Somewhere over the rainbow...

This is Italy...Again.

2008-06-17T11:28:00.000-07:00

Again...Italian politics from the world's point of view. Have a look at this article from The Times.

Martina

The Skype exchange experience

2008-05-13T23:45:00.000-07:00

[Photo by duffofdean]

Hi, everybody!

This is my last post on the blog...I can't believe it! Times flies!

The second semester seemed to be shorter than the first one...Maybe because I had a lot of fun!

Well, I'm supposed to speak about my personal experience of the Skype exchange we did during this semester. Well...I really liked it!

At the beginning of the second semester I decided to take part in the Skype exchange because I realized that I needed to improve my listening and, above all, my oral skills. So, since this is my last semester at university, I had to take advantage of this opportunity. Anyway, I must admit that I was a little frightened at the beginning. But in the end, it was not bad at all! I really enjoyed it! I had two American peers: one during the first part of the exchange and another for the wiki project. I was really lucky because they were both kind and very nice. We still keep in touch mainly by Skype and Facebook, and I think it’s great.

Well, what did I learn from this experience? Well, I must say that I didn’t notice an enormous cultural gap between me and the American girls. There are different costumes in some aspects but I never felt uncomfortable speaking with them because of cultural differences. Anyway, I realized that the Americans are more open-minded than the Italians. There was one particular thing that made me re-consider my culture: the problem of immigration. I was quite impressed when I realized that my American peers don't think about cultural differences in a negative way. Personally, I appreciate cultural differences because I think they can enrich you. But I know that most of the Italians don't think like that. We Italians still have a long way to go.

I really enjoyed the final project as well. The topic of our wiki page was a comparison between college life in Italy and at Dickison college. I knew many new things about their graduation ceremony or their students' parties. It gave the opportunity to reflect a lot on this issue. I think that their experience at university is very different from ours. And it’s much better. The live all together in a campus and can share the same experiences. I think that they are more independent at the end of their studies.

As regards my language learning, this experience helped me a lot to improve my English. I learnt a lot of new words and concepts, for example the word sorority. What's more, I can speaking English with less effort and I can easily understand native-language speakers.

Well, it was hard sometimes but I managed improving my English and having some fun as well. Now I need to keep up with the improvements! ;-)

Martina

[Photo from Google images]

Italy from the world's point of view

2008-04-18T02:01:00.000-07:00

[Photo from Google Images]

April, 13-14th , 2008. Political elections...Mr Berlusconi won for the third time. He has the power again. I'm not happy about that because I really don't like him. But this post is not about my political preferences.

I just want to yell out my bitterness. I'm really mistrustful and disappointed with Italian politics and above all with Italian people. There's so much arrogance, which goes arm in arm with a great ignorance. During this election campaign, I spoke with many people -both adults and young people- about politics. What struck me at most was not the personal political choice for one party or another, but rather the great lack of arguments to support that choice. Many use long-winded words, their reason are commonplaces and you understand that they just absorbed passively what the television told them. For example, do you remember what I said in my post about immigration? Well, I asked that question to a boy who voted for Lega Nord. I asked him:"Well, why did you vote for Lega?". Answer:"Because there're too many immigrants. They have to come back to their countries. In Italy there should be only Italian people". I couldn't resist asking him who is an immigrant and he obviously said that an immigrant is a Moldavian or a Rumanian man. "Well, and what about Spanish or American people living here?". He looked at me astonished and answered: "What? They're not immigrants at all!". Is it necessary to comment on this? I don't think so. I really fear for our future if Italian people think in this way.

I definitely believe that a person needs to be aware of the world he/she lives in. One should consider many points of view about a topic and then he can make his/her choice. This means being responsible citizens. This is the reason why I pray you all, my peers, to do that. We're the future of this country: we have to change this old-fashion, corrupted and lost country.

After the elections, I didn't read Italian newspapers deliberately. I read on-line international journals. Their point of view is uninvolved and objective: they're more reliable. So, do you want to know what the world think about us? Then read these interesting articles and start thinking consciously about our future:
The Financial Times
The Economist
El Mundo
The Times (the first Berlusconi's gaffe)
The Times (Berlusconi's profile)
The Times (Berlusconi's anatomy)

I'd like you let me know what you think about that! I'm looking forward to read your comments...

Martina

Final project and Skype exchange

2008-04-16T12:21:00.000-07:00

[Photo from Google Images]

The semester is about to finish...time flies! Now it's time to think about our final project. We're organized in new groups and I'm not going to skype with Marigny anymore. My new American peer is Kelsey, who studies English Literature at Dickinson. I spoke with her yesterday, during the Skype exchange... She's a very nice girl! Anyway, yesterday I chatted with Marigny as well...We want to keep in touch, I'm very happy about that! :-)

Well, in my new group there're 5 people: Alberto, our secretary ;-) , Serena, Alice, Kelsey and me. Yesterday, at the beginning of our Skype exchange, there was a bit of confusion... It's really hard speaking in 5! Anyway, we managed doing it and, at the end, Kelsey said that it's fine if we skype all together. I think it's the best thing to do, even because we have to work all together on the wiki page.

Our final project consists in writing a wiki page about a cultural topic, comparing American and Italian culture. Yesterday we spent almost one hour and a half deciding our topic! I had no idea it could be so difficult. To tell the truth, we decided the fist topic quickly at first. We thought that the American dream could be an interesting topic. But in fact it was not! We should compare a cultural aspect that both Italy and America have, but the American dream seems to be only American. So...We eliminated this idea. We discuss a lot about other possible topics but no one seemed to be good: music, health system, education, immigration...In the end, we decided to speak about university life, comparing the differences between America and Italy. I know it's quite banal, but I think it will be amusing. As Sarah suggested us, we'd like to focus on particular aspects of university life here in Italy. For example, the particular way in which we celebrate our degree (papiro, terrible jokes, the tunnel, the "dottore-dottore" song). I really like this idea, don't you?

See you!

Martina

Immigration in Italy

2008-04-13T02:37:00.000-07:00

[Photo from Google Images]

Next week we're going to speak about immigration with our American peers. It's a quite ticklish question in our country. Countries like America and England have been experienced immigration for many and many years...On the contrary, here in Italy it's a relatively new phenomenon. According many Italians, it seems to be a sort of calamity!

Studying foreign languages, I learned to be open-minded and not to reject people who are different. I definitely think that the difference is a quality and everybody can learn a lot from someone else. The comparison and relationship with a person with a different culture is a way to understand who we are and what we really believe in. All relationships enriches you and all cultures are as important as the Italian one.

I think that in Italy there's a lot of confusion about the issue. Too many Italians judge on the basis of stereotypes and don't look beyond their nose. If you ask people who an immigrant is, they immediately say that an immigrant is a Moldavian or a Rumanian or a black man. And what about Spanish or American or English or French people in Italy? Are not they immigrants? I'm quite sure that many Italians would answer that a Spanish man in Italy isn't an immigrant. That's why I say that there's too much confusion and that too many people speak without being well informed about the issue.

Anyway, something is changing in Italy. When so many foreign people arrive, the social balance changes. And as always, changes create panic in people. But I think that it's only a transitional phase and that with some clever immigration laws Italy could find its feet in this multiethnic society. At least, I hope so.

Martina

Against death penalty

2008-04-11T02:21:00.000-07:00

[Photo from Google Images]

Hi!

This week I couldn't attend the lesson, so I didn't Skype. I had a look at the American forum, I read the comments to the topics and I answered to that about death penalty.

Well, I'd like to spent two words about the subject. First of all, I was surprised when I read the American guys' question...They wanted to know if in Italy death penalty exists and what we think about it. There were 22 comments to this question but I decided to answer anyway, because I'm very sensitive to this issue and because I wanted to add something more.

My peers and I are all against death penalty. In my opinion, death penalty is a sentence which belongs to the Middle Ages and it's simply unacceptable in our modern world. We're supposed to live in a civilized society but sometimes I have the terrible impression that the human being is even worse than the animals.

The person who is guilty of atrocious crimes MUST BE PUNISHED but death penalty isn't the right solution. Let's take an example: a murderer is usually punished with the death. I mean, a man kills a man because he had not to kill another man. Does it not sound like a paradox?! It's absurd, isn't it? What's more, in this way the criminal doesn't pay for his crimes. He just dies and he gets it done!

I really believe that death penalty should be replaced by LIFE SENTENCE. Freedom is one of man's fundamental rights. If a man is guilty of terrible crimes which prejudice one's freedom, he MUST BE deprived of his freedom and therefore he MUST BE condemned to life imprisonment. That's the right sentence!

Martina

Final paper...Sorry! :-(

2008-04-07T14:57:00.000-07:00

Hi, everybody!

First of all, I'm really sorry...I was supposed to publish this post on monday but, as you can see, I'm late! :-( As I wrote in my previous post, in this period I have simply too many things to do for my courses and 24 hours are not enough to complete all my tasks! Last week I had to prepare a paper on Mexico for the Spanish course and yesterday I had its exposition in class...That's why I couldn't write here in time.

Anyway, let's speak about my final paper. In these days, I thought about a cultural aspect I would explore further...Well, I know it could sound quite banal, but I would be interested in the differences in education. I'd like to explore how the different systems can infuence the personality and the future of the Italian and American guys. Education plays a very important role in our growth and I thing it influences our personality and mind. What's more, it prepares you for work...During my Skype exchange last week, I asked Marigny if it was hard to find a job in America and she said no. I admit I was quite surprised. I'd like to find out if an Italian guy has the same possibilities of an American one.

Anyway, it's just an idea at the moment! We'll see...:-)

Martina

3dr Skype Xchange: political elections :-(

2008-04-02T06:36:00.000-07:00

[Photo from Google Images]

Hi, guys!

How are you? I must admit I'm quite tired in these days and my best expression when I wake up is something similar to the dog's one! :-( We're right in the middle of the semester and my language courses are very very VERY demanding. Both in Spanish and English course, we're supposed to do papers, projects, exercises, translations, compositions...I have to respect too many deadlines! It's terrible! I'd like to prepare an exam by the end of April but it's quite impossible because I haven't time enough to study! I feel soooo frustrated! :-(((

Well, let's speak about something different. This afternoon we had our third Skype exchange. Since I was very tired, I had to gather together to concentrate and to speak English as correctly as possible. I spoke only with Marigny at first but then a peer of mine added to our discussion, so we created a conference. At the beginning, speaking in three was an hard task. You know, speaking at the telephone is always hard, because it isn't a face-to-face conversation. Try to image how difficult could it be when you speak in a foreign language! However, after few minutes of confusion, we started a very interesting discussion about politics and politicians. I liked speaking in three very much because in this way the discussion turned out to be more lively.

As I said, we spoke about politics and politicians. I sent to Marigny the links to watch some interesting videos, like Obama girl and the ones about Berlusconi and Veltroni. We discussed about them, about our impressions...Personally, I'm still shocked about the official video of PDL's campaign...At the end of it, there're some young guys singing all together. In the background, there's the Palazzo della Civiltà del Lavoro, which is in Rome. It was built during Mussolini's regime and it represents the fascism for the world! :-O I mean, Rome is full of beautiful monuments...I'm sure that's a planned choice. I begin to fear for our future!

Anyway, I don't want to express my opinions about Italian politics here...Let's go back to the exchange. Well, we not only spoke about politics but also about our future. Marigny wanted to know which kind of job would we like to do in our future. So we explained her what a mediatore linguistico is supposed to be and we spoke about the difficulties we'll have to find a job...It was a very interesting discussion!

I'm getting more and more involved in this Skype exchange...Marigny and I are in contact also by email and by Facebook! ;-)

See you next week,

Martina

Intercultural competence: the YOGA form

2008-03-26T01:42:00.000-07:00

[Photo from Google Images]

Hi!

This week there's no skype exchange because we're on Easter break. So we're supposed to do a different activity. We should reflect on our intercultural competence. In order to do that, we were supposed to fill out a test, called YOGA (Your Objectives, Guidelines and Assessment Form).

Let's speak about this form. Obviously I never heard about it before. It's a sort of self-evaluation guide which could help you to assess your intercultural objectives. It's divided into 4 level regarding different kinds of competences. I just filled out the first one, called "Educational Traveler". This was the only one that applied directly to my experience. I went to England in 2002 and stayed there a month, living in a family. It was my first time abroad and it was a great experience. Then to fill out the test I considered my experience as a foreign languages' student as well. I thought of my language competence in general but with an eye on English culture, which is the one I experienced directly.

In my opinion, the first benefit of using YOGA form is that it let me stop and reflect on my intercultural competence. We rarely have the opportunity to critically reflect on our competences and this form is a useful starting point to assess them. Aswering the questions, I found out some interesting things. I demonstrate awareness of differences across languages and cultures and my attitude towards other cultures is open and positive. I think I demonstrate flexibility in the interaction with people from other countries and I'm willing to learn from them.

I've always been an outgoing girl and I've never had problems in relating with people. It's a natural thing for me. This is the reason why I decided to study foreign languages...I wanted to relate with as much people as possible. At the time, I still had no idea of how complex was studying a foreign language. I mean, learning the grammar is only the bulk of the iceberg. During these years at university I gradually learned that if you REALLY want to LEARN a language, you NEED to "control" its culture. And this is a very long and complicated task. Even studying at university isn't enough. Filling out the test, I realized that I have a low competence in the knowledge of the essential norms and taboos of the host culture. This is a great difficulty for me...I'd really like to become a Cultural Mediator (and this is the work I'm studying for), but my question is: how could I be a good Mediator if I haven't a complete mastery of the foreign culture?! At university we study a lot of theoric concepts about the language, but nobody teached us the culture. I really believe that there should be Foreign Culture's courses as well. It's fundamental!

I really don't know what could I do now to fill this deficiency...Any idea?

Thanks! :-)

Martina

Padova-Dickinson: 2nd week

2008-03-25T02:43:00.000-07:00

[Photo from Google Images]

Hi, everybody!

How are you? And what about your Easter break? Mine was very relaxing! I spent the last few days pigging myself and staying with my family. I ate sooooo much dark chocolate! ;-)

The classes are going to begin on Thursday, so I still should be on holiday but in fact I am not! I have so many things to do for university that I have to work hard in the next few days! :-( Well, it doesn't matter...In the end, university is my work, isn't it?

Let's speak about our exchange with Dickinson's students. Last Wednesday we talked with them once again; it was our second conversation. Fortunately, I was supposed to speak with the same girl I had during our first exchange. She's Marigny, a very kind girl. We were supposed to discuss about terrorism both in Italy and in America. We prepared for that topic on Monday. I had to search for pieces of information about Italian years of lead because I wasn't prepared to discuss about it. I'm a little ashamed about it, but that part of Italian history is very contemporary and we rarely study it at school. For this reason, I had to read up on years of lead.

Anyway, Marigny and I didn't speak about terrorism at all. During the first 30 minutes we chatted typing because there was another lesson in our class and we couldn't speak all together. We chatted of this and that, I asked her how was her spring break. I knew that she went on a journey with her bestfriend so I asked her about that. I'm happy because she wrote me that my written English is good! All these posts on my blog bore their fruits!

However, speaking is always more difficult than writing. Marigny and I both agreed about that! She finds more difficulties in speaking Italian. I think its obvious because she has been studying Italian only for two years. The first time we spoke in Italian we had some difficulties so this time Marigny prepared some questions to ask me in Italian. She asked me about my spare time, music, films, actors. So we didn't speak about terrorism!

Anyway, I'm very happy about this exchange and above all about my American peer. She's so kind! Yesterday she sent me an email in Italian. She even sent me the link to subscribe to Facebook. During our conversation, she mentioned it but I had no idea of what it was! Now I'd like to ask her how to use it. I really hope that this is the begin of a new "international friendship"!

See you soon!

Martina

Happy Easter!

2008-03-20T04:58:00.000-07:00

Here comes Peter Cottontail

"Here comes Peter Cottontail/Hoppin' down the bunny trail,/Hippity hoppity, Easter's on its way/Bringin' ev'ry girl and boy/A basketful of Easter joy/Things to make your Easter Bright and gay/He's got jelly beans for Tommy/Colored eggs for sister Sue/There's an orchid for your mommy/And an Easter bonnet too./Oh! Here comes Peter Cottontail/Hoppin' down the bunny trail/Hippity hoppity Happy Easter Day/Here comes Peter Cottontail/Hoppin' down the bunny trail/Look at him hop and listen to him say,"Try to do the things you should"/Maybe if you're extra good/He'll roll lots of Easter eggs your way/You'll wake up on Easter morning/And you'll know that he was there/When you find those choc'late bunnies/That he's hiding ev'rywhere,/Oh! Here comes Peter Cottontail/Hoppin' down the bunny trail/Hippity hoppity/Happy Easter Day!"

Easter Bunny Boogie

Weekly discussion on the wiki: how hard!

2008-03-14T08:28:00.000-07:00

[Photo from Google images]

Hi, my peers!

How are you? I'm so happy today! In the end, SPRING IS COMING!!! I'm looking forward to see trees in blossom! I love spring, it's definitely my favourite season. When spring comes, I'm full of energy...It's a sort of revival for me!

Well, let's speak about our task three. Last Wednesday we didn't have Skype exchange because our American peers were taking their spring break. So our weekly task was easier. We were supposed to discuss in groups to come up with one question to pose to the Americans. I thought it would be an easy task but actually it was not so easy! First of all, the wiki isn't the simplest way to discuss. I think that a chat would be more effective. It allows you to speak in real time and to have a real discussion. What's more, we all had different questions to pose to the Americans. For example, I was curious to know which are the typical differences between North and South America. However, my peers were curious to know something more about the Americans' view of Italian lifestyle and in particular they wanted to know how many their view is influenced by mass-media. All our questions were equally interesting but my peers were right. The question about the influence of mass-media could be a good starting point for a lively general discussion :-) . So in the end we decided to pose this question.

I must admit that I really enjoy working in groups. It's a way to learn how to interact with people with different points of view. This experience enriches you because allows you to consider other opinions and to enlarge your horizons. ;-)

See you tomorrow!

Bye!

Martina

Online activism: help the world!

2008-03-07T00:59:00.000-08:00

[Photo from Google Images]

Hi everybody!
I received a very important email by a friend of mine and I want to let you all know what I founded out.

There's a new way to help breast cancer research: an official website exists and just clicking on the pink window in the middle you can give free mammograms to women who can't pay for them. Don't worry, it's free. According to the number of daily visits, the corporate sponsors advertisers pay for a mammogram. I did it. It really takes 2 seconds of your time! So, please go to http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=2 and click on the pink window.

Moreover, from the same website you can visit other similar website and do the same thing. Again, you don't have to pay anything because the sponsors pay for it! This's the list of website you can access:

The Literacy site: you can provide free books to children.
The Animal Rescue site: you can provide food and care to a rescue animal.
The Child Health site: you provide health service to poor and unprivileged children.
The Rainforest site: you help the organizations which work for the preservation of rainforests around the world.
The Hunger site: you help to feed the world's hungry donating a cup of food.

If you want to know more about these projects, take a look at this video.

Martina

Padova-Dickinson exchange: let's begin!

2008-03-05T09:14:00.000-08:00

[Photo from Google Images]

Hi everybody!

Here I am after a long break. On January and on February we had exams at university...We had an hard time! We started the second semester two weeks ago. In the next few months, our activity on the blog will be a little different. During the first semester, we learned how to use some Web 2.0 tools for language learning and now we should be able to work by ourselves. I have to admit the activity we had been doing during the first semester turned out to be very stimulating and useful. During our break, we wrote a mid-term paper, in which we were supposed to reflect on our improvements in English language learning. Well, I certainly developed some skills in the past few months and my English is a little better now than in October. But I realized I need to work harder on my oral skills. I have been studying English for 13 years, but I still find difficulties in speaking, above all in speaking spontaneously and fluently. So, since this is my last semester at university, I definitely want to take advantage of our English course. This is the reason why I decided to take part in the Padova-Dickinson exchange. Using Skype, I'll have the opportunity to speak once a week with an American girl, who studies Psichology and Italian at Dickinson University, in Pennsylvania. We started our Skype exchange last Wednesday. I was a little nervous before starting but when we started our conversation I relaxed. She made a good impression on me; she seems to be a nice and kind girl. At first, we spoke about ourselves: where we are from, our families, our hobbies. We were supposed to speak about the educational system in America and in Italy but a little of time to know each other was necessary! Anyway, we spoke about our universities as well. She lives in a campus and said that the life there is just like we see in tv. Great, isn't it? Well, I'm quite satified with my first Skype exchange. I hope she could understand my English well...Sometimes I got lost with what I was saying just because I wanted to say too many things together! Anyway, it was just the first time...Fortunately, I have enough time to better my conversational skills!

Next week we're going to speak about American primaries and Italian elections...I need to read something about that to prepare for my next convesation. I'm not ready to answer my American peer's questions! ;-)

See you next week!

Martina

"Sometimes, a hug is all what we need" (J.Mann)

2008-01-21T02:51:00.000-08:00

Hi, everybody!

I was surfing the Net when I run into Chiara's blog. She's a peer of ours who put in her blog a wonderful video from YouTube, entitled "Abrazos gratis". She took that video during her staying as an Erasmus student in Alicante (Spain). When I watched the video, I was touched. It's about a group of young people who offer free hugs to strangers in the streets. It's wonderful seeing how many people stopped to hug one another: women, men, children, old men and women... everybody wanted a hug, maybe they needed it in that moment. Anyway, try to watch the video and judge by yourself.

It's moving, isn't it? I love seeing people smiling and hug one another. In my opinion, a hug is the best way to demonstrate your love to those next of you. I feel closer to other people when I hug them.
At the end of the video a name appears: Juan Mann. I didn't know who he was so I typed his name in Google. I found out that he's the man who first invented this initiative in 2004. Thanks to him, now a Free Hugs Campaign exists: it became a real movement with joiner from all over the world. There is also an official website, you should visit it. Juan Mann writes: "In this age of social disconnectivity and lack of human contact, the effects of the Free Hugs campaign became phenomenal". For him, the hug is the "symbol of human hope" and I agree with him. We all should reflect about it!
As I wrote to Chiara, try to image what would happen in the world if the world's heads of state hugged one another during their meetings...Wouldn't the world be better?

Martina

Hi, everybody!

2008-01-14T08:17:00.000-08:00

[Photo by Google Images]

I'm writing this post for those who visit my blog. As you can see, there is a map in my blog...I'm very surprised to see how many people run into my little space! And I'm sooooo happy! You're from all over the world...I'd like to know you! I write on this blog because I'm attending an English course at univeristy but it could be an opportunity to know many boys and girls from all over the world!

[Photo by Google Images]

So, why don't you write a comment to this post or to another post? Just few words to tell me your name, where are you from and why are you visiting my blog...or simply to write what you want!

I really hope to hear you soon!

Cheers,

Martina

Holidays are over :-(

2008-01-14T01:28:00.000-08:00

[Photo by me]

Hi everybody!

How are you? And your holidays? Mine were really GREAT! As I wrote in my previous post, I spent a week in the mountains with my boyfriend. We went to La Villa (BZ), a town in Alta Badia, one of the most beautiful areas I never saw. In spite of everything, we had a lot of fun... I say "in spite of" because Stefano (my boyfriend) dislocated his shoulder the day before leaving.

Hard luck! So, on Saturday we went to the first aid instead of leaving! Fortunately, the shoulder wasn't broken and he just had to wear a brace to keep his arm firm. Finally, on Sunday we managed to leave and we went to the mountains! Obviously we couldn't ski but we walked a lot. We saw a lot of beautiful places...there was the sun and a lot of snow! Wonderful! I took more than 200 photos...I put three of them here...I couldn't resist sharing these beautiful landscapes with you. Do you like them?

Cheers,

Martina

[Photo by me]

Snow! Mountains...HOLIDAYS!

2008-01-04T00:58:00.000-08:00

Photo by F. Planinschek (Alta Badia web site)

Well, guys! It's time to leave...I'm going to go to the mountains tomorrow! ;-)

See you next week!

Martina

Merry Christmas...again!

2007-12-27T00:32:00.000-08:00

Have a look at this video...It's amazing!

Merry Christmas to you!

Martina

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-17T14:52:00.000-08:00

I wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Martina

Do you like karaoke?

2007-12-07T04:22:00.000-08:00

Hi, girls!
Last week we spoke about how tools -like YouTube- could help us in our language learning. We all pointed out that YouTube is often used for stupid purposes and for this reason some of us were sceptic about its usefulness for language learning. Well, I think that it depends on how you use it. In fact YouTube is a wide source for us!
Have a look at what I found. I like this song sooo much! I like its melody and the guitar. Do you like karaoke? Well, let's sing!

Cheers,
Martina ;-)

How to learn languages for free!

2007-12-06T03:24:00.000-08:00

Hi, girls!
I was surfing the Net this morning and I run into Alexandra Peron's blog, one of the girls who attended the course last semester. She added a video from YouTube which is really really helpful for us and for our language learning.
I went to YouTube, I found the video and now I'd like to share it with you all. It gives helpful suggestions about how we can learn languages for free. Look at it!

Martina

My personal learning experience

2007-12-05T06:16:00.000-08:00

[Photo by Google Images]

Hi, girls!

This week we’re supposed to reflect on our personal learning experience, also called PLE. As Sarah pointed out on Wednesday, each person has his/her personal learning style. That’s because not everybody learn in the same way and like the same things: for example, someone could learn from doing, others from listening to sounds, others from reading. For this reason, it’s important to reflect on our learning languages.

So, the question is: HOW YOU LEARN? I thought about it for a while. I analyzed my personal experience and I chose to divide it into 4 categories (here you can find the final mindmap of my PLE):

Formal learning. We all did –and still do- this kind of experience, because the school is a kind of home from home for young people. The first time I got in touch with foreign languages was during the last two years at Primary School. From then on, my life as a student was a continuous stream of lessons, courses, homework, texts and final exams. I attended two private courses as well and I finally got two certifications: The First Certificate of English and the B1 Zertifikat Deutsch.
Tools. When you study you need some tools. As for foreign languages, the typical tools you can use are dictionaries, books, movies and tv programs. Recently we’re discovering a new tool, that is Web 2.0. I had no idea of its potentialities…Step by step, I’m discovering a new world. If you can use it properly, you can have an entire world into your hands.
Travelling. Travels are very important if you study foreign languages, not only because you can speak the language you study, but also because you’re in touch with the culture of that country. Leaning a language from a textbook is quite different from experiencing it on your skin.
People. People I met in my life played an important role in my learning experience. Obviously I learned a lot from my teachers, but also from my peers both at school and at university. The constant interaction with them, as well as peer’s reviews and teacher’s feedbacks, helped me a lot in improving my skills, pushing me to do all my best. My working experiences were important too. While I worked as a shop assistant – I sold mobile phones- I met many foreigners, and I spoke English and sometimes Spanish with them. In order to do that, I had to learn some new vocabulary, because I didn’t know anything about mobile phones in English. But the most important working experience for my language learning was when I worked as an hostess in an international medical congress in Venice. The official language was English (of course!), so I had to speak English all the time. It was very hard because I worked in the reception and I always was in touch with people attending the congress.

At the moment, we’re still students, so we still have the possibility of improving our language learning. There will be problems when we’ll take our degree, because if you don’t exercise the language, you’ll unlearn it. We should find some tools which could help us in the future. It could be hard to do, because when you work you don’t have so much time to spare, but we should strain ourselves if we don’t want to loose all the things we learned so far. And after all…You can’t do anything without any effort!

Martina

What a wonderful world - Louis Armstrong

2007-12-01T08:08:00.000-08:00

I found two moving videos in YouTube, both playing the wonderful song by Louis Armstrong "What a wonderful world". You already know how much I like this song (it's the title of my blog)and I couldn't resist sharing these videos with you all.

What's good and what's bad in the Web

2007-12-01T03:12:00.000-08:00

[Photo by Google Images]

Hi, girls!
This week we aren’t supposed to learn new tools, but to reflect on how we judge the huge amount of information we find in the Net. We experienced the Net’s vastness in these two months. In our e-tivities, we were always surprised at the difficulty we found in choosing podcasts, websites, videos and blogs, just because there were too many of them!
Hopefully, we’ll soon begin writing our thesis and the Web will be maybe the main source we’ll use. Now the obvious question is: how can we judge the right source for us? I mean, we should understand what could be useful and what not. Before reading the websites Sarah suggested, I wanted to reflect on what I usually do when I have to find a piece of information in the Web. I thought about my recent experience, when I had to write my final dissertation to take my first degree. I must admit I found many difficulties because it was the first time I did a bibliographical research. I didn’t know where to start. The problem was that the Spanish author I had to write about wasn’t so famous in Italy, so there weren’t many books about him in the libraries. My only solution was the Web. I was quite lucky because there’s the website of his foundation, where I could find many useful links to other sources, always related to his works and life. But the difficulty here was to decide what kind of information I needed. Basically, I searched for documents written by academic writers but what I evaluated at most was the content. I wondered if the content could deal with the topic of my dissertation and that was all.
But reading the websites Sarah suggested, I found out that my evaluating skills were rather inadequate. My main problem is that my skills at computer are basic and I still haven’t found my feet with search engines: I simply open Google, type some keywords and then visit the first two or three sites that appears (I’ve always thought they should be the most relevant!). I knew there was the possibility of doing an advanced research, specifying what kind of information I wanted, but I didn’t know the domain names I was supposed to use. Now I discovered that if I need –for example- a website run by a government agency, I should type .gov. Then I didn’t know that specialized search engines existed: I had a look at Google scholar, a search engine aimed at academics, and then I found Google book, a search engine which only searches for books. I also tried the meta-search engine called Mamma. It’s the “mother of all search engines” and searches “other search engines and give you the most relevant returns from each” (to read the whole article, click here). I tried typing “Francisco Ayala” -the Spanish author about whom I should write my theses- both in Google and in Mamma. I was rather surprised when I saw the results of my search: I had more than 2 millions of returns by Google, while by Mamma I had only 33 returns!
I never thought that there could be so many things to take into consideration to evaluate a Web source. It could be really time demanding but I think that it’s the only solution if we want to get out of the huge amount of information avaiable in the Web!

See you next week!

Have a nice week end!

Martina

Tech problems are always with me!

2007-12-01T02:44:00.000-08:00

[Photo by Google Images]

Hi, girls!

I'm terrible sorry but I couldn't post my e-tivity in time because of...Guess what? TECH PROBLEMS! I had to install the modem by myself. At first, the broadband seemed to function yesterday but then I couldn't navigate many websites...The broadband didn't work! Anyway, today everything seems all right...I don't know why, but it's all right! So, now I'll work on our e-tivity and I'll post it in the afternoon.

Sorry for all these troubles. I hope things will better from now on!

Thanks very much for your patience.

Kisses,

Martina

Broadband!!!!

2007-11-30T06:27:00.000-08:00

[Photo by Google Images]

Hi, girls!
Finally, I have broadband at home! Now, things'll be easier and FASTER! Great, now I'm living in the 21th century! :-)))
I just wanted to share with you my happiness...
Bye!
Martina

YouTube? YouLearn!

2007-11-22T09:35:00.000-08:00

Photo by Google Images

Well girls, here we are at last! This week we explored the last tool we needed for our English course. Hopefully, working on Web 2.0 will be easier and faster from now on. I must admit that the tools we explored in the last seven weeks helped me a lot. I was rather sceptical at first, but it was due to the fact that I had skeleton technological skills! This new adventure turned to be very interesting in the end.
But now, let’s talk about YouTube. The young boy or girl who never heard about YouTube, please raise his/her hands! It’s quite impossible… Even I knew what it was! We all know that it’s maybe the most popular website young people use at most. Unfortunately, I can’t use it as often as I’d like to, because I still haven’t got broadband and I can’t look at the videos from Internet. But now things will be different: I should have the broadband into three or four days, GREAT! However, for the moment I should manage the best on my SLOW computer.
I think that many young boys use YouTube just for fun. Not to mention all those who use it for exhibitionism- let’s think about the episodes of bullying or about the most recent crime news. But YouTube- like any other communication tool- could turn out to be an extremely useful tool, if used with some intelligence. For example, it could be a way to improve our language learning: you can listen to videos in foreign language and exercise your skills having fun. And we all know that when you have fun, you learn more and faster! A friend of mine is using videos from YouTube to write her thesis. She has to study them to point out language differences in Spanish dialects… This is a perfect example of how many resources you can find here. Obviously, this is not the only reason why YouTube’s a good resource. I think that it can also be useful to keep you abreast of the most relevant issues, to keep your mind open, considering cultural differences and different points of view. Let’s think about the video about the i-rak we saw last Wednesday… It was illuminating, wasn’t it? It satirized Bush’s policy in such a keen way! I’d like seeing more videos from Mad-Tv. If I found more interesting videos, I’ll let you know!
Just another thing before going…I chose to add this video to my blog because I love it. It’ll explain you the title of my blog “Somewhere over the rainbow”; it’s the video of the song, my favourite song. This is the text (if you want to learn more about the singer, read about it in Wikipedia)... I hope you'll like it!

"Somewhere over the rainbow

Way up high

And the dreams that you dreamed of

Once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow

Blue birds fly

And the dreams that you dreamed of

Dreams really do come true

Someday I'll wish upon a star

Wake up where the clouds are far behind me

Where trouble melts like lemon drops

High above the chimney tops thats where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow bluebirds fly

And the dream that you dare to,why, oh why can't I?

Well I see trees of green and

Red roses too,

I'll watch them bloom for me and you

And I think to myself

What a wonderful world

Well I see skies of blue and I see clouds of white

And the brightness of day

I like the dark and I think to myself

What a wonderful world

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky

Are also on the faces of people passing by

I see friends shaking hands

Saying, "How do you do?"They're really saying, I...I love you

I hear babies cry and I watch them grow,

They'll learn much more

Than we'll know

And I think to myself

What a wonderful world

Someday I'll wish upon a star,

Wake up where the clouds are far behind me

Where trouble melts like lemon drops

High above the chimney top that's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow way up high

And the dream that you dare to, why, oh why can't I? "

Podcasts: the world will always follow you in your iPod

2007-11-19T03:19:00.000-08:00

Photo by Google images

Hi, girls!

First of all, I’d like to thank you for your patience. As you well know, I haven’t got the broadband at home, so these technological e-tivities can be a problem for me. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only problem this week: I was supposed to go to the lab B today, but I’m ill! It’s nothing serious but enough to be out of use. I went to a friend of mine this morning to search for podcasts, I hope I did a good work.

Well, let’s talk about podcasts. I had already heard about these word before last Wednesday. I’ve got iTunes in my computer and I saw the word “podcast” there more than once. But I had no idea of what could it mean. I must admit I didn’t strive to understand what it was, always for my being in fear of technology. Recently my boyfriend gave me an iPod (technology is dogging me!). I was flabbergasted when I realized that I could see photos from it! Try to image what my surprise was when I discovered I could even upload podcasts into my iPod…It’s quite amazing, isn’t it? I had never thought about the possibility of listening to news and programs from my portable MP3 player “whenever and wherever you want”, like Sarah said. It could be a useful chance to improve our language skills but I’ve something to complain about the “wherever you want”. I don’t know your situation, but listening to –and understanding- something in English requires me a lot of concentration. I fear that if I’d listen to an English podcast lesson anywhere -let’s say in the train, I could even forget getting off!

Sarah was right: the number of podcasts you can find online is countless! This morning I spent more than two hours searching for interesting podcasts in the Web. The search was less easy than I thought: I ran into a lot of useless podcasts and not all of the interesting ones had RSS feed. This could mean that they aren’t updated regularly but I saved one of them as well, just because it seem to be useful. It's Free Classic Audiobooks. You can download classic audio books, like for example The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain and Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. You can choose to download the MP3 version, that you can listen from Windows Media Player, or the M4B, in case you prefer upload the file into your iPod.

The other sites I chose are the following:

The Podcast Directory. I chose it because here you can find a huge number (thousand and thousand!) of podcasts ordered by categories -entertainment, society and culture, religion and philosophy, and many others. Then, each category is divided still further. You can choose to subscribe to the category you’re interested in; for example I subscribed to Learning and Instruction (more than 2000 podcasts!).
LibriVox. It's another way to listen to audiobooks. It could be very relaxing, especially if the narrator has a melodiuos voice. If you subscribe to this feed, you'd receive a chapter three times a week, until the book is finished. A book in serial form directly in your iPod or computer...isn't it great?
OpenCulture. It's one of the first sites I found in de.licio.us, so you probably know it. It's a podcast collection where you can find foreign language lessons, not only in English, but also in Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Danish, German, Duch, Finnish, French, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish and many others. As regards English learning, some useful podcasts are those of Business English and English as a Second Language Podcast. They're read slowly and clearly in order to let the listener understand as well as possible.
CNN podcasting. Here you'll find podcast from CNN. They're ordered by topic, title and main podcasts. I subscribed to CNN News Update : if you download these podcasts, you'll listen to the main American news and to the news from all over the world.

I hope these suggestions are useful for you!

SUS (see you soon)!

Martina

Sorry, I'll be late

2007-11-16T07:08:00.000-08:00

[Photo by Google Images]

Hi, girls!

I'm so sorry, but I won't be able to finish e-tivity 6 in time, because of force majeure! I haven't got the broadband at home, so it's impossible for me choosing, listening to and dowloading the podcasts I need. I tried to solve the problem and I went to the labs in Maldura. Unfortunately, I couldn't use them because there were other lessons. So, the only solution for me is working on my post on Monday afternoon: Sarah reserved lab B for us, so I'll go there.

I apologize for causing difficulties to you! I'll post my e-tivity within Monday afternoon, I promise!

Thanks for your understanding! :-)

I'm looking forward to read your posts!

Martina

Social bookmarking: a new way of sharing on the Web

2007-11-13T02:47:00.000-08:00

Photo by Google Images

Hi, everybody!
Last Wednesday I couldn’t attend our weekly lesson in the lab, so I read the instructions for the e-tivity 5 from home. When I read that our next e-tivity would have involved another Web technology, I smiled. Do you remember the very final lines in my post about feed aggregators? I wrote: “How many unknown worlds will I discover from now on?”. Only a week have passed since then and…what a surprise! Here we have another new technology! Great, isn’t it? Yes, it is this time! I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m so optimistic, when I was scared of any new technology just a week ago. Well, you know, I feel more confident now; I understood that I need to learn a lot before sleeping soundly in my bed. There’re so many interesting things in this wide and unknown world of Web 2.0! From now on, I want to have a positive attitude towards Web 2.0 because it isn’t so hard in the end and it can even be entertaining! So…I’ll pull my socks up!

Now, let’s talk about social bookmarking. It’s pointless saying that I never heard about this word before Wednesday (I know, I still lived in the Stone Age!). I usually stored my favourite websites on my computer and used them for my purposes; I had no idea there could be a way to share them with others. It was a del.icio.us surprise discovering that a way to share websites existed! Because this is the main aim of this technology: let you store and share your favourite websites with other people simply using the Web. The person who invented it was a wizard! But sharing isn’t the only advantage of this technology: it can even be a way to help you in “filtering the overload of information on the Internet”, as Sarah said. When you search for a website you can see how many people have already saved it. Of course, the more people saved it the more useful that website is; in this way, you don’t need to spend hours and hours navigating in vain.

I spent a lot of time navigating in del.icio.us, searching for useful websites for our language learning. I found very interesting and useful websites, above all regarding English learning. What impressed me at most were the websites about English pronunciation, such as for example the one by the University of Iowa and the Free Online Pronunciation Guide. They’re extremely useful and easy to use. Nowadays, you only need a computer and an Internet connection and you’ve got almost the entire world in your room! When I had a look at the websites my peers found, I realized how useful this technology can be: they stored websites which I didn’t found in spite of my three hours long navigating! So, I can use them without problems and -above all- without spending more time searching for them. For example, both Giovanna and Sara stores a websites called Common errors in English; it provides a thorough list of the errors native and non-native speakers can do. They deal with vocabulary, verb tenses, prepositions and much more. For each error you find a simple and clear explanation. It's definitely useful, isn't it? Marta found a great website as well: it's an Internet Slang Dictionary. There you can find the most used slang words in alphabetical order. since I should improve my colloquial English, I'll use it for sure! Elena stored a very interesting website, which hopefully can help me in improving my listening skills. It's called Randall's ELS Cyber Listening Lab: there are a lot of listenings and related exercises which help you in the comprehension. The site even provides the correct answers to the quiz and their explications.

Now I don't have any excuses: with all this tools, I must improve my English!

SUT! (i.e. "see you tomorrow"- thanks, Marta!;-) )

Martina

Halloween: should it be an Italian tradition?

2007-11-02T04:08:00.000-07:00

Photo taken from Google Images

What Halloween is? Which are its historical and cultural basis? And finally…What Halloween MEANS? I’d like to put these questions to those Italian people who celebrated Halloween on Wednesday night. I’m quite sure that the great majority would not answer the questions. I don’t want to seem a polemic girl, but I firmly believe that if you celebrate something, you have to know what it is and what it means.
Have a look at what the English Wikipedia says about this holiday: it’s observed in the United States, in the United Kingdom, in Ireland and in Canada. There are clearly no links with the Italian tradition. So, why should we celebrate it in Italy? I can’t remember the scent of this holiday in my childhood, just because when I was a child Halloween was simply a word that the English teacher taught us. For this reason, even now that I’m grown up, this holiday doesn’t mean nothing to me. I absolutely don’t want to say that Halloween has no meaning in itself, but that it has no meaning in our culture.
And yet, in the last few years, this holiday has been imported in Italy too. My question is: why? Are there cultural reasons behind this? I mean, if it were celebrate by Anglo-Saxon people living in Italy, I wouldn’t have any problem. But the fact is that it isn’t a necessity of some foreigners who don’t want to loose their cultural identity; Italian people celebrate this holiday as it were an Italian one! But the saddest thing is that the main reason why this holiday has been imported is for economic speculation. I read an article taken from Messaggero.it: it says that Halloween is celebrated in Italy, above all because of the great business –sales and parties- which it conveys. Here is an example: according to Codacons, Italian people spent about 255 millions euro this year to celebrate this holiday!
Now, I believe that we should know, accept and share the cultural traditions of the foreigners living in our country. But I can’t accept that a such meaningful holiday -like Halloween- is celebrated by people who don’t know anything about it. Many celebrate it just because someone said that it’s cool!

We have a brain…Let’s use it!

Martina

Feed aggregators: now things will be easier!

2007-11-02T03:20:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday, we had our class in the lab. When I sat down in front of my computer, I was very relax, because I was sure that the worst of my blogging experience was over: I had all the tools to work on blogs! I was completely wrong…Poor fool! Sarah began the lesson with a great smile and told us: “In the last two weeks, you learned something about the Blogosphere and how to create your personal blog…Well, today we’re going to use a new technology! Great, isn’t it?”. I thought: “No! It isn’t great at all! I just found my feet with the blogs, I was so sure that I had all I need to work without any effort… and now I have to churn up all again!”.

I know, I’m always a little too catastrophic in my reactions, but, you know, these new technologies scare me a lot! However, I must admit that I was too exaggerated because feed aggregators turned out to be better that expected. Sarah was right: feed aggregators are a very useful technology and they’ll simplify my work on blogs. You’ve all under your control and you can easily find the new posts in the blogs you’re interested in. At first, I just created a playlist with my group’s blogs, but then I thought that it could be a great opportunity to open my mind to new horizons, so…I grabbed this chance! I subscribed to other blogs, like for example The Guardian , BBC News and CNN. I still didn't have time to read all the feeds, but I'm sure that Marta's right: I definitely want to use this aggregator to compare the news by different online newspaper, just to have a critical approach to the news from the world.

Well, another obstacle has been removed, but… How many unknown “worlds” will I discover from now on? Time will tell! ;-)

See you soon!

Martina

My first two weeks of blogging

2007-10-25T08:03:00.001-07:00

Hi, everybody!

I'm supposed to write some reflections about my first two weeks of blogging. Do you see the photo on the left? Well, it perfectly explains what kind of approach I had with this activity at first!

I knew what a blog was, of course, but I had never used one before. I usually don’t spend a lot of time navigating the internet, especially because I still don’t have the ADSL line at home, so my parents go out of their heads when they recieve the telephone bill! For this reason (and for many others ;-) !), I’ve never developed my technological skills more than what was strictly necessary. So, try to image what my reaction was when I realized I would have to spend many and many and many hours developing my personal blog for the following eight months! Yes! I immediately became sad, worried and angry like the poor Donald Duck you see in the image on the right! So, I must admit that I began my experience on blogs a little mistrustful. But at the same time, I entertained hope because teachers told us that this year course would have been a good opportunity to improve our written and spoken English. And I need to improve a lot my English! I knew that it would have implied a lot of effort, but how can you better without any effort?

Fortunately, after a first moment of disorientation, things have been bettered. I’m gradually finding my feet with blogging and soon I’ll have the ADSL line at home! :) After two weeks, I can say that the idea of blogging is quite good; I’ve seen that it’s a very useful way to share information. For example, thanks to my peers, I’ve discovered a great blog on recipes (thanks, Marta!), I got new information on translation tools, and I visited new web sites on travels, which could be very useful to plan my travel to Scotland. To tell the truth, I sometimes find difficulties in writing my posts and comments: I don’t like writing very much, especially because I spend many time to think about what to say and write: I’m a pedantic “writer”, so I want my thoughts to be expressed very well and I work a lot on my English, which should be as correct as possible. I surely should work more on the time, because I can’t spend the whole afternoon to write few lines… I’ve many others things to study!

As regard the language, I think that blogging could be very useful to improve our English. Until now, the English teachers have insisted on writing skills focusing particularly on formal register and academic writing. I was used to write in a formal way, so now I’m not still able to manage the colloquial written style, but I’m sure we’ll be able to learn it, even because blogging means a constant exercise and exchange of information. I still find difficulties in memorizing new words but I believe that continuing reading and writing every week is a good chance to improve my register. I hope that all this effort will bear fruit!

See you soon!

Bye bye!

Martina

Welcome!

2007-10-17T06:41:00.000-07:00

Photo by duffofdean

Hello everybody!

I took a lot of time to choose a photo that could represent something about myself… just one image is not enough to explain one’s personality! However, after a long research through landscapes and dogs, I finally chose this beautiful photo… coloured flowers. Why did I choose it? Well, just because it reflects my inner personality. In my mind, colours are life, and I love them as I deeply love life. I am one of those who can appreciate the little things of everyday life… an unexpected smile, a sun-day, the smells of nature. I really believe that we should be delighted at every day of our staying alive; it is not simple at all, but I try to live following this "philosophy"... and I am happy!

I don’t usually spend a lot of time in internet, because I haven’t the ADSL, so that I cannot visit the most interesting web sites; it would take me a very long time and I have too many things to do in my day! Obviously, the web sites I use daily are those of our university, so… nothing new for anyone of you! :-) You have to know that I have a dream, that is to make a great journey with my university friends, before this our exciting adventure at university comes to an end. So, searching for ideas for our travel, I have found these two amazing web sites; I suggest you to have a look at them.

The first one is http://www.inter-rail.it/ : there you can find very useful information about how an inter-rail travel works and also a detailed list of suggestions about travelling in the various countries.

Then, if you like Scotland, then you should visit http://www.visitscotland.com/it/ . It is the official site of Scotland's National Tourist Board, where you can find extremely useful information about visiting Scotland: accomodation offers, holidays ideas, etc. There is also an interactive map showing Scottish regions and cities, and where you can discover more about a Scottish particular area.

Finally, I often visit http://www.disinformazione.it/ , a web site for those who want to see the "two sides of the coin", that is for those who want to go beyond the official version of the facts. It is a way to keep your mind opened, in order to live as aware men!

I look forward to see you soon!

Bye!

Martina

Somewhere over the rainbow...

This is Italy...Again.

The Skype exchange experience

More newspaper articles

Italy from the world's point of view

Final project and Skype exchange

Immigration in Italy

Against death penalty

Final paper...Sorry! :-(

3dr Skype Xchange: political elections :-(

Intercultural competence: the YOGA form

Padova-Dickinson: 2nd week

Happy Easter!

Weekly discussion on the wiki: how hard!

Online activism: help the world!

Padova-Dickinson exchange: let's begin!

"Sometimes, a hug is all what we need" (J.Mann)

Hi, everybody!

Holidays are over :-(

Snow! Mountains...HOLIDAYS!

Merry Christmas...again!

Merry Christmas!

Do you like karaoke?

How to learn languages for free!

My personal learning experience

What a wonderful world - Louis Armstrong

What's good and what's bad in the Web

Tech problems are always with me!

Broadband!!!!

YouTube? YouLearn!

Podcasts: the world will always follow you in your iPod

Sorry, I'll be late

Social bookmarking: a new way of sharing on the Web

Halloween: should it be an Italian tradition?

Feed aggregators: now things will be easier!

My first two weeks of blogging

Welcome!