As I begin my semester abroad I have a few goals that I would like to achieve. First and foremost, I want to become comfortable speaking Italian with other Italians. After one week here I have found it difficult to speak with natives because they talk so much faster without having to think about it. While I obviously cannot expect myself to speak as fluently as a native speaker, I hope to grow more comfortable with my conversational Italian skills by the end of my four months here in Florence. I have started to work towards this goal by simply ordering my food in Italian at restaurants as well as speaking Italian with my coworkers at my internship. Academically, I would like to dive deeper into how each country’s individual economy impacts the global economy. After a brief glimpse of this in my studies in Germany last May, I am quite intrigued and hope to be able to continue connecting economic happens throughout the world. Additionally, I am interested to see the diversity of global markets and learn about how to successfully navigate a business all over the world. By the end of this semester, I hope to have a better understanding of how to determine different marketing strategies for the same products in multiple parts of the world. Professionally, I am looking forward to noticing differences in the work culture in different areas of the world. I hope to be able to identify some differences, adopt some aspects of Italian work culture to bring home, and also enlighten my colleagues here if I know of a different way to do something that I feel may benefit them. Ideally, I will be able to do this by establishing strong relationships with my colleagues at work so that we are all comfortable sharing cultural norms amongst each other.
You must log in to post a comment.