Learning the language is the number one priority for assimilation into a new country. However, though I am a very good student, my memory isn't so hot. I try my best to communicate using whatever words and phrases I can remember, spliced together with mime. Though I have the opportunity to make non-Italian friends who speak many different languages, I understand that none of us will ever 'become' Italian. We will always be straniero.
You cannot shake off decades of being raised in your own culture. Before moving to Italy, I underestimated the differences; now, I have no choice but to just make peace with them.
The U.S. seems to thrive on assimilation. Americans want to know all about where you came from; having a huge curiosity seems to our national trait. Italy seems to thrive on its regional differences. Italians just want you to tell them that wherever you came from, it is better in Italy.
1 comment:
"The U.S. seems to thrive on assimilation. Americans want to know all about where you came from; having a huge curiosity seems to our national trait." This is not true at all and is sheer fantasy! Have you been an outsider, a foreigner in the U.S.? In the U.S. they want to lecture to you all the time how much 'better' they are than anyone else or any other nation. They have no interest at all in another culture and are culturally insensitive and poor.
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