Brianna Roe - Venn Diagram and Reflection

Social/Cultural Venn Diagram I really enjoyed researching the similarities and differences of American culture versus Italian Culture. The reason I chose to interview and research on the Italian culture is because my husband is Italian. His mother is a second- generation Sicilian woman, and she was kind enough to elaborate more on her culture for me, which was very insightful. I learned a lot more about the Italian culture after researching on topics such as individualism, respect, values, and higher education views. American and Italian Culture share numerous cultural characteristics, however the few I found in my research include compulsory education, higher education, and collaborative learning. Students attending school in the United States would benefit from the views on the importance of higher education. Majority of American and Italian students go through their compulsory education with the understanding that when they graduate, college is either expected or available for them to apply. A student who is coming from America to Italy (vice versa) will carry the same expectation or same knowledge of access to higher education regardless of the country they resided in. Collaborative learning with students and teachers may make a transition easier for a student coming from Italy because they are already accustomed to that learning style. Like similarities, both the American and Italian cultures share many differences. For instance, Americans are more cooperative, whereas Italians are more competitive. This may cause conflict for a Italian student in America, since Americans are not all used to being competitive. Americans are also more self-absorbed, whereas Italians are more concerned about spending time with their families and enjoying good food together. I am not saying that there are no Americans out who do not enjoy having family time and sharing good food, I am just saying that it is apparent in the way America operates and in its high levels of individualism. Personally, the area of any culture that interests me the most is morals. I researched the morals of Italian culture and American Culture and found that we are very different in the things that we value. As previously mentioned, in Italian culture they value family and American culture, they value self. For me, having knowledge of other's morals, leads me to be open-minded and thoughtful about how they may have developed those morals in the first place. Knowing morals of different cultures also lead me to have a higher respect for those cultures. Culture: American Culture: Italian  Less individualism  More individualism  Higher Education is important.  Collaborative learning with Students and Teachers  Moral values are family oriented.  Stands up when elder enters room to show respect.  Smile to show respect.  Competitive  Both practice compulsory education.  Equal in collectivism  Cooperative  Moral values self- oriented