In the last class we didn't have our skype exchange, but we spoke about ICC (Intercultural competence), which is a topic really close to what I'm studying. As one who wants to work in a multiracial society, he/ she should at least be aware of different cultures and their different habits. Our teacher Sarah gave us a complicated test called (YOGA) about multiculturalism and I have to admit that if even we are living in the 2007 and in Italy the number of immigrants is increasing every year, I'm not competent and I'm also far distant to become. In meanwhile I discovered I could also become aware of the difference and try to do my best to develop my skills. T.S. Eliot said that " The vital importance for a society is friction between its parts" and in the wiki made by my colleagues in the first semester there is a large amount of definitions which describe culture in a proper and specific way. Belief, art, morals, law but also immaterial and material expressions of our everyday life determinate a man's culture. An essential part to become competent is to be in contact with people of other cultures and be open to new ways of life.
In my opinion trying to be nowadays intercultural is a challenging task, all the public opinion states that different cultures make your knowledge and your life flourish but in my personal experience is really difficult to interact with foreigners. Maybe the institutions in Italy don't work enough to integrate people who come in Italy for different reasons (jobs, family.). Most of times we are afraid of the differences and a part of foreigners do not effort to learn our language, our habits. Coexisting and respecting each other are the first steps we should do toward a multicultural world. I don't think Italy is still a multicultural nation: it's true that in Italy live people from all the five continents but the majority of them live in sort of ghettos.
Openness, emphaty, patience, curiosity are the essential elements to not loose a part of the next future world. Being able to leave off misunderstandings and give a chance to tolerance is already a good point.

TEN MINUTES TO REFLECT UPON OUR SKYPE EXCHANGE


The second Skipe exchange was.. unpredicted. First I had some technical problem and I couldn't phone, so at very beginning I was a little bit disappointed, all my peers had already started speaking.. and I was the only one waiting for Marcello's help!
However, in a short time I started my Skipe exchange with a new partner, his name is Francesco and as everyone can guess, he has Italian origins! On the contrary to what my colleagues said, I had no problems in understanding him as he speaks Italian fluently with few mistakes and the pronunciation was that of an Italian from Bologna! To be ho honest we spoke for all the time in Italian, I asked him if we could speak in English, but he prefers bel paese language!
Form the linguistic point of view I didn't learn very much this time, but I discovered a lot of interesting things.
I was interested in the reactions Americans have towards the collecting of garbage and how it was possible that they were supposed to be less attentive after hurricane Katrina.He told it was true, Americans seem to be undeceived as the government hasn't done much effort to rebuild the city and there is a still too much to do..
I asked him what he thought about the competion between universities aimed to find new and proper ways of recycling. He told me that he hopes this project will touch the public opinion as it is created by students, who are the future of a Nation but, he is not so convinced they will do many improvements to the current situation.
I thought we could also make a project for improve our environment, when I found the information about Naples, I was shocked. No one seems to be interested in the future and in what we will leave to the next generations, people behave as earth is only for us. Everywhere in the world governments and instutions do just a little of the gigantic amount of things we could do to ensure our children a better world.
Anyway these considerations are not so new, everyday we come across to injustices and problems, which could be easily solve..
I think this exchange will help everyone (Italian and American students) to reflect and consider what we really can do for our earth.

Monday we had our first Skype exchange, it was such an exciting thing!
Before starting to speak with American colleagues we tried to talk to each other in class, and it was really funny, as we know each other and we also joked a lit bit. But, when the Americans called me up, I was totally embarrassed and I think also Timothy and Bari were. At the very beginning we spoke about lives, our hobbies and ourselves. (It was so strange for me speaking with someone I have never met before!) Sometimes I didn’t know what talk about, and there were some pauses. I had to think in a short what to say in English trying to reduce the mistakes! This is a really good exercise to improve your ability in speaking.
Then, as the Americans were less than we were, we start doing conference, and I have to admit that I was more confident because I had on my side Francesca and Annalisa that could help me when I didn’t manage to express properly. But there was also a con, when we were in the conference, it was more difficult to understand when someone wanted to speak, and I didn’t want to seem interfering.
To be honest we talked just a little about recycling, only Annalisa and Bari could tell us about their experiences and the problems in their countries. However, the important thing was to have a clearer idea of what is going on in New Orleans, and we discovered how Hurricane Katrina destroyed evrything in the city.Hearing from someone who was present during the disaster, it's really different from reading about it in a newspaper or watching it on Tv.