Language as a common connection across the world
Coming off my study abroad fall semester of 2015, I came back to Cincinnati after being in the most exciting 6 months of my life. I had such a great time that I knew I wanted to go back, particularly to Italy which was one of my favorite countries in Europe. I began this honors experience in January of 2016 when I took the first steps of learning Italian through my purchase of the program Rosetta Stone. Through this I hoped that I would be able to pick up some basic conversational Italian that would allow me to travel the country to achieve a deeper level of understanding of the culture than I had from my previous experience in Italy. Part of the reason for me deciding I wanted to learn some basic Italian was so I would feel comfortable visiting less touristy areas of Italy such as the Italian Lake district. I also felt as though knowing basic Italian would help me with this experience as I had decided that I wanted to do this backpacking trip by myself. I knew that if I could converse it would not only be easier to get from place to place, but also to connect with others.
Throughout the months leading up to my experience I worked my way through multiple lessons of Rosetta Stone learning the basic foods, colors, greetings, etc. It became super apparent that learning a new language was hard and would be a challenge for me to balance this with working and school. I struggled to remember all the vocab that was being thrown at me and it was made even more difficult by the fact that I only know one person here in Cincinnati who speaks Italian to the point where I could be in active conversation. Nonetheless, I went through the program and used as many opportunities as I could to converse and practice. I even started watching a children’s show that was in Italian and put on some subtitles so I would be able to practice through listening! At the end of May when it was about time to leave, I felt as though I would be able to do the basic conversational Italian at the level I wanted to be at. Being at that level I actually felt very accomplished. Going into college I had always made time to learn things that are outside my coursework, learning about world politics, sports, and everything that I felt that I wasn’t getting from my education. However, in college there was really very little time for me to just learn something for the pure fun of knowing more. This was the first really substantial thing that I had balanced with work, school, and studying for the MCAT and I am proud that I was able to get back to the joys of learning. This is one of the things from this experience that I will continue to carry with me as I continue on in life.
Then the time to test what I learned rolls around and I land in Milan. I hop in the taxi for what I believed was going to be my first test and my driver immediately starts to speak to me in English knowing that I am from the US. At that point, it felt more natural to keep this conversation going in English than switch to Italian. This pretty much sums up how ¾ of my language experiences went. I would say a few words in Italian and whoever I was interacting with – be it the cab drivers, servers, or people in my hostel – would switch right into English. Most of the time I wouldn’t try to switch back for fear that it would be insulting me trying to speak broken Italian as if the people I was with were not also fluent in English. The few conversations where I interacted with individuals who didn’t speak English, my language skills were developed enough to go into a short conversation, but I would not be able to sustain a conversation because my vocabulary was still limited.
Another challenge for me was that at times I felt nervous or embarrassed to try to communicate in Italian as I knew that my Italian was so basic and probably very broken. Despite this last challenge I think I challenged myself to go outside my comfort zone many times. Each time I pushed myself, I got a more and more confident and I know that If I had a longer amount of immersion I would have become very comfortable with conversing as my vocabulary became stronger, my accent started to sound more accurate, and my confidence was built. Additionally, the times that I was able to speak in Italian, I felt more connected to the culture, mainly because I felt a slightly deeper connection with locals. I didn’t get any additional information or crazy epiphany from somebody who spoke Italian that I wouldn’t have been able to get from somebody who spoke English, but have a common language created a sort of emotional connection that I had not experienced in my previous trips to Europe. With the few conversations that I was able to have like that, I felt very connected as if I was moving further away from being a tourist, moving closer and closer to local.
I truly believe that this experience was one of the hardest that I placed myself into while at the University of Cincinnati. Language is a way of thinking and over four months I challenged myself to add a different lens through which I would think; this is spectacularly challenging task. With work, however, I was able to reach the level I had hoped. Besides the practical skill of an added language, I think I was reminded of the value that comes along with independent learning, no matter the difficulty and constraints. In the next few years, I am going to busy as I progress on into medical school; however, I know that I need to set aside some time to continually develop myself through learning. Additionally, from this experience I think I gained a deeper understanding on Italian culture as well as experience being less of a tourist and more of a local.
Coming off my study abroad fall semester of 2015, I came back to Cincinnati after being in the most exciting 6 months of my life. I had such a great time that I knew I wanted to go back, particularly to Italy which was one of my favorite countries in Europe. I began this honors experience in January of 2016 when I took the first steps of learning Italian through my purchase of the program Rosetta Stone. Through this I hoped that I would be able to pick up some basic conversational Italian that would allow me to travel the country to achieve a deeper level of understanding of the culture than I had from my previous experience in Italy. Part of the reason for me deciding I wanted to learn some basic Italian was so I would feel comfortable visiting less touristy areas of Italy such as the Italian Lake district. I also felt as though knowing basic Italian would help me with this experience as I had decided that I wanted to do this backpacking trip by myself. I knew that if I could converse it would not only be easier to get from place to place, but also to connect with others.
Throughout the months leading up to my experience I worked my way through multiple lessons of Rosetta Stone learning the basic foods, colors, greetings, etc. It became super apparent that learning a new language was hard and would be a challenge for me to balance this with working and school. I struggled to remember all the vocab that was being thrown at me and it was made even more difficult by the fact that I only know one person here in Cincinnati who speaks Italian to the point where I could be in active conversation. Nonetheless, I went through the program and used as many opportunities as I could to converse and practice. I even started watching a children’s show that was in Italian and put on some subtitles so I would be able to practice through listening! At the end of May when it was about time to leave, I felt as though I would be able to do the basic conversational Italian at the level I wanted to be at. Being at that level I actually felt very accomplished. Going into college I had always made time to learn things that are outside my coursework, learning about world politics, sports, and everything that I felt that I wasn’t getting from my education. However, in college there was really very little time for me to just learn something for the pure fun of knowing more. This was the first really substantial thing that I had balanced with work, school, and studying for the MCAT and I am proud that I was able to get back to the joys of learning. This is one of the things from this experience that I will continue to carry with me as I continue on in life.
Then the time to test what I learned rolls around and I land in Milan. I hop in the taxi for what I believed was going to be my first test and my driver immediately starts to speak to me in English knowing that I am from the US. At that point, it felt more natural to keep this conversation going in English than switch to Italian. This pretty much sums up how ¾ of my language experiences went. I would say a few words in Italian and whoever I was interacting with – be it the cab drivers, servers, or people in my hostel – would switch right into English. Most of the time I wouldn’t try to switch back for fear that it would be insulting me trying to speak broken Italian as if the people I was with were not also fluent in English. The few conversations where I interacted with individuals who didn’t speak English, my language skills were developed enough to go into a short conversation, but I would not be able to sustain a conversation because my vocabulary was still limited.
Another challenge for me was that at times I felt nervous or embarrassed to try to communicate in Italian as I knew that my Italian was so basic and probably very broken. Despite this last challenge I think I challenged myself to go outside my comfort zone many times. Each time I pushed myself, I got a more and more confident and I know that If I had a longer amount of immersion I would have become very comfortable with conversing as my vocabulary became stronger, my accent started to sound more accurate, and my confidence was built. Additionally, the times that I was able to speak in Italian, I felt more connected to the culture, mainly because I felt a slightly deeper connection with locals. I didn’t get any additional information or crazy epiphany from somebody who spoke Italian that I wouldn’t have been able to get from somebody who spoke English, but have a common language created a sort of emotional connection that I had not experienced in my previous trips to Europe. With the few conversations that I was able to have like that, I felt very connected as if I was moving further away from being a tourist, moving closer and closer to local.
I truly believe that this experience was one of the hardest that I placed myself into while at the University of Cincinnati. Language is a way of thinking and over four months I challenged myself to add a different lens through which I would think; this is spectacularly challenging task. With work, however, I was able to reach the level I had hoped. Besides the practical skill of an added language, I think I was reminded of the value that comes along with independent learning, no matter the difficulty and constraints. In the next few years, I am going to busy as I progress on into medical school; however, I know that I need to set aside some time to continually develop myself through learning. Additionally, from this experience I think I gained a deeper understanding on Italian culture as well as experience being less of a tourist and more of a local.