My name is Aniko Fulep. I am from Hungary, however, for the past 3,5
years I have been living in Buffalo, NY, USA. In the meantime I started
a Masters of Arts in Humanities program at the State University at
Buffalo, towards a degree in American Studies and Italian. The last
thing I did in Budapest (Hungary) at the univerity was studying cultural
anthropology for 2 years, and then English (literature and linguistics)
just for 1 year before I came here quite suddenly with my husband. (So,
I had not had academic experiences in Italian Studies before coming
here.)
I would like to immediately grab the opportunity and ask for your
suggestions about my final project. First of all, I have to combine my
two fields and I need to finish my thesis by this April (approximately
50-100 pages). I decided to write about interpersonal communication and
everyday behavior in American vs. Italian cultures. However, I have not
been able to find adequate literature about the Italian side, and I
neither had the opportunity to go there in order to study it in person
somewhat. One of my main problems is that I do not really know how to
approach the Italian communication system without the proper literature
or "targeted" personal experience; I mostly have just vague feelings
about the issues I want to address.
My main point in the whole discussion is that both cultures are
generally perceived as friendly and open by other cultures, however, it
means something completely different in the two cultures. I would like
to go behind these feelings and understand the reasons or at least be
able to justly characterize the two.
The only idea I have about how to contribute to the Italian side of the
problem is to interview Italians living here, mostly people who came
here not more than 10 years ago, i.e. I do not mean long-time immigrants
(who are rather Italian-Americans than anything else).
I would really appreciate any kind of contribution to my questions.
Thanks a lot for your help in advance,
Aniko
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|