picture taken from:http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1381/1352483670_5247773b41_m.jpgOn Wednesday me and Stella talked to Ashley, an american girl from Dickinson University. We introduced each other and talked about different topics. We decided to organize our conversation talking 10 minutes in Italian and 10 minutes in English; we could talk for about 40 minutes approximately.
We discussed a lot on how different the education system in our countries is and we were all very surprised to see that they only have few things in common. She told us she lives on a Campus and she was very surprised to know that in Italy we don't have that kind of structure. I was very interested in her campus living experience and I believe it has many advantages: you can get involved in campus events and organizations, you can easily meet students from different cultures, you can live indipendently but you are not alone as you are surrounded by your collegues. I experienced something similar when I went on Erasmus in Germany, but it was rather a dorm and not a real Campus.
Then we discussed few minutes the meaning of 'meritocrazia'. I read on our wiki page that the Americans don't know this word and that they believe that a teacher who is 'raccomandato' is better than others who are not. Me and Stella explained to Ashley that here not always you get a job or you are appreciated because of your personal skills, abilities, or job's experiences. Most of the times you need a sort of 'abstract ID' which means you have to know certain people in order to make career or simply to get what you are trying to achieve. From Ashley's reaction I understood that this kind of thing doesn't exist in the US, or at least it is not as common as here. I believe this is a very negative aspect of our country, an obstacle which is hard to overcome.
Among another things we talked about the class size: can you believe that in America people who attend classes are 10 to 20? Here it would be utopia since sometimes there aren't even enough seats for students and one is compelled to sit on the stairs or even to stand. I think that class size matters and that students benefit from being in small classes. Unfortunately this is not the case with us.
I really liked this experience and I'm looking forward to doing it again.
We discussed a lot on how different the education system in our countries is and we were all very surprised to see that they only have few things in common. She told us she lives on a Campus and she was very surprised to know that in Italy we don't have that kind of structure. I was very interested in her campus living experience and I believe it has many advantages: you can get involved in campus events and organizations, you can easily meet students from different cultures, you can live indipendently but you are not alone as you are surrounded by your collegues. I experienced something similar when I went on Erasmus in Germany, but it was rather a dorm and not a real Campus.
Then we discussed few minutes the meaning of 'meritocrazia'. I read on our wiki page that the Americans don't know this word and that they believe that a teacher who is 'raccomandato' is better than others who are not. Me and Stella explained to Ashley that here not always you get a job or you are appreciated because of your personal skills, abilities, or job's experiences. Most of the times you need a sort of 'abstract ID' which means you have to know certain people in order to make career or simply to get what you are trying to achieve. From Ashley's reaction I understood that this kind of thing doesn't exist in the US, or at least it is not as common as here. I believe this is a very negative aspect of our country, an obstacle which is hard to overcome.
Among another things we talked about the class size: can you believe that in America people who attend classes are 10 to 20? Here it would be utopia since sometimes there aren't even enough seats for students and one is compelled to sit on the stairs or even to stand. I think that class size matters and that students benefit from being in small classes. Unfortunately this is not the case with us.
I really liked this experience and I'm looking forward to doing it again.
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