Author: ppollice

When I went to a store for groceries, everything was going smoothly and I felt like I was not “standing out” as an American or being disrespectful. However, once I had assembled all I had wanted to purchase, I then had to check out and pay.

I understood the first question that the checkout worker asked me. She asked me if I wanted to use bags, and I quickly responded no. Then, it was time to pay, and on the scanner read “firmare”. I did not initially recognize the word and started typing in my 4 digit code, but it was not working. Then, the checkout worker looked at me and started repeating the word to me.

I then remembered what the word meant and signed on the screen, but the situation was still quite embarrassing for a while. After some reflection, I feel better about my “slip-up”, and I am sure that from the checkout worker’s perspective that it was only a minor inconvenience and nothing too embarrassing.

I expect that I will learn a lot about how willing I will be to embrace the discomfort that will come with experiencing a new culture, and through this discomfort I expect that I will be able to find similarities between Italian culture and my own culture while also finding out how cultures influence values and life choices.

If I decide to embrace the discomfort that will come with trying to immerse myself in a culture that is not my own, then learning about the culture will be much easier and I expect that I will be able to more easily find the similarities between Italian culture and my own culture. It will also be much easier to observe how culture affects the values of its people if I accept that this experience will be far from comfortable.

If I fail to embrace the challenge that lies ahead of my, then I expect that my goals that I have set forth for myself will be much more challenging to achieve.