NAMES:
Alberto Tono
Serena Santi
Alessia Leonardi
Claudia Turolla
OUR IMPRESSIONS ABOUT WORD ASSOCIATION
AMERICA FROM AMERICAN POINT OF VIEW
- patriotic (flag, stars and stripes...)
- interested in current events (George Bush, Iraqi Word)
- freedom and democracy
AMERICA FROM ITALIAN POINT OF VIEW
- big
- openess to differences
- powerful
- fast food
ITALY FROM AMERICAN POINT OF VIEW
- beautiful
- good food
- culture/ history
ITALY FROM ITALIAN POINT OF VIEW
- culture/history
- good food
- artistic attitude
AMERICAN WOMEN FROM AMERICAN POINT OF VIEW
- lot of references to weight
- successful/independent
AMERICAN WOMEN FROM ITALIAN POINT OF VIEW
- idea of image (bianchicce, belle, sgraziate, rifatte, superficiali, bionde...)
- independent
ITALIAN WOMEN FROM AMERICAN POINT OF VIEW
- references to sensuality and beauty
- housewives
ITALIAN WOMEN FROM ITALIAN POINT OF VIEW
- references to sensuality and beauty
- housewives
- frustrated/undervalued
Task 2
Word association
The words whose answers make the greatest impression on me are politics, American men and Italian men.
- Both Italian students and American students associate the word politics with these words: complicated and corrupt.The word that appear only once is 'solutions'.
- American men are described in a very similar way by American and Italian students. There are little differences. The words that appear most often are over weight, sports, football, carreermen. I think that both American and Italian students describe American men using stereotypes.
- The same thing happens with Italian men. The most used words are soccer, macho,masculine, sense of humor. Only one person wrpte that Italian men are 'cheaters' which means dishonest. It's not very kind, isn't it?
What impressed me most were the answers to the words “Italy”, “American women” and ”Immigrants”.
“Italy”, most of the answers from both American and Italian students seem to be rather predictable (Mediterranean, pasta, pizza, cibo, arte, tradizione) and to refer to mutual stereotyping. What impressed me most on the part of the Americans is the use of the word “blood”…maybe it could be connected to recent cruel events or to the mafia.
As for “American women”, I noticed a continuous and sometimes contradictory reference to weight, eating disorders and food (Lypo suction, fat, skinny, overweight, anorexic). In the answers from the Italian students there’s almost no reference to those topics (“sovrappeso” appears only once).
“Immigrants”: what impressed me most is the fact that a part of the American students seem to consider immigration still a burning issue for their country as immigrants continue to be perceived as a problem (different, diverse, hard to communicate with, discriminated against). On the other hand, others consider immigrants as a natural component of their country (equality, learning American ways)
The three words I chose are "American Women", "Politics", "Immigrants"
As you've already pointed out there are many contradictory reference to weight referred to american women; a word that appears only once is mixed races, and there are no other references to the same idea in the other answers. It is quite curious, because i think it is something that could be said of people, but not of women in particular!
The main ideas that emerge from American questionnaire about politics are complicated and corrupt.The same idea of corruption is evident in the Italian questionnaire too. What appears in the American side and not in the Italian is the word Religion, I didn't expect such an answer, and we, living in a country like Italy, where religion and government are in strong relation (whether it is good or not), didn't point it out!
I was impressed too by the idea American students have about immigrants, how far is from the Italian students'! We still see immigrants as a problem! Probably their attitude is due to the fact that America was "made" by immigrants. A word that appears only once and struck me is let 'em be, and it summarize the different answers!
Sentence Completion
I chose 'The mafia is...', 'People from the South...', 'People from the North...'.
- As far as the first sentence is concerned, I think American students see the problem from a different point of view compared with us. They are more aware of the fact that its a world phenomenon and not only an Italian problem. They make no reference to Italy. Of course we know that it's a stereotype used very often to describe Italy and when someone do not use it I 'm a bit surprised.
- In the other two sentences the American students recognised that it was very easy to use a stereotype in order to complete these sentences. Someone refused to write it and someone recognised that what he/she wrote was merely an idea that many people have , but which is often not true in reality.
I chose: "A good neighbor is someone who.../ Un buon vicino è qualcuno che..."
I think that some of the answers can foster a reflection on the great difference that exists between the Italian and the American lifestyle: I may be wrong but I feel as if Americans generally tend to have a closer relationship with their neighbors (is like a friend to you, who will not betray, can take care of your house when you're gone), whereas we seem much more concerned with the idea of respect and with the need to avoid trespassing of boundaries (non è invadente, non disturba, è rispettoso della privacy dei suoi vicini, non si impiccia nelle cose che non lo riguardano, vive e lascia vivere)
I think you're right. I had the same impression. Americans seem to trust more their neighbors. We tend to be more close and diffident. S.
As regard word associations, I chose Italy, Italian women and Individualism. The answers to these words made a great impression on me for different reasons. I found very little differences between Padova’s and Dickinson’s answers about Italy and Italian women. What really surprised me is the fact that the first words that came up in mind to many Italian students were words like pizza, mare (sea) , sole (sun) , buon cibo (good food) or mediterranee (brunettes, olive skin, etc.), formose (buxom) and passionali (passional). I believe it’s normal for American students, especially for those who haven’t been in Italy yet, but I don’t understand my peers’ choices. Of course, in Italy there are pizza, sea, sun, good food and beuatiful brunette girls, but how often do we really eat good food? A little roll while we’re changing room to follow another lesson is not exactly “good food” and 76.8% of Italy of beaches is composed by mountains and hills. Sun? Yes, we’ve long sunny days in summer, but what about fog in our Po valley in winters?
Then, I’m surprised in noticing that Individualism generally received a positive connotation in American answers and negative in Italians. I don’t know why, but there’s only a negative comment from Dickinson, while almost everybody in Padova links Individualism with words like egoismo (selfishness) and solitudine (solitude). There’s also something I really can’t understand: two Paduan students linked Individualism with Europa (Europe) and Unione Europea (European Union).
As regard sentence completions, I didn’t find great differences between Italian and American answers. I think that we (Italians) probably have a more precise idea about the nature of the mafia, even if nowadays it may have different characteristics (just a little bit) here and in the U.S..
The answers about people from the North and from the South are quite the same: we (Italians) just often point out Northern people’s industriousness and stressed lives and Southern people’s warm welcome.
Alberto
Questions for Chiara Olivi:
- Why, in your opinion, Individualism is seen quite just as something positive in Dickinson's answers?
- In a few months both Italy and America will have elections. But as we wrote in our questionnaires we are discouraged by politicians. What Italian and American politicians seem to have in common is corruption. But if you have such an idea of politics why do you have such an enormous campaign machine? It looks like a show and people seem to be really involved in caucuses and primaries. (Serena)
-Week 3-
GLI ANNI DI PIOMBO/THE YEARS OF LEAD ('70s)
To be honest, we don't know very much about "gli anni di piombo" because it's a very recent period in the history of our country and school programs generally don't focus enough on this topic. We know that it was a very difficult and dramatic period for Italy ('70s ) due to acts of terrorism whose purpose was to subvert the political and institutional order. When we talk about "anni di piombo" we immediately think about two main events: Piazza Fontana bombing and the Aldo Moro's murder. You might have heard about the "Red Brigades", the group responsible for these crimes. In those years, there was disappointment towards the government and students were particularly active through manifestations and protests too. It is important to mention the fact that students managed to obtain the right to organize themselves autonomously and to to be represented within the school.
Interestingly enough, the "anni di piombo" were also characterised by other important changes such as the legalization of abortion and divorce. In Italy, this has been a very important achievement because of the big influence that the Catholic Church has (the law pro-abortion is under discussion even nowadays!)
Nowadays, when we talk about terrorism in Italy we mainly refer to Islam and to the recent attacks not only to America but also to other countries all over the world (Spain 2004 for instance). However, we still refer to "Red Brigades" because the latest act of terrorism happened in 2002 (Marco Biagi). Morever, we still hear from the media about some of the people involved in those crimes.
Hence, when we talk about terrorism in Europe the first thing that comes into our mind is September 11, but we should consider that there are also other episodes of violence in different countries (IRA's attacks in Ireland, ETA in Spain, for instance).
Do you know anything about terrorism in Europe? When you talk about terrorism what do you refer to?
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