A central concern: Developing Intercultural Competence

The monument you can see at the left is the monument to multiculturalism. I think it was very representative of the great importance we are giving nowadays to multiculturalism.

Intercultural competence is 'the ability of successful communication with people of other cultures. This ability can exist in someone at a young age, or may be developed and improved. The bases for a successful intercultural communication are emotional competence, together with intercultural sensitivity.' (wikipedia)

If you want to find more on the subject search for this article “Exploring Intercultural Competence: A Construct Proposal” NCOLCTL Fourth Annual Conference . Many useful information and projects have been elaborated by Alvino E. Fantini, Ph.D. School for International Training Brattleboro, Vermont.

Monument to the multiculturalism- photo source

About leadership

(photo from flickr)

‘Leadership is not magnetic personality- that can just as well be a glib tongue.
It is not ‘making friends and influencing people’- that is flattery.
Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher things, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.’
Peter F. Druker, author and management theorist.

‘We all work together as a team. And that means you do everything I say.’
Michael Caine, British film actor (in the film The Italian job).

‘How shall I talk of the sea to a frog,
If it has never left his pond?
How shall I talk of the frost to the bird of the summerland,
If it has never left the land of his birth?
How shall I talk of life with the sage,
If he is prisoner of his doctrine?’
Chung Tsu, 4th Century B.C.

Is politics seducing the masses?

(photo from bamboccioni alla riscossa)

As Sarah wisely reported, the two major parties of the Italian politics are producing tons of advertisement and now even two videos. In order to gain a competitive advantage over rivals, politicians and their supporters are creating songs, films and magazines to depict the wonderful destiny they foresee for Italy.

This propaganda represents aspirations and a desirable image of life that the electors would like to identify with. However, people seem quite disillusioned with the nowadays reality and are not likely to appreciate the empty promises of the politicians- not matter what candidate proposes them.

It seems like politics has become a sort of marketing due to the fact that politicians are ever busier in promoting their perfect and marvellous programs. I feel like we are all a little bit poorer, a little bit angrier and a little bit disillusioned; however the electoral period it’s a time where we can all be positive and plan for a great new government.

The most important thing I wish Italians would never forget is that nice songs, enticing videos, charming smiles would never pay the taxes for us.

Terrorism in the USA

Last Tuesday I spoke again to Allyson. Also this time Laura had some problem with the volume of her microphone but in the end we managed to discuss together. The topic we dealt with was mainly terrorism. Allyson told us that even though US people have been totally frightened by the attack to the Twin Towers, now they are trying to reject fear and keep on living a normal life. I think it’s very courageous and mature. In fact, people cannot surrender to fear and must fight against terrorism.

As we can see at the airports, there are many measures anti-terrorism that prevent terrorists from doing other attacks. Sometimes these measures seem very restrictive but I think they are absolutely necessary. Allyson, Laura and I agreed that’s fundamental apply those measure very carefully and to do our best in order to avoid other terrifying attacks.

As regards my use of skype, this time we not only spoke on the phone but also chat. In skype, I created my personal contact list and I could chat and send my email address to Laura and Allyson. So we can keep in touch with emails, as well.

(photo source)

Into the wild

Some days ago I watched this impressive film. I recommend this movie to anybody who believe in freedom. Even though Into the wild introduces us in society where people cannot attain freedom; finally Christopher Mcendless will find his way trough and he will disclose us his last truth:
HAPPYNESS MUST BE SHARED.

Happy Easter!!!

Dear all!

I wish you, your families and beloved ones a very happy and sunny Easter!

Have fun and relax!

cheers

Martina

(picture from flickr)

Chiara Olivi was here!

(photo from flickr)

hello!

Last week our peer from the US, Chiara Olivi, came to Padova and visited us. It was very interesting to speak to her face to face. At the beginning of our speaking session we were a little embarassed but after a while we got more confident and we started asking her many questions about lifestyle in the US, Dickinson college, US politics and social system. As a consequence, we started making comparisons between Italy and the US and we mainly talked about the problems of our universitary system. Sometimes we have to study very hard; as a result we are supposed to gain many competences. However, this is not true! It's very frustrating the fact that despite so much hard work, Italian students are much more ignorant than US students. This issue made us reflect upon our learning process and our educational objectives.

On Tuesday, we'll speak on skype again. I'm very looking forward to discuss new interesting and stimulating topics with my peers Allyson and Laura. I think that Skype is a very challenging opportunity to improve my pronunciation. During the lessons by professor Busà, I realized how different is my intonation, compared to an English native speaker. The Skype sessions will help me to improve my fluency and my skill to reproduce English sounds.

Allyson speaks very well because she clearly pronunce the sounds, giving to her discourse a very cute intonation. Sometimes, we cannot hear each other because of the noise but overall I find it very easy to understand what Allyson says. It's very nice to speak about our everyday life and I'd like to have a webcam, so that it'd be even more easy to communicate. I'm really looking forward to next Tuesday!!!

Cath you later!
Martina

Abigail: my tandem partner!

This week I want to introduce you to my tandem partner. She comes from Chicago and she studies at the Boston university. WOW! I met her for the first time two weeks ago and since the beginning she appeared to me a very positive and lovely girl.

We met at the cafè Dersuit in piazza dei Signori where we could enjoy a relaxing and comfortable atmosphere: that was the perfect place to start a new friendship! While having our cappuccino, we talked about travelling around the world, studying at university and meeting new friends.

After our first meeting I was so excited that I couldn’t wait for the next time and so I decided to introduce her to my friends the day after. We enjoyed a brilliant evening at Highlander pub and we had a great fun all together. Abby is a very nice girl and even though I get to know her only two weeks ago, I already feel very at ease when I spend time with her.

Abby is always very smiling and caring. She has a very nice smile and beautiful red hair. For this reason, we’ve started calling her Ginger. What I like most in her personality is that she is very natural and out-going; I think these are very good qualities.

I will publish soon in my blog some pictures of us, so keep on visiting my blog!
See you soon!

Martina

Welcome to the Padova-Dickinson exchange!

Dickinson College

(photo source)

Heya!

The new semester has just started and we have already started a new interesting and stimulating activity: the Padova-Dickinson exchange! In the following months most of the class will participate in this project and I’ll be asked to reflect on the tasks we’ll try to achieve and on the way we’ll achieve them.

In the first lessons, we created a wiki page and we discussed about stereotypes. The students in Padova and in Dickinson were asked to complete a questionnaire in which they were asked to define the most important features of some entities. Among all the topics, we discuss mainly about the American and Italian nation, American and Italian women, American and Italian education systems, and American and Italian teachers. The basic conclusions we came up with are in this list:

• America
  
  - Both groups mention fast food and McDonald
  - Only Americans talk about their national flag
  - Many Italians mention grande, grandezza

• Italy
  - Both groups mention food, in particular pizza and pasta
  - Americans are more stereotyped (beautiful, mediterranean) but one of them mentioned the important difference of free health care
  - Italians are stereotyped too, but they also mention real problems (fuga di cervelli, immondizia)

• American women
  
  - Both groups think that they are independent
  - Americans stand to consider that they are anorexic or fat and fake
  - Italians only consider them overweight, but stressed out

• A good education is...
  
  - Both groups agree on the fact that a good education is very important and it helps you for your life after school
  - Americans think that education should prepare you for the future and their working career
  - Italians mention the fact that education should also consider the student as a person and is not so closely related to the future career

• A good teacher is...
  
  - Italians write more elaborated answers based on an ideal image of a teacher
  - Americans are more realistic and focus on specific skills a teacher should have

During the lessons on Tuesday, I finally get in touch with my skype partners: Allyson and Laura. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to talk for a long time because Laura didn’t manage to use skype properly and Allyson had to leave very soon. Anyway, I was very satisfied with this first experience because I could talk a lot with Allyson about our everyday life, our educational systems, the difference between high school and university, the importance of campus life in the American university. On the whole, it was a very exciting experience and I hope next time it’ll work even better.

One of the most interesting targets I hope to accomplish by using skype is to develop self-confidence while speaking with an English native speaker and to gain fluency when speaking about both academic and non-academic issues. What is more, I would improve my writing skills and my learning to express myself in a clear, concise, and effective way by using our wiki and Facebook. I added Allyson in the list of my friends in Facebook, so now I can send her not only messages but also pictures, images and a wide range of different applications!

See you next week!