Márcio, Eduardo, Ariadne Gizele and Helder
Autor: Letras | Publicado: 2011-08-07T22:12:00-07:00

Interview with Ivan, who had been to Italy as an exchange student.
Clara – How are you?

Ivan – Ok, I’m fine. It’s a pleasure to be here, to know you a little bit and to have the opportunity to talk about a kind of amazing experience I had in my life

Clara – So, how was the selection process for your exchange program?

Ivan – Yes, the selection process, in fact it was not an objective selection process because my advisor here in the university is Italian, he gives lesson in the faculty of letters and he has a king of close relationship with some professors of the university of Florence. In fact I had already lost the date for the enrolment, but I had this idea before so my advisor got in contact with some professors there and of course I sent my curriculum and my documents and they accepted my participation as a normal student in this doctorate program in the University of Florence.

Márcio – You didn’t choose to go there, right?

Ivan – In fact I chose to go there; the point was that I had a little time to prepare myself. Because when my advisor came and said I would go, in two months I decided everything, thinking about accommodation, thinking about money, I had to think about everything just with two months in advance. 

Márcio – You didn’t know Italy before.

Ivan – No, it was my first time stepping on Italian soil, so it was fantastic, it was a kind of impacting feeling. It was nice.

Franklin – What place in Italy?

Ivan – I lived for seven months in Siena. It is a wonderful city. It’s located in the central west of Italy, in the province of Tuscany, it’s a marvelous place, I can’t tell you with words how beautiful it is. It’s a small city. If you get the opportunity in you live and go around Europe, don’t forget to go to Siena. Because, for me, it’s one of the marvelous cities I have ever been in my life.

Erwan – How long did you stay there?

Ivan – Seven months. In fact, I stayed there six months and the last month, that I had finished my discipline, I decided to travel a little bit, to take advantage that I was in Europe. So I had the opportunity to go to Amsterdam, London, Paris and to north Italy and Naples, that is a kind of south Italy, so it was very nice. One month and fifteen days going around. And all the places that I have been I had a friend. Because Europe is expensive and accommodation is expensive. It was the end of the trip, so I didn’t have money, for example, I had to pay for hostel or hotels. All the places that I have been, like, Amsterdam, London, Naples and Paris I had friends, so it was marvelous because I had more than accommodation, I had a kind of guide. For example, I arrived in Amsterdam and it was a dream for me because I had one of my close friends, a friend from the childhood and I had a dream to visit him because he lives in Amsterdam since, I don’t know, 1998, so, for a long time, and every time he was calling me sending me e-mails, like: “come here, you have to visit me, you have this opportunity”. And when I arrived in Amsterdam he gave me a bike, a cell phone and a detailed map of the city and told me: “Feel free, if you need something you call me”, because during the day he was working, but at night we went out all nights, to parties, to bars and things like this, so it was this incredible feeling of freedom, you know? You with a bike in Amsterdam! With flowers and tulips, it was very very very nice! 

Erwan - And did you have any difficulties with the language? 
Ivan - Yes, a lot of difficulties in the beginning, I will tell you why. I had the opportunity to study Italian for 4 years before going to Italy, so, I didn’t arrive in Italy out of nothing but the first month was really impact, to tell you the truth. I think, first of all, because it was the first time, as I told you, that I really was stepping over Italian soil, second, because my teacher, my professor in the university, she was from Sicily, you know, Sicily is a kind of Island in the Southern part of Italy. So, sometimes during the classes, she mixed a little bit of Sicilian dialect and the standard Italian language, so, I have to confess that the first month was hard. In fact, after the first week or, maybe, the second week I imagined that: “Oh, I have to drop this course; I won’t have ability to follow up, to continue to keep up with this”. But after one month, you know god acts a lot in our lives, I believe. And I found an apartment to live with two other Italians, and these guys, they were from Sicily, so, for me it was wonderful because the relation that I had with the guys helped me a lot, to interact with the teacher, to interact. So, it was really, really amazing, but in fact, the first month was tough because, you know, the language that we learned here maybe using books or using manuals is not the real language when we go to the streets. Of course, it’s near to the real, but we have some things that, in fact, we learn just when we are engaged and inserted in the culture. For example, let me see… some words that maybe you don’t know the meaning of the vocabulary, because the point was, for me, less grammatical structure and more vocabulary. Something funny for example: when I arrived in a supermarket and then was the cashier there, the cashier kept repeating to me “La busta! La busta!” I did not know what that word means and in fact “la busta” was that small plastic bag to store stuff, that is not allowed here anymore. So it has a several things that I felt a little bit embarrassing. In fact you learn a lot of things that you never imagined, for example you can have a range of vocabulary that you never been noticed. But it is embarrassing. Until you understand the pragmatic relationship with the others countries they will be looking at you. For example, in relation with other friends they were always making jokes about me because the way I talked, everybody knew that I was foreign. So it is something more related to culture, to pragmatics. You know that in Italy people are very worried about fashion and when I arrived there with my cotton t-shirts… so I had to change a little bit my habits. Things go much beyond the language.

Gizele - Yes, I was just going to ask you that, if you could tell us about the differences about the cultures…

Ivan - Yes, It is something really meaningful. I have so many traces to tell you. In Brazil for example, when you take a shower, you have the shower above our heads and we can use the soap, in Italy there are no bathrooms and there are no showers indeed. They have small showers, like “chuveirinho” using the Portuguese word, it was so strange. For me it was very disgusting, something completely different, so unusual. But it is also related to culture.

Helder - Just one more question. What were your expectations when you arrived in Italy?

Ivan - I really imagined finding in Italy beauty, fashion, beautiful women, and I think that I found all of these things. I discovered a wonderful country, a wonderful place, people that are similar to the Brazilians: the way they speak, habits, the desire to interact, they are fun, but of course in some points they were not what I imagined, but in general it was really nice.

Helder: How would you describe your experience as an exchange student?

Ivan - Fantastic, as I told, at the first month it was a little bit difficult for me, but after the first month it was wonderful. I think I really achieved my aim there, I think that I had a nice performance in the end of the discipline. It was a wonderful opportunity to get in touch with people of all around the word. There were only two students from South America, a Mexican girl and me. And I had five or six classmates from Italy and other six classmates from all around the world like Korea, Switzerland, Belgium so it was very nice to interact and to know people from different places.

Franklin - Was it difficult to return to Brazil?

Ivan - …Yes, it was difficult because I wanted to stay a little bit more because it was very nice. And, besides, in university you create relationships with other people. Judo was wonderful to me, because I have practiced judo since I was 8 years old and during all the time I was in Italy I was practicing judo too, so it was very nice to interact and to meet different people. And tonight, tonight at 10.30 I’m going to Barcelona because of Judo, I was invited to give a class about the ground fight. And the main Sensei of Siena invited me to go to Barcelona engage in a congress of physical educators and give a course of ground fight, especially for competitions. So Now I’m going there again because of the relationships I was able to create.

Interviewers - Ok, thank you very much. 

Ivan - Bye, bye.



Audio file: http://www.zshare.net/download/897083599fde4dc9/