Something about my final ICC Assessment

I have to introduce the compilation of my ICC Assessment by saying that as I initially belonged to the Padova-Poznan group I haven't got the possibility to develop a real Skype Exchange with our American peers. Although for the last month we had the possibility to talk with a Dickinsons student I could't took the chance, because I had problems with the timetable. I don't want to blame anyone, but me. It would be surely a great experience! Anyway I have to admit I learned something, because every week during our Monday class the peer of my group who was doing the Skpe Exchange with the American girl, always told us something about their conversation and partly because we tried to have a written corrispondence, by writing mail to each others in order to complete our wiki page.

I think that learning and of course talking with someone who lives in a different country is always an experience that gives you much that you would expect. It's obvious we, as Italians, have an opinion on how American people are and of course for them it's the same, but by confronting with American students we actually had the possibility to clarify some commonplaces. We analysed diffent aspects of the two cultures throughout this year and I think talking about topics such as immigration, health care system and elections was an interesting way in order to criticize our own culture, but to appreciate it as well.

I'm sure this exchange experience helped us revaluating the idea we all had on American people. It's true that all we know about them is what we see in Tv, thanks to the typical American drama series which presents a distorting representation of what they really are. Talking and comparing each other, I discovered we, as Italians, have too many commonplaces about Americans, and viceversa, obviously. But this experience helped me changing my mind!

The end is near, luckily!

Easter holidays have only just finished. We all hoped chocolate and candies would have sweetened the discussions, but it has not been so. Again boring interviews, unfailing debates, indispensable cuts and thrusts between the leaders and acid attacks! For a moment, when I was unwrapping my Easter egg, I thought to find a little statue of Berlusconi or Veltroni. They are everywhere! Why not putting one of their smiling pictures also in Easter eggs as a surely pleasant gift for all the voters?!

It’s not easy to follow how things are going on at this point. Politicians repeatedly change opinions, criticize each others, move from an idea to another or even from a party to another. Italians have understood that more or less they all say and claim for the same things, just by using different expressions and slogans. But I think we are all aware that nothing is going to change really, and Italian politics is not going to make any sort of improvement. They all have interesting ideas on how Italy could change or even enough purposes, that at this point there are a very few people who still believe in them.

I found so ridiculous the videoclips of Pdl and Pd. If instead of trying to look like the Americans, they would concentrate themselves in our own situation it would be much better! We use ways of expression and communication closer to the Americans, like videos, songs and also interviews to celebrities who support politicians and parties, as if you were a fan of an actor you will vote for the candidate he supports. They don’t know anyhow to convince us!

In America things are not going in a different way. Between Obama and Hillary, silently McCain seems to be rising from his position. In these last days some papers are describing the senator Clinton as a liar, referring to some of her sentences during one of her trip to Bosnia. But what I found really embarassing was some accusations moved to her saying in one of her political spot Obama face seems to be darker than it really is. People don't really know what to do! If things are at this point now, I don't want really know what will happen till November!

Luckily here in Italy parties’ platforms are clear (do really?), we know everything about the candidates. Let’s wait for the election days.
Hope this will end soon!

How do they look at us..!?

This kind of work is making me realizing how many things happen every day at every hour. The online papers are very well organized. They are updated every minute, if something interesting happens. Whereas you have to wait till the 8 p.m. news broadcast in order to know whether something new happens during the day, while in the net everything is written and updated very quickly. You can find news about everything and above all you have the possibility to go back and read the previous newspapers, because almost every on line newspaper has a sort of appendix.

I surfed the net for nearly two hours. The number of things and articles to look at is really huge and enormous. Due to the fact that in this last period a lot of countries are busy with elections’ time starting from the largely gossip-elections in France to the more mummified Italian ones and the great-nation-party American ones, every newspaper or broadcast has always more and more to say about them. Online newspapers have come to the point to create some distinguished sections, dedicated to everything which concerns the different elections.

I briefly had a look at some Spanish newspaper as well. I have to admit they don’t give enough importance to all this kind of stuff. As a European country they prefer to concentrate in other topics giving only a few short news. I read something on the web site of El País, the left-oriented newspaper of the country, and it’s obvious to see how the journalists sympathize for Veltroni. I noticed how they describe Veltroni’s conventions and ways he behaves, comparing them to Obama’s. This made me really start laughing. If only it were true! As far as the Spanish opinion is concerned about the American elections, I saw the interest was concentrated on scandals, blunders and gossips. It’s true how Spanish people love this kind of information.

Italian online newspapers are well organized owning each a section dedicated both to Italian elections and American one. I appreciated the fact that they all inserted a sort of glossary where they explain how the American elections’ system works, in order to make it comprehensible to everyone. You can finally find also funny sections, as the one of La Repubblica full of retouched images of different parties’ billboards. As we live in a democratic country it’s obvious to notice how the right oriented newspaper, as Il Giornale, supports Berlusconi’s opinions and ideas without forgetting to attack the rival side, whereas the left oriented ones, as La Repubblica loves flaunting Berlusconi’s last blunder or bad comments.

As far as the American online newspapers are concerned, I noticed how they give little room to other countries' elections. Surfing on the New York Times website I found only a few articles on Italian elections and politicians. I'm sure they are too busy with all their affairs, they don't give importance to other. Too many scandals and news to write about, they don't have time to look deeply at what other countries deal with.

It's elections time!

I have to admit I’m not fond of politics. To tell the truth I don’t understand almost anything and above all I don’t like watching all those debates and discussions which crowd TV-programs and newspapers nowadays. But thanks to this kind of e-tivity I’ve had the opportunity to update my pieces of information about this topic. And if I have to choose, I prefer the atmosphere that surrounds USA presidential elections, because it seems to me to be more like a great party done for the audience, without forgetting traditions and ancestors, rather than an unfair competition between mummies like the Italian one. Undoubtedly derived from the division within my group and not by my personal orientation, I have to expose what I saw and thought when I watched at some videos and when I read some articles on the Republican candidate John McCain.

First of all I want to introduce him a little bit, in order to inform my peers about who their candidates (Obama and Hillary Clinton)have to deal with. McCain is definitely not as young as Obama is, and I read that if elected, he would be the oldest USA President ever. He was the senior US Senator from Arizona, but before this he worked for the Navy and above all he fought in the Vietnam War, enduring almost 6 years as a war prisoner. And it’s this that makes him a kind of national hero and a patriot. He wants to be the successor of George W. Bush and like him he’s totally convinced of his position towards the war in Iraq. His conservative ideology brings him to support school vouchers, capital punishment and welfare reform; he’s against an expanded government role in health care and marriages between homosexuals.

I spent some time watching some videos on McCain and I noticed how much he wants to emphasize his position of a war veteran. The videos looks like movie trailers, completely different from Italian elections’ spot, where politicians simply made a list of their ideas ending with a slogan. Most of the videos I saw show anecdotes of McCain’s experience in Vietnam, like documentaries on his life, trying to underline how important were his actions to build America like we see it now. In spite of his appearance of a tender loving granddad, he is strong in his position and opinions, always referring to faith, courage, leadership and pride. He uses expressions like “never surrender” or “never give in”, as he were still working in the Navy. The slogan I most heard was “we can, we must and when I’m President we will”, obviously comparing to Obama’s “Yes, you can”. He always refers to his supporters calling them "my dear friends" and he never forget to say God bless you and God bless America" at the end of every speech.

Surfing on Youtube I noticed how many videos there are against McCain, as well. I saw one with Black Eyed Peas Music for Obama's campaign, but the protagonists, rather than sing what you can do, sings what you could not do whether McCain will be elected. In some others he addresses in unpolite manners to a NY Times journalist and to a student, calling him "little jerk". But the worst videos I saw are the one where he sings "Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" and then laugh, like it's a big joke to murder Iranian people and the one in which he refers to Hillary Clinton as a bitch, answering to a question of one of his supporters.

As far as the Italian political elections situation is concerned and the comparison with the American one I can say that beyond the fact that the two candidates (McCain and Berlusconi)for the right side have the same age, they have both the capacity to seduce the audience and above all the ability to seem against the establishment, although they are completely absorbed in it. As here in Italy for Berlusconi, McCain must convince the American public that he’s not too old for the job and that he’s ready to build a more modern country through important reforms. Finally I want to add that whether American politicians express their opinion, without referring to the rival side, the Italian situation is totally different. Politicians always attack the others by saying what they did wrong and what they didn’t, criticizing and accusing them.

Let’s see how it’s going to end!

Analyzing my PLE..

I think it's better writing in a post what I wrote in my PLE, because I noticed you can't see anything at all! I wasn't be able to download the programm, so that I go back to my simple piece of paper and my digital camera!

FORMAL AREA:
- activities: attend lectures, private courses, conferences, seminars; produce projects, thesis,researches, tasks; oral discussions with peers;
- people: mother tongue teachers, professors, peers;
- tools: exercises, bloggingenglish, labs, wikipedia, del.icio.us, bloglines;
- sources of information: grmmar manuals, dictionaries, language guides, CDs and DVDs;

INFORMAL AREA:
- activities: listening to music, working, travelling, reading books, writing, watching videos, talking, abroad experiences;
- people: Erasmus students, people met while travelling, co-residents, customers, bosses, colleagues met while working;
- tools: TV, radio, internet, instant messaging, virtual communities;
- sources of information: books, newspapers, websites, blogs, TV-programs, podcasts;

Hope this helps!

My PLE and much more!

photo by graf_bobo
Besides being time to start thinking about our final thesis, it’s time for us to sum up our long and personal journey across English language learning, as well. I think the process of studying a new language may be seen more or less like a long trip within yourself, your skills, your abilities and knowledge. You start from a point where you don’t know almost anything and, step by step, you reach what’s supposed to be the best you can do. As during a journey, there can be pauses, accelerations, obstacles to pass and goals to achieve.

This time we were asked to produce our Personal Learning Environment (PLE), obviously about our English learning process. I can describe the PLE as a sort of outline where we can put whatever we think can be helpful in order to learn a foreign language throughout our life, not only concerning the time we spent learning it at school. Above all in this scheme we have to write what we really use and do to approach and make ours what we learn. They can be tools, resources, processes, persons, situations, experiences, activities and they depend on your personal possibilities and needs. A PLE is something more than personal! It’s not an easy job, because we all know the learning process takes place in various situations: formal and informal, national and international, institutional and daily. Anyway, let’s try!

It’s true when we say we won’t ever stop learning. We learn from everyday situations, from mistakes, from dangerous or bad experiences, but even from memorable events and unforgettable friendships and relations. It’s interesting to notice how more you can learn outside of institutional contexts, such as school and university. There’s a huge world outside where you have the opportunity to share your opinions, to learn from the others, to listen to what they have to say, to practice what you already know, to keep your mind flexible and to reflect about what you’ve done so far and what you could do to improve it.

The easiest way to organize my PLE was to divide it into two big areas: the formal and the informal one. Then I made four different subdivisions for each areas: activities, people, sources of information and tools. As you can see (can you see, really?!!?) from the picture I posted there are various ways to learn a foreign language and above all everybody can do it! It’s not easy being original about this topic, because we are used to learn more or less all in the same way. Anyway, within the formal area I want to emphasize the great contribution mother tongue teachers, grammar manuals, peers’ discussions and oral activities give us. Whereas within the informal area I want to underline how fundamental experiences abroad are (this is my case! Last year I couldn’t a word of Spanish, and now I can speak about everything and with everybody!), besides listening to foreign music, watching movies in their original version, reading and chatting in virtual communities.

To produce my own PLE gave me the possibility to reflect on the learning tools I used till now and to take a look inside what I’ve done in order to see if I achieved the goals every student set when he/she began studying English. At the beginning I couldn’t find where to start writing, probably because there was too much to say. As a matter of fact while I was writing this post I noticed the more I was thinking, the more came to my mind and I wanted to add. It’s really impressive how many ways exist to learn, gather and store new pieces of information. Since learning time never ends, I’m sure I will have many other things to add to my outline!

Thesis time has come!

Photo by Abdullah AL-Naser

Thanks to Sarah who reminded me that I have to start thinking seriously to my thesis, to my next graduation, and above all to the hard work that stays behind a good production! I can’t escape! Time has come! And isn’t it a wonderful manner to start this run that to write something, and therefore to make a little research to find out what the fundamental tips for a judicious work are? I am sure this will help us all!
I remember when I was preparing the thesis for my first graduation: lot of time spent searching for the most interesting books and authors, for the most useful critical reviews and essays. I was always reading and underlining, copying and pasting, readapting and cutting. What a hard work! And if you are a fussy person as I am, it becomes really an obsession! Everything must be perfect! But unfortunately we all know this isn’t always possible. We have to live together with our imperfection and with the imperfection of our works!
But I’m sure there are some tips we all have to follow in order to produce a discrete text. The most important in my opinion is that you’ve always to read and analyze the texts by yourself. It’s your thesis therefore don’t confide to the others’ suggestions. You’ve lot of time (really?!?), so read whatever is possible in order to increase your knowledge and discover new topics and pieces of information.
As far as the online sources are concerned I’m quite skeptical. You don’t have to be a writer, a critic or a professor to write something in the net. Everyone can do this! So I don’t rely on the web as a trustworthy source for my thesis work. It may be that you can find interesting arguments and subjects, but I think the net isn’t a reliable mean of knowledge, yet! Books, articles and essays give me more a sense of security and certainty by now!