Carli's world

Summary of my self assessment of my intercultural competence

2008-05-13T13:29:00.000-07:00

I am supposed to write a post about this semester's exchange program with American students. Unfortunately, our group started the skype phonecalls a bit later and so I wasn't able to talk to my American peer as often as I would have liked to.
Anyway, the exchange was a good way to get an idea of American culture, even if in a tiny tiny extent.

What stroke me most was the fact that Anne (that's the name of my skype peer) did not at all seem to be different from myself and my Italian friends. Actually, we like the same shows on TV (e.g. Grey's Anatomy) and we like to be around our friends in our free time. Of course, we are both young adults and therefore, have the same interests but, the cultural differences were not noticeable.
I really enjoyed talking to her and it was a great opportunity for me to talk with an American; One reason is that I hardly get the chance to talk to someone from so far away and to hear what she/he is thinking of my culture, and another reason is that it was a good training concerning my language (speaking, listening and comprehension). It was like a test whether I could cope with calling somebody completely unknown and having a conversation with that person on various topics (e.g. immigration, TV, news, university life) in a foreign language. I think I managed to do that well, and I enjoyed it.

I think I learnt a lot when we talked about the elections in the U.S. I sort of got an idea of what the American system is like and what needs to be changed from a political point of view. It was very interesting to see the issues American have to face day by day. What you see on American TV shows and movies is just not real and the film industry doesn't deal at all with the everyday life of an average American family.
That is why the election part of this year's course was so particular to me.
As far as my ability to change perspective is concerned, I think I was able to that even before the exchange program. I've been living in Italy for almost seven years and during these years I often discussed with people about differences in culture. I had to learn to explain certain facts from my point of view as a stranger and I also had to learn to live in culture that is different from the one I grew up in. I think it's important to have these discussions because besides learning more about a foreign culture, you get more aware of your own culture, as well, and then you might see positive aspects of your own culture that you had taken for granted.

To summarize my impression of the exchange program I can say that I am satisfied of what I have learnt. Of course, the time was too short to analyze things, e.g. the political system, the job situation in the U.S., better but, I think that as a class and as a whole we all participated in this project and each and everyone of us contributed some knowledge to the wiki pages where you can get so much information from.
As far as I am concerned, I enjoyed seeking for information on news and how they influence the culture and people's expectation, e.g. an Italian would never expect an election campaign to be as big as in America but, at the same time, an American is used to this effectiveness in the media.

I learnt that there definitely are aspects that influence culture and therefore, the people living in that determined culture. On the one hand, there are differences, some are in politics, in TV broadcastings, in food, in the university system etc, and on the other hand, there seem to be no differences at all (e.g. when I talked to Anne she just felt like some of my friends from either Italy or Germany). I think it is important to be aware of the differences and it's also important to maintain them and try to understand them. And then, it is even better to notice that people on the other side of the world are so similar to yourself.

topics regarding the cultural comparison between the U.S. and Italy

2008-04-14T02:15:00.000-07:00

In my opinion, it would be interesting to compare television in America to that in Italy, especially the news. I would like to compare what the American television provides concerning news to the Italian telegiornali. Moreover, I could have a look at if shows on tv are divided into left-wing politics and right-wing politics like in Italy. In the U.S. there's CNN which provides information 24 hours a day and in Italy there is no such channel (maybe on Sky but I don't know exactly).
My second suggestion concerns arts in the U.S. and in Italy. Of course, in Italy there are a lot of museums and things to see that are older than the history of America. But I would like to check on the attitude Americans have towards arts and going to the museums. Which kind of art or which period in history do they prefer? I'd like to see (even if just in the internet) the famous museums in NYC and which kind of art they expose compared to Italy. I think this second topic would be even more interesting.
Then, I could imagine to talk about food because there's always a lot to say and everyone likes to talk about food and it's a big part of every culture wherever you go in the world.

How to get more votes

2008-03-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

I've just watched the videos Sarah posted on our bloggingenglish-blog and I have to say that they are sooo embarassing! I mean why do they even want to do things the American way if they are not even able to do so? These videos are simply ridiculous. Their lyrics don't even make sense (especially the one from Berlusconi). Which dream are they talking about? That is so weird.

I was supposed to write about my observations on the elections and I noticed that now, that the platforms are known to everyone (who's interested) and the statements are clear, the candidates start to argue on a more personal level.

For example, there was this story about Obama's mentor and pastor who made racist remarks (so it had been understood by some Americans) concerning the "white and rich America" and, now, for the first time Hillary Clinton commented on this story. She said that man would never had been her pastor, if she had known about his ideas and speeches, unlike Obama. So she uses the bad press Obama had during the last weeks and tries to put herself in a better position.

In Italy it is quite the same: Berlusconi and Veltroni were supposed to have a battle on two television channels. The first channel invited Veltroni but Berlusconi didn't want to show up because the show is rather left-wing oriented and then it was Veltroni who did not want to participate in the battle on Porta a Porta.
It seems like they all have run out of proper ideas in order to convince the voters and so they start playing games.

U.S.elections vs Italy's elections

2008-03-17T03:30:00.000-07:00

I followed three online newspapers during the last week which are the New York Times, Berliner Morgenpost and Corriere della sera in order to find out how the upcoming elections in Italy and the United States are being followed by the journalists in different countries. Of course, I expected the NYTimes to be particularly focused on the elections in the U.S. and the Corriere on elections in Italy. Instead, I noticed that both newspapers are more concerned about the American elections. There was no article on Italy's elections in April in the Times during the last three days. All I could find was an older article that said that the government in Italy had been interrupted caused by different opinions within the government. Whereas there is a huge amount of information as far as the U.S. elections are concerned. There are statistics, videos, opinion polls etc.
The Corriere being an Italian newspaper deals a lot with the elections in its country but there are no statistics or opinion polls. The articles are about the campaigns Veltroni and Berlusconi are holding in this period and what the politics want to change in Italy's politics. There is no special section regarding the elections and candidates of Italy but there is a special section that gives the reader all the information about the American elections. There are links and guides on how the American president is being voted and videos of the 3-year-old Hillary Clinton. I think this is a weird. I mean the position of the president of the United States might be the most powerful in the world and they're posting those kind of videos on purpose in the States where people should vote for Clinton/Obama ecc but why giving more information about a foreign country than about your own? I think here it is pretty much obvious what big influence America has on Europe.
Then I had a look at a neutral country which is Germany. In the Berliner Morgenpost I couldn't find articles on Italy, either. I typed "Italy" in the search space and all I could find was an article that said the government had failed and Italians will go to political elections for the 62nd time after World War 2. There was no article about who will be the next candidates ecc. As far as America is concerned there were a lot of articles. I think there was one for each day and they're similar to the ones in the Corriere and the Times. They give very detailed information about the candidates of the left wing (Clinton/Obama) and about their campaigns. There was also background information about Obama's priest and longtime friend who held speeches in which he was against the "rich white America" and information about Clinton's people, too. The German newspaper follows the American elections very detailed and the Russian elections, too. There were articles like "Who is the man Vladimir Putin?" ecc just like for the Americans. Instead, Italy wasn't mentioned at all. I think America is seen much more important to Germans even for historical reasons and so is Russia.
I used the following websites in order to fulfil the task:1) Corriere della sera speciale esteri
2) Corriere della sera politica 3) Berliner Morgenpost 4) Berliner Morgenpost/Italy 5) New York Times.

Political debates as cultural differences

2008-03-09T09:21:00.000-07:00

Our task for this week was to analize the language of political debates in the U.S. and in Italy and to compare them as there will be presidential elections in both countries later this year. I decided to analize the debates of senator Hillary Clinton - possible presidential candidate of the Democratic party in the U.S. - and of Walter Veltroni - presidential candidate of the Partito Democratico in Italy.

First of all, I'd like to mention that I noticed a very big difference concerning the behaviour of the voters, too. Watching Hillary Clinton's debates I thought her voters to be quite fanatic. They were applauding, cheering and celebrating her and every word she said. Whereas there was no such fanaticism in Italy when Veltroni held his debate. In my opinion, this has quite a big influence on how political campaigns are being held in these two countries.

Clinton's speech is very personal in the sense that she often refers to herself ("I personally") and to the voters by saying "you", e.g. "You are not invisible to ME.", "..from the bottom of my heart", "America needs a comeback like You gave ME a comeback" etc. I think by saying so she tries to put herself on one level with the voters and she wants to make her voters feel like she is one of them and like they're candidating all together to move into the White House. In fact, during her Super Tuesday Speech she said that she is the one who will stand for "your dreams, your values, your fututure and go to YOUR White House."

Hillary Clinton also uses often the words "challenge", "heart", "family" and "future". She addresses to young people, poor families and the middle class in general. At the end of every speech I saw Clinton thanks her family, especially her husband, her daughter and her mother, who - as Clinton says - "was born before women could vote and now she's watching her daughter on this stage". I think Hillary Clinton tries to get especially the female voters' attention here and to remind them of the process the female movement went through during the past 40 years. I think it is just possible that she's trying to say that the next step of women's liberation would be a female president. Furthermore, I noticed Clinton ends every speech by saying "God bless you." - which would not at all be common for European election campaigns - as she wants to let everyone know that she is a religious person who has faith like many other Americans, too.
Finally, I want to mention Hillary Clinton's strong gesture and her facial expressions towards her audience.

Regarding Walter Veltroni of the 'Partito Democratico' there is much less to say. His debate does not seem to be prepared as much as Clinton's debate. His gesture is not determined and during his speeches he his often sort of interrupting his debate to find the right words. Veltroni's speeches regard families with a low income, university students and self-employed people who run small companies. He often mentions that Italy's economy and inflation is the worst in Europe and that the Italian voters need to have faith and belief in their country. Veltroni wants the small companies to produce as much as they can without being pushed away by the multinationals. Moreover, he appeals to his audience by saying that tax liability is the most important thing in order to show respect for each other.

However, both candidates do not really explain in which way they want to achieve their goals and by which means. In my opinion, senator Clinton's language is more direct (or at least she herself seems to be so) than Veltroni's language. Clinton is naming her goals, e.g. better health insurance for U.S. citizens, whereas Walter Veltroni, in my opinion, is just listing all the problems concerning Italy's politics ( which the Italians are already aware of ) but doesn't really tell where he is going to start the change.

I think it is difficult just to stick to political debates and to build your opinion upon what politicians say in order to get the voters' majority. It takes much more to decide where to put the cross on a election day. The internet is always a good source to get information and to see political debates from different points of view, e.g. Hillary Clinton's speeches uploaded by someone who is actually going to vote her against videos put online by someone of the opposite party.

My Personal Learning Environment

2007-12-10T00:25:00.000-08:00

I have to say that it was strange to think about my own learning environment. I always thought that I learn from some university lessons and by watching dvds only but, the truth is this is only a small part of the world where I take all the information from.
Making up my mind I realized I have a pretty much expanded learning environment. Of course, I learn many things during university lessons but, in my opinion, I learn even more in my freetime. In fact, you can see that in my mindmap(please click on SPLE.mm to see it): There are a lot more "arms" in the freetime section as there are concerning the university environment due to the websites I often go to during my freetime such as Google, youtube ecc.
I've put two books under "learning/studying" which I really appreciate very much. One is about how to write commercial e-mails in English and the other one is about how to make commercial phone calls in English. In my opinion, it is very useful to be prepared in that field if you want to work with languages because sooner or later you will have to respond in English (to e-mails and phone calls). There are very good examples in those books and therefore, I hope I won't be freaking out when I will have to respond to a phone call at work one day...
I hope I managed well to upload and link my mindmap otherwise I'll try again and again or simply explain it to you in class.
See you all soon.
Caroline

Judging online sources

2007-12-02T09:15:00.000-08:00

Hi my peers!

First of all, I apologize for posting my comment with delay but I really hadn't noticed we had to do this work within Friday. Usually, Sunday is my big English-blogging-homework-day and this time it should have been Friday already. I'm sorry about that!!!

The criteria I usually refer to are very close to the ones I found on the links. I remember when I wrote my thesis my professor told me to be careful when choosing material from the Internet.
So I followed the criteria given in the first link:

"Is there a reference list or bibliography of corroborative evidence?"
"Is there a date when the site was last updated - how long ago did this happen?"
"Does the site seem to be permanent or part of a permanent organisation?"

I always make sure the websites are still up to date and where they found the information. As far as my thesis is concerned, I chose information based on researches and proper bibliographies only. I went to Google to see who the author was - if it wasn't written on the website - and to check what else the author had published regarding translation theories ( That's what my thesis was about.). In that way I made sure to select authors that really were involved with the topic and that they were "name-brands" I couldn't know before.

I think it is very important to see WHO wrote the articles I might found interesting and who made up the website. I mean, just as we mentioned last week, everyone can write just about anything in the Internet and therefore, the most important thing is to check if the website is of a University or known organization and if it's still getting updated regularly.

Furthermore, I pay attention to the language style, that is if the text is in scientific language or colloquial language. I think you can tell a lot of a text's reliability by the way it is organized and written. A reliable source for a thesis would probably be written in a very formal style - maybe taken from a book for educational purpose rather than just to give information.

Ok, once more: I'm sorry for being so late. See you in class.

Caroline

Broadcast Your Knowledge

2007-11-25T06:41:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Watching those videos really was great fun, wasn't it!? I have to say that I go to youtube regularly. I never shared videos. I usually just search for 'fun stuff' and music videos. I had never thought about using it for the purpose of improoving my English and, honestly, I prefer the other websites I mentioned last week and the week before for studying languages. I mean (like I always say) it's always useful to watch and listen to something in English but, in my opinion, youtube is more something for ones leisure time.
I personally would not use youtube for studying. However, you can get lots of information in there.

I like the wide range of things you can find and the division in categories. However, what makes me wonder most is how many people actually broadcast themselves!!! There are people making fun of themselves and everybody else and they put it online so that everyone can see it. They're sooo many. That's weird!! I just read that right now there are 52 milion videos on youtube. Wow!! That is something else in nowadays-society, the need to show yourself to the world.

See, what smart and clever people those three guys who invented youtube are. They knew that before anyone else or, at least, they knew what people were still missing in the web-world.

See you soon. Caroline

The WoRLd oF PoDCaSts

2007-11-17T14:27:00.000-08:00

Of course, I knew about podcasts before doing this homework but I had no idea of its wide range of topics and sections!! I'm familiar with downloading music from the iTunes musicstore and now, I can proudly announce I just downloaded my first podcast audiobook. It's not the first time that I listen to audiobooks but it's the first time I had one for free ;-)

I took "Persuasion" by Jane Austen from http://www.oculture.com/2006/10/audio_book_podc.html. There were many other books that I'm interested in , too. However, I chose Persuasion because I still have this book at home from our first year in English literature (remember,right?) and so if there's something I don't understand I just look it up. If you go to this website you'll definitely find other novels ecc that might be useful to you. It's completely different to listen to a story than just to read it. In my opinion, you really have to concentrate on the readers' voices. I'm going to try it next time I will be on an airplane because, usually, the airplane noise really bothers me when I try to read something.

The second podcast I found nice was one about history ( http://www.historyonair.com/ ).

Here you can listen to articles about any kind of history and you can listen to it right away without downloading it. I chose an article about Elizabeth I. Not only can you listen to what the reader is saying but, you can also see a list of articles or websites where all the information was taken from ( just in case you need further information). I think audio files like this one are great because I can improove my English ( listening ability and comprehension exercise) and I can learn many things about history at the same time.

The third podcast I chose is from the New York Times newspaper. You can find all the audio files at http://www.nytimes.com/ref/multimedia/podcasts.html. Unfortunately, I couldn't subscribe to this website in Bloglines but I put it into delicious anyway. The reason why I didn't want to renounce was that the language is quite elevated and the topics are very different from one another. Moreover, I liked the Music Popcast. It's a review of the latest albums and music events. Well, you might think that there is nothing special about that but, in this case you can listen to the music too, which means that you can listen to the critics but you can immediately decide on yourself whether you like the album or not.

Last but not least I found a website where you can download university lessons from the University of Berkeley at http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_feeds.php. To tell you the truth, I couldn't manage to listen to the audio files which makes me really sad :-(
But maybe you can and I think it's very useful. You can decide on different courses such as Biology, Engeneering etc. In my opinion, it can be very effective regarding the comprehension excercise. I experienced myself how very difficult it is to sit in a university classroom listening to professors that speak very quickly in a language which is not your mother tongue. When I attended the first lessons here in Italy I hardly understood anything! It was so difficult to follow an academic discourse on history or law. So I think it can really help to listen to this sort of podcast. I will try again and again to download the files...wish me luck!!!

I guess that's all for this time. Enjoy listening to my podcasts!!
See you soon. Caroline

SOCIAL BOOKMARKING and DEL.ICIO.US

2007-11-13T06:39:00.000-08:00

It's very Del.icio.us indeed!!!

I enjoyed searching for websites in delicious. This time I focussed on tags like English, language and phonetics. It's really incredible how many websites deal with language learning and correct pronunciation. I played around a lot with the tools they offer you in order to 'train your ear' and pronounce words and letters correctly.

When I started exploring in del.icio.us I wasn't aware of how useful social bookmarking really is. I realized that it was a good way to share different websites within our group. However, I totally forgot about how much better it is not to save every single url I am interested in on my computer!! This is what I like best about del.icio.us.

As far as the choices of my peers are concerned, I think we focussed on quite the same tags ( English, dictionary, writing, listening etc. ). Anyway, it was very interesting to see what they chose as their favorite websites. I, too, tried to post the Online Etymology Dictionary that Nina found but, unfortunately, my Internet Explorer didn't want me to post it and then I didn't remember the url. I'm so happy she put it among her favorites. It's so interesting to see where certain expressions come from and when they first appeared. Thanks Nina!!

Another website I really liked in particular was chosen by Eleonora about how to write business letters. I would like to work in a company, too, and sooner or later I will have to write formal letters, I guess. Therefore, it's useful to know where I can look for some good advice.

I think everybody did a great job and I found it very interesting to go through what my peers have chosen this time, even if the tags where quite the same as mine. It was interesting to see how those similar websites arrange the same topics and options such as listening and comprehension exercises in a different way.

See you soon! Caroline

...about feeds and feed aggregators

2007-11-04T05:02:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

Okay, I have to confess that, this time, I was very worried about the e-tivity. I couldn't come to the lessons last week because I'm in Germany right now. When I read our task for the first time I just thought I wouldn't ever be able to cope with bloglines. I mean, even the word "feed aggregator" sounds scary to me, and it did even more so when I first read the post.

But now, I have to say that it wasn't so bad after all. The video guide was very easy to understand and so it was to create the feed aggregator. So again, I improved my computer skills (I guess) and I explored a new section of the blogsphere.

Anyway, it seems to be a very well organized way to check on the blogs you're interested in. I think it turns out to be very useful regarding our peers' blogs because, now, I just have to go to bloglines and I can see if you (my group members) already posted the e-tivity and then I can go to comment on the post. It saves a lot of time, actually, doesn't it!?

I don't have to check each blog to see if there's something new for me to read.
I mean, I'm enjoying myself more and more doing those online activities but I'm very thankful there's a way to save some time. You know, it already takes a lot of time for me to write the post as I never learned how to write using ten fingers ;-).
I absolutely have to learn that.....

See you soon.

Caroline

The first two weeks of blogging

2007-10-26T05:52:00.000-07:00

My first two weeks of blogging have been very interesting to me. Initially, I was a little worried because blogging was completely new for me. But I think that I managed it quite good so far. Honestly, the Technorati website almost made me go crazy! There's such a huge amount of information that I hardly knew where to start. However, I think blogging is a funny way of comunicating with people you don't even know but who have the same interests and it's useful at the same time. That's what makes blogs so special. As far as the improvement in language skills is concerned, I think blogs can help a lot. I remember the scientific blog which one girl of my group suggested and, I must say that I immediately thought that it would improve my English if I read those kind of blogs more often. Of course, when we are commenting on our members' posts' we should pay attention to grammar mistakes or false friends and so on. None of us is a native speaker and therefore, we all still make mistakes. So we have to make sure not to adapt other people's mistakes...
I really enjoyed creating my own blog. There's nothing really special about my blog but, I'm kind of proud of it anyway. Maybe that's because two weeks ago I hardly knew anything about the blogsphere and now, I have one on my own.
I see you soon. Caroline

May I introduce myself.........

2007-10-17T06:20:00.000-07:00

What you can see in this picture is 'Potsdamer Platz' in Berlin. I chose this picture because I am from Berlin and i really just love it! Whenever I go home to visit my family I go to this place because it represents the "new" Berlin. It's architecture is fantastic as you can see in the picture. Last time I went to Berlin I met a friend of mine at Potsdamer Platz...we wanted to go shopping. But then we found out there would be Matt Damon to present his new movie right there at Potsdamer Platz. There was a red carpet and lots of people. In fact, I was so lucky to see him..he was quite close to me actually! So you never know what an afternoon in this place can get you to...and that's why I love Berlin so much.

See you soon.... Caroline