Second semester...let's start!

Hi! The second semester of the English course has started and I will continue to work on my English learning process through the e-ctivities that will be proposed to us. The main goal of this part of the course is to develop our intercultural competence and so…let’s start comparing the two right candidates for the elections in Italy and in the United States!: Silvio Berlusconi and John McCain.

I’ve listened carefully to many videos of their discourses and I’ve noticed some similarities and some peculiarities of these two politicians. As far as their behaviour and attitude are concerned, they both give the idea to be sure of their selves and they tend to speak with loud voice and to articulate words clearly, highlighting some of them with pauses, a louder voice and going slower. Berlusconi uses more hand gestures than McCain and they both are serious while they speak about their program and smiling while they speak about the future.

McCain has the purposes to cut wasteful spending and to keep taxes low but in his discourses he also promises more security by fighting Islamic terrorism, more economic development and changes. He tends to give importance to the value of nation and he often repeat the words proud, free, safe. I think he counts on the sense of nationality that is typical of Americans. For example he uses sentences as “we are American” or “we can, we must, we will”. He also speak about Iraq war but he doesn’t gives so much importance to the situation of the families such as Berlusconi do. It’s important to notice that there are some important men who endorse him such as Bush and Giuliani.
I’ve noticed that he often uses the word “fight” and “challenge” that is a military language.

Berlusconi proposes more development for the world of work, more production and thus more economic development (such as McCain). He also promises to help young people and families that are two big problems of Italy in this period. He tends to begin his speeches by accusing the other political wing and than he proposes his program. Such as McCain, he wants to cut wasteful spending of the state, to cut taxes and to assure more security (in this case not against Islamic terrorism but against immigration).

In general I can say that while McCain counts not only on his program but also on his personality and on his values , Berlusconi doesn’t give much importance to his personal history or values but he focalizes his attention on what he wants to better in Italy. I think the explanation for this difference is the fact that Italians have no more confidence on the Italian politicians, while Americans have.