Diary of an important change

Hi all of you!

Thanks for reading my thoughts once again.

This Monday we are having our last lesson with Sarah and her avant-garde projects.
I must confess that I feel a bitter sad because I get used to have my English training every week…
Anyway, Sarah gave us all the instruments to consider language learning a life-long- process: now it’s time to stand on our own two feet. She increased our curiosity about computer technology and social softwares and, at the same time, she taught us how to exceed our mental limits.
(She is a great teacher)

Last week we had to discuss in groups our presentations on different topics but the strange thing was that our audience was rather wide as it was composed not only by our Italian peers but some American students at the University of Middlebury as well.
All this was possible thanks to webcasts, on line conferences in which everyone connected to the Net can hear you, show the PowerPoint slides you project and send you a comment by chat.

It was an exciting experience: last Monday morning I went to university without saying a single word to my friends since I was terribly upset! I thought I was not able to speak in acceptable English and I was not very self-confident. Anyway, in life we have to risk! For this reason I take my courage in both hands and when it was my turn, I start talking quite fluently without reciting my speech from memory. It is true that my voice sometimes quavered, however, I felt calm.
Furthermore, the fact that my group spent a lot of time in organizing all the work in the wiki page and in trying to discuss the presentation before our course over Skype has been a big stimulation for me. Our work was a real team work, an experience to be remembered because we shared opposite feelings such as happiness and anxiety, relax and nervousness. All in all, we managed to overcome all of this.

My American peers responded to our generalization on American food: when you have five minutes only to present a wide topic, it is inevitable to prefer the main aspects to details!
Above all, they seemed to really enjoy our presentation; you know that food still is a cohesive cultural element…

This experience helped me to reflect on several aspects:

• audience can influence your performance;


• it is important to capture your audience’s attention;


• collaboration is not always easy: you have to respect your peers’ points of view;


• like Skype, webcast is a direct way of entering a new culture;


• technology is full of surprises (Sarah too) : )
  

To conclude our course with a flourish, we had to correct our previous wiki pages because the aim of a wiki is sharing knowledge; so, our collaborative writing was not only a task of our English course, but something deeper: it was a product that everyone can enjoy and exploit in order to compare Italian and American attitudes towards a certain problem. I really appreciated collaborating with Giorgia. Since it was not the first time I collaborated with her (we have to work a lot for French projects), I perfectly knew how neat and precise she was and our tasks sharing was excellent.

I know that at the end of an adventure you have been living since October you are supposed to say something interesting, something that might sum up in a proper way what you have learnt so far or just how you changed inside.

However, the only thing I can say is that I’m happy to have seized an opportunity like this.
What I’m going to do now is to develop a self-learning method in order to not to waste my language improvements according to this course precepts.

So, thanks to all of you for playing a part on my journey.

Take care.

Francesca

Photos retrieved on May 13, 2007 from http://www.flickr.com

Video Skype

Here I am once again!

Last week our Skype exchange was quite “particular” since it was a Skype exchange with video included!

Students from Tulane University many kilometres far from us were able to see us sitting down at the laboratory. And we could see them even if with a lower quality of image and sound. (Our technician is great!)

It was a strange sensation. It had been less private and simple than the previous ones.

I looked forward to see Timothy and Nichole, my exchange partners, but when I had the opportunity of talking with them (especially with Timothy) I said nothing at all!
As often happened to me, I let an opportunity slip and I cut an international poor figure.
Anyway, American students explained us some aspects of the tragedy occurred some weeks ago in Virginia.
Talking with Lara, we found that since we spoke for weeks with Tulane students we were living this event in a different way. The fact that we were becoming more intercultural competent helped us in reducing the distances between them and us, giving us the sensation that such a dramatic situation could happen in Italy as well.

The second part of our exchange focused on questions and opinions.
Talking by Skype you may not pay too attention to the person you are talking to, because you are simply conveying ideas; moreover you select carefully select the words you want to say. You can’t see one’s gestures or facial expressions, you can only guess what one is feeling. On the contrary, in a video exchange the feedback you can retrieve is immediate and you focus more on pronunciation.
However, as I have already said, it was less confidential than usual exchanges, because the camera shown only the person who was making or answering a question to the whole class. For this reason, I felt I was being watched by lots of students who could judge my English level or how I was dressed : ( and, as a consequence, all that was rather discouraging.

Anyway, apart from my silly shyness, this experience was really exciting.
We had the possibility of discussing about violence, an actual problem in both of our countries and making a list of questions in order to integrate our presentations.
Furthermore, we were able to practise our speaking and listening knowledge and to open our mind towards different culture and habits.

It was a fun way of entering a culture without stereotypes.


Francesca

Trying to reflect on final presentation

Hi folks!

The end of the English course is coming…

This week my Skype exchange was with Lara and Tim.
What can I say? It was great, as usual! : )

Tim had finished his course with a team work on water resources in Italy, focusing on Vajont disaster and Mose project, so he was not very interested in talking about energy in general.

Before starting the exchange, my group decided to “exploit” the conversation in order to gather information on our final presentation topic. And so we did.
At the very beginning we wanted to deal with blogs and wikis applied to the learning of subjects at university: thanks to Tim we found out that we (Sarah and Latifah’ s students) are in privileged conditions! I mean that we believed that social softwares were quite popular in the United States and Italy, as usual, was tail-end.
This time we got wrong, Tim granted us that he came into contact with this technology for the first time during Latifah’s course.
So, we are part of an experiment, (it sounds strange) maybe, an experiment that impressed me much because of its topicality and utility.

Our exchange with Tim helped us to find the right topic: food.
Food is a basic need for everybody but the various meanings it’s able to convey are something that goes beyond the plain idea of nourishment. Food is an aspect of a culture, an element that can distinguish one culture from another, even stressing the presence of subcultures into a big one.
(Now, I’m realizing Sarah’s projects… She wanted us to become more intercultural competent, giving us all the tools we need: language, topic, and comparison.)

After having chosen the topic and the structure of our wiki page, we had to look for information.
We didn’t want to obtain a neutral issue that everyone in our class can make by finding interesting sites on the Net and “flinging” words on the page.
As Tim was really kind and helpful, we kept in touch with him by mail, so that he could communicate us which his and his friends ‘eating habits were.
Now, we just have to complement his suggestions with Internet searches!

Personally, I prefer such a job because we have to give our colleagues an overview of a certain aspect of American culture and a native speaker’s opinion, that is the point of view of a person who really knows how sides that we consider to be of secondary importance are perceived in his country, is more suitable.
Furthermore, the fact that Tim inquires about essential differences in our cultures helps us to reflect on our own culture and draw conclusions we did not think about before.

So, I look forward to start writing on my group wiki page.
It’s going to be a project shared by friends… and one of the many final outcomes of this course.

See you soon, guys.

Francesca

Next Skype Exchange and wiki page..........

This week we had no course because it was Easter time!
However, my blog e-tivity goes on.

My last Skype exchange with Nichole was great because we had no topic to talk about.
I was happy because I felt that I was able to talk in English freely without having to follow a list of questions.
My peer had some troubles to express in Italian since she wasn’t supposed to discuss a topic. So, our exchange was mainly in English. Sometimes I tried to speak Italian because it was an exchange that means that both of us had to benefit from it; as a consequence it would be useful for her language knowledge to hear a native speaking Italian. I speak quite well Italian, despite my venetian accent!

I really like Skype, that’s why I decided to install it at home.
I think it should be considered as a social software because it allows students to practise their language. However, considering it like that could be a short-sighted approach because people all over the world use Skype just to communicate with old and new friends: they have no interest in social softwares!

What about wikis?

Now, I feel more confident with wikis.
At the very beginning I was totally scared of destroying my colleagues’ products because I didn’t know how wikis worked; then I get used to log out, to wait in order not to steal lock information and other important tricks.
I succeeded in taming the technology! (I hope:)
Writing wikis is important for plenty of aspects.

• They teach students how to collaborate.
• To collaborate means to learn how to respect people’s work and how to modify it without erasing their efforts. The difficulties lie in analyzing a certain topic from different points of view, trying to achieve an exhaustive and complete work.
• Students learn how to retrieve information and how to quote their sources, avoiding plagiarism and becoming aware of their responsibilities.
• With wikis students manage to understand the importance of some graphic details such as layout, fonts, headings, etc. All these elements are essential because they can be seen as indicators of the quality of the information conveyed.
• They allow students to enlarge their vocabulary and their general culture as well.
• They allow students to compare American behaviours to Italian ones, developing their cultural competences.
• Working both on blogs and wikis highlights the differences in register and style, helping students to achieve a high level of knowledge.
• Wikis improve reading, writing skills and reflective thought.

I think I could find other reasons to justify wikis’ use…
However, now I have thought too much and the results I could obtain wouldn’t be so spontaneous and truthful.
So, for this time, you have to be content with these remarks.

See you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Francesca.

WIKIS, SKYPE AND MUCH MORE

Hi world!
I’m here once again to report my week experience.

My Skype exchange was quite interesting but very different from the previous ones in some points.

• Summing up all the questions of the people in the course, we obtained a long list of questions to ask our peer. It was good because I succeeded in talking for almost an hour about renewable energy resources; however, I think my peer was a little shocked by my promptness of speech on this topic and it produced a destabilizing factor that is that she had not the same promptness in answering.
• The list made me feel more confident about my linguistic and cultural competences.
• On the other hand, I confess that I was embarrassed because my peer kept on saying that New Orleans problems are not recycling or renewable energy, they are greater. I asked Nichole about solar panels and she replied that it’s difficult to install them in old houses which hardly have a roof. We started laughing but there was nothing to laugh about!
• When I talked about my interests, such as writing and cinema, I found that we can have a better conversation, not just a tit-for-tat dialogue.
  

This week we had to reflect on wikis AS WELL.

Writing and editing wikis is rather complicated because you have to pay attention to what your colleagues wrote before you and try not to say the same things even if your thoughts are quite similar.
Furthermore, you have to quote them in order to show your teacher that you really had a look on their comments.

Rethinking the structure of a wiki is an operation that might take hours and produce scarce results if one of your colleagues decides to change your modifications. That’s why I think it’s better to work in small groups of 2 or 3 people, depending on the quantity of information the wiki contains.
In this way each person learns how to collaborate and how to give his/her contribution without relying too much on a bigger group.
My teacher tried out this method and we are having the verdict next Monday but I’m quite sure the result will be excellent.
The “comment button” helped me a lot in consulting my peers on the best term to be used or the division on different paragraphs. In this way I could change whatever I wanted and have an immediate comment on what I was doing.
In my opinion if we want to be closer to the “old way of wiking”, we should work on others’ pages in order to be more impartial.

See you next time (next week) for Easter time!

To be continued in the next instalment.

Francesca

Cultural competence: a new challenge

This week, it was Spring break time in Tulane, so, we had not felt the emotions of Skype.
We had to discuss about cultural competences and try to correct the mistakes in our edited pages on Recycling in Italy and Recycling in USA.
When someone says to you that there is a mistake, it’s not difficult to find it. The main difficulty is avoiding mistakes in your papers.

To enrich our knowledge on culture competence, we had to read 3 different web sites at home and fill a questionnaire.
This questionnaire retrieved on http://www.sit.edu/publications/docs/competence.pdf showed us that that we are less open-minded than we believe. We learned that being intercultural competent requires specific competences and a certain amount of awareness.
If it is true that “Looking out is looking in”, we have to revolve around our culture to really know another culture but, at the same time, if we don’t want to fall into ethnocentrism, we must distance ourselves from our culture.

I found quite fun the site suggested by Sarah concerning stereotypes about Italian culture.
To be not afraid of the unknown, people tend to create models and images; in doing so, they filtered a culture with pre-established schemes, creating stereotypes.
Sometimes we associated a culture to material elements, such as food (Germans with wurstel and beer), or clothes (Scottish with kilt) or we simply choose one person such as Queen Elizabeth or Dante to represent a culture.
Every time we do that we are running down the tradition and the history of a culture, but what really matters is awareness, the awareness of the schemes we are applying to a culture that is richer than what we think.
Learning a foreign language requires the knowledge of a culture because we cannot separate a language from the context in which it was born. Knowing a culture is also useful to understand how a language can vary according to the different places where it is spoken.

I would like to be cultural competent but I don’t think the questionnaire can help me.
I mean that is only one step I have to do, that is the step of the collection of information. In fact, it does not explain how to combine theory with practice.
I can become an expert of the theory of cultural competence but I will not be a complete person if I don’t know how to deal with the foreigners coming to my town.
And all this will be possible only thanks to the respect of a culture. It does not necessarily mean that our culture must fit to others, because, first of all, we have to respect our own culture; I think that one has to ask oneself ”What I really know about my own culture?”

Last week I was surfing the Net in search of information for the e-tivity 3 and I found a site (I don’t remember the URL, sorry!) in which everyone has to describe the behaviours of his “compatriots” on certain occasions.
I learned than in Italy everybody is supposed to do the crèche at Christmas and this is the only thing WE do in this occasion. I think it is rather short-sighted and false.
No distinction about religion was made.

So, in brief, don’t base your considerations on a culture on what you have learned from one single person, go beyond! Visit a country and take notes, comparison is needed.

My cousin Elena left Italy for Spain when she was eighteenth (she wasn’t allowed before) because she hated Italian culture (more or less her words!). I can’t imagine what she could say about it to a foreign person.
But that’s the beauty of culture! Not a single culture inside one Culture!


These are only my thoughts.



Francesca

Second week together with Skype

Hi everybody.

This week I skyped with an American woman, Nichole.
It was the first time I had skyped with her (we start skyping one week ago).
Our conversation made me reflect on the role recycling plays in New Orleans and in culture in general.
Nichole told me that New Orleans has lots of problems and, honestly, recycling is not the main one. So, because of the fact that her city is very engaged with rebuilding, environmental questions take second place.
As she rightly said, people focus their attention on houses because financial incentives are not enough and if they want to start living again they have to gird up their loins.
I wanted to ask her some questions, such as” How can a city or a country plan its reconstruction without paying attention to the environment?” or “Why in the Internet we found out the existence of an environmental plan while you said to me that no measure has been taken, excepting separate collection at university?".

I hadn’t the heart to do it because she probably replied that I couldn’t understand the gravity of the situation since I live in the Northern Italy where everything is ok or that theory and practice have a different meaning.
However, she recognized the importance of recycling and explained to me that we can change people’s thinking with practical actions rather than with advertising campaigns.

I think that everything is useful if we are able to coordinate it with real interests and efforts made to solve a problem.

Culture definitions refer to “awareness”: it is, in my opinion, the essential step that everyone should do before adopting a realistic approach.

Skype is a rich opportunity for language and culture.

As Sarah affirmed, these two fields are highly related and we can’t separate them.
Only thanks to the knowledge of a culture we can find out the peculiarities of a language.
And recycling means respecting your culture…

Skyping pushes me to enrich my vocabulary because, at first, my aim was that of speaking with a native in order to improve my English; now, I want to communicate, convey ideas and for doing so, I must express myself in a more appropriate way.
I don’t want American students to say that the Italians are indolent students without critical competences and a superficial knowledge of their culture!

What will happen with my third skype experience?
Who knows! Don’t worry, see you next week with all the details.


Francesca