The Intercultural Communication Course Blog
Authors: Aidan Madigan (UConn), Nicole Zaino (Quinnipiac University), Nidhi Banda (UConn), and Emily Marhan (UConn)

Throughout the experience we have all shared in Florence, something that really stands out is the dinner we had with our Italian class and the Italian students.

 

This was an experience we were looking forward to for a few weeks after some of our roommates and friends had talked about how great their dinner was. Upon arriving at Palazzo Rucellai, where our class was to meet before we walked over together, we met with Italian students who spoke to us only in Italian. This was a pleasant surprise because it’s always fun to practice Italian with someone who knows you are still trying to learn and will speak slowly to you and only use words you know.

We walked over to the restaurant and found our seats at the table, some students strategically placing themselves away from the Italian students in fear that their Italian skills were not up to par. It is very intimidating to speak with someone in a foreign language that is not your own mother tongue. However, throughout the dinner it was clear that the Italians wanted us to learn and tried their best to speak slowly, use simple words, and talk about things they thought we might be interested in.

After this dinner, we were actually impressed with our Italian skills. We were able to comprehend and speak more than we thought we could when put on the spot. When we left this dinner, we felt a sense of empowerment, as if leaving a classroom after a test knowing you got a good grade. It made us feel like we had conquered our study abroad experience, by trying to practice our somewhat decent, but still broken, Italian.
We have had such a wonderful time in Italy and we think everything we’ve learned, in and out of class, is starting to show in our everyday life. This makes us realize how lucky we are to have taken advantage of this experience.