Third Skype Exchange:

Hi people, here we are again, giving our impressions about the exchange...

This time, just as last time, I spoke to Bari. She is a very nice girl, she always trys to speak in Italian in order to improve it. She speaks it very well but sometimes she is not able to find the right word therefore she just stays quite. I find it a little bit a problem because I try to ask her questions and try to create a real conversation but her answers are always brief and incomplete...

Even though a conversation is supposed to be something easy I discover that it is very complicated. Perhaps the problem is the topic. Talking about alternative energy, she wasn't able to answer to many of my questions because of luck of information, and, on the other hand, I wasn't able to answer to some of Bari's questions, too. So it was hard to create a coherent debate about the issue in question.

On contrary, I noticed that when we spoke about everyday things the conversation was more fluent. I am refering to spring break, future plans, university lessons an so on...

Overall, I think that is very difficult to have a complete controll over the debate as you can never know what the other person is about to say or ask...And the luck of face-to-face conversation complicate it furthermore...

Second Skype Xchange:

Hi guys!!!
Here I am again, to tell you something about my second exchange with Tulane students.

This Monday I spoke to Bari, my brand new American peer. I think that it would be interesting if we change the peer every week. It can be useful for us, as English learners, to try to understand and to speak to different native speakers, with different pronunciation and way of speaking.

However, talking to Bari was very funny and stimulating. She made a lot of effort to try to speak in Italian all the time. Even though her Italian wasn't perfect I was able to understand quite everything.

This time the conversation was quite all about recycling. I wasn't able to obtain many info about recycling in New Orleans because often Bari had some difficulties with Italian. But, on the other hand, me too had some problems answering to her, especially when she wanted me to speak about Italian laws on environment and on alternative energies. I wasn't very prepared on these topics.

It was a great idea that of recording our conversation. Even though none of us love to hear its own voice recorded, in my opinion it is a fantastic feedback. This can be a tool to use in order to correct our pronunciation mistakes and therefore try to improve them next time.

See you next week.

Skype: Tulane - Padova

The second semester is already started. And many interesting and new things are waiting for us.

First of all we are going to treat brand new topics such as environment, recycling, energy, culture...
Secondly, every week we are going to spend an hour talking with American students, all from Tulane University (New Orleans).

First Tulane-Padua Xchange:

I have to admit that I wasn't very preperaded to this kind of experience. This exchange is something so new and differente from what I was used to do during university classes.
But I've got the impression that also the American student wasn't prepered either. He told me that the topic was very borring and that he did not know what to ask me or what to say.

After a brief presentation, I try to obtain some pieces of information about recycling in New Orleans. Therefore, I asked him about consequences of Hurricane Katrina on the environment, on the city and on the recycling system. He also told me something about the water pollution of the Gulf, because of the oilers.

We spoke both in English and in Italian.

Even though there were some moments of embarassment, where none of us knew what to say, it was an interesting experience. Usually, in everyday life we, as language students, don't have many opportunitites to speak to English people. and this exchange help us to improve our oral abilities.

I think that the next time it would be better to prepare some questions. In that way, one can have more control on the conversation.

This is all for now.