Summer's blog!

2008-05-13T11:05:00.000-07:00

My Experience of the Exchange

First of all, I really have to say that our exchange was a wonderful experience overall. I really felt involved in it and I really appreciated our peers’ determination to know us better. Moreover, Italian is far from being an easy language so I was really flattered by their efforts to speak or write good Italian.

What can I say to sum up the answers to the questionnaire?

FEELINGS…

Undoubtedly, following all the activities was challenging sometimes because we also had other courses to attend. However, I was really satisfied both with the final project and the exchange because you can never know if you will have other similar occasions in the future.

Of course there were also moments in which I felt a bit uncomfortable: comparing some aspects of our country with such a big nation as America is not always encouraging. Anyway, I also have to say that our American peers were really down to earth people so they didn’t have a condescending attitude towards us and were really aware of their own weak points as well.

KNOWLEDGE…

Apart from Skype, I also learnt a lot from the forums: they gave me the possibility to discuss issues concerning both Italy and America and the questions our American peers posed gave me a more clear idea of how we, as Italians, are perceived abroad. One of the most important things I learned is that sometimes the media give us an image of the United States that does not always correspond to reality. They offer us stereotypical representations of people and places, so some of the discussions going on in the forums helped me to know what real people think or believe and to consider the American culture in a less superficial way.

As for our final project, it was one of the few group projects, in my university career, in which I really felt involved. I generally prefer individual activities because I like to work at my own pace but I have to say that I really liked to work for the wikipage and to have contacts with my peers also outside normal classes.

LANGUAGE LEARNING…

As for my language learning, I don’t know if there has been consistent improvements or not…the amount of time spent talking in English was relatively small. Moreover, talking English with each other (I mean, we Italian students) sounded really embarrassing and strange to me.
However, I think that we had several occasions to learn how real people write or talk in the real world. I have also learnt to become more familiar with a less formal and academic kind of English and I’m happy of that because I think this is the way real people talk or write.

Well, I’m looking forward to sharing my experience with you all tomorrow…so see you then!!!

(photo taken from Flickr)

Bye

Alessia

...3 proposals for our project...

2008-04-19T03:23:00.000-07:00

Hi Girls!!!

It’s time to decide the topic of our final project!

I’ve received a mail from Brian ( I forwarded it to you) where he says that both our proposals are good. Moreover, he also gave us another interesting suggestion: to use the media as a source to compare the United States and Italy, to show how the lifestyles between Americans and Italians are different. Of course his proposal can be linked in some way to Raffaella's proposal because it will be possible to make references to the issue of how women are portrayed through the media.

Now, we have three proposals:
(all of them obviously refer to a comparison between the United States and Italy)

1. immigration policies
2. the use of women and female body in commercials and policies
3. using the media as a source to compare the United States and Italy

To me, all of them seem to be interesting. The only thing is that we have to be sure to find enough material on the Web.

Let me know what you think so that we can write our topic on the Wiki Page.

Bye Bye

Alessia

Reflective blogging (week 6)...

2008-04-12T07:37:00.000-07:00

I have to say that we really managed to get the most of our last Skype Exchange.

This time we had to focus on the issues of both the American and the Italian platforms. The first thing we noticed about the two American platforms was the fact that they were so extreme, compared to the two Italian political programs. Brian told me that it has really become hard to choose between the two main parties and that no intermediate positions are available. If you take the issue of the war in Iraq, for instance, it is easy to see where the two main candidates stand so that the decision WAR or NO WAR can deeply affect your choice.

Then we discuss about the issue of the environment that represents a very pressing concern in the next political elections! Brian explained to me that many countries in America are nowadays really trying to take the right steps in order to solve the problem of global warming, to reduce gas emissions and to find alternative energy resources. Here in Italy, environmental concerns are pressing too, but maybe we are not taking the right steps. I explained to him that some big cities such as Milano, Padua, Turin and Rome periodically organize “giornate a piedi” but that they are so rare and unsystematic that they won’t bring us very far.

Moreover, Lisa mentioned the Kyoto Protocol and asked why the United States didn’t want to take part to it. Brian was not able to explain that...maybe it was because of the restrictions that such a Treaty could impose to the huge number of natural resources they have.
Later we discuss Italy’s main concerns, the economic recession and the problem of temporary jobs in particular. Brian told me that in the last few years, America had gone through a sort of recession too and that they had lots of jobs lost. So, all the three candidates are offering in their campaigns to take the right steps to get their economy back in line (to cut off taxes, for instance). Nevertheless, lots of Americans are convinced that these are just promises and that they won’t be fully maintained.

...immigration in Italy...

2008-04-12T03:39:00.000-07:00

As I wrote in one of the last posts, I can perceive some differences between Italy and America as far as the attitude towards immigrants and immigration in general is concerned. That has something to do with the history of this phenomenon in the two countries. Italy, cannot rely on a rich history of immigration as America does: it has long been a point of departure for lots of emigrants trying to escape from poverty and hunger. Then, starting from the last decades of the XX century, the trend has completely changed direction: our country has progressively become a “dream” for lots of poor people, mostly from Eastern Europe and Northern Africa.

Immigration has of course positive and negative consequences: one the one hand, the newly arrived are so poor and desperate that they accept any kind of job and so they sort of take on the works that nobody here would like to do and contribute to keep our economy going on. BUT, on the other hand, their desperate conditions may also lead to dramatic consequences. There’s no reason to spend many words on this because the plague of criminality, drug traffic, violence and the formation of ghettos in more degraded parts of the city (via Anelli, for instance) is constantly under our own eyes. Not to mention the problem of illegal immigration, which costs us an awful lot of money every year.

Of course there are many things to say on this topic and I'm really looking forward to our discussion, so that we can learn more from one another.

P.S.: In the meanwhile, I’ve browsed the Net in order to find some useful pieces of information. There's a little bit of everything but I particularly liked this website:

http://www-pub.naz.edu:9000/~cmnewell/index.htm

It is really clear and well-organized. It contains a brief history of Italian immigration as well as a very useful insight on the phenomenon of illegal immigration and a description of the recent measures adopted in order to tackle it.

OUR FINAL PROJECT

2008-04-06T02:41:00.000-07:00

Dear group 2,

next week we should start thinking about our final project. As you know, it should cover a particular aspect of the two cultures, so it should be a sort of comparison.

I was thinking that maybe we should focus on immigration and see how the two countries deal with it or have dealt with it in the past. I mean, not only in terms of attitude towards immigrants but also in terms of immigration policies. As we know, immigration is an important component of American history but nowadays it seems as if immigration policies in the US are a bit more strict compared to the Italian ones. Moreover, it seems as if the American citizenship is a really hard goal…maybe this could be a misconception based on our own ideas so we could explore the topic more in depth.

This is just my proposal! Of course if you come up with completely different ideas we can discuss them together! This is just what interests me most about America!;-)

See you in class!;-)

(photo taken from Flickr)

Reflective blogging...

2008-04-04T12:11:00.000-07:00

Even though we didn’t have a lot of time at our disposal (because of some technical problems), last Wednesday’s chatting with my American peer was really interesting and fruitful. First of all, he asked me about my spring break but I had to admit that I stayed at home all the time in order to prepare for an exam (anthropology)! Anyway, he hadn’t done anything special either, so at least I was not the only one!

As both our countries are now facing the general political elections, we inevitably ended up talking about politics. He told me that in America the candidates of both wings put nowadays a lot of emphasis on environmental concerns (gas emission/the preserve of forests in California and so on)…apparently this is a good way to get votes nowadays. ;-)

Then, he told me that last Monday they watched “Il Caimano” by Nanni Moretti at Dickinson and that some of them had been pretty shocked by it. Some of them heard (for the first time) that our former president (I cannot tell the name, we are in “par condicio ;-)) had faced a trial but that he was then discharged of all accusations. To him, the fact that he was finally discharged and that he was allowed to continue in his political career sounded really weird …Well, it IS actually weird but unfortunately here in Italy it is the norm: the morality of both left and right political candidates is not always immaculate and I’m afraid we have to cope with it.

To cut a long story short, I think that our conversation helped me, once again, to have an idea of how the Italian system is perceived abroad : sometimes we are “accustomed” to its negative aspects but maybe we don’t even ask ourselves if things really have to be that way.

(photo taken from Flickr)

...reflective blogging...

2008-03-30T15:22:00.000-07:00

Last week, I could not skype so I decided to write a reflective post about my experience with the forums so far. First of all, I have to say that I really like our forums because I consider them very useful means not only to know our peers at Dickinson College better, but also to help us coming to terms with the American culture as a whole. Moreover, I’m sure they enable our American peers to have an insight on our own world as well!

This week, I’ve felt particularly involved in the ones concerning death penalty and “pentitismo”, which originated from questions posed by some Dickinson students. Actually, the image of Italy that came out from the discussion was not a very comfortable one: criminals does not seem to be punished here and “mafiosi” are usually set free in turn of a little collaboration. Well, I admit that there are lots of defects in the way in which the Italian system of justice is organized and this is nothing to be proud of. Anyway, we should not generalize. And this is the case also with America. If some American movies and serials (actually, l watch them…but this is another story…;-))are populated with blondes only concerned with their physical beauty, this does not mean that all Americans are concerned with appearances (by the way, that was the topic of another forum).

All in all, I think that the questions in the forums also contributed to give us an idea of how our country is perceived abroad and to foster a reflection on the way our system is organized. Our culture is of course constantly under our own eyes, so we may not be able to analyze it in a neutral way. Paradoxically enough, we are sometimes aware of some of the most negative aspects of our own culture only when someone from outside “notices” them. And, at the same time, we may not be able to retrieve the positive aspects of our own culture for which other countries know us and which distinguish us from them.

(photo taken from flickr)

Evaluating intercultural competence...

2008-03-24T03:51:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody!

I’ve just taken the Yoga questionnaire and I have to say I’d never had the chance to test my intercultural competence before. I think this concept is quite blurred and complicated but actually it refers, in a rather abstract and indefinite way, to something we should be pretty familiar with. I mean, most of us have studied “mediazione linguistica e culturale” during the triennio and that was all about trying to gain a certain amount of competence as far as foreign languages and cultures are concerned.

I think I’m going to start my reflections by re-citing the fascinating quotation that introduced the Yoga form:

How shall I talk of the sea to the frog,
if it has never left his pond?
How shall I talk of the frost to the bird of the summerland,
if it has never left the land of its birth?
How shall I talk of life with the sage,
if he is prisoner of his doctrine?

-Chung Tsu, 4th Century B.C.-

I’ve personally found it awesome and I think it contains, or better anticipates, the core of hundreds and hundreds of academic studies made on the subject. “Looking out is looking in” is really nothing more than what you get while you’re dealing with a different culture: you basically “go back” to your own world with a rather different attitude (or at least you should do that). So, I think that we really become aware of the implications of our culture while we are living abroad or even when we have the chance to come into contacts with people from other cultures (let’s think about the meeting with Chiara or the Skype exchange).

I found the form pretty useful and interesting: it really contributed to foster a reflection on my own attitude towards the difference…anyway, I think that such forms have their limits too. I mean, on the one hand, they can be useful to assess our intercultural competence at a certain point of our experience and to be able to “phrase it”( to express it with concrete words); yet, on the other hand, they are less useful when it comes to evaluate progress since, to me, you can’t learn to be more “culturally competent” than you already are. I may be wrong but I personally think it is something that has to be found within ourselves as human beings and that it mainly depends on our past experience of diversity…and this is not something you can easily “mould” as much as you like.

As it has already been stated in the introductory pages, it is not that easy to teach someone intercultural competence. And, to be honest, I don’t think it is something that can be taught at all! Maybe, it could be possible to affect one’s own attitude towards “the other”, to overcome some cultural prejudices, to be more respectful towards differences…but you can’t hope to teach empathy or even curiosity to a narrow-minded person! (This is just my opinion;-))

Interestingly enough, I noticed that the knowledge of a foreign language is considered of utmost importance when one has to deal with a different culture. I perfectly agree with this statement. I think there’s nothing more fascinating than leaning how to express opinions, emotions, needs in a language which is not yours and being able, in return, to get those overtones that are inevitably lost if you can rely on nothing but translations.

As you can see, my reflections focus on SOME aspects of the YOGA form…anyway, it could really take me pages to talk about this topic more in depth…Hopefully we will be able to discuss it on Monday!

(photo taken from Flickr)

Bye bye

LET'S SKYPE NOW!

2008-03-05T13:56:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody!

Today I had my first experience with Skype and it was just AMAZING!!! I know it may sound weird but I had never used skype before so the whole thing was completely new for me! (You have to consider that the now old-fashioned chats are still impressive new tools for me…ah ahahha;-))

I would say that it was a bit awkward at first…I was a bit nervous at the idea of having a phone call via Internet, so I arrived at the lab 20 minutes earlier in order to get prepared to do that (just to see if the pc worked, if the head cuffs were ok and so on and so forth) and when the American peer called me I just got stuck…I said to myself: “Ok, Alessia, now you have to talk…via Internet...no panic, no babbling”. Then I just felt at ease and started talking and it was really awesome…I was communicating in real time with a person who lives far across the Ocean…WOW!

As planned, we discussed about the organization of our educational systems and about some of the two questionnaires’ results. Yet, I liked the way our conversation went on: it didn’t seem as if it followed a precise plan, it went just on spontaneously on both sides and without any embarrassing break. It was really satisfying to see that the American students are really excited about getting to know us and of course we feel the same way ! We didn’t talk in Italian all the time because we knew that they have been studying it only for two years but I really appreciated their efforts!

What struck me most was the fact that our American peers didn’t have any notion of the concept of ‘meritocrazia’. Moreover, we arrived to the conclusion that generally our expectations about a foreign country do not correspond to the reality because we tend to sort of idealize it relying on what we see in movies or on TV…

I’m really looking forward to the next skype exchange in order to deepen these topics a bit more…it was really a wonderful and fruitful experience!
Well…that’s all for now folks!

Bye bye

My PLE (E-tivity 9)

2007-12-26T08:48:00.000-08:00

Dear Group K,

first of all I would like to apologize for the late but, as you could see from my previous post, I’ve been pretty busy in the past two weeks!

Anyway, here am I with my PLE! I have to confess that I’ve found this activity really involving and stimulating even though I had to make some consistent efforts to write down and organize all the elements in a clear and coherent way. As a matter of fact, trying to reflect on your PLE in a rather rational way is a rather demanding activity: there are lots of things that you unconsciously and automatically do and that are not always easy to recall.

Thinking about all the people, tools, environments that have been contributing to your language learning is absolutely fundamental in order to become aware of the mechanisms of such a complex and intricate process. All in all, people can get the most of their learning if only they actively participate in the very process.

In order to create a somehow coherent mindmap, I decided to divide all the elements and inputs into two main levels: REAL WORDS and VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS. It’s surprising to see that in the age of technologies, people and tools from the so called “real world” are still playing a fundamental role in my learning process.

Here you are my PLE:

That’s all people!

See you soon

Alessia

2 WEEKS OUT OF TOWN...

2007-12-02T03:47:00.000-08:00

Hi my peers!!!

I just wanted to inform you that from 4th to 17th December, I will be out of town for working reasons (Motorshow - Bologna) so I won't probably be able to publish activity 9 and 10 on time.

I'm afraid it will be almost impossible for me to have access to a computer or to find an Internet connection there also because we are not given lot of spare time so...I apologise for the inconvenience in advance!

See you in two week's time!

Love

Alessia

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING CRITICAL...

2007-11-29T13:30:00.000-08:00

Dear group K,

now that we’ve become experts at exploiting technological advances, we should also learn to be a bit more selective and critical in the use of Internet. So far, our experience as “surfers” has taught us that there’s a little bit of everything on the Net.

Before clicking on the links that Sarah suggested us, I tried to make a list of the parameters I usually follow in order to identify RELIABLE Online Sources. Here you are what I’ve come up with (in order of importance):

1. Reliability of the author/company who published the website

2. Regular updating

3. Careful analysis of website’s home page

4. Presence of feeds/possibility to subscribe

5. Clear/user-friendly layout or website organization

Then, I had a look at the three websites suggested in our course blog. Some of the tips didn’t sound new to me but there were also lots of interesting pieces of advice I will definitely follow in the future.
My first impression was that English and American Universities seem to be extremely concerned with the need to teach students to evaluate and reference resources. Compared to Italian students, I think they’re generally much more accustomed to do research projects and therefore to browse the Net.

Here you are the most interesting things I noticed in each Website (in outline :-)):

Tips from the University of Essex:
I particularly appreciated the tip on META-SEARCH ENGINES, whose function is to search other search engines to filter all the various returns (sorry for the pun). I’d never heard about such tools before but I think I’ll definitely use them in order to be a bit more critical and to refine my future searches.

I had never heard about GOOGLE SCHOLAR either (a bit ignorant perhaps :-)). It could be really useful for academic research purposes.

Tips from OWL:
Here, they seemed more concerned with the process that comes immediately BEFORE any search. In other words, all the things you should ask yourself before clicking “search” in Google’s toolbar. As a matter of fact, it is more logical to start your search browsing subject specific or institutional websites.

Tips from San Diego University:
Here, the aim of the tips was to invite “searchers” to be a bit more sceptical about sources of information (not only on the Net), even when they perfectly meet their requirements. And, of course, the reason is that everybody can be potential publishers on the Net, there’s no need for editorial reviews (let’s think about Wikipedia and blogs)!

That’s all guys

See you soon

Alessia

LEARNING ON DEMAND

2007-11-24T05:10:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody!

As you might have understood from the title of my post, I particularly appreciated the flexibility of YouTube. Of course it is the case with the mentioned tool but also with all the other fruitful resource materials we have been learning to exploit during the last few months!
The principle underlying these devices is the fact that you can take advantage of them whenever and wherever you need to! Precisely, they can be used on demand to meet your own learning requirements!

As for YouTube’s impact on language learning, there’s nothing really new to add! The concept of sharing is always under the spotlight and here there’s also the advantage of the videos, which can be much more enjoyable and involving! The greatest innovation consists in the fact that WE are the main protagonists! YouTube’s motto is self-evident:

“Broadcast Yourself”!

Having a look at TeacherTube, I realised the existence of other potentialities, not only in the field of language learning, but also in the wider context of education. As a matter of fact, this section allows teachers to publish tutorial videos that can be used during lessons or even to share the result of their class projects with other schools/universities.

I would also like to spend a few words on the drawbacks of this remarkable tool…not to be the usual party pooper but just to underline the need for a clever use of it.
Recently, I’ve heard of some guys (idiots), who published a cell phone-made video showing their abuses at a disabled peer (there are lots of similar cases but I’m only mentioning the most recent one).
I know that they are just fools, that they don’t have to exert a negative influence on our enthusiasm towards the world of YouTube, that the mentioned video has been recalled and so on and so forth…but we should be aware of the fact that FREEDOM and POTENTIAL can sometimes reveal their drawbacks. All in all, we can benefit from the fact that Sarah created our own community in YouTube so that we can avoid unpredictable consequences…

ESL Podcasts (e-tivity 6)

2007-11-15T13:14:00.000-08:00

Hi guys!

Until a couple of days ago I didn’t even know what podcasts were! Well, now that I have become a bit more familiar with these tools, I have to say that they are one of the most useful technological advances in the history of new technologies! Just think of how you can exploit them for your English learning! Hundreds of English audio files on a variety of topics in your MP3 player or iPod! That means you can be exposed to English without being online and without relying on a teacher/native speaker.

You can listen to your podcasts while you’re in a bus, even while you’re working out at a gym (already experimented :-) hi hi)! Not to mention the fact that these websites also provide detailed explanations of new/idiomatic expressions ‘cause most of them have been specially designed for learners of English as a second language!

(this picture reminds me of the traditional English teacher everybody is scared of :-) )

After having browsed around in the world of podcasts, I sorted out three websites. The decision was tough…really! There were so many useful materials, I even found a site which offers podcasts in almost every kind of English, even Canadian, Australian and New Zealand Here you are the link…in case you’re interested in…but you cannot subscribe to it:

http://englishcaster.com

These are the ones I’ve chosen:

ESL PODCAST
http://www.eslpod.com/website/index.php

I was particularly struck by the organisation of this website ‘cause it was really user-friendly and easy to use. There was even a section with an introduction to the term “podcast” for people who had never heard of them before (and that was my case, a couple of days ago).

I liked this website ‘cause all the different podcasts are organised into different sections on the basis of the topic they cover (business, shopping, daily life, entertainment and so on). But what’s more is that every podcast includes a learning guide which I particularly appreciated: it offers the complete transcripts of the audio file, very clear explanations of difficult terms and even comprehension questions to better understand each podcast.

All these materials are offered for free, so there’s no need to be a member of the website. There’s also the possibility to have access to further materials and extra explanations but of course you have to register and it is not for free.

A FUN AND FREE WAY TO LEARN ENGLISH
http://www.china232.com/

I’ve chosen this website because all the podcasts cover topics related to your everyday life and therefore they give you the chance to learn a lot of colloquial English expressions that may come in handy while you’re having a conversation with a native speaker!

At the end of each podcast, there’s also a quick guide with the explanation of the phrases or idiomatic expressions used. After reading the one related to the podcast “Relationship problems” I went: “Oh my God, there are soooooooo many expressions I had never heard of before!” As a matter of fact, it is clear to everybody that mastering a language does not merely entail understanding what a native speaker says or knowing grammar rules. It is above all to use the appropriate or most natural words/expressions in each situation. Has it ever happened to you to remain speechless for a few seconds while someone is telling/asking you something in English just because you don’t know the appropriate words? In my case it has!

In the website, there’s also a forum where you can discuss the topics or give your opinion, but you have to register to have access to it.

I strongly recommend you this website, guys!!!! :-)

BETTER AT ENGLISH
http://www.betteratenglish.com/

I also recommend you this website which provides Real English Conversations about a variety of topics and current affairs or issues. At first, you might have the idea of getting lost since there are so many podcasts, links and files under files under files, not exclusively related to ESL Podcasts (at least that was one of my first impressions).

Anyway, once you get more familiar, you will realise that all the podcasts are organised according to the kind of English used (AE or BE), level (Intermediate, Upper Intermediate and Advanced) and topic. Of course, they also include the conversation transcript and vocabulary notes. I really enjoyed listening at a conversation on “Junk Food”…Just try it!

That's all!
I hope to hear from you soon!

Love

Alessia

SOCIAL BOOKMARKING (e-tivity 5)...

2007-11-12T12:54:00.000-08:00

Hello dear Group K!

Last Wednesday, I eventually managed to attend the lab session and therefore I had the chance to throw myself into the world of social bookmarking! Well, I have to say that the seemingly abstract and vague concept of SHARING seems to be at its utmost expression there! Really!

Online communities are all about sharing things, resources, ideas, files and Del.icio.us is really one of the greatest examples of all that!
It enables users to have access not only to their own “Preferiti” but also to those of all the members of this huge community. So, instead of desperately browsing the net in search of useful websites that are, in most cases, hidden among hundreds of less helpful ones, you simply have access to a selection of the best resources by using tags. In other words, it’s like having a filter that restricts your choices!

I usually loose myself in the World Wide Web and therefore I find Del.icio.us an awesome tool!!!! I will absolutely use it in order to retrieve and organise materials for my final dissertation!
I’ve organised My Favourites both on the basis of what I already had in the “Preferiti” of my PC and of what I’ve found in the Web! As far as ESL is concerned, I decided to focus mainly on three areas:

Reading

Listening

Vocabulary

…since, to me, learning a second language is all about improving your vocabulary (of course grammar is important too BUT if you know all the grammar in the world and only, say, 100 words, where on earth can you go?!) :-)

I’ve also enjoyed browsing my peers' favourites and, as far as I could see, they tried to concentrate on all the four skills (writing, reading, speaking, listening).
Nevertheless, there’s all their personality there because their choices also revealed their interests.

Nina, for instance, cited a very interesting site devoted to multicultural education because she’s probably interested in such matters (and so am I). Another example is Eleonora, who included a site devoted to business English because she would like to work in a company.
Chiara, suggested a very well-organised website devoted to English grammar tips and provided with exercises plus answers. I found it a very useful resource ‘cause it focused on those particular areas which usually cause problems to non-natives speakers of English! Given its clarity, I think I’ll use it to retrieve materials for the private lessons I give to two High School students in my village (and of course they are useful for me too! :-))
I also liked the websites suggested by Enrico, especially the one devoted to writing skills! Even though we had an entire course on such matters last year (Dott. Scott), formal writing is always a challenging experience (unfortunately…).
Caroline mentioned an interesting website devoted to idiomatic expressions used in American English …they’re always useful to enrich our English knowledge and to better appreciate movies or books!
And last, but not least, we have Anna: one of her “favourites” introduced us to ESL PODCASTS or, better, Internet audio files that enable us to improve our English knowledge! I enjoyed listening to the file about the American custom of tipping in restaurants and the related pieces of advice in order to avoid cultural misunderstandings…!

So thank you guys and see you in class!
Sorry for being so long-winded (almost on the edge of logorrhoea) but there were so many things to say…sorry!:-)

Alessia

HALLOWEEN_AGAINST (writing for speaking)

2007-11-03T06:39:00.000-07:00

Browsing the net in search for information about Halloween, I found out that behind tricks and costumes there are serious cultural traditions that have survived through centuries and generations.

As we all know, the festival and its folklore have nowadays been imported to Italy and have hence lost part of their original features and meaning. I consider such exports as culturally interesting because they represent a sort of tribute to other countries' costumes and traditions and are therefore an unavoidable consequence of globalisation.

Nevertheless, they can also reveal their drawbacks: Halloween is nowadays celebrated by almost the whole of Italy but no one knows the roots of this festivity and its real implications. It is all reduced to decorated pumpkins, colourful costumes, children knocking on house doors with the request: “Trick or Treat!?”… but almost no one knows what the whole thing stands for!

All in all, Halloween is here in Italy just an excuse to dress up and have parties and, for children, to scrape up some chocolate and candies through the practice of the “trick or treating”. Actually, I found out that all these rituals, in their original context, represent a way to exorcise the fear of strangers!

I will cite a passage taken from “Why Bother to save Halloween?”, an essay written by Richard Seltzer which (to me) perfectly embodies the original spirit of the festival and explains the implications of the abused “trick or treating”:

Halloween is a time that reconfirms the social bond of a neighbourhood (particularly the bond between strangers of different generations) by a ritual act of trade. Children go to lengths to dress up and overcome their fear of strangers in exchange for candy. And adults buy the candy and overcome their distrust of strange children in exchange for the pleasure of seeing their wild outfits and vicariously reliving their own adventures as children.

Hence, in the light of all this, are we still convinced of the utility of celebrating a festival which has never belonged to our history and culture?

Just think it over…

On the Internet, there is a huge amount of websites about Halloween and its origins. Here, I’ve chosen the most interesting ones. Some sections are quite boring because they focus mainly on the history of this festivity, whilst others really open up new perspectives on the whole thing!

I hope you have fun!

http://www.neopagan.net/Halloween-Origins.html

http://www.halloween.com/

http://www.history.com/minisites/halloween/

http://www.jeremiahproject.com/culture/halloween.html
(this one made me laugh because, at the end of the page, there’s the act of contrition…you might have heard that celebrating Halloween is condemned by orthodox Christians…)

That's all!

(Jack Skeletron- from "Nightmare before Christmas")

Alessia

Feeds and feed aggregators...WHAT'S THAT STUFF?!?(e-tivity 4)

2007-11-01T09:34:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!!!

Today’s experience with feeds and feed aggregators has been completely new to me! I mean, I had heard of such tools but I didn’t know how to use them. I have to say that they are undoubtedly useful to reduce the time you need to check your favourite websites. Hence, instead of having to click on each blog or site to look for updates (which is pretty time-consuming and boring…especially if there’s no update at all), this system will automatic show you the latest changes. Nevertheless, not every website of your interest publishes an RSS feed so you can’t subscribe to all of them!

Bloglines was really easy to use (I watched the tutorial video just because I’m hopeless). I particularly appreciated the possibility to organise all the websites and blogs I am monitoring into different folders…I like tidy and neat things, especially when ICT are involved!

Now, I intend to use feed aggregators not only for the educational purposes of our blogs but also for my Italian blog, for example. I think it’s a sort of bookmarks’ list which, in addition, gives you tracks of the latest updates!

See you!

Alessia

THIS IS ME! (e-tivity 1)

2007-10-29T04:50:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody and thank you for visiting my blog!

This post will help you to know a bit more about me and my interests.

Please, feel free to comment on whatever you want and to let me know your opinion on what I write in my blog!

In order to introduce myself, I decided to post the picture of a cat

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/pansaram/257641756/)

... one of the most fascinating animals in the world. In spite of what most people usually think, cats are able to give you a lot and they don't expect anything from you in return... I love cats because they are smart and independent. Moreover, they are able to perceive dangerous situations and to avoid them...Since I was a toddler, I had always been accostumed to relate to cats and therefore I learned to respect them (and of course to respect animals in general - I'm an animal-rights supporter).

At the moment, I live with a beautiful kitten named Summer (what a beautiful name, isn't it?) and I'm hopelessly devoted to her...she is my alarm clock in the morning. She generally has a good sense of time but sometimes she get confused and ends up waking me at unusual times...such as 5 o' clock in the morning......but don't worry: I do have a real alarm clock too!

Here you have my favourite websites:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/

This website is probably well known by everybody...I particularly appreciate the possibility to "Have your say"

http://curledup.com/

I "discovered" this website a couple of years ago...it periodically suggests you good books to read...very useful

http://wikipedia.org/

I visit this website everytime I need to have a quick definition of something. The idea of building an online encyclopedia to which eveybody is allowed to contribute is really awesome!

http://www.questia.com/Index.jsp

This website works as an online library: it enables you to read a whole book online but even to search the words you don't know ...just as if you were reading a real book... I think it is a powerful tool if you can't go to the library but of course there's nothing better than curling up with a book in my sofa...

Reflecting on e-learning (e-tivity 3)

2007-10-19T13:20:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody!

I'd never thought about the idea of having my own blog in English...and now...HERE IT IS!!! Up until recently the "relationship" with my computer was restricted to a couple of basic functions and the most abused buttons I used to press were "ctrl+alt+canc" because I was always in trouble.

Then -during the triennio at the university- I had the opportunity to immerse myself in the world of e-learning, thanks to the use of First Class courseware. I even ended up writing a dissertation on the effects of e-learning on second language acquisition...

I'm not saying that I've now become an expert in ICT (there are still so many things to learn!) but surely I have been learning to appreciate the new perspectives this world is opening up in front of us! To make a long story short, I had long been totally unaware of the potential of new technologies...maybe just because I was too lazy to learn how to exploit these huge materials!

During these first two weeks of blogging, I had the opportunity to become even more familiar with the concept of electronic environment and to realize its positive effects on our learning process. I think that taking part to an online community is a challenging and enriching experience since you have the chance to use the English language to perform real tasks and, potentially, to communicate with people from all other the world.

Moreover, I think that blogging will enable us to come into contacts with the real English spoken by real people. As a matter of fact, university lectures or academic books offer us a rather stiff and standard variety of a language which is actually much more lively! I've been using a blog for only a couple of weeks but I realised that the key words of such online communities are above all collaboration, sharing and real world!