This semester started with a wonderful activity: an exchange with American students. We introduced ourselves to the Americans writing a presentation on a Wiki page and they do the same. Wiki is a web page that we are aloud to edit, so it seems a work in progress where we add step by step our activities. There you can find also information about exchanges taking place between Padova and other foreign universities.
My first impression is that this exchange works. WOW! Hopefully this time the American students seem more interested in communicating with us compared with the students of the first semester. They study Italian so they are really motivated in talking with us.
It is the first time I use Skype and I have to admit it’s a surprisingly simple tool to use. It’s amazing how easy is to communicate with a person who is not – to use a euphemism – just round the corner.
Kelsey, my American peer, is very nice. During our first call we were supposed to talk about American and Italian education systems. But it is funny how the conversation developed in a different direction. It was the first time we talked together (Kelsey, Alberto and me) so we tried to know each others better asking questions about our interests and spare time. I was a bit envious because Kelsey has been to Italy, whereas I’ve never been to America. She visited Florence and she wants to come back soon and spend some time in Rome.
What I learnt from Kelsey is that we have a quite wrong idea of American colleges. Life in a college is not like that depicted in American movies: parties, brotherhoods and so on. We also talked about public and private universities. They exist both in America and generally the private ones are considered of higher quality compared with public universities. However, there are a lot of exceptions.
To conclude I found this first experience really amazing and I’m ready to talk again with my American peer. What I can reproach myself for is the fact that talking in three seems a bit unnatural to me. So I tended to listen instead of joining the conversation. May be this happened because it was the first time I used Skype. I’m sure next time would be better.
My first impression is that this exchange works. WOW! Hopefully this time the American students seem more interested in communicating with us compared with the students of the first semester. They study Italian so they are really motivated in talking with us.
It is the first time I use Skype and I have to admit it’s a surprisingly simple tool to use. It’s amazing how easy is to communicate with a person who is not – to use a euphemism – just round the corner.
Kelsey, my American peer, is very nice. During our first call we were supposed to talk about American and Italian education systems. But it is funny how the conversation developed in a different direction. It was the first time we talked together (Kelsey, Alberto and me) so we tried to know each others better asking questions about our interests and spare time. I was a bit envious because Kelsey has been to Italy, whereas I’ve never been to America. She visited Florence and she wants to come back soon and spend some time in Rome.
What I learnt from Kelsey is that we have a quite wrong idea of American colleges. Life in a college is not like that depicted in American movies: parties, brotherhoods and so on. We also talked about public and private universities. They exist both in America and generally the private ones are considered of higher quality compared with public universities. However, there are a lot of exceptions.
To conclude I found this first experience really amazing and I’m ready to talk again with my American peer. What I can reproach myself for is the fact that talking in three seems a bit unnatural to me. So I tended to listen instead of joining the conversation. May be this happened because it was the first time I used Skype. I’m sure next time would be better.
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