Skype

This week I skyped with Ugo. It was the first time I had a chat with him because I’ve always skyped with Kristen. We couldn’t talk about our final project since we are in different groups. That’s why we decided to talk about immigration. We had an interesting discussion since immigration is a very big issue both in Italy and in the USA. I’m very interested in this topic even because in Italy immigration is a quite recent phenomenon while in the USA is deeply rooted.
We focus on different aspects such as immigration policies, illegal immigrants and racism.
I was curious to know if integration is successful or not and if immigrants are perceived as foreigners or Americans. As for Ugo, he asked me something about the Italian situation. We talked about the Lega Nord party and about the consequences of illegal immigration such as the organised crime.
One of the funniest things I heard from Ugo is that American complain about immigrants because they steal the job to the natives… well, it’s the same here in Italy! Of course, Ugo and I believe that is not true.

Skype exchange

The topic of the last skype exchange has been 'political elections'. We had a great discussion because both in Italy and in the USA we're going to vote.

Our conversation pointed out the differences between the two countries. For example we noteced that in the USA the political campaign is open while in Italy there's no real confrontation. I mean, the American leaders met on TV to talk about their electoral programmes, for example. On the contrary, in Italy, Veltroni and Berlusconi do all their best to avoid a face-to-face confrontation. This is strange, isn't it?
Besides, we talked about the media and the press. We noticed how in America there's more attention towards the families of the candidates than in Italy, where the first ladies stay behind the scenes.
Finally I noticed that we (Italian students) were much more informed about American elections than the American peer was about Italian ones.

As a conlusion I'd like to report my post published in 'blogginenglish1' about my intention to vote or not:

"I’m fed up with politics but I’m going to vote!
Yesterday evening I watched BBC and I felt very embarrassed. There was a reportage on Italian elections. The journalist gave a perfect report of the Italian situation: a farce! He even named the elements of this farce:
-there are always the same politicians: one travels by bus far and wide, the other one thinks to be God … “Per fortuna che Silvio c’è…”
-there is no confrontation between the different fronts but just a tit-for-tat through press releases
…
…
I perfectly agree with this journalist. But, in spite of everything I’m going to vote because if you renounce the right of vote, you renounce democracy."

Let me know what do you think...

Skype exchange

The week before the Easter break I started my Skype experience and I really enjoyed it. Federico introduced me to this new world; it was the first time for me and I looked for a little help because I felt lost! Actually, Skype is a quite simple tool and I had no problems in understanding how it worked.

Our peer is a student from California with Chinese origins. For about 40 minutes we talked in English and then we switched to Italian.
The topic of this week was terrorism. We talked about it in English but in Italian it was quite impossible. Her Italian is quite good considering she has been studying it for a year but the topic was too difficult for her… That’s why Federico and me decided to ask her some personal questions in order to make her feel at ease. We talked about her experiences in Europe and her next trip to Italy in spring: she’s coming to Italy on holiday ( a cruise) and then she’s staying in Bologna to study. Federico helped her writing the words she didn’t understand and that’s how we managed to chat!

I LOVE SKYPING!

Stefania