The gateway to understanding the Italian mind

Italian Schools: The gateway to understanding the Italian mind

September 15th was my first day at an Italian school. And now I realize why AFS is an advocate of the phrase, "It's not good, it's not bad...it's just different."

Monday, I come to school and am put in a 3rd year class. Incidentally, in Italy students do not change classes. We stay put and the teachers change. And most of the time, the teachers are tardy...by a good 5-10 minutes. Being here for now 1 month, I can honestly say that the importance of punctuality is a big cultural difference.

It's nothing personal, it's just their way.

And as different as the culture here is, it is very interesting to discover that people all over the world are the same. We have our class clowns, our jerk clowns, the boys that should be supermodels, the painfully artsy crowd, the self-imposed punks, the brown-nosers, the over-opinionated, and the ever-naive freshman...or in this case, 8th graders who also attend ITAS Gabriele D'Annunzio. This school, however, is different because everyone attempts to form cliques but ends up hanging out with each other. They like each other, despite forced differences. And this is evident, as they reconvene daily in the bathroom to share a cigarette during the 10-minute (but in actuality, 15-20 minute) break between 3rd and 4th period.

Another thing about Italians is that they love greeting each other (well atleast people they know). But once again, it's nothing personal. They just enjoy having an excuse to hug and kiss. Point blank: Italians like to "be friendly". And yet, if they don't know you; they won't even acknowledge you, smile, say hi, or anything. It's nothing personal, it's just their way.

I was told that Italian schools would be difficult and that I would have to study for 5-6 hours a day. This was a lie. Italian school is not difficult. The teachers just don't teach, nor explain, and therefore waste an hour of our time and force us to learn it by ourselves. Luckily for me, I don't have to take all those classes, they are in the process of fixing my schedule (which could take them a long time); so my only task is to try to learn Italian, a job within itself.

Coming to Italy makes me realize I really do have an attitude, but luckily, Italians appreciate sass and sarcasm.

My friends are great and surprisingly so similar to people at home. It affirms who I am and I've learned that no matter where I go, I can always find people who are like me. Maybe not in abundance, but nonetheless. I think that's what makes them so rare and special.

Italians are the same as Americans. They have experienced the same things as us, their minds work the same way as ours, they are trying to figure out their lives and their futures while still trying to hold onto the present. This is the most disorganized country in the world. There are no rules. And if there are, I couldn't tell you because they are all overlooked. Still, they somehow manage to make good choices and make this crazy culture work.

Aside from appreciate, I can't help but to laugh at the abundance of hair scrunchies and mullets that still haven't gone out of style here.

Finally, I love when people are talking to each other and then I walk by and they automatically switch to whispering... and I think- they probably think that I can understand what they are saying, but the fact of the matter is, even if they were speaking out loud, I would still have no clue what they were saying. But good news is that I am starting to understand a lot more of Italian, and I am starting to speak it too! Its very exciting!!

Ciao!
Heather