SOC 490-2 Week 4

Barzini explains that when it comes to work, Italians are happy with what they are doing. They will not act as if something better is waiting for them, as many people in other countries do. He also goes on to explain that in Italy, “no one is rude to strangers.” As I have encountered many very generous, whole-hearted, welcoming Italians, I feel that that is not always the case.

From my experiences here, I have seen many kind and giving Italians in the workplace that do not mind having a foreigner in their shop or restaurant, not on the street many sometimes be a different story. While attempting to survey Italians on their view of healthcare, I often found that people did not even want to give me a chance, most likely because I speak little to no Italian.

While on my mission to get 20 surveys done, I noticed that it was the older generation that wanted nothing to do with me. They would look at the survey, say no and walk away, and sometimes would just say no and walk away without even knowing what my purpose was. It was often the teenagers, and young adults that would even attempt to give me a chance, and actually fill out the survey, whether it was with seriousness or not.

Barzini also tells us that Italians use gestures a lot, which I have often noticed. One of their gestures is that of slowly raising the chin, which means “I don’t know,” and more often than not, “Perhaps I know but I will not tell you.” Barzini goes on to explain that this is “the answer a harmless stranger gets from different Sicilian peasants when he asks the way to the nearest village.” Even though I was in Rome, not Sicily, during my attempts to survey Italians, I took my mind back to that day after reading Barzini, and recall some of the Italians that turned me down using this gesture of slowly raising the chin.

Even though I felt defeated and small when turned down by so many Italians, that experience forced me to recall how I have felt in the past about foreigners in America. Being a young adult, if some random foreigner in, lets say the mall, asked me to fill out a survey, I would probably do it depending on its context, but we be extremely annoyed by the fact that they even asked. I now am grateful for the responses that I actually received, and even though I wish that I got more chances to communicate with Italians that day about healthcare, I understand where they are coming from.