The mindmap of my Personal Learning Environment at the end of the second semester

As far as the mindmap of my personal learning environment is concerned, I think that at the end of the second semester something has to be added. All the tools I listed in the first semester are still and will always be part of my life because I consider them extremely useful. However, I would add a new category: intercultural learning and experience. I could improve my intercultural competence during the second semester and now I must say that it is essential for my language learning process. Skype exchange, forums, travelling abroad are the best ways to improve it. As I wrote in the questionnaire, I still have to improve my ability to cope with communicating in a different language with a different culture because in my opinion to interpret people’s reactions a face-to-face communication is necessary. I hope to travel in the future and to have more direct contacts with native speakers. Sometimes you learn more if you experience directly and see with your eyes foreign countries.

Finally, I have to tell a curious episode. A friend of mine who lives in London wrote a comment on my blog suggesting me to include in my mindmap a tool which is becoming popular in UK: social network. Well, this suggestion arouse my curiosity and in the future I would like to know and experience this tool to see if it might really be useful for my language and intercultural learning.

I will always update my mindmap. This course taught me that reflection is what makes you mature and succeed in your career.

Assessment of intercultural competence

During this semester I had the possibility to improve my intercultural competence. I couldn't skype a lot because I was supposed to do the Poznan exchange, but I had the opportunity to learn many things about American elections creating the wiki page with my peers and about working women doing the wiki final project.

As far as knowledge is concerned, working on US elections I could learn the life and the political platform of McCain, Obama and Hillary Clinton and compare them with those of Berlusconi and Veltroni. Through the analysis of their speeches I could see how American politicians present their political platforms to the audience. To write a concise, easy to read section on McCain I read many sources of information, which helped me improving both my writing and critical skills: on the Web you find a lot of information, but you must select only what really meets your purposes.

During the course I had to communicate with American students using a forum. Apart from the cultural differences between the two countries, I found it a good resource to see how native speakers write in their own language, thus self-assessing my style.

As regards the final project, the topic my group had to deal with was 'Women at work' and I had to concentrate on 'working women rights' and the parallel section 'Diritti delle donne lavoratrici'. It had been not so easy to choose the subtopics because we had to decide with Chiara and, as you know, it is difficult to work with people who are not physically near you. However, at the end we were able to develop and create our wiki page, which I hope that my Italian peers will appreciate. Doing Skype with Chiara I could improve my listening skills becoming more familiar with the American pronunciation and learn more things about working women in The United States, such as the fact that Maternity leave is unpaid and usually granted for 6 weeks. Reading the Web sources I could improve both my reading and writing skills, learning how native speakers use punctuation, especially semi-colons.

I learned many words belonging to the political field, such as caucus, super-delegate, primaries, political convention, to be debarred from rights, to pass a low and others concerning women, i.e. c-section and Maternity leave.

I really appreciated the activities of this semester. I found them very useful because I think that learning a language is not enough to achieve a good English level, culture plays a leading role in your learning process. Furthermore, all the tasks helped me to mature. Now I'm able to do more effective researches on the Web and to write in English and in Italian more clearly and logically avoiding run-on sentences which create confusion and make the text difficult to read.

All the discussed topics aroused my interest. I could learn many things about immigration and American college life as well. In my opinion living together with other university students is a wonderful experience because it can help you to mature and to cope with life itself.

I'm very interested in other people's customs and traditions: they allow us to develop a critical view on Italian habits and maybe to improve your life. I hope to travel in the future and to improve my knowledge of foreign culture.

To conclude, I must say that I still have to improve my ability to cope with communicating in a different language with a different culture because in my opinion to interpret people's reactions a face-to-face communication is necessary. It allows you to see gestures and facial expressions, which sometimes tell you more than just an online distant conversation.

It has been a useful and wonderful year, which I will always remember not only from a knowledge point of view, but also, and above all, for a maturating experience.

Reflections on the skype exchange

Today we were asked to decide the topic for the final project together with our American peer, Chiara Olivi. It has been quite difficult because we suggested four different topics. In particular, Elena Vivian suggested abortion because it is a hot topic and causes a bit of upset in Italy and she wanted to compare different aspects between Italy and America, such as the methods of abortion which are legalized in the two countries, the laws which rule and prevent it, the trend of abortion rates in Italy and in the USA and the influence of religion on this matter. Silvia Nicolini wanted to discuss the difficulties that immigrants face when they have to apply for a job in Italy and in America, whereas Silvia Lovato suggested women’s issue because often women are paid less than men, scarcely involved in politics and the equality between sexes is not always guaranteed even in the USA. Finally, I chose music because especially in America there is a variety of genres which reflects the country’s multi-ethnic population and it would be a good idea to compare them with Italian classical music analysing their origins as well.
As far as immigrants and their exploitation at work are concerned, Chiara Olivi told that people coming from South America, especially from Mexico are discriminated. She liked all the four topics, but she was much more interested in women’s issue. As a consequence, we decided to develop a specific aspect of this wide topic: WOMEN AT WORK. In particular, an outline for our final project might be the following:

· Working mothers and housewives (Elena Vivian)
· Working mothers (rights) (Elisa Caramori)
· Women in politics (Silvia Lovato)
· Immigrant women (Silvia Nicolini)

At the beginning we decided to develop WOMEN’S ISSUE and Chiara told us that she would have liked to focus on healthcare and abortion, but given that it was a much wider topic we changed it and we sent to her an e-mail saying that we chose a more specific one, asking her if she likes it and what aspect she would like to discuss.
While waiting for Chiara’s e-mail, we will do researches on the 4 aspects listed above by Monday in order to start working on our project as soon as possible. We hope to do a good and interesting work!

Immigration in Italy

Immigration is quite a recent phenomenon in Italy. A country of emigration for many years, it is facing nowadays new cultural and political problems regarding the current big social change.
Immigrants arrived in Italy during the 70s and, in particular, the country saw an increasing number of foreign people during the 80s. The immigrants in Italy come from various countries with different customs, traditions and history. As a consequence there are not few ethnic groups prevailing as in the rest of Europe, but there are people coming from almost every area of Maghreb, Africa, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey etc…
Italy started to develop strategies and to draft laws regarding this issue not many years ago (during the 70s and the second half of the 80s), but the policies didn’t concern the needs and above all the rights of the people coming from a different country. Only at the end of 1986 was drafted the first law on immigration, when the necessity of a greater state intervention in this field was perceived. An important progress was made with the law of the 28th February 1990 because the ‘fixed presence’ of immigrants living and working in Italy was accepted. Furthermore, they saw the attribution of rights not only related to work, but also to the more general personal sphere. Significant innovations were introduced by the law drafted in 1998, such as the ‘carta di soggiorno’, a document which allows the permanent stay in Italy with a legal residence permit. Recently the sensibility towards immigrants has increased; they are no longer considered only workers, but people who want to build their lives in our country and so they need both cultural and social assistance. However, the entrance of immigrants is not so easy nowadays because the so called Bossi-Fini law, drafted in 2002, has made the acquisition of the so called ‘carte di soggiorno’ even more difficult.
From a social point of view, nowadays immigrants are part of our society and the issue is not how many rights they should have, but the kind of coexistence we should build with them. In Italy there are many children of immigrants, born in our country or living here since their childhood. These belong to the so called ‘second-generation’ of immigrants. All of them share the same social and economic wishes, they would like to succeed in Italy, but they still have to face many problems, such as the language. Furthermore, it is not easy for them to give up their cultural habits because their parents are still bound to the traditions and habits of their place of origin, and that is why many unhappy events often happen.
We should create new organizations to help them to face the new reality, from a linguistic point of view as well and, if their stay becomes permanent, we should extend to them more of our rights to make them feel more integrated in the Italian society.

A cultural topic for the final project: MUSIC

The topic I would like to focus on for the final project is music. I think that it reflects the traditions and the history of a country, that is why I would like to know the differences between American and Italian music.
In particular, I find it interesting to know what kind of genres are most popular in the two countries and in which areas as well, the reasons of their success and the social identities they reflect. I know that in America there are many genres, such as country, hip hop, rap, jazz, rock which reflect the country’s multi-ethnic population; this aspect enables us to make connections with immigration. Moreover, I would be curious to know in which occasions the different genres are played and compare the results with the holidays and the festivities in Italy.
In Italy classical music is very popular, maybe because many Italian personalities made and still make excellent work on that genre (Verdi, Pavarotti, Bocelli). Is classical music popular in America as well?Why?
Music expresses the characteristics of a country, its history, and through an accurate analysis of the words we can understand the thoughts, the habits and the opinions of the people as well.
In my opinion it might be an interesting topic because it enables us to explore different aspects of a country and make both good comparisons with and reflections on Italy and America.

News about US and Italian elections...

This week I kept reading the sources of information about the US and the Italian political elections. In particular, I read the news on The New York Times, Le Figaro, Giornale and Il Corriere della Sera.
The Italian elections are drawing near and the debate between Berlusconi and Veltroni is getting even more heated on a number of issues. Some articles say that Berlusconi is still the favourite, but at the same time he has lost credibility even if he continues criticizing the policy of the Left saying that Italy supports him and he will win in April. Furthermore, he adds that if he wins, three-quarters of the ministers will be women. This is particularly interesting if we want to make a comparison between America, where Hillary is one of the nominees of the Presidential elections and Italy: in both countries women are attaining success in politics.
As far as the US elections are concerned, a lot of news says that Obama and Hillary contradict each other in a number of issues and this might risk the unity of their party. Mr Obama is still seen as the presidential candidate most likely to unite the country (60%), followed by McCain (58%). A strange interview reveals that the Democrats might vote for McCain if their candidate isn’t the nominee and this is particularly true if the conservative Republican will be matched to Barack Obama, even if a comment on this news made by a Democrat says that it is a ridiculous reason because a vote for McCain is a vote for a third Bush term. Finally, McCain criticizes the government’s actions to solve the mortage crisis, which are supported by the Democrats, saying that “no assistance should be given to speculators”.

US and Italian elections discussed in three different newspapers: The new York Times, Il Giornale and Le Figaro.

I’ve been following the news about the Italian and the US elections for four days in three different online newspapers: The New York Times, Le Figaro and Il Giornale.
Before analysing the differences and the similarities in the way the news is presented on these three different sources, I find it appropriate to consider what kind of news the three newspapers have published about the elections during these four days.

The New York Times
March 12, 2008
News about US elections
‘AFL-CIO Briefing Book attacks McCain’: The factions which support Hillary and Obama attack McCain policies, arguing that ‘he would take away workers’rights and reduce their standards of living’.
‘McCain returns to New Hampshire’: New Hampshire is the state which launched McCain’s presidential campaigns, but he is aware of the fact that in November it would not be easy to win. This article reports an important statement of McCain which explains his return to this state: ‘I think it’s important for politics in America for the voters to feel that they can be in touch with politicians as well as politicians being in touch with people’.
March 13, 2008
News about US elections
‘Racial issue bubbles up again for Democrats’: Geraldine Ferraro resigns because of her statements against Obama.
‘Unions unveil McCain attack’: Senator McCain is attacked on economic issues.
March 14, 2008
News about US elections
‘Free-spirited wanderer who set Obama’s path’: Obama’s mother is reminded and several aspects of his life are discussed.
‘Obama denounces his Pastor’s statements as ‘inflammatory’: Obama criticizes Mr Wright’s statements about racism and America.
‘McCain’s London fund raiser’: McCain plans a foreign trip which will serve as a promotion of his foreign policy credentials.
‘McCain says he worries about preelections Iraq attacks’: McCain fear terrorist attacks in November which would tip the election against him.

As it can be seen, no news about the Italian elections has been published during these days, probably because of cultural reasons: Americans might focus their attention on themselves and on the countries which are still part of the political problems of USA, such as Iran and Iraq. However, I looked for some articles concerning Berlusconi and I found one whose title is ‘Berlusconi’s long shadow casts a chill over Italian politics’, which dates back to 02/02/2008. It contains a big photo presenting Berlusconi in Naples and tells not only how he is considered in Italy, but also reports some complaints against him presenting a list of his most criticized slogans (‘I’m the Jesus Christ of politics’, ‘I sacrifice myself for anyone’).

Le Figaro
March 12, 2008
News about US elections
‘Barack Obama remporte le Mississippi’: this article talks about Obama’s political success in Mississippi.
News about Italian elections
‘Prodi s’efface de la scène politique’
March 13, 2008
News about US elections
‘Nouveau coup dur pour le camp Clinton’ : this article refers to Geraldine Ferraro statements against Obama.
March 14, 2008
News about US elections
‘Les cinq erreurs d’Hillary’: this article refers to the bad strategies adopted by Hillary in her campaign.

Since my group (group 1) analyses the candidates on the right, I was curious to know what kind of news has been published about McCain. I found one article dating back to 03/06/2008, whose title is ‘McCain ne resisterait ni à Obama, ni à Clinton’. What is interesting in this article are the two reasons, which, according to ABC News, would cause the failure of McCain: Bush’s support and his age.
This newspaper presents a dossier which is completely dedicated to the US elections; therefore it is easier to find news about this topic than on the other newspapers’ websites. Furthermore, it doesn’t omit the news about Italian politics, probably because France is an European country and thus more involved in Italian political problems.

Il Giornale
March 12, 2008
News about US elections
‘USA, in Mississippi Obama straripante’: this article talks about Obama’s success in Mississippi’.
News about Italian elections
‘Berlusconi: antifascista la nostra identità politica, ecco i candidati del PDL’: Berlusconi presents the candidates of his party and some aspects of his political platform.
March 13, 2008
News about Italian elections
‘Berlusconi: vittoria impossibile per il PD. Politiche, ecco tutti i candidati del PDL’: Berlusconi continues to attack his rivals and presents all the candidates of his party.
‘Pil, Berlusconi: “eredità difficile”: Berlusconi tells that the economic growth will be difficult considering the heritage of the previous government.
‘Berlusconi: convinceremo gli indecisi’: Berlusconi expresses his firm belief to win.
News about US elections
‘USA, razzismo nelle urne. Tra i democratici è rissa’: this article is about Geraldine Ferraro’s statements against Obama.
‘Ipotesi Romney per McCain’: Mitt Romney is said to be the candidate for the president’s assistant.
March 15, 2008
News about Italian elections
‘Libano, il Cavaliere: “Nuove regole di ingaggio': this article is about the disputes of the PDL with PD on the military forces in the Middle East.

As it can be seen from the large number of news about Berlusconi and PDL at first page, Il Giornale is clearly a partial newspaper. Furthermore, there are many big photos of Berlusconi, all of them portraying him with a triumphant smile. It is interesting to note that this Italian newspaper, unlike The New York Times, doesn’t ignore news about US politics probably because of cultural reasons: Italy might be more interested in other countries' issues.

Since all the three newspapers contain the same news about Geraldine A. Ferraro’s resignation, I find it interesting to analyse the way it is presented by il Giornale, The New York Times and Le Figaro.
All the three articles are at front page and have a big image showing Obama (Il Giornale, The New York Times) and Geraldine Ferraro (Le Figaro). Il Giornale and Le Figaro’s article are the same length, whereas the one on The New York Times is longer. Furthermore, both The New York Times and Le Figaro have a subtitle: Clinton, Obama have each used race, sex against the other; Après avoir pronouncé des propos controversies sur la couleur d’Obama, Geraldine Ferraro a demissionné de ses functions de chargée des finances de la campagne. Hillary Clinton s’est confondue en excuses. As far as the content is concerned, the three newspapers present the same news both with differences and similarities. All the three report what Geraldine Ferraro said about Obama more or less with the same words (“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position”). If we analyse the differences, we will notice that Il Giornale adds that blacks don’t allow any comment regarding race, even if racial segregation finished many years ago, Le Figaro, after the central news, reminds a similar event happened to Jesse Jackson in 1988 and finally The New York Times’ article contains two final paragraphs: “unavoidable subtexts” and “using sex, race against each other”. To conclude, the words used are almost always formal in all the articles.