photo by Bluejeff
This week I would like to speak about my experience of the Skype exchange with Americans and of my improvements in language and intercultural competence.
First of all, I have to admit that I liked skyping with a student from the other side of the world. I never used Skype before and I was very enthusiastic of this new and exciting experience. I skyped with Michelle only three times, but the first we had big technical problems and so I could not speak with her for more than 3 minutes. However, in the other two times we spoke a lot about immigration, education, health care system, political candidates and political situation and the situation of young adults (especially as far as the choice of buying or renting a house is concerned) both in USA as well as in Italy.
I was very surprised to hear that she did not know much about Italian political candidates but that she had an idea about who would win the elections. She said that Berlusconi would win because Italians preferred economic stability in a period of economic crisis. I was happy to answer to her questions and talk about several interesting topics. I never felt uncomfortable because we tried to be polite and friendly and we never asked for very private information. Perhaps she felt uncomfortable only once when one of my peers asked her which candidate she would vote in the next political elections; she explained that it would be the first time she could vote and had not got a clear idea yet. She said she would vote for the party her family preferred.
First of all, I have to admit that I liked skyping with a student from the other side of the world. I never used Skype before and I was very enthusiastic of this new and exciting experience. I skyped with Michelle only three times, but the first we had big technical problems and so I could not speak with her for more than 3 minutes. However, in the other two times we spoke a lot about immigration, education, health care system, political candidates and political situation and the situation of young adults (especially as far as the choice of buying or renting a house is concerned) both in USA as well as in Italy.
I was very surprised to hear that she did not know much about Italian political candidates but that she had an idea about who would win the elections. She said that Berlusconi would win because Italians preferred economic stability in a period of economic crisis. I was happy to answer to her questions and talk about several interesting topics. I never felt uncomfortable because we tried to be polite and friendly and we never asked for very private information. Perhaps she felt uncomfortable only once when one of my peers asked her which candidate she would vote in the next political elections; she explained that it would be the first time she could vote and had not got a clear idea yet. She said she would vote for the party her family preferred.
Thank to this exchange I had the possibility to improve my knowledge of American culture. Even before skyping with Michelle I knew that university in Us is very expensive and that parents try to save money since their child is born so that to afford paying university fees; however, Michelle gave me a real example: more or less 46,000 dollars per year! She said also that even if the US are a country immigrants, there still is discrimination against foreigners, especially against Latinos. She was very interested in having information about the situation in Italy as far as the health care system, immigration and education are concerned.
There were not misunderstandings or problems during the exchange. Sometimes I asked her more precise information about my part of my final project and I had to work out my answers. I think I was able to communicate in a different language with a different culture; Michelle said that my English was good. I tried to be polite and friendly and to avoid expressing value judgements about her personal choices or considerations, for example as far as her political preference is concerned.
I think I have improved my intercultural competence because I learned some new facts about the American culture, both about the dominant culture and about a minor social groups. Michelle and I spoke a lot about health care system, education, politics and immigration and she explained me the situation of immigrants from South and Central America, who she considered as the most discriminated.
I also managed to understand another culture by seeing things from a different point of view and by looking at my culture from another perspective. As far as the choice of renting vs. buying a house, I learned that Americans prefer renting than buying and I tried to see this fact from the point of view of an American. They tend to leave their families relatively early for several reasons, for example to go to college, and it is comprehensible that they prefer renting than buying since they have not economic stability and often they cannot afford buying a house. Moreover, they often move to another state to change job, to go to university or for personal reasons and so they do not want to apply for a long-term loan. After having analyzed the situation in Us, I noticed how different the situation in Italy is. Italians prefer stability and tend to buy a house rather than to rent it.
As far as language learning is concerned, I can say that in this second semester I improved my English. As in the first semester, I improved my reading, writing and listening skills and I learned new words. I had to read a lot of articles, dossiers, reports and my peers’ wikis in order to write posts on my blog, to give my contribution in the wiki about the elections, to write my part of the final project and to provide peer feedbacks. I improved my writing skill especially because I had to summarize a lot of information and data in few lines and I had to post coherent and cohesive texts which could be interesting and easy to be read. I learned new words concerning elections, politics and buying a house. Thanks to lessons and to the Skype exchange, during the second semester I also improved my listening skill, my pronunciation and intonation. Michelle had a different accent from that of my professors and spoke quite quickly; at the beginning I could not understand all words, but then I managed to understand her. We seldom spoke Italian, because she did not know it very well; she said she studied it only for some months. However, she said that she understood what I said and so I tried to speak faster.
There were not misunderstandings or problems during the exchange. Sometimes I asked her more precise information about my part of my final project and I had to work out my answers. I think I was able to communicate in a different language with a different culture; Michelle said that my English was good. I tried to be polite and friendly and to avoid expressing value judgements about her personal choices or considerations, for example as far as her political preference is concerned.
I think I have improved my intercultural competence because I learned some new facts about the American culture, both about the dominant culture and about a minor social groups. Michelle and I spoke a lot about health care system, education, politics and immigration and she explained me the situation of immigrants from South and Central America, who she considered as the most discriminated.
I also managed to understand another culture by seeing things from a different point of view and by looking at my culture from another perspective. As far as the choice of renting vs. buying a house, I learned that Americans prefer renting than buying and I tried to see this fact from the point of view of an American. They tend to leave their families relatively early for several reasons, for example to go to college, and it is comprehensible that they prefer renting than buying since they have not economic stability and often they cannot afford buying a house. Moreover, they often move to another state to change job, to go to university or for personal reasons and so they do not want to apply for a long-term loan. After having analyzed the situation in Us, I noticed how different the situation in Italy is. Italians prefer stability and tend to buy a house rather than to rent it.
As far as language learning is concerned, I can say that in this second semester I improved my English. As in the first semester, I improved my reading, writing and listening skills and I learned new words. I had to read a lot of articles, dossiers, reports and my peers’ wikis in order to write posts on my blog, to give my contribution in the wiki about the elections, to write my part of the final project and to provide peer feedbacks. I improved my writing skill especially because I had to summarize a lot of information and data in few lines and I had to post coherent and cohesive texts which could be interesting and easy to be read. I learned new words concerning elections, politics and buying a house. Thanks to lessons and to the Skype exchange, during the second semester I also improved my listening skill, my pronunciation and intonation. Michelle had a different accent from that of my professors and spoke quite quickly; at the beginning I could not understand all words, but then I managed to understand her. We seldom spoke Italian, because she did not know it very well; she said she studied it only for some months. However, she said that she understood what I said and so I tried to speak faster.
If you want to know something more about this topic, please visit my ICC questionnaire.
Veronica
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