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Question: Describe a friendship you have made with a local student (from your host country), or someone who is a resident. How has this relationship influenced your experience? How do you communicate, and are there are any language barriers? Have they spoken about any things that surprised them about America’s customs?
Written by: Alfred Amasanti
As part of the Bentley policy in Rome you are required to live in a home-stay. This means that a family takes you in for the duration of your program.
My “family” is just one person, a woman named Bianca. This is a great way to truly immerse yourself within the culture and get the most out of your study abroad experience. Bianca is only required to give me a bed, breakfast and dinner. She cooks me food, so what more can I ask for?
As Bentley will tell you, though, you get out of the relationship what you put in it. You can maintain the relationship as strictly a guest-landlord acquaintance, or you can try to become their friend.
I try to bond with Bianca whenever I’m in the house. I ask her to tell me when she’s going to cook so I can write down the recipes.
When I come back to Bentley I will be able to cook an Italian carbonara (which is not even similar to the American one!) and snack on bruschette.
Our dinners are the most authentic hours of my time in Rome. We talk about food and Italian culture, and she never stops correcting my grammar (which is great for my Italian, but very frustrating). We watch the news, game shows, movies and even Dr House. Watching Hugh Laurie speak in Italian is one of the most bizarre experiences of my life.
Bianca only speaks Italian. It’s great. I try to communicate using my Tarzan-like Italian, but I honestly think she has an easier time figuring out what I’m talking about by looking at my hand gestures than by listening to what I’m saying.
I developed an ear for Italian early on in my life as I watched my dad play poker with his Italian friends every Sunday. Speaking it is another matter entirely.
I often try to speak it and see if she understands what I am saying. I usually need to take a few moments to find the right words. This is almost always the hardest part because my vocabulary is not that extensive.
If I can’t find the right word, I try to Italianize a Spanish word (“libros,” the Spanish word for books, becomes “libri”).
If that also fails, I try to find another way to say the word (short becomes not-tall). When all else fails, I grab a dictionary, because everyone has a limit.
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