"I noa speaka Americano"

Experiencing a different culture is one of the most challenging things one person can attempt to do.  Things that may seem to be normal in our American culture can seem entirely absurd to other cultures. Some things may include the way we speak, how we converse with one another, hand gestures, manners, and even the way we present our body language can be completely different . I know I am blogging to my my Management class who can agree, due to the fact that 95% of you are not native Americans, however being an American I had  experienced a change in culture . That is why the name of my blog today will be "I noa speak americano", because of my experience in Italian culture. As an American-Italian, I am the first generation of my family to grow up in America. My father is a native Italian who moved here when he was about 26 years old.  As a result a lot of my family still resides in Italy, so I have gotten the chance to travel there many times (nine to be exact, spending about one month each trip). When I went there I was amazed at the way Italian people lived their lives. Me being used to the fast pace life of New York aka "the city that never sleeps", Italian culture is much more laid back and relaxed. Below are some of the things that stood out to me the most during my trips to Italy, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

1)  Italaian Hand Gestures- When you speak or listen to an Italian conversation, you notice that  we don't speak with or mouths, but rather with our hands.  Italian culture is said to be  very visual and loud in the way we talk to each other. Though it might seem like we are fighting, we are just having a normal conversation.

2) La mezzo giorno - which means "mid day" or "12 o'clock", it is a time in Italian culture were all stores, supermarkets, restaurants, and bars close down for their mid day lunch and nap. Every work day Italians take a great deal of time to relax and go home to a huge lunch which includes a 3 course meal, espresso, and a two hour nap. This was my favorite time of the day, the family is together, we ate, we slept, and we enjoyed our company.

3) Ferragosto-  For the month of August Italians partake in a series of vacations, festivals, and celebrations for the whole month of august. This was originally created to celebrate the end of a succesful agriculture season, however migrated into a month of Italian festivals. I have celebrated Ferragosto, one of the most famous in my town is the festa di birra. The town would meet in the square and celebrate the month of august, and the end of the summer. This included lots of music, games, food, drinks, and overall just a good celebration.

4) Motherly love- In Italy it is extremely traditional that the mother is the stay at home wife, who cooks, cleans, shops, and preforms duties for the good of the family. Sort of like a traditional American house wife. Now in American culture women are much more involved in the workforce, however in Italy it still stands that the women  are expected stay home to care for the house and family. One experience I had when I was an Italy was when I was eating dinner with my aunt. After I finished eating I took my plate and placed it in the sink to be washed. Men never clean the table because it is expected that women are to clean after there hard working husbands. When she saw me do that she was amazed, her jaw literally dropped and she could not believe what I had done. For something as little as this, it amazed me how different our cultures are.

Though these are just a few of my experiences, I felt that these were some of the most important and most noticeable. Please if you have any questions feel free to comment, and I would love to answer. And please if you have to share any similarities I'd love to compare.

Good Night America,
-Marco Mario Castelli