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Blog #2: Sicilians and Senese in Piazza del Campo

One night I went out with my host family’s daughter Gaia (who is 19) for aperitivo (Italian drinks and snacks) at the Piazza del Campo. While we were chatting in a mix of Italian and English, two Italian guys from a nearby table approached us and asked to take a photo with us. This very forward way of interacting was a bit foreign to me. I didn’t know what to do, so I said sure. After we took the selfie, the both of them asked to sit with us and for the next few hours we talked in Italian. It was not so much this first part that was a critical incident, rather just a funny moment, but one that reflected a cultural difference (Gaia later told me that this was a pretty normal Italian guy thing to do). The true incident, however, was the actual experience of talking with these two Italians and Gaia because it was both enjoyable and stressful. I could not relax at all during the conversation, but had to be extremely present and listen as closely as possible the entire time because they were speaking so fast and also in accents I wasn’t as familiar with (neither was Senese). I felt very foreign in this encounter and also almost like a burden to the conversation. I asked them to speak slower so I could understand and there were only so many things I could not tell them. I didn’t really feel like myself in the interaction because of my lack of ability to eloquently express myself. Despite my own cultural barrier in terms of language, I also realized that I wasn’t the only person who felt like she was talking to a foreigner: Gaia, while Italian, is Senese, not Sicilian, so as they were all communicating I realized she did not feel completely comfortable either.


During this interaction I realized two simultaneously contradictory things: 1. Not being able to communicate all of your thoughts or struggling a lot with a language can be a huge barrier to understanding the other person as well as expressing yourself and 2. While language is certainly crucial to communication, there is also so much communication that is done through other means, particularly gesticulation (for the Italians) as well as eye contact etc (hence my ability to still really enjoy the conversation). A person looking at a fishbowl for me represents this moment: someone who is able to understand some of the world that the fish lives in, but from an outsider perspective and without the experience of actually being Italian, or in particular Senese. I gained from this experience a newfound understanding of the intricacies of language and culture but also an appreciation for just how much I was able to understand of the conversation despite its complexity due to my own studies and observation.

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Post #1: Already Begun

Hello from Lucknow, capital city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (literally “the Northern Region”). My name is Peter. I am currently a M.A. student in Notre Dame’s Italian Studies program, and I have come to Lucknow to study Persian, a language used for administration and poetry in courts across the subcontinent at least as early as the eleventh century CE. I am interested in literary translations between Persian and Italian as well as portrayals of Sikandar/Alessandro (Alexander the Great) in South Asian and Italian literature. I intended to complete this post a week before my language program began, and I began writing it then, but I have regrettably ended up completing it at the close of my first full week of language classes. I have edited the tenses of material from earlier drafts to avoid confusion.

As my travel to India approached, I felt quite unprepared. Most prominent was the unresolved question of my visa (I shipped my passport to the consulate nine weeks before my program started and received it back, stamped with a visa, three days before I left the country). It had furthermore been a long time since I had practiced my Hindi/Urdu. And it felt difficult to reflect very deeply on the approaching language program amid a muddle of those matters that always turn out to be more absorbing than they first seem (moving out of my apartment, storing my stuff, visiting family and friends in different cities, booking the plane tickets I couldn’t buy until I was sure the visa would arrive, etc).

On top of that, I wasn’t sure exactly what kind of concrete things I would find on the other side of the funding abstract I had made about my summer language program. I knew the basics, that I am learning Persian in order to better read the juxtaposition of Italian and Persian literature as it becomes visible in specific translations. But as for what exactly that means, and to what extent it is convincing, things are a little less than sure. As I continue to think through this question after a full week of the program, I have a better sense of possible threads, including this whole notion of looking at literary representations of Alexander on the two far sides of his once-empire. But this is hardly satisfying, and coherence awaits.  

And then there is the question of how this study of Persian relates to the place that I am going. Few people in Lucknow speak Persian. It is not a language that will get you very far in any of those small and consequential interactions with strangers that city life always requires. I must admit that I was somewhat embarrassingly drawn to this evident separation of the language from the place, this necessity of engaging with an unfamiliar vernacular which is nonetheless not the object of study per se. If it poses a separation between what one studies and the environment one finds oneself outside of the classroom, this program perhaps makes clear a separation that was always there to begin with. That is, the question of how exactly the study in the classroom relates to the world around it is perhaps always worth asking.

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Blog Post #5: Analyzing Cultural Dimensions

Salut, tout le monde! I cannot believe how much time has already passed since I arrived in Grenoble over three weeks ago. I am excited to say that my French is improving quite a bit (though I still have a long way to go before I am fluent), and I have already developed relationships with individuals that I look forward to cultivating in the coming years. This is not to mention that I have fallen in love with the French Alps and familiarized myself a good deal with the surrounding landscape. Aside from developing my language proficiency, these were two of my biggest goals, and I am feeling quite fortunate that they are ones that I have been lucky enough to reach.

There are several similarities and differences that I have observed between French and American culture, and it is difficult for me to choose which to focus on in this post. Given my own interests, I thought I would spend this post sharing some thoughts on the way French individuals approach mountain sports in ways similar to and different from Americans. This appears to me as one among many useful lenses to understand broader cultural attitudes. From conversations with museum staff (specifically, an active member of the French mountain troop), fellow hikers, hut keepers and climbers at alpine refuges, and people I have met through class and around the city, I have heard first hand that the mountains (and outdoors, in general) are by and large beloved here and a major source of national, local, and individual pride. I have observed this first hand, too. On my commute to school each day, I see hundreds of people biking up the hills adjacent to town. And on the weekends, I encounter hundreds of people at alpine huts and/or on the trail to them. Reading trail signs, alpine magazines, and advertisements around town, it is clear that the mountains feature heavily in political, cultural, and even religious discourse in Grenoble.

It is this last part that I am most interested in and hope to further explore for the rest of the summer and back at Notre Dame. On the one hand, almost all of the churches that I have visited and/or attended mass at feature mountains in their bulletins or publicize hiking clubs for the spiritual development of young adults. On the other, the mountains appear to take on spiritual meaning for a lot of people here that not only supplements but also replaces attending church. I have found a strong (albeit small) Catholic community where I am living, but most people my age seem to recreate outside instead of church on Sundays.

I actually had the chance to visit Chamonix, France this past weekend and witnessed a scene that embodied this reality. During and after mass at the Paroisse Saint Bernard du Mont-Blanc, I could hear the cheers and announcements from the Mont Blanc trail marathon occurring in the streets outside as I listened to the liturgy of the mass. Almost all of the people in mass with me were over age 40, whereas the people outside cheering for and running in the race were predominantly around my age. Surely, some of them have their own religious affiliation (and perhaps were even Catholic), but I thought the scene was a symbolic and interesting one. It also reminded me just how complicated the search for higher meaning can be.

As the bells from the Church blended with the bells from the race and the priest stood 20 feet away as competitors crossed the finish line, I found myself reflecting on the mystery of my faith as well as the mystery of my passion for running in the mountains. It is still quite a bit beyond me why I (and thousands of other individuals) enjoy spending all day pushing our bodies climbing up and running down thousands of feet; and it is still very much a mystery how God makes himself present to each of us in the Eucharist. But the reality of both, I think, is telling. Just like in the States, there are a bunch of different people in France who hold a bunch of different beliefs and search for truth in a variety of different ways. Some share the zeal for the mountains that I have observed in Grenoble and Chamonix. Some hold religious convictions that lead them to devote more of their time to worship in church, the mosque, or the temple. Still others––myself included––combine the two. In short, it is complicated! One thing seems clear, though: in the mountains or elsewhere, Catholic or not, people in both France and the United States appear to share a common desire to seek meaning and explore the mystery of this life. 

In this sense and others, I have been struck by the similarities between France and the United States. The zealous outdoor and eco-friendly culture reminds me of several of the communities I have lived in in the Rocky Mountain West. Importantly, too, getting to know and be a part of the Catholic community here reminds me that even language differences cannot separate those who share the same faith. 

I also have a lot more questions about the cultural dimensions of both countries. For example, whose perspectives are and are not being reflected in the Hofstede scores? How was the data gathered and what biases were implicit in that process? I am excited to learn more about this going forward.

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Blog Post #4 DIVE into Reflection

I met a young couple who ask people for money along my daily route to school. In the descriptive sense, that was all that I saw them as initially. What sticks in my head the most from the D.I.V.E. process is my initial assumption, or the interpretation that I jumped to. I’m more accustomed to giving people food instead of money, and that’s how a lot of people tend to think back home. The hesitance comes from my assumptions about homeless people where I’m from, that whatever they do with my money might not be conducive to their health. Those were my initial hesitancies and interpretations without really knowing much about them.

The second time I saw them was when I decided I would talk to them and give them some of the change I had from train fares. I found out that they’re names are José and Decida and that they are together. This verified a bit further for me who they are and their necessity for money and food. Now I greet them every morning and ask how things are going. I’ve formed a positive evaluation of José and Decida because I am familiar with them and they are kind to me even though I don’t usually have cash for them. This makes up the evaluation portion, because I was comparing my experiences in the past to my present encounter and also reconsidering how these two people are unique individuals. Evaluating further I realized I wanted to build a connection with them because in the past I have realized that often times people simply want the dignity of respectful conversations.