You said culture clash?

Hello everybody,

That people always invite you for a cup of coffee instead of a glass of beer, you'd call it a culture clash, wouldn't you?

Well, there are other habits to point out of course; I like to see and smell the laundry hanging outside the windows for instance, or to see bunches of old men gathering on the benches during a whole afternoon. These are the pictures of Italy we all know. But everything does not look like on the postcard.

Speaking of laundry and cleaning, I wish the streets were as clean as the inside of the houses. I brought up that matter with the students once. As a matter of fact, they just do not see why they should care about the public space. Is there anybody who does anyway? 
Take the town or country planning for instance: all those unfinished buildings you see everywhere, how is that possible? People simply start to build them, often without any planning permission, and then leave it as it is, unfinished. The reasons are often obscure, as everything which has something to do with money, law and investments.

Yes, 'il Mezzogiorno' has to deal with a lot of problems. Yes, people here act differently as Germans or the Swiss do. 
As future teachers, we know the importance of setting the rules in the classroom, and we also know how difficult it can be to get the students to follow them. Following the rules? You must be kidding! That's typical here, and for somebody coming from the North, 'from the rich countries', it is not always easy to cope with that kind of attitude. I'm not talking about the classroom here, I'm talking about the whole society. And of course when nobody respects the rules outside the school, it is quite a challenge to get them respected inside. 

Confusion is the word which summarizes best the general climate, inside and outside the school. Sometimes I find it funny, sometimes it's getting on my nerves. If you want to take part to that confusion, you must be able to speak loud, a bit louder than the people already speaking, who are in fact already shouting… Have a try! 
And if you take the road you will soon notice that many drivers must haven't read or even heard about the highway code. Again, depending on your mood, you may find it funny or irritating.

Most of the students I see are girls and some of them are really assiduous. Boys barely attend classes and always manage to get some girls to take notes for them… what they do as the most natural service!  It's like when you are invited for dinner: if you are a man, don't even think of clearing the table after the meal… 

Well, these are some of the cultural differences I've observed so far.
Ciao
Vincent