Rick Smolan: The story of a girl

 

http://www.ted.com/talks/rick_smolan_tells_the_story_of_a_girl.html

As last post of this course, I have chosen to talk about a video on TED, in which a well known photographer (Rick Smolan) describes the story of an amerasian girl he met.

This story made a lot of success in US and regards this little girl who was born in Korea from korean mother and american dad. In east Asia, a lot of american soldiers used to have relationships with local girls during their missions, and, after their way back home, many of these womans gave birth to thousand of amerasian. Many neo-mothers left their children alone to have a new life. For this reason, lots of young amerasian, children of war,  risked to be excluded by society.

But Hyun Sook Lee had the fortune to be raised by her wise and estimated grandmother. The old woman was so careful that used to hide her granddaughter in the house when western people would come to visit the village.

Rick Smolan met this girl when he decided to make a feature on 6 amerasian children telling their stories through its pictures, because he was not satisfied by the job made before when he collaborated with The Time Magazine about the subject. So, meeting this girl he began a kind of friendship which followed existing till now. In fact, before the grandmother's death he was asked to take care of Hyun Sook. 

Well, I don't want to reveal you all the story, but I can assure you it is worth to listen Rick telling the story while he shows and describes the pictures, if you want to know how it ends.

He speaks quite quickly, with an obvious american accent, but he is not difficult to follow, also because most of the times pictures help to follow the talk.

Live Listening Esperiences

This week I had the opportunity to interview foreign people living in Italy for my live listening assignment. I asked them to talk about their idea of Florence and its citizens, to talk about their personal experience in this country with Italian people and their hospitality.
In order to guarantee their privacy (some of them asked me not to declare their name) I will use casual names.

The first person I interviewed is a German friend of mine whose name is Stella. She is from a town near Düsseldorf and lives in Florence to study PROGEAS and working.
She told me that the first time she went to Florence she was very young. In fact, her mother, who is an aikido teacher that usually comes to Florence do seminars, used to bring her little daughter with her. The landscapes (there are no mountains in her hometown) and the buildings of this place caught her.
When Stella finished high school, she decided to go abroad for one year, she came here in order to learn Italian, and to practise aikido but also because is one of the Italian cities she liked the most.
She found as au pair girl and, after one year, she applied for the University of Florence.
Her opinion is that Italian people are very nice and hospitable. In Germany, people are not as nice as Italy; anyway, they are welcoming with foreigners too.
Whether Italians know about her nationality, they tend to justify her physical and personal qualities with her nationality. For example, when she has an appointment she is usually in time, and, if friends or colleagues are late, they apology saying: "you are German... so you are always in time!” On the other hand, if she is late, they will tell - with humour - her that German people for nature should be in time.
According to Stella, Florentines are open-minded, but as regards hospitality, they are closer than other Italians. For example talking about people from south-Italy, she had great experience of generosity and openness towards foreigners, or anyway strangers, that she did not expect to find.
She told me that after a month she moved to Florence some guys from Naples invited her for dinner. She thought it was a usual dinner among three, four or maybe five friends, but, when she arrived at the host's house, she found a room with a big and long table with fifteen-twenty people sitting down at the table. Moreover, at the moment to eat she said there were lots of dishes (antipasti, pasta, second course, third course, side dishes etc... until the coffee). She was shocked but happy to feel like at home with people she had never met before and she had been talking all night long.
Therefore, Stella has a very good impression of Italians in general and, even though she found a bit of difficulty to approach with Florentines, she admits to be lucky as foreigner integrated with local people.

The second person I interviewed is an Albanian girl I know who is working and studying here in Italy.
Erisa decided to come to Florence for chance, because she actually wanted to go living for 1-2 years in Rome but her father did not agree about this choice.
When she came here for the first time, she found a cool city with historical buildings, even though she expected to find a more modern architectural style. She was very happy to feel free to do what she wanted and to free herself from particular social rules that could weigh on her lifestyle in Albania.
At the beginning, everything was ok, but after, when she found a job and she finally chose to live in Florence for a long term, she began discovering Italy and Italians.
Erisa admits that Italians are different depending on the area they come from. In particular, talking about her personal experiences, she defines Florentines like "strange people".
According to her, they are a bit open-minded, but they tend to be confident only with locals. So, they can be considered open-minded because maybe they have a better education than people in south Italy (for example), but you can find, more easily in Sicily, Italian people working with Indians and Chinese than in Florence. In Florence, you find different national groups not communicating together.
She does not believe Florentines are much open-minded. She thinks openness means be open with other nationalities people, in sense of communication, of curiosity about your culture. Erisa has not talked with people interested to know how they celebrate marriages, birthdays and other particular events in Albania. They presume to know without communicating, thanks to their prejudices and bad news about Albanians in Italy.
Albanians like Erisa, want to integrate in Florentine society, while Chinese people, from her point of view, do not seem to be too.
She is quite integrated with Italians and foreigners, and when she invited, for her boyfriend's birthday, Florentines and Albanians together at the same table to eat at restaurant, she realised they did not socialise very well (even if someone forced, or tried to have a kind of communication).
She told me that if you come from abroad it is necessary to know about local lifestyle, to integrate. Whether Italians want foreigners to behave, they have to teach them. Some friends of her (Florentines) teach voluntarily Italian during tandem events etc. Anyway, most of Italians are not of the idea that they can learn something by Albanian as regards their culture.
In addition, she affirms there is maybe intelligence by locals, but not energy and real interest to change things in everything situation like in the bus, at school/university, work.
She told me she had a university mate who has never talked to her since Erisa told her she works in a bar.
People do not believe she is Albanian when they look at her, but she is bothered when they ask her nationality, and she wonders why social relationships should depend on your nationality.
Moreover, Erisa told me that if they see you reading or speaking in English they find you interesting, because they suppose you come from an Anglophone country. She thinks that are interested to practise English to feel cool. 
She asserts Albanians are accepted more than Indians and Chinese, thanks to their European physical aspect. Italians give a lot of importance to your physical appearances, what you dress, what you behave, what you superficially transmit to them. Nevertheless, this is everywhere.
On the other hand, she has no problem to build friendships with other foreigners and tourists in Florence, in fact everybody who come to Florence for more than a week understand that Florentines are not so kind, comparing with other Italian cities.
However, Erisa, since she was in her homeland, has always liked Italy for many reasons.

Patricia is an English woman living in Florence since she married a Florentine.
She explained to me that Florence in the last 30-40 years has changed really a lot, aesthetically and socially. There were less car in the roads and the first place she lived was near the Stadium, in her mother's in law house.
Before arriving, she did not know a lot about Florence. She had only visited Rome and Venice.
There were no other foreigners living in Florence like her, or anyway very few people if we think about now and they would look you after very well.
As she said, nowadays it is completely different: Florentines are more open-minded, thanks to many American and British movies, which have bombarded them of English, or in general foreign culture. However, at the same time they are still closed, they are not very welcoming people.
She admits they like shut their doors to foreign people, if they have 18 locks they use all 18 locks. They do not make easily friends and they are centred on their own families; Romans and Venetians are better, but she thinks that the real fact is that they are weary.
Obviously she affirms that if you are English or American you are very welcomed, but if you come from outside Europe they are very suspicious, particularly when foreigners (like non-EU citizens) get their jobs and buy their houses.
By the way, Patricia acknowledges that this happens all over the world, also in Britain. People are weary when they are in front of other cultures and this is natural, they are defensive, they fear.
As regards foreigners for tourism, Patricia is shocked by the fact that an enormous number of tourists coming to Florence in reality have not an authentic approach with Florence and its citizens, because also of lack of a real organization of the touristic system in Florence. Everybody care his or her own interests. Tourists spend euros to see what they "expect" to visit, eat, and enjoy (like looking for cannoli in a typical Florentine bar, or going in a disco to dance music that you usually listen to abroad), while Florentines care to get money for something that not always represent local lifestyle.
Patricia told me that it is difficult to find people interested to know why a foreigner would come here to live, but she met a lot of Florentines interest in knowing her culture.
She has a lot of international friends and relatives and she has a continue exchange with other foreigners and they clearly talk about Italy. Patricia well-explained me that Italy abroad has become comic thanks to people like Berlusconi who made ridiculous thinks that brought Italy to a low level. Italy is criticised for its politics, its job and welfare system etc. She said that there are many articles of pop and posh British newspapers about the “barons' system” (like in hospitals, universities, companies, and public institutions) which rules in Italy. In Patricia’s homeland, young people are allowed to have interesting careers and reaching relevant roles. This for her means to be allowed to have a real career, a real job, and a real life, what that usually we call success everything that is not happening to Florentines and, in general Italians.
Then she admitted Italy has luckily also beautiful things, like its historical culture, landscapes, food, fashion etc.