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Post #1: Pre-Departure

I’ll be leaving for Avignon in a little less than a week, an exciting yet nerve-inducing fact. Thankfully, this will not be my first time engaging in language immersion. I come from a mixed household, my mother is from the Dominican Republic, and my father grew up Irish Catholic in New Jersey. I was raised engaging and identifying with two very different cultures, so I’ve always felt I had a unique approach to engaging with and learning about different cultures. With my Dominican heritage, I’ve spent time in Spanish immersion in the DR. These prior experiences of language immersion somewhat mitigate my nerves. However, in the days approaching my previous trips to the DR, I never felt as I do now. I attribute this to my having never been to France (or any of Europe) before. Unlike in the DR, in France, I will be encountering a completely different culture, a culture that I don’t belong to. I’ve studied French for three years now, but I don’t think all the time I’ve spent in the classroom, with tutors, and watching films has truly prepared me for immersion into French culture. This discomfort and aspect of the unknown fuel my nerves as I approach my trip. Yet at the same time, it provides me with great excitement. Avignon is an opportunity. An opportunity to not only engage with but to experience an entirely new and different culture. Not many are afforded such an opportunity. So, while I am nervous, I’m excited to encounter the unknown.

In preparation for Avignon, I’ve been trying to immerse myself as much as possible in French media. It may not be the perfect training regimen, but I’ve found it to be rather helpful and far better than doing nothing. I’ve been reading Les Liaisons Dangereuses, which was actually my second choice, but I’ve given up on trying to read Montaigne in French for now. I’ve also been going on a French film binge, and highly recommend Les Diaboliques and any Jacques Tati films. Tonight I’ll be finishing Cleo de 5 à 7 and then watching either Playtime or Les Yeux sans Visage. I don’t know any native French speakers, so I feel as if this is the best way to prepare. While France has changed a lot since La Nouvelle Vague and Les Liaisons Dangereuses, through books and films, I’m engaging with both the language and culture. I won’t pretend that these books and films have taught me everything to know about French culture, but I do believe that they are bringing me to a rudimentary understanding that will allow me to come to a better appreciation for the culture and my experiences in France. 

I’m hoping that my time in Avignon will be a very formative experience. I’m expecting the combination of French cultural immersion and the independence of living on my own to profoundly affect me. And I hope that these blog posts will reflect this effect. If my Provençal dreams don’t fully come true, at the very least, I’ll be able to tell people I summered in the South of France.

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Countdown to Siena: My Expectations

In just one week, I will be leaving my home in Pennsylvania and embarking on an incredible journey to Siena, Italy! I am very excited to travel abroad, and the anticipation of this experience has given me the opportunity to reflect on my expectations for what lies ahead.

Envisioning about my upcoming journey to Siena, Italy, most importantly, I expect to have lots of fun! This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity will allow me to see breathtaking sites, learn about the rich history and culture of Italy, eat delicious food, and form meaningful connections with new friends. From discussions with my SLA peers and faculty, it has reinforced my belief that study abroad is such a transformative time for college students. 

Secondly, another expectation I have for my study abroad experience is to be pushed outside of my comfort zone, especially when utilizing my Italian language skills. In my Italian language courses at Notre Dame, I feel comfortable making mistakes in front of my peers, since we are all learning the language together. However, being surrounded by native speakers in Siena, I feel anxious to make mistakes in front of them. Moreover, in the classrooms at Notre Dame, I have the luxury of falling back on English to express ideas that are beyond my current proficiency level. However, in Siena, I may not have this same luxury, since many locals of Siena do not know English. Yet, I am sure that this discomfort will ultimately allow for significant improvement in my Italian language skills!

Overall, I am eagerly awaiting this extraordinary journey to the amazing city of Siena, Italy. The prospects of adventure and cultural immersion have filled me with excitement. Furthermore, despite the potential challenges that may arise in navigating the Italian language, I am ready to confront them head-on. These challenges will not only boost my linguistic abilities, but also contribute to my personal growth as an individual.

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Arrivederci Cleveland, Salve Siena

If you told me last summer that today I started packing for a five-week Summer Language Abroad program in Italy, I would have not only been thrilled but also thoroughly confused. After making the difficult decision a week before the fall semester to drop one of my majors in order to graduate early, I found myself frantically looking for six credits I could register for on such short notice. It was pure luck that I found a seat in “Intensive Beginning Italian”, and when I clicked “submit” on NOVO I had no idea how far studying Italian would take me.

My residual Spanish from high school helped a little, but learning Italian from the beginning was still a challenge I was excited to face every day in Professoressa Serafini’s class. By the end of our first week, Beginning Italian was my favorite course. Over that fall semester, I continued to love the content and collaborative learning in our class, and I found myself looking for even more outside of it. I began watching Italian TV on Netflix and adding the Italian songs Professoressa showed us to my playlists. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind when I registered for another Italian class in the spring, then eventually a minor in Italian Studies (that will most likely become a supplementary major), and an application for Summer Language Abroad. There is still so much of the Italian language for me to learn, and countless cultural phenomena for me to observe. I am so grateful for my admittedly impulsive decision to study Italian and all the opportunities for growth it has introduced to me.

Five summers ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Italy with the Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony and perform throughout the country. We stopped in Siena for a day trip on our way from Florence to Rome, taking a tour of some of the many historical sites and cooling off with a gelato in the famous Piazza del Campi. I was fifteen years old, I knew no Italian besides “ciao”, and I had no idea I would ever be returning to Siena, never mind studying there for five weeks. Now, I look back on that trip and cringe. While I appreciated every second I had in Italy, I now know that there was so much I was missing out on through my limited viewpoint. This time, I am going to do everything I can to mitigate this cringeworthiness by speaking in Italian, looking beyond the major landmarks, and studying the sites I visit in depth so I may truly understand their gravity. It is likely that by the end of the summer, I will look back at June 2nd, 2023 me and cringe just as hard. More than anything, I hope to grow my cultural competency, step out of my touristy comfort zone, and expand my understanding of how culture shapes place and place shapes culture. In a week everything is going to change, and I couldn’t be more excited.

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#3: Heterostereotypes about Americans: from the conversation with my host family

Imanalla mashikuna, kawsakunkichu?
Kunanka ñami kimsaniki hunkay kashka. Ñukapa kichwa ayllupika, chishimikuna punchapi tawka imakunamantami rimanakunchik. Kay killkaypika kichwapurakunapa, Ecuadorpi kawsak mishupurakunapapash, estadounidensepurakunapapash estereotipo nishkakunamantami rimakrini.

I do not have any auto-stereotypes about Americans, since I do not identify myself as American; I am just an international student. Instead, I would say I have some hetero-stereotypes. One evening, after finishing the cozy dinner with my host family, we talked about the auto- and hetero-stereotypes of Kichwas, Mestizo Ecuadorians (i.e., white or mixed-white Ecuadorians), and Americans. In this post, I will share some of the hetero-stereotypes about Americans from the perspectives of me and my Kichwa host family, with special reference to the Ecuadorian culture(s).

Personal space of Americans, Mestizo Ecuadorians, and Kichwas

Ecuador is a multi-ethnic country, and the cover term “Ecuadorians” can contain a number of different cultures. For example, my host father told me at the dinner, “The notion of the comfortable personal space between people is very different between Mestizos and Kichwas. For instance, when Mestizo friends meet up, they often show the greeting involving more physical actions, such as hugging, tapping on the shoulder, and giving a friendly kiss next to the cheek (like bisou in French). On the other hand, Kichwas do not do that; when Kichwas meet each other, they just shake hands, and nothing more. So, compared to Mestizos, Kichwas prefer a larger personal space when meeting or talking with somebody. This is like Americans, right?”

I thought that this is an interesting observation, not only because there are very different cultures within one country that have been coexisting for centuries since the Spanish colonization, but also because I myself did feel the cultural similarity between Americans and Japanese in terms of how people keep personal distance. When I see Americans how to greet, where to sit on the bus, and how far they keep their distance to each other when talking, I feel it very similar to what I am used to doing in my Japanese culture, whereas I still cannot help myself feeling awkward when people start hugging and kissing casually.

To be honest, “optimistic”, “warm-hearted”, and “closer personal space” had been my hetero-stereotypes of both Americans and South Americans (or Latinos in general) before getting immersed in their culture myself. I did not even know that there are multiple layers of cultures in Ecuador. Since coming to the United States and Ecuador, I feel that my unreasonable hetero-stereotypes about others have been deconstructed and have become more fine-grained and objective.