Nei mesi di marzo e aprile del 2021 abbiamo preso parte a un progetto di scambio culturale con studenti di inglese a Los Angeles, negli Stati Uniti. A ognuno di noi è stato assegnato un corrispondente che dovevamo contattare almeno tre volte tramite messaggi, chiamate e email, con l’obbiettivo di conoscerci e di riflettere sui temi della serie TV Atypical precedentemente guardata. Il programma di scambio si è concluso con una breve presentazione di ogni studente che illustrava gli sviluppi del progetto. La mia classe ha anche creato un tour virtuale di Torino attraverso un breve video che illustrava le principali attrazioni della città. Grazie a questo progetto sono riuscita ad praticare la lingua e ho avuto la possibilità di conoscere persone che vivono negli Stati Uniti. Inoltre, grazie alla visione della serie TV, è stata un’occasione per riflettere su temi importanti come l’autismo.
In spring 2021 we had the opportunity to participate in an online exchange program with a Los Angeles school. The first time our English teacher told us about this project with Los Angeles Community College District’s students we were a little nervous because we thought that they would have been native English speakers. Actually, as we discovered later on, they were foreign students from all over the world, older than us, who were studying English there. The project was organized by our teacher and Mr Rayan, the English teacher in LA.
Before meeting the other students we watched Atypical, a TV series on Netflix which deals with the themes of adolescence issues, autism, family relationships, love and friendship. The aim of this task was to have something in common to talk about and to do some discussions together with the LA students. The first time we met on a Zoom call we presented each other’s schools and the teachers explained the structure of the project.
Each one of us was assigned a buddy from Mr Rayan’s classes with whom we were supposed to meet at least three times through instant messaging, video calls, emails or social media.
My buddy was Tatevik, a Czech girl who went to the United States for an au pair program four years ago and then decided to live there. We met on a video call and we texted and emailed throughout the period of the project. We introduced each other and then we talked about the theme of family relationships in Atypical and had a deep reflection on it.
At the end of this exchange program my classmates and I did a short presentation where we showed the development of the project, introducing the buddy and sharing our thoughts about the TV series.
Here the presentation:
Our class also took the opportunity to create a short virtual tour through Turin. Each of us presented a different highlight of the city in English showing pictures and photos. This has been the most difficult part because we were supposed to tell everything about the place we chose in a 30 seconds video.
I really enjoyed this experience because, on one hand, I managed to practice the language, even though recently we couldn't travel around the world. On the other hand I had the opportunity to meet people living in the United States and build a relationship with them. Moreover, through the vision of Atypical, we reflected on important topics related to our life in society, such as parenthood, friendship, love relationships and, last but not least, autism.