Hi everyone,
Judging from your diaries, everything seems to be going well for you, many of you have reported quite in-depth discussions of issues related to the readings you were asked to do last week, and also about your identities and, several of you also mentioned languages. I think it's important to remember that this is what some could be called an 'English as a lingua franca' (ELF) context, since English is used as a common language for communication amongst you and is enabling this exchange to take place. At the same time, however, the 'native' speakers of English may appear to be at an advantage at times during the sessions (though by no means always I believe) - which is why some of you did activities involving other languages during your session. Also there is a big debate as to whether languages are 'neutral', what about all the cultural baggage that is linked to a language?! Is English a neutral language as the term ELF might suggest?
In ELF contexts, the 'native speaker' is not the ideal target or a model for the language used, comprehensibility is the key objective, and some of you observed that in your groups the native speakers were at times the most difficult to understand. In ELF contexts, 'native speakers' need to learn to modify their language to make it comprehensible!
In terms of language accuracy - as I wrote above, comprehensibility is the aim rather than accuracy, so this is what you need to focus on, and it is also why I do not worry about correcting your diaries, since what I am concerned with is that your meaning is clear, and I do not want to inhibit you from expressing yourselves by being afraid of making mistakes. At the same time you can use tools like online dictionaries, the spell checker on Word, to help you in your writing. I will at times provide some linguistic feedback too.
An interesting case in point is the term 'to confront myself with others' which is often used by students (some of you have used it) reflecting on Soliya as it is clearly trying to translate 'confrontarsi' - for which I have not been able to find an English translation as it encompasses several different meanings. Dictionaries define it as compare/contrast, but in the Soliya context I guess it means to exchange opinions with others and engage in discussion, though at other times it can mean more something more in relation to competetion, like, measuring oneself up against someone. I wonder why this term doesn't exist in English (perhaps because the Brits have never felt the need to 'confrontarsi'!!)
Another linguistic point - sentirsi, we would say just 'to feel', it is not reflexive in English. And what you talk about could be a topic, a theme, an issue but NOT an argument - an argument can mean 'un litigio' or it can mean 'ragionamento', for example, "his argument for voting x was that there was no valid alternative".
This week you will be discussing topics that you have identified within your groups, so I hope you enjoy this and you manage to raise issues that you are interested in. Remember to ASK OTHERS QUESTIONS, you should start taking the initiative in your groups and engage others in the conversations.
Enjoy!
Francesca
Judging from your diaries, everything seems to be going well for you, many of you have reported quite in-depth discussions of issues related to the readings you were asked to do last week, and also about your identities and, several of you also mentioned languages. I think it's important to remember that this is what some could be called an 'English as a lingua franca' (ELF) context, since English is used as a common language for communication amongst you and is enabling this exchange to take place. At the same time, however, the 'native' speakers of English may appear to be at an advantage at times during the sessions (though by no means always I believe) - which is why some of you did activities involving other languages during your session. Also there is a big debate as to whether languages are 'neutral', what about all the cultural baggage that is linked to a language?! Is English a neutral language as the term ELF might suggest?
In ELF contexts, the 'native speaker' is not the ideal target or a model for the language used, comprehensibility is the key objective, and some of you observed that in your groups the native speakers were at times the most difficult to understand. In ELF contexts, 'native speakers' need to learn to modify their language to make it comprehensible!
In terms of language accuracy - as I wrote above, comprehensibility is the aim rather than accuracy, so this is what you need to focus on, and it is also why I do not worry about correcting your diaries, since what I am concerned with is that your meaning is clear, and I do not want to inhibit you from expressing yourselves by being afraid of making mistakes. At the same time you can use tools like online dictionaries, the spell checker on Word, to help you in your writing. I will at times provide some linguistic feedback too.
An interesting case in point is the term 'to confront myself with others' which is often used by students (some of you have used it) reflecting on Soliya as it is clearly trying to translate 'confrontarsi' - for which I have not been able to find an English translation as it encompasses several different meanings. Dictionaries define it as compare/contrast, but in the Soliya context I guess it means to exchange opinions with others and engage in discussion, though at other times it can mean more something more in relation to competetion, like, measuring oneself up against someone. I wonder why this term doesn't exist in English (perhaps because the Brits have never felt the need to 'confrontarsi'!!)
Another linguistic point - sentirsi, we would say just 'to feel', it is not reflexive in English. And what you talk about could be a topic, a theme, an issue but NOT an argument - an argument can mean 'un litigio' or it can mean 'ragionamento', for example, "his argument for voting x was that there was no valid alternative".
This week you will be discussing topics that you have identified within your groups, so I hope you enjoy this and you manage to raise issues that you are interested in. Remember to ASK OTHERS QUESTIONS, you should start taking the initiative in your groups and engage others in the conversations.
Enjoy!
Francesca
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminaLast Monday I had my third Soliya's meeting.
This time there were all of us because the second time two girls didn't connect.
Unfortunately, I had many connection problems when we had to work together for the final project because I couldn't see the other girls throught the camera.
Anee, our facilitator, helped me to solve my connection problems immediately, so I could take part to the final paper's discussion the latest 10 minutes.
After initial greetings, we started with our week's conversation and the main topic we chose last Monday was racism.
Manar the other facilitator asked us how we would define it and everyone gave her/his personal opinion.
We agreed that racism comes from ignorance and it's a discrimination based on categories including: color's skin, culture diversities and religion while some groups seem to be superior to the others.
Subsequently Anee made an other question asking us why we think that racism is among us and if it could be related to stereotype.
Our answers were quite similar and many of us said that there's a general ignorance because we don't appreciate other cultures and many people instead of know and interact with them, prefer to judge their traditions.
When we refered to stereotype, Meryem reported her personal life's experience and I was speechless after heard it.
She told us that when she was in a meeting in Morocco with some people from all around the world, someone called her “Bin laden's daughter” because she is Muslim and another accused her of hiding a bomb under her scarf.
In Brian's opinion this happened because we should intervene when someone is humiliated or stereotyped publicly, instead most of the people just ignore that they are helping racism to be wide.
We should educate and teach our children to use no violences but words because we're all equal, all human being and we have the same rights.
After that, someone noticed that stereotypes and politics are related as regards discrimination between political men and polical women.
Most of us think that this concept is due to the past because there's a general afraid of changing roles in the society because we still consider women first of all as mothers and second as wives and houseworkers.
We agreed taht gender roles aren't positive or negative, but everyone should have the possibility to choose her/his way of living and thinking.
For more than half an hour we talked about racism, sterotype and gender discrimination because there were many different point of views and was difficult to have a dialogue.
The latest 20 minutes, Manar and Anee divided us into three groups and explained what we had technically to do to begin our final project.
In my group there were Michaela and Paula and we decided together to talk about gender discrimination again.
At the end of the time, facilitators gave us istructions for the next Soliya's session because they'll send us many articles about religion's topic during the week.
I can describe this third Soliya's meeting as educational because we all nine people cuold share our different life's experiences with honesty and consciousness.
I had a great fun even if I had some technical problems this time.
See you soon next Monday!
Federica
Week 3
RispondiEliminaDear diary,
My third Soliya’s meeting has taken place last Monday.
Sushmita, the facilitator, had technical problems during the first part of the session and my group and I tried to discuss about the topic of identity linked to the articles that we had to read during the week.
Nicholas asked us what time it was in our country and I was surprised when Nicholas said that in his country it was 5 o’clock a.m.!! He wakes up very early in the morning to do these sessions. In New York it was 7 a.m. and in Jordan it was 1 p.m.; I think it’s amazing that we can meet each other and start to work all together, although so far away.
Compared to last time, in this session we were many in the group and there were less technical problems than other times.
When Sushmita managed to solve her technical problems she connected with us and she started to ask us our impressions about the articles. This time one of the main problems was the tension between muslim society and western society. The different views on the relationships between God and man, citizen and State were at the center of the discussion. We have to take into account that we’re living in a world with different cultures, different ideas and so on. In my opinion, not only one of the reasons for the tension are economic interests, but also the differences of the culture play a main role. Aseel, a Jordanian girl, said that mass media show only the bad side of muslims; they give the idea that terrorism is connected to Islam. In Europe, after the terrorist attacks, a lot of people live with fear and prejudice against Muslims; is this the best way to deal with a multicultural world? I don't think so. But now it is very difficult to answer to two questions: how can we best deal with differences in the world? And when do differences become a source of conflict? Sushmita asked us to think about this problem and to reflect basing on our experience. If we are used to live in a culture with its dogmas, when something is questioning our roots we feel defensive about that. In my opinion, we have to try to see our culture with an outsider perspective if we want to relate to people with different points of view; one needs to question his own culture as well.
In the group there were different opinions about the meaning of ‘open minded’; the debate focused in particular on the topic of identity, linked to last week discussion. Ammar said that the identity is not necessarily influenced by the society; to be open minded means to respect other cultures without any prejudices.
In the last part of the session Sushmita divided us into three couples and she explained the next steps for the final projects. We have to decide a topic and interview two or more people from our community with diverse perspectives about this topic; the aim is to gain a deeper understanding of the perspectives surrounding the topic and explore why we think differently on this issue. Ammar and I, like other couples, started to talk one on one in different meeting room and we decided to focus our topic on the freedom of speech. I think it could be a very interesting issue in which we’ll work to discover how many differences there are between our cultures.
I hope we'll be able to find it out in the upcoming sessions.
Veronica
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminaLast Monday was my third time at Soliya, and we began a one to one discussion for the final paper.
When I connected, there were 6 of us, and we began talking about the recent attack on tourists at the Bardo National Museum in Tunisia. One of my facilitators is from Tunisia, and he was shocked and sorry for the incident and he would never have imagined this happening.
Then we started to talk about what is occurring in Yemen, where, in the recent months, they have entered into conflict between several different groups, and it's on the brink of Civil War.
Salsabil, a member of my group who is from the Middle East, was very sorry and she told us that unfortunately there are people who don't understand Islam and react in a bad way.
When everybody finally connected, facilitators asked us what power dynamics are, and we agreed that they differ in every culture, but in general Global North countries are more powerful than from South countries.
Then we talked about gender discrimination and it was very interesting, because it's a topic that I car particularly. I told them that I believe there is discrimination between men and women, even if today is better than the past; women still have less opportunity to get a job, even if they are graduates, and are paid less than men. Most of my fellow students told us there is the same problem in the USA. Moreover Rowan, an American girl, thought that an example of men and women are being treated differently due to their dress appearance in most schools in America, therefor women couldn't wear spaghetti string tops, but young men could wear saggy pants, and the teachers would ignore it.
Some American students of my group stressed that a lot of women and men are treated equally, even if they agreed that men are still more powerful in obtaining certain jobs and women are more powerful in others.
Unlike what I expected, Salsabil and Mohamed, who are from Morocco, explained to us that Islam women and men are equal in terms of salaries, and in Morocco women are free to wear what ever they like.
Finally, we spoke about face veils and we agreed that people should be allowed to wear what ever they want and should be able to express their religion freely.
The last 15 minutes our facilitators asked us to choose a member of our group to explore a topic of our choice for the final paper that Soliya project requires. My partner is an American student, and we chose to discuss about climate change.
Honestly I think 15 minutes is not enough time to go deeper into the question; we could talk about the seasons that are different from the past years.
I hope to give more details next time!
Omega
Dear Diary,
RispondiEliminaThe third session is done. It was an exciting session, even if we were only four people: Rafael, Dominique, Asad, and me, plus the facilitators: Gena and Salma. In this session we had the chance to know us better: we talked about our siblings, our countries and our lives.
Rafael told us that he has a twin brother and an older brother who was 23 years old when he passed away during the conflict in Iraq in 2006. He explained that all men in his family have served in the USA Army : his grandfather in the late 50s, his brother and him in 2008, and his father in the 60s in Vietnam, his grandfather in the late 50s and his twin brother and him in 2008. When he said that for him talking about his brother it's a way to remember him, I didn’t know what to say because that situation shocked me. He talked a lot about what he and his twin brother had done in Iraq: that period was very interesting and very emotional for him and his brother, as they learned a lot about the people there and that they've been dealing with loss for decades. Furthermore, they were able to build relationships with the population through that connection of loss. This experience of his life scared me, I wasn’t able to say anything except that I was sorry for it. I was overwhelmed because I’m an empathetic person and I saw his sad eyes and heard his voice quivered.
After that I had to talk about my family but I told just few words as I was still thinking about Rafeal’s story. The next person to speak was Asad who talked about his big family: he has five sisters and two brothers and it is common in Pakistan to have a big family.
Then, we talked about the articles we read: one of the articles’ author states that in his opinion there are some differences between American and Arab culture. For Rafy the article was too dated and it does not fit nowadays times because there are other more reasons than different cultures, like power and energetic resources. We agreed to say that everyone should respect every religion.
After these activities, we talked about the final project and the facilitator divided us in two groups: Dominique and me, and Assad and Rafael. It was very interesting discussing with Dom about environment: indeed, I learned that in America there aren’t many environment policies, they haven’t any subsidies for hybrid cars, and for solar panels as well. I asked her if she knows that the United States had participated to the hold talks of the Kyoto’s Protocol but had not ratified it. She answered that she didn’t know this, and that it was a very interesting topic. She also explained that in USA people do general recycling with paper and plastic, and that the global warming isn't an issue as severe as in Europe, but the interest in it is gradually increasing.
At the end of the session we had fun as we spoke about music: everyone talked about their favorite singer or a type of music they like. Asad played a Pakistan song and he said he likes listening also to Enrique Iglesias and Eminem, while Rafael put into the chat the Youtube links of Katy Perry.
I can’t wait to talk with them again!!!!
Lucia
Diary: Tuesday 24 March 2015
RispondiEliminaThe third week of Solija’s meeting was very exciting.
In this session, all the students of my group were present: there was a new girl student from Maryland. That meeting was the most enjoyed and participated than other times.
At first, the facilitator asked everyone to introduce ourselves for the new girl and tell seven aspects that characterize us. Then the debate was addressed on reasons which we don’t see ethnic differences or nationality.
The answers of all the guys were that ethnicity isn’t an essential element of our life; they face more aspects that make them look like. Mazuq, a student, told that his parents were from different countries, as well Daijahe, another student, who has a mother with white skin and Dominican origin while his father is Afro-American. Instead Alkassem, a student from Morocco, believes that he couldn’t live with somebody who doesn’t love his country or have negative considerations toward his religion. He would be ready to fight to assert his identity. The relevant aspect that has quizzical me is that Alkassem not compromise on it. He is sure and decided.
Another boy, Feenix says that we cannot hide how we are, our identity. We cannot change who we are, even if we try to adapt ourselves for social group which we belong in that moment.
Then the debate touched on the topic of identity and work. Here the views of my group were split in half. The claim made by the facilitator was: if we accepted the offer of a dream job, but the boss has preconceptions about our identity, we will hide it? Some guys had answer that personal identity and the profession are separate aspects; we can hide a part of ourselves, to accept a compromise, to need or to improve our living or family situation. Instead Daijane and others have answered that their identity are too strong to be hidden even if they have to give up a dream job.
To solve this problem someone has proposed to build an equal society for all, but the studies that have been made between the Arab culture and the American will highlight opposite aspects. These differences are the result of several factors: history, language, traditions, religion and more.
We left with a commitment to read the articles that will be discussed next week.
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminaThis third meeting began with one of my colleagues who spoke of the main event of the week in his country . So we spent the first part of the meeting to talk about the laws to protect children , since it was just passed a law to protect childhood in his country .
Each of us has brought the experience of his country in terms of child protection . After that we were divided into groups of two to organize the final project , after listening to the instructions we met in private video chat for 15 minutes to decide the issue to be addressed and organized.
My partner group is called jenan and comes from kuwait , we discussed a little and in the end we decided to treat as an argument the differences between the European and the Middle Eastern women . Before returning to the common chat we exchanged our email addresses and whatsapp contact, cause she preferes to talk by phone.
Back in the group chat we discussed about the chosen topics . After this we had to try to describe in three words the culture of the other group members . Many people of the group have defined Westerners as arrogant , presumptuous , nationalists . We then spent the last part of the meeting to try to confront and understand why many of them thought that, then we spoke about Islamic terrorism. In the end was asked two of us to prepare questions on the readings for the next meeting .
After the meeting i talk with Jenan in whatsapp and now i'm reading the articles for the next week.
Bye at next week
Giada
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminaLast Wednesday I had the third session of Soliya.
I was one of the first to login and I profited to speak a bit with our facilitator Derek about Italy. I discovered that he loves Italy and he was here in vacation.
This time we were eight of us. There was a newcomer girl which didn’t connect at the last sessions. She is from Virginia.
We started our discussion with the topic we voted last week: the terrorism. Initially everyone explained his vision of terrorism. The definitions which echoed were: forms of intimidation, war, acts of violence against people and unjustified violence. Then we discussed about the causes of terrorism, the motivations behind it and what one can do to solve this problem around the world.
About what creates terrorism, some of us reported they are essentially poverty and economic inequality. Other disagreed with these reasons and pointed that terrorist masterminds were sufficiently rich to organize attacks.
About possible solutions everybody agreed that dialogue and freedom of speech are essentials. I don't know if there is a solution but I think the nations can help each other prevent violence.
This week our group was formed of two people from North Africa, four from US and me. I could see that the North Africa’s guys had more knowledge of this topic that US’s guys. I think this is due to the fact that they live in an environment permeated by this problem. In fact, in addition to having a deeper knowledge they displayed a greater involvement in talking about it and in condemning terrorism. They insisted to clarify that Islam forbids violence.
After that we moved to another topic: power dynamics. Our facilitators asked us what it is but no one of us knew anything about it. Derek helped us to understand what it is. So we learned that power dynamics refers on how we communicate both formally and informally, on the way we take responsibility and respect each other. The power dynamics is the power we individually acquire when we are part of a group or groups.
In the last part of the session Hiba and Derek explained us the final project and then asked us to choose a member of our group for one to one interaction. My partner is Zeinab.
Every couple was supposed to choose a topic of discussion for the final project but, because of technical problems, it was unfortunately impossible to have face to face connections. I hope next week we will be able at least to agree on the topic.
Next week the group will discuss about the role of Religion in Governance.
I'm looking forward to participate to next week session.
Marina
Dear diary
RispondiEliminaMonday 23 March I participated at new meeting of soliyia project.
Respect at the first lesson I had less afraid and tension and step by step I start to understand much more.
At first of meeting our facilitator have asked how in your language we translate, the word “cool” and “what’s up“,
However the principal question of this meeting was what type of stereotypes we have respect other state, in particular how in our country are viewed other states.
The states in question were those of the group members, Usa, Tunisia, Palestine, Arabia, and Italy.
My opinion is that we see Tunisia as a country of immigrants where many people arrive from all part of Africa to land in Italy.
As for the Americans they are see like people workers and fat, because they don’t have an good culture of food and prefer street food.
Arabian is see like people religious but fundamentalists.
To conclude I think that Palestine is see like people proud and fighters.
Other people of my group see very well our country, they say that this is an beautiful state with fantastic food and art, but we are seen behind other principal Europe state.
Other question to continue the debate was what is the principal aspect bad and good of our country, my opinion was that the negative aspect of Italy is the corruption and at contrary the principal positive aspect of Italy is the creativity… in the art, food, sciences.
This meeting it has been very interesting, this type of question allow to know my company and their opinion and this is what I expect from the project.
Unfortunately, there are people that continue to have problem with connection and this disturb the debate and the consequence is difficult speak and understand this people.
Paolo
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminafor the 1st time, all 10 of us were present, and as usual for the first 20’ we share what we’ve done during the last week, or we recount more about ourselves. After some initial technical problems, some of us had, Lisanne asked us to think about our first memory related, somehow, to religion.
For some of us memories were connected to the school, for others these were related to going to church with their parents /grandparents, while for others were related to particular traditions or religious holidays. My first memory concerns the Orthodox procession that takes place on the second Monday after Easter, “Easter for the dead” as it is called in Moldova, which made us all gather at the cemetery to celebrate the memory of our loved ones who were no longer among us. It was an interesting activity to do all together because it showed some different aspects of any religion that may be difficult to get to know otherwise.
Then we were asked to make a list of 7 words that indicate our personality, who we are. Then we were asked to eliminate the 3 that we considered the least important and choose the 3 most important for us and explain why. After we all explained why some were more or less important, Lisanne pointed out to us that among all the characteristics chosen none of us had mentioned nationality. Only Sarah indicated the nationality as a fundamental aspect of her identity, as a girl born and raised in Saudi Arabia who lives throughout the U.S. For me personally, but also for many others, the nationality it is not very important because it does not define who I am, what my aspirations are and my way of seeing the society I live in, even for the simple fact that I live in a country different than the country of my birth. For Gibson, nationality can affect the way you think, but not the identity of a person, since, according to him, what characterizes our identity are moral precepts and not our passport.
Lisanne noted that only Sara had used the word "religion" as indicative of her identity and asked us if religion is a matter that could affect our personality. In this regard Staccota said that although religion is an important part of his life, however, does not define who he is. Sara, argued that without religion, her life would be different, if only for the fact that she should not wear the veil. Ameen said that has not indicated the religion as fundamental to his personality, because for him religion is more a matter of having certain behaviors and is a way of relating to God, to the divine.
During the session, Lisanne mentioned about the commencement of group work, and it was up to us to choose the members of our groups. I'm in a group with Kiaira, an American girl, and Amine, a Moroccan boy; I'm very satisfied about the group in which I'm in, because we all 3 come from different parts of the world and I believe we'll have interesting talks in the future. We started talking about various aspects in our society, to end up talking about inequality, gender, discrimination, racism. Each one of us gave some examples of inequality, in the labor market, in the daily life or even in school or university. Unfortunately, we had only 15’, but we agreed on the topic to be discussed during our future meetings- the inequality, all kind of inequality. We also agree on the fact that during the week, it would be better if we will make some researches about this issue, so we could have more things to talk about. When we went back to the Main Room, each group has shared with the others the topics they talked and what they chose to face in the future.
During this meeting Norhan, wasn’t present because she was ill, but I hope to see her again next week. Eventually Lisanne reminded the readings for the following week .
Even if the arguments that we face every week are becoming more and more difficult, I realize that I overcame my initial fear of speaking in English and I think that the program helps me a lot to improve it and also to be more confident when I speak in English.
Maria
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminaThis is the third session Soliya.
The session is started indicating the sport that we like, I wrote what I do in my free time, and I like to practice sports.
This week a member of the group sang a song in their own language, and everyone has described what we believe that song represented. So it started a long debate.
From my point of view, that song is a role of power, although I did not understand the words (in Pakistan), gave me a positive charge.
The song was the excuse to open a debate on power. how power is modern society, and what was the relationship of power that was created.
Everyone has given his opinion about that, someone claimed that even with in our group had created a role of power. Why facilitators were the ones who opened the debate and those that indicated the issues to be addressed.
In my point of view the company itself creates positions of power, as those who have a higher education plays an important role.
Jamal, the Pakistani boy told us that in his country who is a doctor occupies a primary role in society. The doctor is seen as a person of great prestige.
Even Kahlil, the guy the US supports the thesis of Jamal, says he thinks those who have a lot of money is seen as a person of prestige.
I have stated my point of view, Also in Europe despite everything you have created these systems of power. Those who have a high level of education is well placed in society.
Even in our group is a power relationship, because everyone has different communication systems, some of us do not speak English well, and therefore is less likely to interact.
Course facilitators are addressed by specifying the fact that this is a platform to learn. everyone says what he thinks. I have indicated the language as a cause of power, as those who do not speak good ingelse interacts less.
The weather was almost finished, the last 15 minutes we were divided into groups and were directed to "chat" different. in this new meeting place, with my comoagni group we discussed a topic.
We addressed the issue of religion, and how it interacts in society.
The time available was now finished. We did not discuss in depth the issue Israel / Palestine conflict.
Shqiprim.