Skype-ing: a new exiting experience!

HI EVERYBODY!

I’m back (this sentence reminds me of my favourite song played by Oasis “the boys are back in town”) on my blog with a new exiting experience to tell you!

Exam session is finished: this means that I have more time to spend on my blog. The activities of this semester are really exiting since we are collaborating on TulanePadova wiki with some American students from Tulane University of New Orleans. Moreover, we have also the possibility to talk with them by using skype.

(Have a look at Recycling in Italy and Recycling in USA)

Our first conversation was on Monday (5th of March). It was GREAT! I spoke with a woman called Bari; she was really kind and funny. At the very beginning I was a little shy :-( because I didn’t know the person that I was going to talk with, but as we started our conversation my shyness disappeared immediately. It was a little difficult because she was speaking quite fast (American English is not that easy) but very stimulating. Bari didn’t want to speak in Italian she preferred to talk in English and that was ok for me since I could practice my listening and speaking abilities!!

After a brief presentation the subject of our conversation was recycling (our wiki is about the recycling situation in New Orleans and Italy). We asked to each other some questions, I wanted to know something more about the recycling situation in New Orleans after the devastating hurricane Katrina. After the hurricane New Orleans citizens had to face several problems included garbage problems. Bari told me that in New Orleans there are not specific laws about recycling, for this reason not everyone recycles (quite the same in Italy. Unfortunately!) She also told me that at University only a small number of students recycle. Finally she said that after the disasters caused by the hurricane they have many problems to solve (such as: the reconstruction of the city) maybe this is one of the reasons why they don’t invest enough time and energy on recycling

As far as my little skype-ing experience is concerned I think that this activity is very exiting, useful and stimulating for many reasons:

1. From a linguistic point of view:
· it enables us to practice and improve our language skills;
· helps us to exercise our comprehension skills;
· gives the opportunity to exercise our spoken skills together with our writing skills (we collaborate on editing a wiki)

2. From a cultural point of view:
· Thanks to these conversations we get more familiar with a foreign culture (in this case the culture of the language that we are studying).

In my opinion I think that the mix between language and cultural aspects is essential for anyone who is studying a foreign language. The scholastic system in Italy is mainly concerned with language and grammar rather than with cultural aspects. Thanks to this English course, in particular wiki-ing and skype-ing (the activities of our second semester) we have the opportunity to practice a language and exchange cultural notes, which is the best way to learn a foreign language.

Take care!
See you soon
bye bye
Francesca