MARIANGELA FILOSOFI
OCI III YEAR 2nd LANGUAGE
GROUP G
TASK 3
TRANSLATION OF THE SOCIOMETRIC QUESTIONNAIRE INTO ITALIAN
1) Inviti degli amici a cena, e loro si offrono di aiutarti lavando I piatti dopo mangiato. Li lasci fare?
 sì
 no
2) Se uno dei tuoi ospiti lascia del cibo nel piatto, cosa pensi?
 sei contento del fatto che sia sazio.
 hai paura che non gli sia piaciuto.
 ti denti offeso: è uno spreco.
 non gli dai importanza.
3) Durante la cena, uno dei tuoi ospiti beve come una spugna. Come ti senti?
 ti senti in imbarazzo.
 ti fa piacere.
4) Cosa pensi di chi mangia il pollo con le mani?
 non è educato.
 non ci fai caso.
5) Sei seduto sull’autobus e sale una signora anziana. Cosa fai?
 le cedi il tuo posto.
 non le cedi il posto ameno che non sia lei a chiedertelo.
6) Nel tuo paese i genitori usano dare la paghetta ai loro figli?
 sì.
 no.
7) Ragazzi e ragazze che vivono con i genitori solitamente aiutano in casa? (lavando i piatti, pulendo la
loro stanza…)
 sì.
 no.
8) Di solito a che età ragazzi e ragazze cominciano a lavorare?
 prima dei 18 anni.
 dai 19 ai 25 anni.
 dai 25 in su.
9) Ed è la stessa età per maschi e femmine?
 sì.
 no.
10) E quando cominciano a lavorare, si trasferiscono, o rimangono a casa dei genitori?
 si trasferiscono.
 rimangono dai genitori.
11) Se tua figlia diciassettenne esce la sera,
 è libera di rientrare quando vuole? (vai alla domanda 12-a)
 le dai un limite orario? (vai alla domanda 12-b)
12-a) E quando dai dei limiti orari ai tuoi figli, sono gli stessi per maschi e femmine?
 sì.
 no.
12-b) Daresti lo stesso limite orario a tuo figlio diciassettenne?
 sì.
 no.
TRANSLATION OF THE ETHNOGRAPHIC QUESTIONNAIRE INTO
ITALIAN
1) Che valore ha per te l’ospitalità?
2) Com’è visto il consumo di alcol nel tuo paese?
3) Che posizione occupano gli anziani nella tua società?
4) Cosa significa per te crescere un figlio? Che valore dai all’educazione?
5) Le concessioni e i doveri che dai ai tuoi figli, cambiano in base al loro sesso?
6) Cosa vorresti insegnare ai tuoi figli?
7) Quindi se tuo figlio si trova in difficoltà non lo aiuti ma preferisci che se la cavi da solo, giusto?
PREDICTIONS OF THE SOCIOMETRIC QUESTIONNAIRE (ITALIANS)
1) NO. In Italian culture a guest, being so, does not have to lift a finger.
2) Probably they would be AFRAID HE DID NOT LIKE THE FOOD, anyway I see that normally in
Italy there is much waste of food.
3) They WOULD NOT MIND IT, unless they are from a particularly privileged class.
4) They would FEEL EMBARRASSED, drinking a loti s not well seen in Italy.
5) I think they WOULD NOT LEAVE THEIR SEAT UNLESS SHE ASKS FOR IT, this is actually
what I see everyday.
6) YES. Children of the new generation are particularly spoilt.
7) NO, for the same reason mentioned above.
8) The greatest part of them begins to work FROM 25 years old on.
9) NO, more than once I saw a father preventing her daughter from getting a job.
10) They absolutely KEEP ON STAYING WITH THEIR PARENTS to the bitter end.
11) I think they would GIVE AN HOUR LIMIT, even if with the new generation they seem much
more permissive.
12) NO, males and females are treated differently, as if females need to be more protected.
(BRIEF) PREDICTIONS OF THE ETHNOGRAPHIC QUESTIONNAIRE
(ITALIANS)
1) It has a great importance, especially in some parts of Italy, where it is something ‘sacred’.
2) It is not well seen if excessive.
3) They are neglected.
4) It means to let them be your first thought. Education influences your whole life.
5) Yes, absolutely.
6) Honesty; respect; the importance of the family, of hard working and of being autonomous; to earn
what you want; etc.
7) Absolutely no, a parent will always be there for his son.
REPORT OF THE ITALIAN INTERVIEWS
The results of my interviews have shown more then ever how subjectivity can influence our vision of
reality.
The Italian interviewees I choosed are a seventy-year-old woman (actually my mother), a thirty-yearold Italian woman married to a Scottish man, and a forty-year-old lawyer from the South of Italy.
I observed how these little differences have probably influenced their answers. For example, the 70year-old woman and the lawyer from the south of Italy (where hospitality is more sacred than ever),
answered my first socio-metric question they would never accept the help of a guest for washing the
dishes. During the ethnographic interview the southern man explained that hospitality is one of the
most important things, which must be cultivated the most possible, since it is one of the main ways to
gain respect, and to build solid foundations of one’s own person and family. It is a kind of investment
for the future. But the woman married to a Scottish, said it is normal to let her guests collaborate.
During the ethnographic interview she told that when her Scottish parents in law or friends come to
Italy to visit her, they prepare meals, clean the house, iron and many other things. It is just a way to
repay the hospitality.
And the fact that probably she has been ‘infected’ by the Scottish culture she is in contact with,
emerges also by her answer to question number 4: she said it is not nice at all to eat chicken with the
hands, sometimes she would really do it because it makes things easier, but she would feel too
embarrassed. Instead the other two interviewees answered they would not mind, they said it is normal
in Italy to eat “pizza, pollo e patatine” with the hands!
To question number 2 they all answered that if one of their guests leaves something in his plate, they
are afraid it was not good. An other detail of hospitality is that everything must be perfect. The house
of the 70-years-old woman is always a mess, but when she has some guests, it is like a palace, and the
frugal meals she usually prepares become hearty!
To question number 4 they all answered, as foreseen, that they would feel embarrassed if one of their
guests would be drinking like a fish. Later they explained that Italians are moderate drinkers, they
usually drink a glass of wine during the meals, but nothing more, although the use of super-alcoholics
is increasing among youngest people. Anyway drinking a lot is not seen at all as a proper behaviour.
To question number 5 they all answered they would spontaneously offer their seat, and they seemed
honest! With regards to elder people, to question number 3 of my ethnographic questionnaire, the
younger interviewees answered they are neglected, like invisible; though they represent the quantitative
majority, they do not have much social weight. But the 70-years-old woman answered instead that they
have a fundamental role (of course, she is one of them!), they fulfil a great educational function, and
they are a really great help as grandparents. I guess this difference is once again given by the different
point of view of the interviewees. An old woman would never say that she is forgotten! Obviously she
prefers defining herself fundamental!
To question number 6 all of them answered that in Italy parents usually give their children a pocket
money, whether they personally do it or not; to question number 7 two of them answered boys and girls
living with their parents usually do not help with the housework, and the man from the south of Italy
answered that only girls do!
These last answers were absolutely foreseen, and they confirm my idea that Italian boys and girls are
spoilt, and that males and females have different roles. This happens more than ever in the south of
Italy where the duty of a woman is to learn to do all the housework in order to be prepared when she
will get married, when she will start to ‘take care’ of her husband.
This means in practice, that the great part of Italian men (because they are spoilt or just because they
are males) never washed a dish and ignores how to prepare an omelette! (This could be an antiquated
account of reality but I have proofs: my five brothers are! And we are not from the South!)
This is what emerged from the conversations that came out from my ethnographic questions, and which
is also confirmed by the answers to questions 9 and 12 (and 5 of the ethnographic questionnaire): all
the interviewees said that girls usually start working later than boys, and all of them said that , as
parents, they would not give the same hours limit for going out to a son and a daughter of the same age.
During the ethnographic interview they explained that it is inevitable to give different concessions and
duties to boys and girls, it is “part of the nature”.
The fact that Italian boys and girls are spoilt is also confirmed by the answers to question 10: there is
no doubt, those of them who have started working, keep on living with mom and dad for a long time,
unless they get married!
In relation to this, from ethnographic questions number 3 and 6, it emerges that, for all of the
interviewees, bringing up a child and so being a parent, means above all to make many sacrifices and
renunciations. They also said it means to “continually reformulate one’s own priorities, values and
thoughts”.
About education they all said it is of primary importance because the way you face up the difficulties of
life depends on the education you receive, it is just the basis of your way of being. And we know that
this is absolutely true, because the values and the ways of thinking we have come from the habitat
(familiar or social) we grow up in, and so from the education we receive.
To ethnographic question number 5 someone answered he would teach his children to be smart, to
distinguish what is right from what is wrong, and to respect the others.
Someone else said he would teach them to elaborate their own opinions, to express the principles which
are the foundation of one’s own personality.
The last one said she would teach them to be autonomous above all. In this case I had the chance to use
the contrastive question I had prepared. (I would say something about this on my sheet of comments on
the picture project workbook).
In conclusion I understood that we can approximately predict the answers of a sociometric
questionnaire, but they will surely change not only on the basis of the interviewee’s national culture;
the difference will be also given by the age, the sex, the social class and many other details. Let’s make
an example: all the interviewees told that growing up a child means first of all sacrifice. I guess that
this answer was influenced by the fact that two of them have some babies at the moment, and their
actual life is a continuous ‘not sleeping, changing napkins, going to the doctor, renounce to holydays
and football matches’ and so on. The other interviewee too is extremely busy with babies, since she has
already 11 grandchildren!
So, we can say that subjectivity and contextualization are very important.
Anyway, this task surely helped me to know better my culture, but, it will be much more interesting to
compare the answers of the Italians with the British ones, in the next task.
COMMENTS ON THE PICTURE PROJECT WORKBOOK
o First of all, where is Appendix F? Maybe I did not see it…
o Don’t you think it is a little difficult to prepare a contrastive question if we don’t know the
answer to the previous question? We could improvise them during the interview, but I think that
to prepare them in advance requires a magician crystal ball…
o It is really possible to choose only ONE topic? The questionnaire model itself, if I am not
wrong, concerns different topics. Yes, there is a general topic, ‘the habits and values of British
people’, but then all of our questionnaires are about this…
o Why don’t you add an appendix with examples of how to make predictions?
o Anyway, you have done a really interesting job. I think this is the ONE subject that really fits
the title of my course (Lingue e comunicazione internazionale)!
o Let me tell just the last thing: if you want your students to do a really good task, give them a
little more time…