Got my student card and am officially a student at
L'Università Degli Studi di Firenze!
As many of you know, before coming to Italy I had planned on
enrolling in the University of Florence second semester, after I settled in and
felt comfortable with the culture and my efficiency in the language. Well, as
time went on at our Californian school, I realized that I wasn’t getting
everything that I wanted out of the experience and decided to go ahead and try
to enroll at the Italian University for the second part of the first semester.
After going through paperwork and an oral exam, I finally got registered as a
student and enrolled in an Italian Literature class. I started going in
November, with no previous knowledge that it was only a five week course. By
now, the lessons have finished, however I don’t have my actual exam until the
end of January. The course was on all the works of the famous Italian poet
Giacomo Leopardi. Let’s just say, this was most certainly one of the most
intimidating experiences of my life!
The first days of class were horrific…it’s
like you walk in the middle of a foreign film and you are stuck in the middle
of something really important, but you can’t just quite grasp what the heck is
going on. I learned very quickly that there is a huge difference between being
fluent to the point of being comfortable speaking with the locals and being
fluent to the point of being comfortable in an academic environment. Naturally,
the professors use much larger and more sophisticated words in order to build a
well-educated environment. They also don’t really cater to your foreign
vulnerability in a classroom setting and speak just as normally and rapidly as
they would to any other native speaker. Needless to say, the first few days
were a nightmare. I had so many doubts and whether I would be capable of
succeeding with a good grade in the course, but I just knew that I had to stick
with it. After those first days, I found myself beginning to follow the
professor better; who knows if it was due to the fact that I started drinking
coffee, or if I was just improving…J
My professor from the California University had told me that it would take a week
or two, but eventually I would get used to their tone of voice and their manner
of speaking. And she was most certainly right! By the end of class, it was much
easier to follow her lectures and feel like I grasped the general idea of the
analyses that we were discussing in class. The hardest thing to do for me was
taking notes. When I would begin to write a sentence down, I would be
concentrating on every word to make sure it would make sense…but then in the
middle of it, I would be concentrating so much that I would forget the rest of
the sentence! For that reason, there are definitely a lot of “dot dot dots” and
question marks throughout my note book. After she saw that we were getting a
little more comfortable in class, she began to turn the attention on us and
call for us to read, always addressing us as their “American friends.” After
seeing that reading the old Italian poetry was difficult for even the natives,
it was most certainly a nerve wrecking experience!
Thankfully, we made a friend
in the class who is extremely kind and who always helps us with understanding
any confusion that we have when it comes to the readings and the exams. If it
wasn’t for her, everything would be that much more difficult, so I’m definitely
grateful J I
have enjoyed reading and analyzing the poetry, however. Despite the fact that
he’s a very depressing writer, it’s so interesting to see the ideas and the history
of another culture in such a work of art. My issue now is just trying to figure
out a way to study it….trying to understand everything about the language
itself is hard enough, let alone having to analyze the meaning behind such deep
poetry after seeing that the Italian students themselves are having
difficulties understanding it as well! I know it just means I have to push
myself that much harder once the exam nears. It’s going to be my very first
oral exam, more importantly my very first exam given to me by an Italian
University in a completely different language. I’m hoping that it will all go
well, because next semester I plan on taking most of my classes at the
University of Florence…so we shall see. This will definitely be such an
adventure, but I know in the end it will be all worth it! My Italian has been
thanking me for it lately, and I’m hoping to see a great change and improvement
by the end of the year. After all, nothing great in life comes without great
challenges.
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