In your own words, discuss what being Italian or French means to you:

WHO I THINK I AM

Discussing who I am is a challenge, but I will try (luckily I am competitive!).

I am a person, a woman, a daughter, a sister, a girl-friend, a friend, a student. I am determined, caring, sensitive, responsible, reliable, patient, passionate, coherent, organized, assertive.

In a personal presentation,my nationality is one of the latest information I give. That is relevant to understand how patriotic I am.

Even if it is secondary for my identity as an individual, I recognize that origins are an important point in one’s existence. The country, where we grew up as well as the language spoken in the first years of life influence one’s way of thinking and reading the world. So, national identity is indelible.

Today being Italian  means different things.

From other countries’ perspective Italian people live in a place of great culture, (in the heart of the Roman Empire and the cradle of Renaissance) but most Italians are now sdhowing a low level of culture . Anyway they have the merit of cooking the best food in the world.

In my opinion, being an Italian student today means that I have to be really qualified, in any case I should be ready to move abroad for a good living.

In addition,  being an Italian woman means that I have to work better than men to be appreciate like them (as an Italian woman said, that is not difficult at all!) because it is a chauvinist country. Besides it requires intelligence: I do not want to be considered a “velina” and I want to have a job just for my professional qualities.

All in all, to me being Italian is  a challenge: it means to be fairer, more coherent, organized, hard-working, open-minded and reliable than ordinary people in order to face thewidespread idea that Italian people are corrupted, hypocrite, unorganized, lazy, racists and untrustworthy (luckily I am competitive!).