Talking to... everyone!

There's a world which has been talking with Skype since ages... Well, only yesterday it was my first experience :-) I was very excited because I knew I had to talk with one of the American students who are part of the exchange between Tulane University in the United States and the University of Padova in the north of Italy. It sounds really good, doesn't it?...

What I missed most in skyping was my "very italian" speaking hands ;-) In a face-to-face conversation -and above all when I speak a foreign language- I usually help myself moving my hands a lot but on the telephone the person on the other end of the world has nothing except my voice. So I tried to emphasize some of the words I was saying without being loud and I also tried not to speak that fast especially because of my strong italian accent which could have made the sentences much more difficult to understand.

I wasn't so embarassed because I'm quite familiar with English phone calls: two summers in a row I worked in a Campsite on Lake Garda where I got in touch with a lot of people calling from all over the world. The big difference was the topic of the conversation: it's easier speaking about Mobilhomes, prices, sport facilities, etc... rather than how the States and Italy face the recycling problem.

Moreover Sarah, Marco and I were skyping in conference: that means we were all three speaking on the phone at the same time. It was hard, especially because I was speaking in English not only with an American but also with an italian guy! I guess we all three managed to survive ;-) At the very beginning we introduced ourself a little bit and soon after we moved the conversation to the separated collection both in Louisiana and in Veneto.

I can't wait to see how our skyping exchange will go on ;-)

Alice


Photo taken from Flickr