Alice's Blog

Skype Exchange for our Final Project

2008-04-21T17:20:00.002+02:00

On Wednesday we've been talking about the topic for our final project as group 5. It wasn't easy but in the end... we worked it out! We found our topic just at the end of the skype session!!! We'll be describing the life of students attending Univeristy in Italy and in the U.S.A.; we'll compare for example students aggregation opportunities and franternities. I'm eager to find out something more about the American fraternities, since when I first saw the movie "Animal House"!!! In Italy it seems that these congregation for assembling people fell out of the habit... I saw that in Padova there are two fraternities, but the first one hasn't got any web page, while the second one has it but the last time it was updated, it was in 2004... and to tell the truth, me tjat I'm attending the Univeristy here in Padua since 'many years', I didn't even know that they they existed!!! However, I think we'll have fun camparing customs of the two conutries, finding similarities and differences...

I'll write soon about what we'll be posting on our wiki!

See ya soon!

Alice

Immigration

2008-04-14T14:21:00.002+02:00

The dabate about immigration is an issue which affects all those countries that are economically adavantged; representing opportunities for work and welfare to those people living in less developed countries.
What about Italy? As far as my personal experience is concerned regards this issue, it happend to me to get in contact with some immigrant families dealing with a number of difficulties. I remember that a few years ago, a friend of mine which was working for an association helping immigrates, asked me if could help him as a translator, because he had to talk to a woman, who had moved from Morocco, and she couldn't speak Italian. She had underwent a series of 'unpleasant discussions' with her husband and nobody could help her, since all her relatives lived far from her. What I learnt from that meeting was that although she had come and live in Italy - and therefore that should have represented an improvement, taking one step forward a better economical perspective, she had taken two steps back as far as her social condition is concerned. She was alone, she couldn't talk to nobody and nonbody could as a matter of fact help her.

My impression is that most of the immigrants, who not only live in Italy, but even in other countries, live in a sort of perpetual status of undefined situation: they'll never feel completely assimilated in the community and on the other hand they don't even belong any more to their culture and country of origin.
The question is, how could be these people helped in order that they won't live always in the borderline? What could we do for them? What are our social policies doing for these people?

Alice

Reflective Blogging on Skype

2008-04-07T19:41:00.002+02:00

Hello everybody!

This will be a sort of reflective blogging post on my last Sype exchange with Dickinson students! Well, although for some reasons, I chatted very little with my American peer, I must say that this exchange is one of the most effective e-tivity of the course! I'm very happy with it, since I'm touch with an American speaker, (and I love so much her American accent!!!) I can improve my English and even learn something more about American culture and life. I really had fun talking to her, although sometimes it was difficult to me to find the right words to explain her about the Italian politics... I believe that we had an interesting chat, because first she asked me to explain to her how actually the previous Italian government stepped down, since she didn't know the role our Presidente della Repubblica plays in the governement. And then we spoke the American campaign which is still taking place in the U.S.A.
So, to conclude, it was interesting learning something new about the American campaign, which is not only what we see on TV, that is a fight between Obama and Clinton over the presidency.

As far as my final project is concerned... I haven't developed an idea yet...
Can I just think a little bit about it? ;-)

See you!!!

Alice

Intercultural Competence

2008-03-31T10:58:00.002+02:00

Reading through the intercultural competence's presentation, I thought about the last English literature course, that I had attended with Professor Oboe last year. It was during that course, in fact, that I came across some points of intercultural competences for the first time. It was talking about literature in English coming from outside England, that I realized that till that time I hadn’t developed an awareness of how dealing with the differences between different cultures. But what had struck me more, had been that through those lectures I had been acknowledging more and more that I my cultural frame towards some people or cultures was incredibly narrowed; not only because I knew little about them (and that might even be excused), but also because I had strong bias against them, and I didn’t even know why... and it was so depressing realizing that! Sometimes we have a distorted vision of things just because it’s our culture that has injected it to us... and that’s a pity, isn’t it?
Finally, what I understood at the end of that course, was that I have to try to look at things, considering them from more perspectives... it can’t be that easy, I know and it might be taken for granted... Although I have been studying foreign languages for years and I’ve been dealing with different cultures too, I realize there’s still much to do for me, to enhance my intercultural competence.

Question to the Americans (from Group 4)

2008-03-12T15:30:00.002+01:00

In the part of the questionnaire regarding Italy, some of you wrote about 'Free Health Care'. We know that in the U.S.A. you need a valid health insurance to get medical assistance. What happens if someone has a serious car crash and needs immediate aid, but he doesn't have any valid insurance? How do you cope with it?

Skype Exchange

2008-03-09T17:50:00.003+01:00

Hello Everybody!

Just a few lines to say that I enjoyed my first Skype exchange really much! I really had fun talking to my exchange partner Corinna, who's a young student at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania... I say young, because she's younger than me... therefore I'm not going to say how old I am, but how old she is :-) She's 19! However, I got a good impression of hers, although she had waken up just 15 minutes before :-) it was quite early in the morning there, when we had our talk! We spoke about University and she tried to explain me a bit how a campus works and the opportunities that students have, while they're living in. I'd really like to experience it! She told me that there are excellent facilities for sport and recreation... while for me it is always hard to find spare-time for my hobbies, because I have to drive every day to Padova to attend courses and it's such a loss of time! That's why my only sport activity is running on Sunday mornings...
I even asked her, if life in a campus is similar to what movies pictured... like in Animal House :-) We laughed about that and she told me she's a serious student, however there are students who have 'fun' also...
Anyway, the experience has been not only amazing, since I met (met? more or less) a very kind person to whom talking about, but also very useful; I learnt some new words, I tried to listen carefully to her pronounciation, (thanks God, I could understand everything she said!).
Hope we'll be keeping in contact, even after the exchange has finished.

See you soon all!

Alice

Comments on PEL

2007-12-11T00:14:00.000+01:00

Hi Everybody,

I must admit I had never thought about a 'visual' organization of my English learning before doing e-tivity 9! I tried to plan my learning environement so that it could apper as clear as possible... hope it will be so to you all readers! At the beginning I spent a bit of time experimenting Free Mind, which was totally a brand new program to me, however, finally, I could manage it... I had fun while I tried to organize my visual map of all my study activities and eventuatlly I was surprised as I realized that it is true that our language learning comes mostly from informal activieties and personal interests!
At the end of this e-tivity I reflected that I've been studying English since many years and there's still much I have to do to improve my pronounciation, the use of structures and so on... I mean, while I was building my map I understood that there won't be a time in which I'll be satisfied with my English... that is I'll be studying to improve my oral and written skills for the rest of my life... ;-) Even though I won't be the only one ;-) I was a bit disappointed about that...
However I've become aware, once again, of the fact that nowadays we have at our fingertips any kind of tools and sources which can help us to level our English up... and therefore they should be helping me not to get bored at practicing the language still for a long time ;-)
Since I'm sure that many of you Bloggers, who are attending our e-course, have written similar tools and sources to mine in your PELs, I'd like to focus a little bit on one main aspect of my English learning experience. [This aspect has to do with music, of course! ;-)]
Although there is a number of interactive English courses on the web, which offer free online lessons, conferences, podcasts, videos, and many others cool sources, I've come to the conclusion that to me there is only one strategy that till now has effectively made me improve my Engligh: Songs! :-) Since years I've been learning hundreds of new words from the lyrics of my favourite artists and it is obvious to me to say that they have helped me very much to widely enlarge my vocabulary. Some time ago I realized that listening to songs and reading lyrics, was not only a pleasure to me, but even a more successful device than reading books, to definetely learn new terms, structures, puns... The fact is that listening to a song, you can learn the pronounciation and the use of new words and because then you repeat them while you're singing the lyrics... you learn it, even without being aware of that!

What do you think about that? Do you have any different strategy to suggest me?

See you all soon!

Alice

Personal Learning Environement

2007-12-10T18:50:00.000+01:00

Judging Online Sources

2007-11-30T20:52:00.000+01:00

Hi everybody,

In this post I should be valuing online sources, which for example I might be using when I'll write my theses... Well, to tell the truth I have never thought about it before! I agree with what it is written on the Essex university's tips because when I start a search on the web and find a page which seems to me interesting, I always check the author and the nation to which the pieces of information belong to. It is important to me if the webpage is related to academic or cultural organization: obviously they appear to be more reliable than others. Another tip on how I spot relevant pages is finding out if the sources offers a number of links to which I can refer to discover more about a subject. This might be really helpful, for generally the most important websites connected to a subject, are always linking one each other. Sometimes I judge webpages even from the point of view the layout: it is important for me the way in which a web site is structured, even more when for example I have access to it more than once. If it is uncomfortable to me, I usually leave it aside.
However to tell the truth, I believe that Internet might be a reliable source, when you have to deal with subjects that have been recently developped, when for example it is difficult to find information about them on specific books or reviews. In other cases many pages on the Internet report superficial, false or even wrong information. That's why we should pay attention, as many of our professors at the university tell to us, to what we can find on online sources.

Alice

Test (You)Tube

2007-11-26T21:46:00.000+01:00

Hi everybody,

I hope you enjoyed the video and that it will help you to learn something new about YouTube.com!
The reason why I decided to add it to this post, is that I've still trouble with YouTube's tools... I entered the YouTube community and got an account on August, but until now the videos I added didn't prove successful... I realized that only people I'm contact with, watched the video (because I told them :-) ), whereas only a few of newcomers happened to see it. WHY?
At the beginning I thought that it was my fault, since I couldn't share or tag the video properly, so that other people could find it easily. Watching other videos, I understood that the problem was related to other causes also... I thought: "Why thousand unuseful/silly/absurd/foolish videos (I believe you all agree with me: there are many of them) get viewed even 2.000.000 times?" It can't be!!!
I believe, as Alan said on the video above, that there are small YouTubers (like me) who can hardly increase visibility of their videos, Why aren't we promoted? Could it be that within the community there are more influent YouTubers? Due for example to commercial ends? For example I heard of a similar issue about the Myspace community...

Let me know what you think about it!
And don't forget to leave a comment on the video, if you think that other aspects might be improved on YouTube!

See you soon!

Alice

A Video about me! ;-)

2007-11-26T01:04:00.000+01:00

Blogging English or Podcasting English?

2007-11-17T20:41:00.000+01:00

Hello Everybody!

On e-tivity 6 we were asked to search for podcasts that might be useful to improve our English.
First of all I found out that podcasts are relatively new means that are applied to English learning websites. However most of the advanced pages dedicated to English students are already providing a large number of podcasting sources.
Searching the web to discover some engaging sites that provided podcasts,
I came across

Better@English
ESLPOD.COM
EnglishTeacherJohn.com

While grammar exercises and lessons, (we all found on those pages we added on del.icio.us), focus on writing skills, (I realized that) podcasts are essential tools for English learners to develop their oral skills. That's why we were asked to add the new sources again on del.icio.us. For you can download them, (you can find mp3s files or video files too so that you can even watch them!) you'll be able to listen to interviews, lessons, talks, radio broadcasting just by your mp3 reader, whenever you want... For example while you're waiting for the bus to come to Padova or while you're jogging.
Finally you don't need to have access to a computer or to come to English lessons at University ;-) to listen to a native English speaker.

So by now, there won't be any more excuse to bad pronounciation...
Let's start listening then!

Alice

Commenting

2007-11-13T23:23:00.000+01:00

Hello everybody,

Here are short a few comments on the urls added by my network's members on del.icio.us:

Thanks to Elisarossi I visited:

http://www.howjsay.com/

which is a very useful online guide to English pronounciation.
I added to my list of my favorites, because I hadn't had an online pronounciation reference before. I recommend it since it's very easy and especially quick to use!

Thanks to evapremrl I visited:

http://www.infoplease.com/

The website provides tools like dictionaries, encyclopedia and interesting information about English history, society and culture... Finally something different from the "old" online dictionary, isn't it?

Thanks to FredFiore's I visited:

http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/a.htm

I'll be visiting this site often, when I chat!Sometimes I miss the right words...

Thanks to Giovanna_Simonato's I visited:

http://www.thebobandrobshow.com/

I liked the idea of getting English lessons, posted on a blog from virtual teachers. They seem to be friendly too!

Thanks to valebham's I visited:

http://web.ku.edu/idea/index.htm

On this site you'll find a huge recordings' collection of English dialects and accents from all over the world. You can save the files and easily listen to all pronounciations you want.
It might be interesting listening and discovering your pronounciation is closer to a dialect than to the standard BrE...

Have fun,

Alice

Social Bookmarking

2007-11-11T18:26:00.000+01:00

Hi everybody,

I enjoyed entering the community of del.icio.us and finding new sources from the web!
I noticed some members of my network added really useful links to sources like online dictionaries and others urls related to the world of the English language, which I didn't know. For this reason I have to say that again I learnt something new that could prove useful. As anybody else in this course, I have tracked down similar sources throughout the last years at the university, however I saw that there is still much to discover about e-learning, dictionaries and so on, and del.icio.us provides really much about such matter!
But the most interesting aspect is that of sharing with the other members of bloggingenglish all these sources that, I'm sure, will increase in number day by day.
I tried to find more links to different subjects also, and to tell the truth I expected to discover something more; there were few tagged urls to subjects like music, art...
I added a list of miscellaneous links, so that any blogger could not only discover some brand new sites, but could also know a bit more about me through my interests.
I hope you'll appreciate the hints!

;-)

Alice

Bloglines & Feeds

2007-11-04T22:55:00.000+01:00

Hi!

It was quite easy and interesting creating a playlist for the pages of Blogging English bloggers and for other pages I usually visit during the day more times!
I found it the more interesting e-tivity to do up to now; it was really something I had never dealt with! What I thought after adding some URLs to my playlist, is that Feeds are a very clever tool, which might help me not to spend too much time by visiting thousand times the same page per day just to be updated to the last news.
Furthermore through Feeds I'll be able to check more pieces of news (about anything!!!) than in past, because I'll get them all at once just by visiting one page!
Finally a great way to save time!!!

Alice

Blogging...

2007-11-02T15:34:00.000+01:00

Hello Everybody,

here I am, I'm sorry for being late...
Finally my Blog has at least an outline!
For me it's the first time in a blog or better this is my first blog, so I must say that it took me much time just to choose layouts, colours, photos and so on... at the beginning I found it hard, just because I chose a false layout, which I couldn't work on properly... that was my firts difficulty... after then I started having fun improving the page and adding links and photos.
Now it's a bit more comfortable to me to get in on the act! The page finally presents some of my distinguishing features... see The Blues Brothers' photo!

I believe that blogging will help me improving my expressive skills in English... There's still much to do! However, because I'm supposed to write in an informal English, it should be easier for me to avoid those long and heavy sentences I usually use in formal pieces of writings...

See you all soon!

Alice