another way I learnt is to focus on the domains: for example, if you look for documents which end with “.edu” or “.ac.uk” you’re quite sure that they come from British or American Universities (especially if they are “.pdf” files).
Sometimes the layout of the website can be useful, as well. Usually, sites which are clear, clean and well structured are more likely to be official or at least “more serious”. In detail, I tend to trust more those websites which add bibliography (or give a short biography of the author) and those with useful official links.
Moreover, another thing I tend to check is if the site is regularly updated or has been recently updated: you could come across interesting contents which are no more valid just because they’re old or they have changed.
The pages I read about judging online sources gave me the opportunity to reflect about the criteria I use and understand how important it is to pay attention to them. I had the chance to learn some new criteria concerning the accuracy of information and the main goals of the site and the author, which I will surely use in the future. However, the aspect that mostly caught my attention is authorship: I discovered the “Internet Directory of Published Writers”, which I think can be really useful if you need to be sure that the article you intend to use for your work is reliable and relevant.
Man has been working hard to improve knowledge and to find ways to spread and share old and new information. In particular, telecommunication is spreading so fast that we can hardly be informed about every enhancement.
Internet is one of the best inventions for communication in my opinion. It provides many different sources of information and everybody has the chance to express freely and add a personal contribution to general knowledge. Today the amount of information on the net is really huge, almost unlimited, and Internet has become one of the most used sources for research.
But this freedom can become dangerous when the information you find is confusing, wrong or even voluntarily misleading. So it becomes necessary to judge what you come across and verify if the source is reliable or not.
Apart from books, I often use Internet when I need to do research. Of course, I’m well aware that I may find all kinds of information, so I always need to check if what I’m reading can be trustworthy. I usually do this by doing extra research on the author of the essay I’m reading or the organization which published the article. Usually big names grant us reliability.
Another way I learnt is to focus on the domains: for example, if you look for documents which end with “.edu” or “.ac.uk” you’re quite sure that they come from British or American Universities (especially if they are “.pdf” files).
Sometimes the layout of the website can be useful, as well. Usually, sites which are clear, clean and well structured are more likely to be official or at least “more serious”. In detail, I tend to trust more those websites which add bibliography (or give a short biography of the author) and those with useful official links.
Moreover, another thing I tend to check is if the site is regularly updated or has been recently updated: you could come across interesting contents which are no more valid just because they’re old or they have changed.
The pages I read about judging online sources gave me the opportunity to reflect about the criteria I use and understand how important it is to pay attention to them. I had the chance to learn some new criteria concerning the accuracy of information and the main goals of the site and the author, which I will surely use in the future. However, the aspect that mostly caught my attention is authorship: I discovered the “Internet Directory of Published Writers”, which I think can be really useful if you need to be sure that the article you intend to use for your work is reliable and relevant.
martedì 27 novembre 2007
...do YouTube? I do...
Hey mates, I’m so sorry I’m late in posting this e-tivity but I wasn’t at home during the weekend and I couldn’t find a way to even post a message because the connection didn’t work for some days.
This post is about YouTube, one of the most important websites of the net, which was thought to watch and share videos by simply uploading them for free. What made YouTube so interesting at the beginning is that everybody can watch the videos there, no matter what kind of files they are. Afterwards, people started appreciating it for the huge quantity of material this site can provide. You can find videos about every kind of topic; you just need to write a word on the search engine and click on it to choose from a very long list of links to files of all sorts.
I started using YouTube as soon as my friends told me about it. I can find whatever I need, believe me. Sometimes searching is not really easy…or better, immediate…but if you search with the right words and choose carefully from the list, I’m sure you’ll get what you desire.
In particular, I starting searching this site for rare music videos and pieces of concerts. Moreover, I searched for films and TV shows. There I soon realized that you can find videos from all over the world and I often love to compare the voices of American or British actors with those of their Italian or Spanish dubbers (I had real fun watching cartoons by Walt Disney in various languages, as well!).
I think YouTube can also be a very useful site to improve your language skills. Many videos (and I would say the majority of them) are in English, so they can be very useful to get your ear used to normal-speed English conversations or learn new words and expressions.
I visited TeacherTube, a sort of branch of YouTube, which provides only educationally focused videos and I think it’s really interesting. I didn’t know it existed, but I immediately bookmarked it. I think I will visit it a lot because it gives us the chance to go straight to what we need as learners. In this way we can save time from searching and choosing on the general YouTube search engine.
In my career as a language learner, YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/ has been one of the main tools to learn while having fun!
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