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!