Life in Italy as an American: Embracing Culture, Challenges & Growth

🇮🇹 🐎 What’s it really like to live in Italy as an American? We talk with Mike Manchester — an American expat who moved from Denver to Siena over 20 years ago and built his life in Italy. Mike co-founded an intercultural study abroad program, raised a bilingual family in Bologna, and even teaches English through improv! Mike touches on the teaching of English in Italian classrooms, pointing out that the current methods don't help students with real english conversation.

Mike shares his personal experience of discovering a talent for english speaking after joining a special program, helping them learn english and improving their english pronunciation. This highlights some nuances of english grammar for beginners.

🎧 In this conversation, you’ll learn:
🔹 How Mike turned a study abroad semester into a lifelong adventure
🔹 The biggest expat challenges and culture shocks he faced in Italy
🔹 Surprising differences between Siena and Bologna
🔹 One Expat Life Hack that helps anyone fit into a new culture
🔹 Why improv might be the secret to learning languages faster
🔹 Funny stories from Mike’s time teaching, traveling, and adapting to Italian life

📲 Follow Mike on:
https://www.improconversation.com
https://www.instagram.com/improconversation/
https://www.mikeallovertheplace.com
https://www.instagram.com/mikeallovertheplace/

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:42 Guest Background & Expat Journey
• 19:24 Biggest Challenges & Surprising Moments
• 43:20 Expat Life Hack & Advice
• 46:13 Cultural Deep Dive & Fun Comparisons
• 1:06:23 Audience Q&A
• 1:09:21 Guest Promotion
• 1:12:54 Funny Story & Wrap-up

Transcript

0:00
classrooms with uh Italian kids that the way that they're teaching English here
0:07
um it's not it's not failing at all but it's not teaching them how to have a
0:13
conversation uh getting accepted to go to Italy and when I went on that program
0:19
something kind of clicked for me that hadn't clicked for me before which was I
0:24
was pretty good I think I had a natural talent uh kind of hidden underneath there to speak languages, find some
0:31
exercises that came from the world of improv. Um, and I took them into class
0:36
and they worked like really well. I was able to get kids to have fun speaking to
0:42
each other in English, which like that's like that work. Welcome to Expert
0:49
Experts. Today I have a really special guest joining me in person. He's
0:55
originally from Denver, Colorado, but he has spent more than 20 years living in Italy. He started out studying abroad in
1:02
Sienna, went into co-ound an international study abroad program, and has dedicated his career to helping
1:10
students and locals connect through culture and language. These days, he's living in Bologna with his wife and two
1:17
kids, and he's exploring a new fascinating way of teaching English through improv theater. We are going to
1:24
talk about his journey, his challenges, and his advices for other experts. And of course, we are going to have some fun
1:31
with cultural comparison between the two Italian cities he lived in. But for now,
1:36
sit back, relax, and let's explore this expert experience together.
Guest Background & Expat Journey
1:42
Welcome to Expert Experts to another episode. Uh, today I'm really happy to have with me Mike.
1:47
Hi. Um, we met each other like virtually due to improjangle like improvisational
1:54
theater. Another guest who comes from improv like in this show another one.
2:00
Yeah, they had I had quite some people from from improv in Greece at the beginning of the season. So, let's see
2:06
if I can start introducing people from improv here in Italy. That would be nice also.
2:11
Uh, yeah. Welcome, Mike. It's it's very nice to have you here. So maybe we could
2:17
start a little bit from the beginning. Where are you from? Uh how did you end it here? I mean your story. Let's say
2:24
like all of it. I'll try to reduce it down into Yeah, it's a long one. So maybe it is a little bit of a long one. As we
2:29
get older, it becomes longer. Um so yeah, uh I'm from Denver, Colorado, so I'm American. Um and I was born and
2:36
raised there. A lot of times I get this question like, "Oh, but don't you have like a a mom or dad who's from Italy?" I
2:42
I really had no um connection with Italy until uh I was at university and I went
2:48
to university in a different city in Portland, Oregon. Um and there was an opportunity to go on a study abroad
2:55
program and uh I took that opportunity actually I didn't actually even get into
3:01
the we had to apply through my university to go on the various different opportunities that there were
3:07
and I didn't get into the Australia program. Okay. And so there was only a few left
3:13
that I could apply to and Italy happened to be one of those. And I kind of just was like, "All right, I guess Italy, you
3:18
know, I was Australia seemed cool. I don't know." Growing up in Denver, I was very into
3:23
the outdoors and and the wilderness and Australia seemed like it had a version
3:29
of that that I hadn't experienced like, "Oh, that's cool." Uh, but I didn't get in. And so I ended up uh getting
3:34
accepted to go to Italy. And when I went on that program, something kind of
3:39
clicked for me that hadn't clicked for me before, which was I was pretty good.
3:45
I think I had a natural talent uh kind of hidden underneath there to speak languages. And I don't know, maybe had I
3:51
gone to Iceland, I would have spoken Icelandic. I don't know. But when I was there uh and with this program um in
3:57
Sienna, Italy, um it just it was really fun and I was really drawn to this idea
4:05
of every day trying to go have a conversation with people and maybe not understanding everything and then just
4:11
getting a little bit more from that. And this program had host families. And so I had a host family.
4:16
And so at the end of my kind of three and a half, four months there, I I
4:22
couldn't say that I was fluent, but I was really uh comfortable with getting around and talking to people. And that's
4:27
something for me in, you know, what I had done um in school. At that point, I
4:34
hadn't ever really done that. I hadn't had that experience of, you know, seeing
4:39
uh yourself speak another language and actually do it. and through that gaining all of this other insight that you get
4:46
on your own culture, on yourself. Um, and so I thought that was fantastic and
4:51
I had a year and a half to go to graduate. Uh and so I went back and uh
4:56
spent that year and and you know graduated and during my kind of last year at university I was in touch with
5:04
people in Sienna and it's like I kind of I didn't feel like I would I had finished my experience and it would be
5:10
interesting going back. Um and this was like in 2001 really 2001
5:17
two the world was a little bit of a different place. uh it was a little bit easier to be here
5:24
um with kind of less um I guess legal status, you know, it wasn't necessarily
5:31
illegal, but it was a little bit easier to find a way to be here as an actress.
5:37
Um and so I was able to kind of go back to that same school and I didn't really
5:43
have much of a plan. When people said like, "Oh, what are you going to do when you finish university?" A lot of people kind of had a plan. I'm gonna go to grad
5:49
school or I'm gonna travel for a year and then I'm gonna come back and do this thing. I just said I'm gonna go to Italy
5:54
and and honestly I don't know in some ways that was you know I guess maybe brave in some ways it was a little bit
6:00
naive too um in retrospect but that's what that's what my plan was and that's what I did. Uh, and so I went back to
6:07
Sienna and I was doing kind of anything that I could, but I had been in touch
6:12
with the person who was the co-director of this program that I was involved with. And I was kind of marginally
6:19
involved with the program there, like even if they needed some like heavy thing from one room to another. And then
6:25
I was teaching English. That's kind of like a thing that you can just kind of find. And um, I don't really worked with
6:31
kids when I was little when I was younger. and um found a job teaching
6:37
English in uh kindergartens. Okay. So back then I had the energy
6:42
to do that with a kindergarten with lots of little kindergarters and it was fun and I had good time and then kind of um
6:49
as things evolved I created a closer relationship with this person who was
6:55
the co-director and and she was really also into kind of creating a program that was very language immersive. Um,
7:05
and the person that she was co-director with was much more into doing art and
7:10
and having a program that focused on um, students who were interested in, you know, either being artists or focusing
7:15
on art itself. And so they ended up kind of going separate ways and this is in
7:23
2004. So I was also going back and forth like working back in the summer in
7:28
Denver and then going back and seeing what I could do. And so in 2004 she wanted to create this school and I was
7:34
kind of in the right place at the right time to do that be be part of be part of this group that um we created this
7:42
school and and so that's what I did for about 16 years up until 2020.
7:48
Nice. Was this program to learn Italian or Okay. Okay. Or it was just like a random
7:55
program of I I go to you do what I did just like you live. Yes. Yes. So the the idea there that
8:02
this model of uh study abroad which is very um
8:08
it's very common with USbased uh universities also
8:13
some others as well but in Europe you have Arasmus where you have just all of these universities that are kind of
8:20
already interconnected with one another and so if you want to go to another country for an experience you just go to
8:27
the office at your university and they say Okay, you can go here, here, here, and they kind of set it up for you. Um,
8:33
what they don't set up through Arasmus is all of like the kind of local logistics, uh, and, you know, getting
8:40
students. They kind of say like, okay, you you go there, but it's on your own and
8:46
like here's the address of the university and you have to figure it out, which I think is a good thing in the end. I think that
8:52
gives the Arasma students quite a lot to do. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. the UN US
8:59
universities are a little skeptical of that and maybe skeptical of their own students ability to actually deal with
9:05
okay the uh for so what they want is they want a little bit more uh in place
9:12
as far as structure to be able to help the students kind of navigate everything. But on the same side, what
9:19
what that does is it creates um the opportunity for some programs that want to do this to really get students close
9:28
to the local culture, which often the Arasmus student, you might have a specific an individual who's really good
9:35
at, you know, finding ways to be involved. But a lot of times, yeah, they end in this bubble of Arasmos,
9:41
the Arasmos bubble. And I mean certainly that exists in a lot of American programs but this particular program um
9:49
so we we had uh partners with lots of un US universities that would agree to that
9:57
the students would take academic courses and so we worked with university professors or our own professors um
10:04
and my job wasn't to do any of the academic stuff. My job was I was the coordinator for all the host families.
10:10
So all the students coming into this program, no matter their language level, they could be beginners or advanced
10:16
students, um they had to live with host families. And then everybody else also
10:21
had to do volunteer work. So it was through service learning as well.
10:26
um kind of the there's lots of different ways to call that civic engagement, things like that, but for what for us it
10:33
was a way to um have students as really part of their
10:38
Italian language experience uh out in the community doing things with local
10:45
organizations. And so my job was to manage the host families and create all of these opportunities for students.
10:51
Yeah. I mean funny enough the only experience that I did abroad in sense of like community doing community stuff and
10:59
not learning languages I I was in US I was in the UK doing like lang language exchange programs on summers
11:07
and the only one that I did in like service work was here in Italy in
11:12
Brussia so okay I know what you're talking about I did a lot what did you do I basically we did the deforestation and
11:20
work in in a forest and and clearing paths and putting signs for for tracking
11:25
paths and everything. It was pretty cool. It was less focused on on learning the language on itself. But it it was an
11:32
interesting it's when I start felling in love a little bit with Italian when I
11:38
start realizing oh as a Catalan who speaks Catalan and Spanish this language is relatively coming
11:43
easy you know like yeah I used to listen to a lot of Italian music but it's when I spent here like a couple of months and
11:50
I I went out like speaking Italian a little bit because it's very similar and once you are
11:55
inside of the circle of course I still do mistakes right now when I speak like
12:01
But yeah, I realized that it it interested me and I like it here. So
12:06
yeah, it was maybe the one that triggered why we are here right now. Yeah. Yeah, I mean it is um a thing. I
12:14
mean for me I had this kind of extra immersive thing is that not only would I was I you know sometimes even a
12:21
participant in these things but I was also working with the organizations or working with a school to try to you know
12:28
get to to make it functional for everybody involved. But so I had to have an eye
12:34
for like what are the things that students who are only here for three months, what are they going to be able
12:41
to experience that will give them that, you know, that will get them as close to to that as possible. And of course, you know, not everybody is the same. Some
12:48
people are going to maybe enjoy themselves but not fall in love with anything. But yeah, so that was um what
12:54
I did. And I kind of um uh really liked this position in this this thing that I
13:02
had where I was able to be this this bridge um and I kind of created this
13:08
position for myself and it just I did that for a long time.
13:14
Long time that's the the point. How much time did you spend in because now we are
13:19
in Bolognia. I have the the poster even here like representing let's say like this. So there has been a change of
13:25
city. It has but uh inside of Italy um you spent quite some time in in Seattle.
13:32
Yeah, I did that for 16 years. Okay. And yeah, I mean
13:38
um I got to know the city really well. I made lots of good friends there and
13:44
working with this very unique organization. I think that's the thing.
13:50
Um, pretty early on I kind of recognized, um, although I don't think
13:55
that I saw everything fully clearly, but I did recognize that this organization
14:01
um, and especially the woman who is the director um, were very just different in
14:08
in the way that they thought about um, you know, the business and the the
14:13
program itself. And so I didn't have a very normal um introduction to what it's
14:19
like to work in Italy from like I guess the like fiscal uh point of view or like
14:27
the dynamic point of view like oh if I get this job uh then I'll be able to you
14:32
know maybe apply for another job as I do this. I was just doing that and we were just trying to build this program and
14:39
and focus on that. Um, and so yeah, for 16 years I I did the hat. Um,
14:48
and Sienna is a it's a very different place than than Bolognia.
14:53
Yeah, I can imagine. I know actually. But I want I want to
14:58
ask you later do a little bit of comparison mini game about Sienna Bolognia because it is a different life.
15:05
That's for sure. Whole podcast. uh when does bolognia come in this whole
15:11
equation then like so uh along the way as as it happens you know as we grow as as people you meet
15:18
people uh one of those people ends up becoming the person that you want to marry uh and so I met my wife um she
15:26
actually um was between uh like her
15:34
she she was doing a master's program and then between a master's in a PhD program and she was just kind of looking for
15:40
something to do and actually her father uh who was a physics professor um
15:46
had worked in Sienna a little bit and she's from Pisa. She grew up in Pisa and so her father would sometimes commute to
15:53
Sienna and he knew somebody who worked with the the program that that I was working with and he said, "Oh, you
15:58
should go talk to these guys. If you're just, you know, looking for something in the interim, you could teach Italian for them." Um and so she ended up uh doing
16:06
that. Okay. Um, but she is a quite a remarkable person and and quite
16:12
ambitious. Um, and so that was never going to be her thing is just to be an
16:18
Italian teacher. Um, she's now a professor of linguistics at the University of Malonia. She won an ERC
16:24
which is a massive uh European funded grant. Uh, and she works on
16:30
I don't know how to abstract concepts. Uh so how our minds kind of create
16:36
abstract concepts through language and then what that does to language and so all of that. Um but before she got to
16:44
all of that um you know she she we met in the school where I was and um and you
16:51
know we got along great and you know started dating and then that led to our relationship and um we were we got
16:58
married in 2012. Um and shortly after that she had kind of found
17:05
some some other things that she was interested in. Uh she she got a PhD actually while we were in Sienna but
17:11
from Torino and like she was mostly doing it from a distance to be in Torino every now and then.
17:17
Um and then she found a an opportunity to work in Amsterdam. Okay.
17:22
And when that happened that was 2014 and we had this wonderful kind of two years
17:28
where we had a son uh who was just a baby and he was in daycare in Amsterdam.
17:35
So, we got to um experience the city of Amsterdam. And I was doing this kind of
17:41
like weird thing. Every month I was up in Amsterdam for at least one if not two weeks. Uh from Little Sienna, uh from my
17:49
American point of view, Little Sienna, going up to Amsterdam, doing Amsterdam for a little while, and then coming back
17:56
and working. And uh it was an amazing experience. It was two years, and we kind of left a little piece of our heart
18:02
in Amsterdam. Um, but we we knew that she only had two years in Amsterdam.
18:07
Uh, and the idea of neither of us being employed there, that's a very expensive
18:14
city. Uh, so it was just like, no, we're going to keep going. And, uh, so that ended and then she had a a a brief stint at
18:21
the University of Oxford. So, you can't say no to that. Um, you know, if some that comes knocking at your door. So,
18:27
for her, uh, she was traveling and our son this time was me and Sienna. uh and she was
18:33
traveling a lot back and forth and uh then during that period also we added a
18:38
daughter um and so it was very clear that we all needed to be in the same place and this opportunity at the
18:46
University of Bolognia uh kind of presented itself. There was kind of a moment when both of us were just pretty
18:51
convinced that it was going to be her career that was going to take us out of Italy. Um and then this opportunity
18:58
presented itself and yeah and and this was right before COVID and
19:03
it was it was a bit of a hard decision for me um emotionally uh for the family.
19:11
I mean that was kind of the easy decision. It was like this is what's going to have to happen. But emotionally
19:16
um you know I had done everything with this program and my career was just tied
19:21
to this program. Um, and
Biggest Challenges & Surprising Moments
19:26
the hard hard fact of it is just having a a small independent
19:33
u company really in Italy is really hard. It's a really really hard thing to do. Um, and just just looking at the
19:41
simple math of the situation, like if we as a family need to be together, um, you know, she's going to have an incredible
19:48
opportunity at a great university in a city that we both knew and liked. Um,
19:54
and so the idea was that I was going to be a little bit more connected to the school, but not be the person there all the time. And I really do miss working
20:02
with students uh, all the time. um because that's something that uh I think
20:07
I was good at, but also I mean it's what I knew how to do. Um
20:12
and so I was going to move towards maybe let's do some more marketing, let's do some more things like that. But then as
20:17
soon as we kind of made that decision, the world just kind of fell apart.
20:23
And so that program uh everybody with it just kind of had to go into some kind of
20:28
like odd state of hibernation. Of course, no students to come. Yeah.
20:33
And so I moved to another city with that. Um, and really, uh, I hit a bit of
20:40
a wall. Um, which was that, and here's where it goes
20:46
back to that initial idea of like, what are you going to do after college? I'm going to move to Italy. What are you do?
20:52
It's all right. I'm just gonna and I and I created all this this stuff and and was working with people and doing all
20:58
kinds of things. And in a place like Sienna, you know, you know everybody. And outside of that context, my resume
21:06
had not followed basically this normal steps that
21:13
clear. Uh especially in Italy where things are very kind of structured
21:19
and a little less dynamic I think in in the US which is a lot mentally still
21:24
where I am often when I'm thinking about things and reasoning about things. uh it's a little bit easier to just switch
21:31
like oh I've pivoted from this and now I'm going to do something different and it's I think employers also appreciate
21:38
that a little more there and maybe they it's not that they don't appreciate that here it's that it's just harder to do
21:44
and so I kind of found myself as like uh okay and what now
21:50
yeah so I was teaching uh English back to teaching English um and I was working
21:58
with some these like English language schools uh that exist uh and they're
22:04
like, "Can you work with kids?" And I was like, "Oh, good." Yeah. I was doing that when I when I know how to do it.
22:10
But the energy and I have my own. Wow. That was that was rough. And you
22:16
know, I was like, you know, like doing these classes where you're teaching like little little kids
22:22
after school because their parents want them to do it and they're not, you know, they're not in the mood. Yeah. Yeah. Of
22:27
course. Um, and thankfully I I did find something that uh
22:34
was able to keep me a little bit in study abroad. So I also have this other job now with it. I do mostly online. Um,
22:40
so I do miss the student contact, but it's an organization that hires um media experts. Um, and so it
22:49
actually one of them actually did a podcast this summer in London. They hire professors who are media experts to take
22:56
students from the US although it's open to anybody but it's usually through the US schools um to take them abroad during
23:03
the summertime to do a short um these experiences where they are either
23:09
journalists or one of them focuses on PR marketing but they go out and they uh
23:15
are in a a foreign context they're actually doing stories and projects um and so my job with them is I help these
23:22
professors uh just do the logistics of their their projects and one of them actually is in Bolognia because of me.
23:31
Um and so I was able to work with the students. So you regain a little bit of the
23:36
contact. Yeah, that's nice. But I did uh you know with the the group in Sienna. I'm still in touch with them
23:43
and and collaborate with them, but I it's just not unfortunately the kind of organization that was able to branch out
23:50
when it needed when I needed it to branch out and do anything. So, yeah. Life
23:56
I think a lot of people at this time like co really truncated a lot of moments like it did. Yeah. What was it like for you?
24:03
And were you here or? No, we were in Germany and then uh in the last year it's when
24:10
we moved to Greece, but it was already without the quarantine and without anything to be honest in Germany. I
24:15
mean, yes, we were working from home. I had the lucky part that I'm I was
24:21
already kind of working from home. So, I've been working from home for a long time. Uh didn't change much classes for
24:27
people. Yeah. At the end, I just like maybe I spent even more hours working than I
24:33
should have. Like this is also what happens when you don't have anything else to do than working. Uh so yeah, it
24:40
was it was challenging, but I would say that in Germany and especially in Frankfurt, you were still able to walk
24:47
around. There was no really strict quarantine. There wasn't strict curve bill or night uh
24:53
at night, but nothing else. You could still go for a walk in a park with your partner, whatever. like you could still
24:59
even manage to be like two three households that you put as reference and then go visit that once only.
25:07
Um so yeah it was difficult in a lot of sentences I
25:13
think mentally for everyone stop everything. No, I was I'm a person
25:18
that I'm very social and I love going to have a drink or like I don't know like
25:23
go to see some theater some I don't know sports everything you know and then suddenly everything of that disappears
25:30
100%. Um but yeah it was interesting times to put it that way.
25:37
I every we all lived our like own version of this personal nightmare you know I mean there's you know like
25:43
somebody like you who wants to just go out and do things and just can't and then you know we were
25:49
just you know stuck at home with kids and also then trying to work online and
25:55
you know I was uh there there was a moment one and this is when we were already here because it kind of like
26:01
spained we started co out in Sienna and then ended it here in Bolognia but there was one time when I
26:08
teaching kids my own kids age online with my own kids at home running around
26:15
like this is so this is awful this is uh it's an awkward situation that's for
26:20
sure when does improv come in this whole me
26:26
because at the end we started the episode talking about improj a little bit but I know that you have some
26:31
courses now also inside of the whole thing so improv comes in uh in this a little
26:38
bit COVID. So, um I'm there and one of the things that one like me who is a
26:45
native English speaker in Italy can find is that it's possible to find some jobs
26:52
with the public schools. What's kind of like it's really demoralizing um is that
26:58
you can't get a full-time job as a teacher here unless you as a language teacher unless
27:04
you have gone through the university system in Italy. Okay. Uh which what that does is it means that
27:11
all of the teachers who are teaching English are all Italian. And so the their levels
27:19
vary greatly uh with their ability to actually you know speak or not. And so
27:26
you get uh a lot of teachers whose heart is in the right place u but they don't really
27:32
speak English very well uh or people whose heart even isn't in the right place and they're just like well whatever this is the best job I can get
27:39
and sure I guess I have to speak teach English. I don't really speak it but there you go. Mhm. Um, and what that then creates is this
27:47
smaller opportunity recognized pretty much by the the Ministry of Education that they put in
27:55
funding for language experts to come in and kind of write the ship
28:00
of course a little bit. um because the kids aren't able to have uh constant um exposure to
28:09
anybody who speaks the language or mother tongue. No, also like it's not the
28:15
So you have, you know, all of these other um tons of language schools that
28:20
exist. I mean, there aren't geography schools or or math schools, you know, elsewhere, but there's tons of language
28:26
schools, especially focusing on, you know, mostly Spanish and English. um after school because in the school and they're after
28:32
school things um but there is some funding and so it's possible to kind of
28:37
create a patchwork of um it's called the leto in in Italian
28:43
which is this like expert coming in and doing conversation stuff with kids and
28:48
so you can kind of work at one school and another school and another school and kind of create this patchwork of
28:53
enough hours to kind of resemble a full job full time. Not really. Um, but anyway, I was that's
29:00
what I had that's what I could do. Um, and we were still kind of on the end of COVID. I was working in a middle school.
29:07
Um, getting them to uh do kind of fun activities where we're talking, we're engaging. And I happened to just like
29:15
find some exercises that came from the world of improv. Um, and I took them
29:21
into class and they work like really well. I was able to get kids to have fun
29:27
speaking to each other in English which like that's just like
29:32
that worked and you you know you pass an entire hour of that and the other kids are paying attention and I was like wow this is a really
29:39
powerful tool. Um, I have to give a little shout out to a person who is a
29:46
friend of mine from high school in Denver. Um, because she also seeing what she
29:52
does then kind of helped me put this idea together.
29:59
She has this degree uh in um sports
30:04
psychology and she created this thing called improv alchemy.
30:09
Okay. where she uh works with teams and she actually works with a number of NFL
30:17
national football American football teams. Uh and she works with groups of players
30:23
and often even their families uh who are just joining the team to help
30:30
with the communication. uh because it's such a big jump to go from, you know,
30:35
maybe you're at university and you've kind of got all these people working for you and you're doing things. So now you have a contract, you're moving your
30:41
family, uh they're going to have messages, you have a diet to follow, you have all these things and just and then
30:46
you have a game and then you have to concentrate and you have to learn all these new things and there's so much to do there. And it's kind of like uh she
30:54
had she works with these teams to help with their basically onboarding of new players and families. And
31:00
uh so she obviously is somebody who understands these this powerful tool
31:06
that improv can be. Um and so I this little light went off in my head. I was like maybe like does
31:13
anybody do this? Does anybody use English to I mean I use improv to teach
31:18
English or languages? And I found some things and but mostly what I found is I
31:23
found that it's like um some of the exercises in the inside of you know
31:28
regular English class or like using it specifically for grammar things like that. That's interesting. Wonder if
31:34
anybody does that. And so I already kind of like started this idea. I got it way ahead of myself before uh and one of the
31:44
there were some kids that I was teaching private lessons to their parents uh have
31:51
Fanta which is this massive organization in Bolognia. Um, so they are some of the
31:58
I guess owners of it, the Soji in it. Um,
32:04
and so they do theater for kids and they
32:09
either teaching theater or putting on shows. And I asked them like, "Do you
32:15
know anybody who does improv because this is like I think this is a great idea." And they gave me a phone number of
32:21
improvised. And so I called them up and I said, "Hey, I have this idea. Uh, are you guys
32:27
interested? I'm going to do it." And they were like, "Cool. That actually sounds really cool, but have you ever
32:33
done improv, Mike?" And I was like, "No, no." Like, "Yeah, you might want to you might
32:39
want to come do improv." Um, I was like, "Okay." Uh, and I I went and I did it
32:45
for, you know, I went to the first few lessons and I had a great time. It was
32:51
wonderful, but I was immediately um I discovered immediately that
32:57
yeah, this is there's a lot more to this than than I'm ready for to be a teacher
33:03
uh for doing this. So, I spent two years doing it before really uh
33:10
feeling comfortable enough to um kind of experiment with people and try this this
33:16
thing. And then so now I've been doing it for four years, but last year um it
33:22
created this thing. It's called Impro Conversation uh to help people with
33:28
conversational English. And I I have to be honest, I can't I'm not ready yet to
33:34
work with people who have no English. But I I'm confident that I can work with
33:39
people with very basic to upper level skills. Um, and
33:45
I created two groups uh, a lot with the help of Impro Jungle. They kind of helped me like get the word out like
33:51
this guy's going to come do this thing if you want to do it. You know, the lessons you if I can work with a group
33:57
um, it doesn't cost much for an individual to do. Um, and
34:03
so I told these two groups of people uh that were willing to come be uh my
34:10
experiments like, hey, I'm going to do these things and every week is going to be a new experiment. But I had
34:16
kind of created like the the structure of how at least an 8week lesson of a course would work. Um,
34:24
and you know, as I went and made adjustments and things, but it's amazing
34:29
really. I I'm still amazed and I think that there's a lot to do to develop a lot of things. Um,
34:35
but it really is uh it's it's a way to create the thing that's missing in so
34:42
many language classes. Um, you know, and I've been uh when I was back in Sienna,
34:47
one of the huge projects that I ran was this um project that sent all of the
34:54
native English speakers and we even had a lot of native Spanish speakers, too. I was doing the same things with high
35:00
schools and whoever was teaching Spanish, but native speakers of the languages um going in and through the
35:08
volunteer work that they were doing, they were doing English with kids from, you know, the kindergarten all the way
35:14
through the high school level. And so I had to work with all of those teachers on the back end to, you know, help them
35:20
understand, okay, what our students are capable of doing, why they're there, that they're
35:26
only going to be there for finite amount of time. But I got to see a lot of how
35:34
it all works, you know, uh, language instruction. And you know, I can say absolutely with confidence, I've been
35:41
inside classrooms with uh Italian kids that the way that they're teaching
35:47
English here, um it's not it's not failing at all, but it's not teaching
35:54
them how to have a conversation, speak in classrooms where the Italian
36:00
students are explaining to the American students how English grammar works, you know, and so they're learning it well
36:07
because that's what they're being taught. Um, but then they get into a situation of like, "How are you?" Like, oh, you know,
36:14
it's panic. Um, and that's, you know, from kids all the way up to adults. And so, what I'm doing through this improv
36:21
stuff is it's creating that thing that
36:26
is the spontaneity uh, which is so hard to recreate from
36:31
book. you know, you're not going to get that from a book or a worksheet or even the little exercises that are kind of
36:37
like, okay, let's be I'll be the shopkeeper, you be this, and we'll read our lines here.
36:43
Yeah. Um, you know, you can do that. Just add a little sprinkle of improv to it.
36:48
Yeah. If you do it with improv, it kind of might work, I think. But it's a dynamic of putting, okay, we are doing
36:55
this and we are feeling that we are doing this. I I had the same problem. I must I must accept that the end like in
37:02
Spain we have the similar problem that I that you are describing
37:07
I used to go to a private school after school to learn English and this kind of stuff it's very very common it's a
37:14
common thing I think in a lot of Mediterranean countries probably um Greece surprisingly the level of English
37:20
very good because I think because they never translate anything on TV yeah it's everything like Row and it's
37:26
cool I mean it works like surprisingly sometimes you're like, "What? You are 90 something and you speak this English."
37:32
It's just like, "What? How?" Um, but yeah, in the end, like I I feel
37:37
the pain and it's also because you're sitting there in a school table and they're telling you, "No, you're you're
37:43
a shopkeeper. I'm here." You know, like what are you telling me? I have geography in 20 minutes and six hours
37:50
more afterwards. And then too, there's so many things too like this like let's do something fun. Let's talk about yourself. Let's talk
37:56
about ourselves. Let's talk about music. And a lot of times the kids,
38:02
you know, I mean, I don't know if they're like, "Tell me about yourself right now. What what do I want to tell you right now?" And or like, "Uh, let's
38:09
talk about music. Which music do you like?" Well, maybe some of the music that they're listening to isn't even appropriate for school, you know? So,
38:15
they're hesitant to even talk about they're not going to talk about it in front of the other kids because they're worried about, you know, their image.
38:21
Yeah. And so I think a lot of those things often that are supposed to be fun kind of fall flat because the the
38:28
students aren't willing to to do that with the improv stuff and actually was able to go back into the middle school
38:35
that I was working at where kind of these ideas started happening and I told them that I would only come
38:41
back if they would let me experiment with these things and they let me do it. And what you get is you get you get to
38:49
pretend uh so you get to imagine um and that takes a little bit of work but
38:56
that's how we all did it when we were kids you know and learning our our native languages you know I have my own
39:03
children are bilingual and they uh you know I could my son is now in middle
39:08
school so he knows a little bit more about grammar but my daughter is six she doesn't know the grammar what she's done
39:14
is she's you know uh seen me uh say things and then she plays the role of
39:21
herself in this little thing that we're doing and she says things wrong all the time. doesn't know what she's saying and
39:27
then uh you know she kind of learns the the right places to put them and she can kind of amplify her role a little bit
39:35
and then she's having these little conversations you know with her
39:40
talking about things and um and so with the improv stuff I'm able
39:46
to recreate the the spontaneity but also this very natural way of how we
39:53
interacted with languages and you know I'm not telling Oh, no, that's not how you say that. Uh, maybe I'm taking notes
40:00
and then afterwards after like an exercise, I'll write on the board and say like these things or it's better to
40:06
say it like this in English or if somebody needs a word really quick, I'll give it so that they can proceed with
40:12
the exercise or see what they're doing. But we get to play. I mean, it's just playing. Um,
40:19
and it's powerful though. It's really powerful. Makes sense. I mean, come on. I'm I'm
40:24
learning Italian by doing improv right now. So, I mean, I had already a basic level, but
40:30
being honest, I'm 31 and I don't know grammar of my own languages. So, I am I'm also this listen by and do by
40:37
listen. So, how is it to be because I mean for me my Italian level when I started doing
40:42
improv and now I'm doing Italian as well, although sometimes just does a fun thing. It was mostly fun for me because
40:50
I'll surprise my partner and just like I speak English and so I'll be an English playing person. But how is that for you?
40:58
Well, it's kind of funny until you have one of these grammar exercises that it's
41:03
just like oh let's talk in writing and it's like no no this is not happening.
41:08
No, even for me there was one like we'll do Shakespeare, but it like as it is in Italian, I'm not going to this guy's
41:15
good. Exactly. When and sometimes some references of course they just I don't
41:20
know put some very common person who everyone knows in Italy. I'm just like
41:28
okay I pretend that I know who this person are by references that you're putting in the table. I have no idea who
41:34
are you talking about you know which is I mean that's how a child lives but exactly but at the same time I think
41:40
the audience especially when an improv group and whatever and they already present you ah this is Mark from
41:46
Barcelona and whatever they already presenting you in a way of like okay and people tend to also laugh at this moment
41:52
of like they see your face like and they are like suddenly talking about fedits and you are like and it works you know what is feds what
41:59
are you talking what is anremo you know like this kind of stuff like uh but yeah, it happens and it it ends being in
42:05
a funny situation. So yeah, it's it's nice. I I like it. Being honest, I never did improv in my mother
42:13
tongues. So I did improv in English and I did improv in Italian. So me too, which is funny because now
42:19
in the classes that I'm doing with the the people whether I'm with kids or with adults,
42:25
I also am a participant. I can make a point to not always be a participant but
42:31
often be a participant because I can then offer the native, you know,
42:37
interaction and stuff. But it's funny because that's the first time that I'm
42:43
doing improv in English, which is it's interesting because I'm also
42:48
uh dealing with people who are definitely beginners in improv. Um, and in in the courses that I'm doing, I'm
42:53
not um at least for now, I don't have groups uh that have the goal of doing a
43:01
performance. It's just within our class that
43:06
um but yeah, it's funny because my improv is mostly been done in Italian,
43:12
which is weird. Nice. Um yeah, I would say before we jump to to a little bit of a mini game
43:18
that I prepared for for the episode. Um what would be the tip that you would
Expat Life Hack & Advice
43:23
give from your experience here in Italy? I mean for me it's language. I mean that's just um that's something that
43:31
that's the thing that's just opened all the doors for me. Um and then so like
43:36
what do you do like just learn language like how you do it? So, going to all of my experience and all of the things that
43:42
I've done, um, you have to kind of get down and and and be with
43:49
people. Um, you know, things like, you know, Dualingo, even all the AI stuff that exists now to have a conversation
43:56
with AI, it still isn't going to give you the things that being in the same place with
44:03
other people will give you, you know? So, I mean, my tip is always just go do
44:09
something. And, you know, from my previous experience in Sienna, um, often one of the easiest things to go do is to
44:16
go find something that is like a volunteer, you know. Um, sometimes that's a little
44:22
bit hard to find the network to to be able to get into that. Um, so, you know, but look hard for that
44:29
kind of thing. Um, and so going and doing things in places with
44:36
other people needs to be your kind of that's your engine for learning the language. Um,
44:44
and it's hard. I mean, it's like uh it's more I think it's more emotionally
44:50
challenging, you know, to break those barriers of like I got to get out and go do something and
44:57
and be in a situation where I'm I'm a little bit vulnerable because I don't know what everybody's talking about. Um
45:04
but if you want to get to the point where you do know what everybody's talking about, you got to pass that. You got to get through it.
45:10
Totally. And the sooner one's able to do that, the the better. So yeah, that's like a
45:17
there's like three tips in one. Sounds perfect. Guys, learn languages. Come on. You got to learn the language. You got
45:23
to do it. And you got to do it with other humans, too. I'm big on, you know, like sure there's a lot of wonderful
45:30
online resources, but if you want to be better at speaking a language with other humans, you got to do it with other
45:36
humans. I agree. Hey there, everyone. I hope you're enjoying this episode so far.
45:42
Remember that the best way to stay tuned with the latest episodes of the podcast is by clicking on subscribing YouTube
45:48
and in your favorite audio platform. For extra content and information, follow, like, and comment on our social media
45:55
and visit our website expatexpertodcast.com. Thank you for supporting our podcast and
46:00
let's continue with the episode. All right. So, yeah, what I prepared a little bit, it's I call this the mini
46:07
game section, but at the end it's just like a more fast-paced uh uh question based, let's say like this. And the
Cultural Deep Dive & Fun Comparisons
46:13
first one that I prepared a little bit, it's to know and learn a little bit more about where we're talking the differences between Sienna and Bolognia
46:20
and the different styles of life because also a lot of people who wants to come to Italy have this conception of all
46:27
Italy looks the same and in Italy it's a dolita and no go from south to north and
46:33
you will see that nothing is not even close remotely to be seen. The idea of Italy itself as being this
46:40
kind of unified place is yeah questionable. Maybe let's start with
46:46
simple questions. Let's say like this food wise
46:57
man. It's hard because with these kind of questions like I always want both, you know. I Yeah, I'll just have both.
47:04
Um and I'm a pretty big guy. I can probably even end up eating both of those. I
47:11
I don't know if I have to go with one. Maybe I'll go with the peachy because I think it's a little bit more unique. Um,
47:18
and pasta is is pretty ubiquitous at this
47:25
point. And I think that peachy is not something you're going to find elsewhere. you'll be able to find a
47:31
decent plate of you know talate outside of even though the people in will tell
47:38
you that's not true but it's it's true should have used the probably
47:45
um let's switch to drinks maybe good keanti or good lambus
47:53
yeah I mean like I have my opinion but there are you know like wine is such
47:59
it's a product that is so tied to the earth that the grapes are growing in
48:06
and some of that earth is better for grapes and it's better in Sienna and and
48:14
around Sienna and so the wine in Sienna. However, I can say that what it does
48:20
though is it creates a situation where buying that wine it's
48:27
just more expensive as well. And so there are wines that are not like really
48:33
simple wines. It's impossible for the producers to just keep have like a, you know, a nice three euro bottle of
48:42
wine in the Tuskanyany area because they can't waste their time with that.
48:47
Whereas here you come like and there's like a little white wine called pinto which really is like it's a $3 bottle
48:54
and it's not awful, you know. Whereas so I think that but yeah I mean if you're
49:00
going to give me a wine I'll go with Tuskin. Yeah. Yeah makes sense. I mean I funnily
49:06
enough to be honest like we went to Kante not so long ago. We did a wine tasting didn't convince us that much
49:14
and it's also a matter of like there's so many many wineries right now
49:20
producing Keianti in Keianti. Yeah. And there is this big ones indust like more like even though they are
49:26
family traditionally family but but they are becoming aor big corporation at the
49:32
end and then even you you don't know you you never you need to know exactly where you
49:38
are going and have recommendation from locals I would say if you go to keanti if not you are ending going to tourist
49:45
traps let's say like this but it can be also on a small winery that it's not that good the quality of wine and big
49:52
corporation doing proper wines. It's it's it's strange like it is a little hard find like because of
49:59
Tuscany being the place that it is. Um it is a little bit hard. I was lucky
50:04
enough to have one of my very very good friends in Sienna. He's not from Sienna.
50:09
Um and he actually works at the bank. So he's got his job at a bank, but his passion is wine. And he's gone through
50:15
all of the levels of being a Sumeier. Nice. Uh that he So if I needed to know
50:21
anything about wines, uh and actually involved in he would come uh do wine classes for our students. But yeah, I
50:28
have I have the in. And nice. That's the contact that I'm missing.
50:36
Cool. Um maybe a little bit more on lifestyle like um because they are two
50:42
very different cities. Um let's say historical center of Sienna
50:48
small carfree approach or the portichi in Bologna.
50:54
Um well I mean uh I
51:00
this this is strange but I think that I used my car in Sienna more. I didn't actually live in the city center when I
51:07
was there. I I had at a certain point, but earlier on um when we had kids and everything, we lived right outside and
51:13
it's not a huge place, but um that meant that I had to drive everywhere because there's not like a
51:21
massive transportation system. There are buses. Um you know, our students were using buses going from their host
51:27
families to school and everything, but it was just faster for me to get around and do things in a car. Now, in living
51:34
in Bolognia, I it's much more crowded. Uh I don't live in the city center either here, but there are weeks at a
51:41
time when I just don't like I forget where I parked my car. Yeah. So, yeah. I don't know. But I I think
51:50
the big difference is culturally. Uh I mean, it is it's it's night and day, but
51:56
it's night and day for anywhere with Sienna and anywhere else. Okay. Um, and
52:02
really Sienna is this, it is an incredibly unique place and its
52:08
uniqueness is both its wonderful thing and it's the thing that makes everybody
52:13
just fed up and crazy with it. Um, so they have been uh to it's very
52:20
reductive to say that they play a game um because it's it's much more than a game. But imagine if we uh have a horse
52:27
race that we you know uh the people in the neighborhoods are involved in for
52:32
you know a thousand years then it gets serious. People's lives become you know
52:38
intertwined with this thing and that's what they've been doing. And so they have this the patio horse race. I encourage you to go
52:44
look uh at it and see it if you can. Although I I do have to say that I I try
52:51
not in in the things that I do with, you know, working with students, I try not to promote it as just a thing to go see
52:59
because it's a small thing. See, it's a small place and the more and more people that go to this, especially without
53:05
knowing how it all works, um are the thing that it's kind of, you know, kind of breaking it down a little bit. Um but
53:12
anyway, they they've been doing this horse race for as it is right now for at
53:19
least 500 years. Before that, there was evolutions that came before it for like a thousand years. Um and the people are
53:28
passionate about that. That is what they're doing. That is the thing that dictates life there. And not everybody
53:36
is 100% in on it. There's a lot of people who, you know, have other jobs and they do other things, but
53:44
you need to understand uh this code um that that kind of
53:50
defines everything uh in order to be able to interact with people and you have to meet the locals on their level.
53:57
And when you do um you can find that people are quite open, but you do have
54:02
to meet people on their level. Okay. Um and not everybody really understands
54:08
that. has a reputation of being a place that's everybody says
54:16
sure but they're open when you reach them on their level and then when you
54:21
reach them on their level then you can also kind of show them your level you know and they're they're interested in
54:26
that. Um but there is this kind of constantly having to uh
54:33
interact under this code uh that it all ties back to this horse race, but the
54:39
horse race is connected to neighborhoods and the people are baptized like my son is is officially baptized into one of
54:46
the neighborhoods because he was born in Sienna. um and understanding the the dos and the don'ts and what you can say and
54:53
who you can say it to and moments and and you know when you can go on vacation
54:58
because this is your neighborhood's time to have this like festival every time of the year. So that's not when you go on
55:03
vacation or you know for me as a person I decided to not become baptized in one of the the neighborhoods because
55:11
I want to go on I want to do the things that I want to do and I also didn't grow up with like a group of kids from that
55:17
neighborhood. So, you know, that was my own choice. Um,
55:23
in Bolognia, you don't have that. You don't have to deal with uh understanding
55:30
some kind of like code that's underlying everything. It's a it's a city that
55:36
uh has always been very open to uh, you know, lots of people coming from
55:41
elsewhere in Italy and elsewhere in the world to to interact. There's lots of things. There's kind of, you know,
55:47
there's four or five different improv groups that I found here and Pro Jungle was the one that I ended up working
55:52
with. But, uh, you know, that that kind of stuff isn't happening in a small place like Sienna. And actually, it's
55:58
funny, one of the people who works with who Federico with intro jungle worked with forever is from Sienna, but he he
56:05
worked outside of Sienna most of the time just because it's such a small place that's only concentrating on one
56:11
thing. Um, so it's refreshing in Bolognia often to
56:16
just have regular conversations with people who were coming from a lot of different backgrounds and immediately
56:23
kind of melding whereas being the anomaly. I mean, I was often the anomaly
56:28
uh in so many situations. Uh and CNN, you know, I got used to that, but
56:35
yeah. Yeah. Sounds like you are like the spot in the middle of the harmony, you know,
56:42
in Sienna. And then here here everyone is in the spot in its own way. I feel like
56:47
it's it's in Bologn itself. It's a it's a special case also. Like I think it's by far one of the most leftist cities in
56:56
more like the bears also. You don't see the same
57:01
people going in the street. You see even like this idea of cultural tribes that
57:07
we used to have in the '9s. That doesn't exist anymore. Here in Bologna, you still find, oh, this guy looks more like
57:13
a skater type. This guy is more like in a mo style like whatever. No. And you see the people still dressing as they
57:19
want or a little bit like that. It's it's curious. It's it's a funny it's a funny place. Yeah. I mean definitely when my wife got
57:26
the opportunity here, you know, maybe I don't know. Had she got that same opportunity elsewhere, we might not have
57:33
taken it immediately, but Bologna was a place I mean like the things that you're saying we knew that about this city and
57:39
that it's a a great place to to go. actually is there's a sisterhood
57:44
situation with uh the city of Portland, Oregon in the US where I went to
57:50
university. Okay. And that is is a place that it's just kind of has
57:55
the fame of being a place that's so open that you have to be weird. Like you have to be doing something weird in order to
58:01
be accepted in a place like Portland. And I think that Bolognia is not maybe quite as extreme but has a little
58:07
arriving there. Okay. Yeah, also like talking a little
58:12
bit about this and the culture involved about it. It's also university related
58:18
like Arasma students, people coming and going for studies. Um
58:24
going out like having a drink I suppose Sienna calm evenings for a drink. Bolognia
58:32
hesitant like vibrant nights. No, probably. Yeah. I think that uh unfortunately for
58:37
me in in the time of life when I came to Bolognia um you know a lot of like the
58:46
I haven't been to any clubs here and I know that there are big ones you know I mean I came here and you know we had a
58:53
six-year-old and a one-year-old who came here and so you know that that kind of
58:59
thing and also my experience in Sienna um I was able to you I was able to
59:08
infiltrate a lot of situations and one of the groups of people that I was uh
59:13
really became really close to was uh guys who I played basketball with and they were the ultra
59:19
for the basketball team in Sienna. And there was this wild stretch of years in
59:26
like the 2000 to 2010 time when there
59:31
was some money laundering and it had nothing to do with the team itself, the the club. It had to do with the bank
59:37
that was doing some shady stuff and just funding things left and right.
59:42
But it meant that they had this wild moment where they had one of the top basketball teams in Europe. they were
59:49
playing in like I got to go to like Euro League games and they won the Italian
59:55
title eight years, seven in a row. And so these friends of mine were like,
1:00:01
you know, the wild guys behind the B, you know, and like, you know, he was
1:00:07
like getting arrested and stuff and I wasn't part of that, but those were like
1:00:12
my friends there and hanging out with those guys. I mean like we had some pretty wild times in a very quiet
1:00:19
Sienna, you know. Um definitely more than I like. So the
1:00:25
potential wild times that I maybe could have had in a place like Bolognia. Um it's just not in that point of life
1:00:33
anymore. No, no. I mean I I didn't meant in the sense of clubs because I feel old in clubs and I'm 31. So here in the city
1:00:40
you enter a club and you're like uh like what am I doing? I mean I'm in my 30s. I'm not that old but people it's too
1:00:48
young. I don't know like I I am feeling that. But I do appreciate like in if my wife
1:00:54
and I want to go do something. I remember when we were in Sienna like should we get a babysitter? And it was kind of like to do what you know
1:01:02
like we'll just bring the kids along and go to the same restaurant with some friends uh or go there without kids
1:01:08
which you know there is a moment to do that as well but here uh you know
1:01:14
there's so many things to do and you just look at like what's happening in Bolognia this week you know that's that's one of the things that I actually
1:01:20
tell you know people like who like oh we're going to be visiting uh you know what
1:01:25
what's there to do in Bolognia and I say like okay first of all there's all of the touristy things and those are things that you probably may already know about
1:01:32
but you know with respect to Sienna where you wouldn't look at let's see what's happening in Sienna this week
1:01:37
it's the same uh unless it's the week of the horse race um
1:01:43
and then that's a whole different thing uh you know you like look at what's going on in Bologn you're going to find all
1:01:49
kinds of things all the time and so that I really do appreciate that even though you know I don't get to do as many as
1:01:56
I'd like to do but that is something that's It's great about here. Nice. I mean, I feel in the same It's
1:02:02
like there's there is this Instagram account called Bolognia Pveno. We post
1:02:09
daily. Yeah. About parties that are happening in the city and concerts and live music and so
1:02:16
daily daily Monday to to Sunday every week like and and it's three posts of of things happening. It's
1:02:24
crazy. It's the amount of things. It's overwhelming also. Sometimes it's just like I there is two things in parallel
1:02:30
that I want to go or sometimes you're like all of these and nothing I like nothing of what is happening on all
1:02:36
these long list of things. But yeah, it's it's it's an interesting city in that sense. Uh maybe one last
1:02:43
one uh related more with what you said kids education in that sense
1:02:49
raising kids in a city like Sienna where probably it feels more like people knows each
1:02:56
other better or like it's more small or in a city like Bolognia where probably it's more like okay uh you they have
1:03:04
probably more freedom also doing things. Yeah. Yeah. I don't I I don't know honestly that that's a tough question. I
1:03:11
I think we're very happy with what we have here in Bolognia. Um I will say
1:03:17
that there are some things about uh the the specific Cianese culture. So I don't
1:03:23
know if it would be the same way in another small town in Italy maybe though a little bit. Um but specific to the
1:03:29
scenes, you have the city that really for you know thousand years was broken up into these different neighborhoods
1:03:35
and those originally existed and they still do exist as kind of a way to have
1:03:42
smaller units of the society kind of take care of each other. Um
1:03:48
and so being part of these neighborhoods is kind of
1:03:54
I I saw it as fundamental. That's why I thought it was important to have our child be part of one beneficially. Um,
1:04:00
and you know, as a father, I would take him there and do things and everybody in those situation. Everybody
1:04:07
is everybody's parent. And that's a really that's a that's a thing that I think is pretty special. Um, and so I do
1:04:16
have gone back with my son and he still has some friends there. Um our daughter, she was a baby when she was there, so
1:04:22
she doesn't have as many friends there, but he has some friends still there and also in his neighborhood. Um and during
1:04:30
the paleo uh last year, I was able to do a thing that it's just it wouldn't be
1:04:36
able to do here where he didn't my son, he was in 11, he didn't have a phone and
1:04:42
uh you know, I said I'm not going to bring you into the piaza because it's just too much of a mess. It's too
1:04:49
Yeah, you're not gonna have any fun either, too. And there's no bathroom. Like, it's a whole thing. Um, so you
1:04:54
just go into your Contrada, that's what the neighborhoods are called, and I'll find you when it's done. And that's not
1:05:01
something that I would have felt comfortable doing, uh, like during a concert here in like, all right, my
1:05:08
son's name is Sean. Sean, uh, whatever. You're going to be over there with your friends. Cool. I'll see you in four
1:05:13
hours around here. you know, uh I don't think he would have been comfortable with
1:05:19
that. But, you know, um that is a really special thing that I think that really
1:05:25
is possible in a place like Sienna. That said, um you know, we're a family that, you
1:05:30
know, I mean, we've lived elsewhere in the world. We've done a lot of things and we we want to be internationally.
1:05:37
They're both bilingual and we want to have as many opportunities for them as we can as parents. So, I think Bolognia
1:05:44
in the end does win out a little bit. Um, and I have this, you know, uh,
1:05:49
privilege to be able to also walk back into Sienna and and have a place at least for my son and, you know, is
1:05:56
interested, I'm sure I'll be able to make those connections. Um, but in Bolognia, they uh are just
1:06:03
exposed to so much more. you know, uh, my son's starting middle school now and he has to take the public bus and he
1:06:09
just does it, you know, and and that's a thing that that he does and there's so many more opportunities, I think, here
1:06:16
uh, for them to be exposed to so many different things. Nice. Yeah.
Audience Q&A
1:06:23
Well, um, I will ask you the question that I remember from the audience for for from a because it catched my
1:06:30
attention. So, it was interesting. Yeah, I think it was from a from a user called Anna Ferrera if I don't remember
1:06:36
correctly. Sorry if I but the name or the hashtag or the or the naming. Um she asked what
1:06:45
is the sentence that you cannot get read in Italian now like that you are using
1:06:51
regularly or that you are like uh adopting as a as if it was part of your normal mother tone.
1:06:58
So like okay so last year Uh, it's not it's not a sentence. It's a word.
1:07:04
Okay. It's a I can't do it. I have to like look it up online and like see how to
1:07:09
spell it because I had to write it a lot and I have to say it a lot and I can't do either of them. So, I last year in doing the improv
1:07:16
stuff that I I added a third group. Um, and it was a group of orthodontists.
1:07:22
I know it was a totally weird thing. Um, and they do improv. Well, no. So, I mean, no. Yeah, we
1:07:28
didn't do but they I was like what do you want that's very complex words coming. Yeah. What are you what are you guys um
1:07:35
what are you interested in doing? Uh and they said look it's not for work but it is for work. What we want to do is it
1:07:42
was the people at the university who like a group of professors and their doctorate students who wanted to do like
1:07:49
a team building thing and they um basically they they understood that like
1:07:56
when they go to conferences or host international people they present everything fine in English. So they do
1:08:01
all their work a lot of times in English, but then it comes to like the social dinner or like the activities and stuff and they're like
1:08:08
and so they just wanted to feel more comfortable. The word orthodontists in Italian is odontoatra
1:08:15
odontoatra. I can't do it. I can't I can't spell it every time. I can't. Oontoatra
1:08:21
odontoatra. Like now that I'm practicing I can do it. Sure. But like ask me in 10
1:08:26
minutes and it's gonna like Oh, and and then spelling. I have to
1:08:33
like Google it. Am I spelling this right now? How many O's and I's? Yeah. Um,
1:08:39
but yeah, I don't Is there a sentence that doesn't work? A sentence word. I mean, I I don't know
1:08:45
why I use Minka for everything. It doesn't make any sense because I'm not even speaking Italian from the south.
1:08:51
So, I do I yell at people uh in, you know, the mild road rage that I may have.
1:08:58
That's in all in Italian now. Even when I go back to America, you know.
1:09:03
Yeah. I'm I'm still shouting mala malakas in Greek insulting Greek. Something
1:09:09
especially when driving. It's crazy. But yeah, I mean I don't do it often, but when it happens, somebody crows the car
1:09:15
it Yeah, exactly. It comes with Greek words. I'm I'm saying it in Italian.
1:09:20
Happens. Cool. Um so yeah before closing a little bit the episode I would say like um
Guest Promotion
1:09:28
first of all we talk a lot about what you're doing but maybe um where people
1:09:34
can find you where they can where they can find the conversation groups that you're having right now what are the
1:09:40
projects that are coming soon. Well yeah I mean I'd love so right now I'm teaching the
1:09:46
I'm doing English through improv for people who want to better their English. Um, I would love to do the same thing in
1:09:54
Italian and then also maybe work with somebody else who might want to do the same thing in other languages, not even
1:09:59
me doing it. You know, I'd like to be a resource also for teachers. So, that's one of the things that uh I just had a
1:10:06
little article published in um like an educational resource um website. Um so,
1:10:14
I I would very much like to grow it not only with just English. I could do it in
1:10:20
Italian. Um, I feel a little bit I don't know, do you do you trust that I speak
1:10:25
Italian? I totally do, but I also think that having a native speaker is really important as well. So, maybe uh working
1:10:32
with some native speakers, but also, you know, somebody who's interested in doing this uh for French or for Spanish, you
1:10:37
know, something like that. Um, doing some more like that. So, right now I have a website. It's called Impro Conversation. Um, and because using the
1:10:46
word impro, that's the British, uh, they don't say improv. And so in Italian, it's also called impro. So improver
1:10:53
conversation. Uh, and that's where you can find out about the the classes if anybody would like to to join one of those. You can
1:11:00
join anytime. Uh, there's the same thing on Instagram. And then I have an Instagram and and I
1:11:06
had a blog for two years. And it's still sometimes I'll add something to it every
1:11:11
now and then, but I I did it and it's called Mike All over the place. It's the the same blog is the same name of my
1:11:17
Instagram. Um where I was looking at things from my
1:11:25
perspective as an American traveling between Italy and uh the Netherlands. Um
1:11:31
and so it's called Mike All over the place. It's a little blog that's just still there. Uh, you know, it's kind of
1:11:38
dated now. Like blogs. Yeah, like sounds like a blog. Enjoy it. It's there, right? Yeah.
1:11:46
Nice. Um, and yeah, other than that, I mean, I have an email and a phone, but yeah, let's get that for for deeper
1:11:54
contact. And first I feel very old school and you know it's like I don't have Tik Tok and I you know I don't um I
1:12:00
haven't done as much as I'd like with Instagram or Facebook for the inro
1:12:06
conversation stuff but they exist. I mean right now it's it's at least I mean if it's a point of
1:12:11
contact like as always the links are in the description of the episode. So, uh,
1:12:17
if you're interested and you are here in Bologna to take, uh, the opportunity to improve your English and, uh, in a
1:12:23
conversation way that it's not the standard of putting yourself in front of a book, go check it out.
1:12:28
And I'd love also to if other people are doing similar things, I'd love to talk with people that connect
1:12:35
a network that I just joined that's called the uh, network for applied
1:12:40
improv. Okay. who it's all professionals doing things using improv for
1:12:45
stuff education is nice cool so yeah also if you are doing improv in
1:12:50
other other yeah like use that connect um yeah for closing the episode Mike I
Funny Story & Wrap-up
1:12:56
would ask you if you have any crazy ridiculous funny story that you had from
1:13:02
all these years living in Italy that it would be a nice closing up I have a lot I have a lot have a lot but
1:13:08
I think I'd like to go back to like way back in the beginning of like you know
1:13:14
somebody who is just also learning how to be this kind of bridge between cultures um and the the bridge literal
1:13:23
bridge between the students and host families. Working with host families is just this window into everybody's lives
1:13:30
that is wild. you're just you're literally you in their house sometimes and you know like
1:13:37
trying to you know mediate situations where people are just not understanding each other.
1:13:42
Um and so this is pretty early on in my experience with cease the program in in
1:13:49
SIN is called CE intercultural study abroad. Um so way early on into that uh
1:13:56
we had a student who was going to be volunteering with the local ambulances.
1:14:03
There's a way that you can do that to be a volunteer uh because the ambulances have a lot of
1:14:10
funding that's just from the state. The ambulance organization has a lot of volunteers that are doing things that
1:14:18
are not like the car accident ambulance emergencies. They're also managing a lot
1:14:24
of things like taking elderly people from their home to the hospital and back for an appointment and you can schedule
1:14:30
those things. So all the people doing that are all volunteers. And so that was one of the things that our students
1:14:36
could go do to um be involved. Uh and so
1:14:41
there was a student who had to go to one of the mandatory training sessions and those are happening like right at the
1:14:47
beginning of the program like okay here are all the opportunities for uh the volunteer stuff or the service stuff uh
1:14:54
sign up for them and you go to them. So these students are there for like they've been there for like a week or two and they're already kind of going to
1:15:01
these things. And there was a guy who was uh able to do these training sessions just for our students or also
1:15:08
for other foreign students as well that we would set them up. And so this student was there. She uh was doing a
1:15:15
training session and she fainted, right? So she like, you know, fell on the floor. Huh. Well, it's perfect though.
1:15:21
You got all these people who work for the ambulance organization. So they send her to the, you know, the hospital and
1:15:27
it was just, you know, probably maybe she was starting to get like a virus or something. So it was a whole
1:15:33
combination of things. She was fine. There was no no problem with it. So it was early on the director of the
1:15:39
program and myself went up to the hospital to go pick her up after they told us like we she sent your student to
1:15:45
the hospital like okay we'll go get her and we'll take her back to the host family. And so this is where it becomes
1:15:51
just a situation. This particularly host family uh was a a wonderful woman. Um
1:15:57
she was older as as often is the case. You have a lot of elderly um people who
1:16:03
you know maybe their kids don't live at home anymore and they have extra space and they love cooking for people and that's what they've done their whole
1:16:08
life and so great have a student come in. Um and that's what she so she was
1:16:13
probably in her late 70s. Um, and she she also had unfortunately she had had a
1:16:20
stroke and so kind of one part of her face didn't work well. Also, her eye was mostly shut, you know, and so she, you
1:16:27
know, she didn't see as well. Um, and so we're we by the time we bring
1:16:32
this student up to the house, it's probably like 10 at night, you know, they had taken her to the hospital and
1:16:38
we had gone over everything and let her go and so it was pretty late. Um, and even though it was
1:16:44
late as this Italian woman, these are the people that she works with. And you
1:16:49
know, in her world, you don't have people come to your house and not offer
1:16:56
them anything. We tried to refuse, but it's this back and forth like, "No, we're okay. No, please come in." And so
1:17:02
she made us all come into the house to have some tea. And like the director and
1:17:07
I, we just wanted to get back home. This poor student just fainted. She wanted to like just go. But anyway, there we all
1:17:13
are having sat down on the couch to be forced some tea by uh this woman
1:17:21
uh who's kind of running around and in the kitchen getting things together. Meanwhile,
1:17:27
on the TV, and it's obvious to all of us that she has no idea that the TV is on
1:17:35
and what's on it. She has a huge TV. And this is in a time that's not too
1:17:43
long ago, but long enough ago when you had a lot of like local public access
1:17:48
channels, right? And at 10:00 at night, they're showing some stuff that's a
1:17:53
little bit questionable. So, it's basically a soft porn.
1:17:58
And this woman, I I know this woman. I trust that she is not staying up at night watching porn with her students.
1:18:05
She just basically, you know, she lives alone and for her the television is a thing that keeps her company.
1:18:11
But there we are, all three of us, the director, the student, and myself
1:18:16
sitting on the couch while this woman is there with this essentially it's a soft porn
1:18:23
in front of us and the student and I I kind of, you know, and the director, she's somebody
1:18:29
who is just kind of just embarrassed in situations like this. So, she's just looking at the ground like that. And the
1:18:34
student, she's embarrassed because she fainted and we had to go get her at the hospital. And, you know, she's like
1:18:40
that. And I kind of had to look at her. I'm like, I don't think that your host mom watches
1:18:46
porn. Okay? I just need to say that right now. I don't think that's anything you need to worry about. I think that it
1:18:51
that's just on the TV right now and and that's not something that she's into. Okay? So, if you're worried about that
1:18:57
and then she came in, gave us the tea, and we all sat there and had a conversation as the the movie went on.
1:19:04
Oh gosh. Uh yeah, that uh there were so many things
1:19:11
all happening at one time and I had to my job was to make everybody feel comfortable
1:19:18
in extremely uncomfortable situation. Nice. Well, that I wasn't expecting
1:19:24
that, but Good. Thanks for sharing. Mike, it has been a great pleasure
1:19:30
having you in and finally redoing this live and with
1:19:35
human beings not not in front of the screen. Uh so yeah, thanks a lot for for joining
1:19:41
and for explaining your your experience and the job that you're doing. Um yeah, uh hope that you enjoyed also
1:19:48
being in the in the show. Oh, that's great. I can't wait. I I want to watch it. I want to see watching
1:19:54
yourself is a little weird. It's It is It's strange listening to your voice recorded. Yeah. Uh but yeah,
1:20:00
uh as always, if you like this episode, uh hit the subscribe button, the notification bell. Also, check Mike's uh
1:20:07
channels and give it a little bit of love to all the channels possible that
1:20:13
you can. As always, uh until next time, keep exploring, stay curious, and see you in the next episode of Expert
1:20:19
Experts.