How living abroad makes me more Italian than I used to be
- Carlo Pezzana
- Apr 28, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: May 25, 2020
Key Takeaways:
- Had the extraordinary opportunity to live in Italy, Australia, the United States, and Spain
- Being abroad teaches you how to appreciate your home country more
- Add up what acquired from different cultures
First of all, a short introduction about me...
If I remember when I was in high school in Italy, and I went studying abroad in Adelaide, Australia for five months, I was pretty critical of Italy...from the education system and the people to even the food, that if you think about it, you cannot really critique if it is Italian. Well, it is better to say - first of all - that I was pretty critical of my hometown, a beautiful small place with fantastic food, a distinguished past, and some current successes, especially in sports. Still, it is a small town, and there are not endless opportunities and activities like in big cities. Also, I was a teenager, and I was growing up and building my personality, but my life was not bad at all. I just wanted more; I always like to renovate myself.
Anyway, I had this fantastic opportunity to go to Australia, a lifetime changing experience, and from there, everything began. I became passionate about traveling, and once I graduated from high school, I left to go to college in Florida. There, at my university, I came in contact with so many different cultures, as my university is one of the most international colleges in the United States. To keep experiencing and learning about cultures, I studied abroad again while studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain, with a program from my university.

Now, let's dig into the theme...
Studying abroad gives valuable individual skills and endless opportunities for life and career. Still, I am not going to talk yet about all the opportunities that experiencing and living abroad gives to you. That will be for another article.
What I want to focus on here is that when you live and experience abroad, you better understand the values of your country and its culture...and Italy has a lot! You appreciate more where you come from; you start to understand the pros and cons of your home and foreign countries. You become patriotic, and you feel proud of your origins. Aspects you did not give much importance before, you will like them, and you will even consider the little details and reflect on them. Some examples include locations, conversations with people, and their personalities, opportunities, and history. Definitely, once you get acquainted with a specific culture, you change, and of course, it is up to you how much you benefit from an abroad experience. Learning a language is the best example to immerse yourself in a culture fully. For instance, learning Spanish helped me to get so close with both the Spanish and Latin American culture. I used to hate reggaeton, and now it is one of my favorite kinds of music just to provide a funny example.
I also like to share what is terrific about places I lived with my friends. I love cooking pasta and Italian food with my friends in college but also tell them interesting facts about Italy. When I had friends who visited me in my home country and in Barcelona, where I studied abroad, I really enjoyed sharing anecdotes, experiences, and information about the place I was living in. I am very eager to learn about the various aspects of a culture. I then can acquire their lifestyles and take what I mostly like from those cultures.
However, it is funny how, on the one hand, my Italian friends often say I am more American, because I love Starbucks, and now also more Spanish because I listen to reggaeton a lot. On the other hand, my friends from different countries tell me I am very Italian because pasta is my favorite food. It is about perspectives and viewpoints, depending on where a person is coming from. From all those skills you develop from living in other countries, such as open-mindedness, critical thinking, internationality, and communication, the most important one is that you acquire a new culture. However, you just add it up to your cultural identity; you cannot replace it with another one you adopted before, and, most of all, you cannot substitute it with your native one.
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