Learning English and Teaching Italian

Abstract

As Federico Fellini said, “A different language is a different vision of life,” and nothing resonates more with the author and her life experience than this quotation. Moving to the USA and learning English and then Spanish has immensely broadened her horizons immensely and taught her to live and think of life in ways she was unaware to. In writing this autoethnography, she wants to narrate part of her journey as a language learner; she will share some of the most important milestones of her adventurous quest. She will reflect on how the perception of who she was changed, and how she slowly became a “contact space” where her native Italian culture and her acquired American one merged, struggled, and eventually learned how to co-exist. Furthermore, she will also reflect on how her personal experience with learning foreign languages has shaped her approach to teaching and her understanding her students.