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Post 1: Auf Wiedersehen!

Hello! My name is John Hammerschmitt. This summer, I will be traveling to Leipzig, Germany in the hopes of advancing my knowledge of the language and the culture. Ultimately, I hope to live and work in Germany and spend most of my life there. However, there is a lot of time and experience needed before that dream comes to fruition, so I’ll focus on this summer throughout these blogs.

When I was 8 years old my family and I moved to Japan for my dad’s work. I lived there for 3 years while attending an international school. I played the same sports as other Americans, learned the same subjects, and even ate some of the same food. But I learned so much about other cultures and how to interact and learn about them. I learned about Japanese, Chinese, Australian, and other Asian cultures throughout my time there. Those 3 years were the best of my life, and I will never forget those experiences. Plus, I believe it was in Japan that I developed a love of language, travel, and foreign cultures.

Because of my time in Japan, I had a more inclusive and understanding childhood. I could relate to other cultures slightly more than other people in my grade, and had experience with foreign language that shaped my learning. However, I still lack many skills necessary for my dream, and hope to learn more about German and its rich culture during my time in Leipzig.

Specifically, I want to build confidence in my knowledge of both the language and the culture. I hope to be able to speak without hesitation and start to process conversations in my head in German. This is a big goal for me because it will demonstrate what I have learned both because of schooling and my immersion in the culture. I also hope to explore Germany and learn about its history and people. I imagine I will be taking the train to many German cities, both small and large, to get the biggest picture possible. I’m looking forward to my experience in Germany, and can’t wait to get there!

Auf Wiedersehen, John

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First Blog

Hey everyone! My name is Matthew, and I’ll be traveling to Sorrento, Italy this summer. I’m super excited to be traveling there, and I hope to strengthen my appreciation and knowledge of the Italian culture. Prior to SLA, I have been blessed to travel abroad several times, including once to Italy. Each time, I have returned with a wealth of knowledge on how other cultures tend to interact with their world. I would not have learned these lessons without traveling, and I feel they have made me a more global person.

In Italy, I hope to increase my understanding of Italian language and history. The easiest way to track these goals will be through the classes I am taking. However, as I have learned while traveling, interacting with locals is crucial as well. It is impossible to get the full cultural perspective from a classroom.

While Italian culture is something that will be interesting to study and will make me a more global person, it is also deeply personal for me. My Italian American background has shaped much of my upbringing and determined the values I hold dear. Understanding the culture of my ancestors’ homeland will provide me with insight into why my family is the way it is. I also look forward to comparing the values of the two cultures in hopes that I can better understand how the American way of life changes cultures over time.

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Blog Numero Uno: Pre-Departure

I cannot wait to travel to Italy! I have been reflecting a lot on how my own cultural experience will affect the experience I am about to have as a student in Italy. For most of my life, I have definitely been a part of the dominant cultural group. While I have learned much about my Scandinavian heritage, being part of the culture that is usually accepted does leave lots of info about other cultures out. Although America is home to many cultures, marginalization is common and therefore I think it’s very important to interact with other cultures despite the inherent difficulty behind doing so. 

I think this was reflected in the fact that our IDI score as a class had a high perceived acceptance but a low actual general acceptance. This is one of the major reasons why it will be so beneficial for us as a class to take advantage of this generous grant that has been given to us. I, for one, am very excited to be adventuring to another country in order to increase my exposure to cultural diversity in Siena, Italy. 

It has been interesting getting to talk to my fellow cohort on what we wish to experience or what may be difficult when we go abroad. The main things that were brought up were cultural detachments with regard to custom, religion, and most glaringly, language. We all agreed that this would be an integral experience in forming how we view the world and how we can become more culturally aware in the future. 

I have two major goals that I would like to pursue in order to deepen my cultural experience of Italy. I would like to enrich my cultural understanding of Italy, especially in the context of smaller cities as compared with large cultural centers. I think that this would be very beneficial as the roots of a country are found in its small towns just as much as its large towns. I also plan to learn much more about Italian history and how the many cultural shifts that it has undergone have led to a rich and diverse culture. 

Overall, I am so grateful to be going back to Italy. I feel as though I have an obligation to nurture the chance that I have been given through my living in Italy when I was very young. Notre Dame has already given me so much in terms of Italian resources and this is my opportunity to capitalize on what I have been given and truly immerse myself in Italian culture and language for five weeks. I believe that this will lead to a huge increase in my Italian language skills and help boost my future research in Italian or just my general knowledge of the country and its history.

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Bon Voyage!

Post #1: Pre-Departure

Growing up, I never had any experiences that completely immersed me in another culture outside of the United States. Historically, my ancestors have lived in the U.S. for an extremely long time, so I do not have any relatives in other countries, and my family never want abroad on any vacations. I was always taught to respect other cultures and to learn about them, but I had never fully experienced living in another place until last summer. With the ND economics abroad program, I spent six weeks in Berlin, Germany, taking classes with Notre Dame professors in a group of Notre Dame students. I had a great experience, and I did my best to take part in local culture, but the experience was very different from what I expect my SLA experience to be. I did not speak German, only enough to do things like order food, and I was with a large group of ND students and professors.

For my SLA experience in Tours, France, this summer, I expect to have a much more involved experience. Through living with a host family in a small city, and taking classes in French, I will be immersed in both daily French life and the French language. Unlike my experience last summer, I will not be in an extremely touristy area, and I do not expect to be able to (nor do I want to) get by with gesturing and hoping people speak English. I hope to gain language skills so that I can be able to speak French well enough to navigate easily and hold conversations entirely in French by the end of my trip, and also so that I am able to use French in my future job. In addition to improving my language skills, through living with a host family, I hope that I can see what their day-to-day life is like, and how it compares to mine at home. Additionally, I hope that I can get to know some other students from around the world who are in my French classes. With my SLA experience, I hope to broaden my view of the world, and be able to better see things from different perspectives than my very American one.