Come with a lot of curiosity as well as critical sense to discover what Italians say about their own cultural, social, and political habits and what they fail to comment upon. Through journal articles, interviews, advertisements, web sites, film, e-mails, and conversations with Italians, we will see what Italy has to say about issues such as family and familism; the role of women in society and at home; gay marriage; education and the relevance of humanities; unemployment and the young; style and taste; the constant turmoil of politics and its historical causes; immigration and how it is changing the country; the dreams and nightmares of Italians; religion; and other relevant and only seemingly irrelevant topics.
Students will strengthen their speaking skills and focus on the linguistic structures that will enable them to express their ideas and perspectives with a certain ease, developing, on the writing side, paragraph-level discourse. Students will conclude the term with a guided research project. Intermediate-low level. Conducted in Italian.
Corequisites: Attending two events of the Language Series.