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Learn Italian language: La società italiana de TSR

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Original post by jeh_jeh
Nooo, if you work on it there's still chance to pull it up.

Oh, Lord, Reps was a bore. So much of the stuff we did in lectures was just so unnecessary! SG IS AMAZING. Quite envious that you're doing the module, really, even though I've obviously done it already. :p:

Erm, my boyfriend. :colondollar: He's a medic, so is going to be living there for the foreseeable future... and I'm not too keen on the whole long-distance thing after a year in Italy, and a summer there last year! Also, my home town is much smaller, so if I'm going to get a job anywhere, Birmingham is much more likely.


Hmmmmm. I am sceptical, but we will seeee! Even if I do get a 50 average over the two modules I'm confident I can get a 2.1 because of the essays situation on all the other modules next year, plus if I'm actually serious about an MA I want to be getting a 1st on my diss.

Haha that came up in SSLC again this year - people didn't like that the lectures weren't relevant for the exams. The point is to give a background to 20th C Italy so it makes other modules later on easier and you have a bit of an idea what you're on about etc. Plus the way I saw it was 50% of the material wasn't even gonna be examined...WIN.

Ahh I seeee! I thought there had to be a decent reason. Nobody picks Birmingham on its own merit :wink:
Reply 2281
Original post by georgia
Hmmmmm. I am sceptical, but we will seeee! Even if I do get a 50 average over the two modules I'm confident I can get a 2.1 because of the essays situation on all the other modules next year, plus if I'm actually serious about an MA I want to be getting a 1st on my diss.

Haha that came up in SSLC again this year - people didn't like that the lectures weren't relevant for the exams. The point is to give a background to 20th C Italy so it makes other modules later on easier and you have a bit of an idea what you're on about etc. Plus the way I saw it was 50% of the material wasn't even gonna be examined...WIN.

Ahh I seeee! I thought there had to be a decent reason. Nobody picks Birmingham on its own merit :wink:


I have no idea how to feel about my dissertation - it's such an unknown quantity!

Yeah, fair point, although I've done all Italian modules for the last two years and the only thing it's been vaguely useful for is '900 (bearing in mind I've done Dante, Renaissance, Applied Linguistics and Short Fiction, too). And given that people on Joint Honours do far less Italian modules, the chances of Reps actually coming in useful is slim. But I understand that from a departmental point of view it would be pretty shocking to do an Italian degree and have no idea about modern history. :p:

Oi. :p: I was *this* close to picking Birmingham for undergrad, but with hindsight I'm glad I didn't. For postgrad, though, the degree isn't run by Italian, and yeah. That would just make me sad!
Non ho scritto niente qui per tanto tempo. Ho gli esami presto, e ho vinto un'altra borsa di studio per andare in italia. Questa volta, tutto è compreso! L'alloggio, il cibo, la scuola, tutto accanto al lago di garda, e ci sarò per 3 settimane. Questo vuole dire che la mia estate sarà abbastanza piena; un mese in Cina, 4 giorni a parigi, 3 settimane al lago di garda e poi una settimana con il mio ragazzo a cremona. POI lui verrà a Edimburgo con me per fare erasmus, parleremo spesso italiano!
Reply 2283
Original post by PJ991
:tongue:I'll bear that in mind. It sounds interesting. Robert Lumley did my interview, I can still remember it well....:moon:

I've no idea what I'd do for a topic. Sometimes I don't like having a completely free pick, maybe in case I pick something rubbish and counterproductive. I did an essay last year with a lot about women in Italy, and some of it I found strange, like how late it was before abortion was legal, like almost 20 years after the UK, and divorce only in 1970.


Well you've got a long time to think about it :smile: Is there any particular cultural thing that interests you? Lots of people do them on dialects, North/South divide, regional history, political issues etc. Free choice does make it harder if you don't have any special interests, but it wasn't bad for me because sexism in Italy has been something I've been interested for a while.

They were about twenty years behind with women's suffrage as well, and they have the lowest female employment rate in Europe aside from Hungary of all places. It's actually shocking when you look into it. In a bar in a small town in Italy, I was told I was a disgrace to women because I had a couple of drinks and got tipsy (I was not drunk), and that my boyfriend shouldn't let me out alone. Crazy.


I went to a free concert tonight in Piazza Duomo for Radio Italia's 30th birthday. They had Laura Pausini, Tiziano Ferro and various others I can't remember now. Definitely a good night, except for the girls who ruined the atmosphere by shouting abuse ("Troia! Ammazzati!") at Belen Rodriguez very time she came on stage. No matter what she has or hasn't done, there's no excuse for shouting abuse at them in public.
Original post by Lizia
Well you've got a long time to think about it :smile: Is there any particular cultural thing that interests you? Lots of people do them on dialects, North/South divide, regional history, political issues etc. Free choice does make it harder if you don't have any special interests, but it wasn't bad for me because sexism in Italy has been something I've been interested for a while.

They were about twenty years behind with women's suffrage as well, and they have the lowest female employment rate in Europe aside from Hungary of all places. It's actually shocking when you look into it. In a bar in a small town in Italy, I was told I was a disgrace to women because I had a couple of drinks and got tipsy (I was not drunk), and that my boyfriend shouldn't let me out alone. Crazy.


I went to a free concert tonight in Piazza Duomo for Radio Italia's 30th birthday. They had Laura Pausini, Tiziano Ferro and various others I can't remember now. Definitely a good night, except for the girls who ruined the atmosphere by shouting abuse ("Troia! Ammazzati!") at Belen Rodriguez very time she came on stage. No matter what she has or hasn't done, there's no excuse for shouting abuse at them in public.

I had to go and translate those insults but wow, horrible people to shout that at her.
Reply 2285
Original post by museobsessed
I had to go and translate those insults but wow, horrible people to shout that at her.


Yeah. Depressingly it wasn't just a couple of people either. Loads of people were booing, and you could see when the camera focused on her that she was quite upset and shaken. She was meant to be the co-host, but she barely spoke. The camera man was an arse too, he kept filming her legs and arse when she walked offstage. Great idea when they crowd are calling her a whore...
Original post by jeh_jeh
I have no idea how to feel about my dissertation - it's such an unknown quantity!

Yeah, fair point, although I've done all Italian modules for the last two years and the only thing it's been vaguely useful for is '900 (bearing in mind I've done Dante, Renaissance, Applied Linguistics and Short Fiction, too). And given that people on Joint Honours do far less Italian modules, the chances of Reps actually coming in useful is slim. But I understand that from a departmental point of view it would be pretty shocking to do an Italian degree and have no idea about modern history. :p:

Oi. :p: I was *this* close to picking Birmingham for undergrad, but with hindsight I'm glad I didn't. For postgrad, though, the degree isn't run by Italian, and yeah. That would just make me sad!


Who was supervising? They must have given you feedback as you went along?

True, it depends upon what you do as to how useful it is. I found it helped for Cinema this year and a little bit for Women's Writing...just having a general awareness of 20th C history helped contextualise the texts.

Reeeeally?! :p: Tbf I don't mean the uni, I mean the city. I'm sure the uni is just fine, and the city is fine for shopping, but it wouldn't be my personal preference to live there. In part that is 22 years of visiting my grandparents in Lichfield and not being the biggest Midlands fan though.

Original post by Lizia
I went to a free concert tonight in Piazza Duomo for Radio Italia's 30th birthday. They had Laura Pausini, Tiziano Ferro and various others I can't remember now. Definitely a good night, except for the girls who ruined the atmosphere by shouting abuse ("Troia! Ammazzati!") at Belen Rodriguez very time she came on stage. No matter what she has or hasn't done, there's no excuse for shouting abuse at them in public.


I loooove Tiziano Ferro, so jealous!

Tbh that behaviour is just indicative of the typical Italian attitude towards women. Massive double standards and huge jealousy issues and they'll take it out on anyone with the tiniest excuse.

Original post by Lizia
Yeah. Depressingly it wasn't just a couple of people either. Loads of people were booing, and you could see when the camera focused on her that she was quite upset and shaken. She was meant to be the co-host, but she barely spoke. The camera man was an arse too, he kept filming her legs and arse when she walked offstage. Great idea when they crowd are calling her a whore...


Again, typical of Italian media. I did my oral exam presentation on this this year - I was actually appalled by the way women are represented in the media, it's awful. I can't remember the author off the top of my head but I read this fantastic book called 'Sii bella, stai zitta' about the horrendous treatment of women.
Reply 2287
Original post by georgia
I loooove Tiziano Ferro, so jealous!

Tbh that behaviour is just indicative of the typical Italian attitude towards women. Massive double standards and huge jealousy issues and they'll take it out on anyone with the tiniest excuse.

Again, typical of Italian media. I did my oral exam presentation on this this year - I was actually appalled by the way women are represented in the media, it's awful. I can't remember the author off the top of my head but I read this fantastic book called 'Sii bella, stai zitta' about the horrendous treatment of women.


Tiziano :love:

And yeah, it's pretty disgusting how they're quite happy for the show girls to parade around in underwear and dance provocatively in tea-time TV, yet they completely castigate them if they're "immoral" in their private life. I know they usually film tits and ass all the time, but I just would have thougbt they'd maybe tone it down considering it was just making the abuse worse. Poor Belen :frown: I'm doing my Year Abroad project on the same thing, "Sii bella, stai zitta" is definitely on my reading list. I always think Italy is kind of like England in the 50s in most attitudes (women, gay rights, lighting the hob with a match...), but at least England didn't have this bizarre madonna/whore paradox going on. It's fascinating, but horrifying all at once.
(edited 11 years ago)
Original post by Lizia
Tiziano :love:

And yeah, it's pretty disgusting how they're quite happy for the show girls to parade around in underwear and dance provocatively in tea-time TV, yet they completely castigate them if they're "immoral" in their private life. I know they usually film tits and ass all the time, but I just would have thougbt they'd maybe tone it down considering it was just making the abuse worse. Poor Belen :frown: I'm doing my Year Abroad project on the same thing, "Sii bella, stai zitta" is definitely on my reading list. I always think Italy is kind of like England in the 50s in most attitudes (women, gay rights, lighting the hob with a match...), but at least England didn't have this bizarre madonna/whore paradox going on. It's fascinating, but horrifying all at once.


Ooh I've got some fantastic reading on the madonna/whore paradox and how it is presented in L'amore molesto and how it ties in to various feminist schools of thought. I can try and dig out some titles of journal articles if you would like them. (I'm a massive geek about this stuff, I think it is so interesting to study.)
Original post by Lizia

I went to a free concert tonight in Piazza Duomo for Radio Italia's 30th birthday. They had Laura Pausini, Tiziano Ferro and various others I can't remember now. Definitely a good night, except for the girls who ruined the atmosphere by shouting abuse ("Troia! Ammazzati!") at Belen Rodriguez very time she came on stage. No matter what she has or hasn't done, there's no excuse for shouting abuse at them in public.


Wow thats absolutely horrible :shock:

I lived in Perugia while the whole second amanda knox trial was going on and they HATED her very very openly (now I'm not her biggest fan and I'm not entirely convinced shes innocent, but i'm not about to go around calling her a whore and all sorts of names under the sun.) They used to shout 'vergogna' in the streets outside the courthouse and things like that! Nothing compared to what you saw though :s-smilie:
Reply 2290
Original post by georgia
Ooh I've got some fantastic reading on the madonna/whore paradox and how it is presented in L'amore molesto and how it ties in to various feminist schools of thought. I can try and dig out some titles of journal articles if you would like them. (I'm a massive geek about this stuff, I think it is so interesting to study.)


That would be brilliant, thank you! It's definitely interesting, I'm glad they let me do my project about it, I've wanted to study it for ages. I still remember being shocked seeing the 'professoresse' on eredita' for the first time...I was so naive!

Original post by Jellybean91
I lived in Perugia while the whole second amanda knox trial was going on and they HATED her very very openly (now I'm not her biggest fan and I'm not entirely convinced shes innocent, but i'm not about to go around calling her a whore and all sorts of names under the sun.) They used to shout 'vergogna' in the streets outside the courthouse and things like that! Nothing compared to what you saw though :s-smilie:


Wow, it must have been interesting to be in Perugia then! It's shocking that someone they think is a murderer gets less abuse than someone who may or may not have 'stolen' someone's boyfriend (not that I believe you can steal a boyfriend in the first place). It's all disgusting, and what was worse was that even the people who weren't yelling the abuse were laughing at it. My friend and I seemed to be the only people who had a problem with it.
(edited 11 years ago)
Original post by Lizia


Wow, it must have been interesting to be in Perugia then! It's shocking that someone they think is a murderer gets less abuse than someone who may or may not have 'stolen' someone's boyfriend (not that I believe you can steal a boyfriend in the first place). It's all disgusting, and what was worse was that even the people who weren't yelling the abuse were laughing at it. My friend and I seemed to be the only people who had a problem with it.


Yeh it was so interesting! And whats even better was that (although not hugely common knowledge) you could just walk into the court room and watch so i did that with a few people which was awesome! was literally sat about 5ft away from her dad and ended up talking to one of her best friends! Very weird! Don't get me wrong she got a LOT of abuse, but I think if you start calling someone a whore in a court room, you're going to get thrown out, even by the italians!! Yikes thats really is pretty disgusting! I can't even imagine laughing at something like that! Its just horrible :s-smilie:
Reply 2292
Original post by georgia
Who was supervising? They must have given you feedback as you went along?

True, it depends upon what you do as to how useful it is. I found it helped for Cinema this year and a little bit for Women's Writing...just having a general awareness of 20th C history helped contextualise the texts.

Reeeeally?! :p: Tbf I don't mean the uni, I mean the city. I'm sure the uni is just fine, and the city is fine for shopping, but it wouldn't be my personal preference to live there. In part that is 22 years of visiting my grandparents in Lichfield and not being the biggest Midlands fan though.


ET. She did, yeah, but it's hard to know how that translates into marks.

Nah, student housing isn't the best but, then again, Coventry isn't the greatest, either. At least it's easy for me to get home, etc. Oooh, I live near to Lichfield. :p:
Original post by Lizia
Tiziano :love:

And yeah, it's pretty disgusting how they're quite happy for the show girls to parade around in underwear and dance provocatively in tea-time TV, yet they completely castigate them if they're "immoral" in their private life. I know they usually film tits and ass all the time, but I just would have thougbt they'd maybe tone it down considering it was just making the abuse worse. Poor Belen :frown: I'm doing my Year Abroad project on the same thing, "Sii bella, stai zitta" is definitely on my reading list. I always think Italy is kind of like England in the 50s in most attitudes (women, gay rights, lighting the hob with a match...), but at least England didn't have this bizarre madonna/whore paradox going on. It's fascinating, but horrifying all at once.


when I was in Italy I was friends with an American gay guy who was also doing an exchange. He told me that pretty much every guy he met in the gay clubs said not to say anything about them being gay on any social networking sites. I thought that was so sad
Reply 2294
Original post by Lizia
Tiziano :love:

And yeah, it's pretty disgusting how they're quite happy for the show girls to parade around in underwear and dance provocatively in tea-time TV, yet they completely castigate them if they're "immoral" in their private life. I know they usually film tits and ass all the time, but I just would have thougbt they'd maybe tone it down considering it was just making the abuse worse. Poor Belen :frown: I'm doing my Year Abroad project on the same thing, "Sii bella, stai zitta" is definitely on my reading list. I always think Italy is kind of like England in the 50s in most attitudes (women, gay rights, lighting the hob with a match...), but at least England didn't have this bizarre madonna/whore paradox going on. It's fascinating, but horrifying all at once.


:rofl3: So true.
Original post by museobsessed
when I was in Italy I was friends with an American gay guy who was also doing an exchange. He told me that pretty much every guy he met in the gay clubs said not to say anything about them being gay on any social networking sites. I thought that was so sad


Yeh I met a few gays in my halls, and they all said that the portiere we're all really racist and anti-gay... apparently one of them (i'm not sure how true this is) had been sent away for a while for beating a guy up because he was black :s-smilie: and then they let him out and let him work in halls where there were plenty of black and gay students around :s-smilie: good job there was cctv, not that i'm entirely convinced the police would have done anything, they're so corrupt anyway :sigh:
Reply 2296
On a related note, if I had a pound for every time I saw a photo on Facebook where there's something horrific going on in the picture with a caption such as, "cinesi [unrepeatable word]", I would be rich! There is SO much casual racism in Italy... it's quite unbelievable.
Original post by jeh_jeh
On a related note, if I had a pound for every time I saw a photo on Facebook where there's something horrific going on in the picture with a caption such as, "cinesi [unrepeatable word]", I would be rich! There is SO much casual racism in Italy... it's quite unbelievable.


I keep thinking the same thing...!
Reply 2298
Yep. I was on the bus a while back and a Filipino woman got on with a pram. The old woman next to me nudged her friend and went "I'm not a racist, but I can't stand these immigrant single mothers coming here and getting in the way". Even being charitable and assuming she meant the pram getting in the way on a small bus, I was still surprised someone would say something like that so brazenly in public. And there was no proof the woman was a single mother, or that she didn't speak Italian. In Naples, a ten year old boy told my (British born) Chinese friend to go back to China. I've had people be quite rude to me for being a straniera, I can't imagine what other races and nationalities have to put up with.
(edited 11 years ago)
Original post by Lizia
Yep. I was on the bus a while back and a Filipino woman got on with a pram. The old woman next to me nudged her friend and went "I'm not a racist, but I can't stand these immigrant single mothers coming here and getting in the way". Even being charitable and assuming she meant the pram getting in the way on a small bus, I was still surprised someone would say something like that so brazenly in public. And there was no proof the woman was a single mother, or that she didn't speak Italian. In Naples, a ten year old boy told my (British born) Chinese friend to go back to China. I've had people be quite rude to me for being a straniera, I can't imagine what other races and nationalities have to put up with.


There was a song a friend linked me to called something like la mia cioccolata..and they got a black guy to dress up and later on they started to be racist. At first I thought to myself, what a stupid guy..maybe he cant speak Italian, but on second thought i'm sure he could and so I dont know why he would let himself be ridiculed like that...but they did it so..casually, as if it was normal for them.

But yeah, racism is still pretty big, even more so if you are Roma or Arab-looking.

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