Frammenti di Fermenti

Syracuse University Florence

At about eight o’ clock in the morning, on October the eighth, we were on the train, leaving for Florence … to go to the University of Syracuse, a real American University in Tuscany!!

The Syracuse University is an American University which is set in Florence. The centre of the Campus is Villa Rossa in Piazza Savonarola. Only American students can study there. This University is one of the oldest and with well known study programs in Italy. There are many courses which are divided into other departments, such as Architecture, Art, Humanities, Social Sciences, Business, of course all in Italian. Most of the students live in families in Florence as home- stays. Their lessons begin on Monday and finish on Thursday; so students can go on excursions organized by the University itself during the weekend.

Our teachers and the Syracuse University’s ones divided us in small groups of four or five people: two Italians and three Americans. In the morning we talked for two hours to some students belonging to a class and in the afternoon, after a small break, with others. The American students, who have been studying Italian for a month, had prepared for us some questions, so that we could answer, helping them learn some new words and expressions. However we also spoke English and we had the opportunity to improve our language skill.

Wow!! Chatting with other foreign people is a great opportunity to discover new cultures, new mentalities and different lifestyles! Being helpful to them while they’re trying to improve their knowledge of the Italian language has been very rewarding to all of us. At the same time they have been very kind, laid back and exuberant. We loved spending time with them, see how their University works, knowing their opinions, interests and how they’re reacting in a new country. We all think that in the future we could be inspired by them, possibly living an experience like theirs.

At the beginning we had some difficulties on “breaking the ice”, but then it was like we were talking with friends. Maybe it was a bit hard to understand the different American accents, and there were some misunderstandings, but we all ended up laughing a lot. We had a good experience, we improved our English and we met new people with different cultures and with different ideas. We hope that other students might have an experience like ours, talking with the students of the Syracuse University, because it’s a fun, satisfying and useful activity!

The students of V B Linguistic Course