sabato 24 novembre 2007

YouTube is everywhere!



I thought YouTube was something older, but I discovered it was created only in 2005. We all know it’s a website which allows you to see and share videos with other users. You can watch videos about everything, and when I say everything I mean whatever is possible (and impossible, too, unluckily!).

I began surfing in YouTube last year when I was in Barcelona. There it was impossible to me to see Italian TV-programs, and I have to admit that when you live abroad for a long period you miss a little bit what you were used to see in Italy. Obviously there were thousands of things to do, but before going to sleep I usually searched for parts of Italian shows in the net in order to fall asleep convinced to know a little bit more about what was happening in my country.

Everyone can post his/her favorite videos: from a home-made video to something recorded on TV or downloaded from the net. You can be the protagonist of your video or another person can be the actor, most of the time without knowing it. Nowadays with all these new cell-phones it’s easier recording whatever in every moments but above all without the others to know. Just an example, students in Italian school. Is increasing the number of those students who put on YouTube videos about pieces of nonsense they or their teachers do in class, or about what students do to or with teachers, or the contrary. This is an example of what is going to be YouTube in the future: a well of TV-trash and a documentation of reality (or degradation, I could say!), as well.

As far as the English learning is concerned, I think YouTube is a very useful and economic tool to improve your study of a language. Because, obviously, we are always speaking of English, but, as foreign languages students we are, we can use all the tools Sarah suggested to us for the other languages we are studying, too. We can watch videos all the times we need, we have the opportunity to hear mother tongue people speaking, listening to their pronunciation, developing our listening and oral skills without spending money!

I hope YouTube will keep its sense of cheerfulness, irony and fun, without collapsing, as unluckily it’s happening, in pornography or trash. Therefore I decided to post an amazing video on what Europeans think of Italians! Hope you’ll have fun watching it!

4 commenti:

Roby ha detto...

Amazing!!!I watched the video you chose more than once…and every time I laughed as is it was the first time!
These are 5 minutes of absolutely truth!! Fondly speaking, I think we are the worst!! The soundtrack (of the parts regarding Italian behaviour) recalled me the typical soundtracks of our “commedie all’ italiana” with Alberto Sordi or Ugo Tognazzi!
Bruno Bozzetto (the author of the video) is a genius!!
Great Giovi!!
See you!!

The Ghellers ha detto...

Hi Giovanna,
First of all, I have to say I really enjoyed your video! I think it gives us a picture of what Italy really is! Most of the things I saw in the video are completely true. This morning, for example, I was in Vicenza with two friends of mine and we went to a bar for a coffee. We took: “macchiato caldo”, “macchiato freddo” and “orzo tazza grande”. Ah Ah Ah...
As to YouTube, I completely agree with you when you say it can help us to improve our language skills without spending money and staying at home!
Stefania

p.s. I really appreciated your introduction of YouTube; it was complete and clear.

caterina_luison ha detto...

Hi Gio,
It's incredible how can be funny to see a comic description of Italian people and to think: "We are really as the others think we are!!!" The video is really amazing and it's clear that Italians are the worse...as Roby has said!!!
I appreciated the explanation of how you knew YouTube, that is to have news about Italy while you were abroad...because I think that this is one of the most important opportunity that this site gives us. I used it when I was in Germany also to see the videos of my friends' parties hier in Italy!!!
Bye bye!!!

alessia f. ha detto...

Dear Giovanna,
as regards Italian adolescents and meaningless videos I saw something interesting yesterday evening: an educational broadcasting tried to show us how simple is to cross the border doing something deplorable. Among this videos there are often young women showing their naked bodies just to increase their popularity. What’s terrific is that these videos are frequently used as blackmail: “do my homework or I’ll show your video!”. We absolutely need more control even if I know that controlling Internet is quite impossible.

All the best
alessia