10 November, 2011

BITTERNESS OF LIVING



@Sabble 
I don't wanna sound unpolite, but any information needed for international student who are wishing to study in the UK can be found either on the UCAS or on the website of your chosen university, so if anyone needs any of these informations... well, United Kingdom's educational system and its university are everywhere online, it won't be too hard to find the answers you're looking for.
Moreover, I believe every situation is different indeed. I could write my painful experiences trying to get those information required by Ucas, but I sincerely hope you won't find any of these difficulties.

Italian school is a pain in the ass.
The education system reflects the society which is part of. It's a static and dying organization that struggle to keep its head out of the water, but ultimately fails drowning into deep oceans of nepotism, incoherence and incompetence.
We focus on dead subjects, that someone in the late 20s set as the most important knowledges that any student can acquire, rather than teaching useful stuff that student can apply in the world outside school. We stuck ourselves into a narrow space within safe boundaries, that protect us (?) from the outside. The result? Students have a one year more of mandatory education, which is usually the one that other young europeans use as Gap Year to experience and acknowledge real world; university aren't really a connection to the work system; they're just a prosecution of high school where once more student have to study, study, study and basically learn by heart subject that ONCE MORE won't probably be useful in the work place.
And once we've graduated, we can either choose to:
a) Try and be defeated in the pursuit of a job.
b) Study more, to get a master or/and a PhD
          (and then not find a job anyway).


Anyone that wishes to escape from this rotten circle, and realizes it on time, goes abroad to study. Living one year in London/New york/ Berlin/ Paris (which at the end becomes at most two months, then the average italian goes back to his mama's kitchen) it's pointless, since you: won't find a job that can support you, won't learn the language, won't gain any relevant experience for you personal CV.
So the smart kid applies to a UK university for a master degree or, better, for a full undergraduate degree.
Unfortunately, the smart kid clashes against the Italian school, who sees him as an anomaly. Italian school it's absolutely not used to deal with international applications. Teachers are more likely going to be annoyed if you ask them to be your referee, and they won't answer to the simple question "Could you please give me a predicted degree of my finals?" either because they're too lazy or they don't wanna have any problem. Last but not least, they can make your life a living hell because you're a kid with ambitions, prospective and goals. Any person like YOU in Italy is seen as a cancer, or probably someone that hasn't yet been infected by the typical italian "male di vivere/ bitterness of living". So yes, the average high school will fight by all means at its disposal to deceive you. Get ready; if you survive, than you will understand why I am so happy to be here, in a place that encourages me rather than destroy my hopes and energy.
Also, most of the other student won't understand you. Cmon, they spend their final year talking about "yeah, maybe I will do medicine... or maybe law, or architecture, or engineering, or art. Maybe literature."
(WTF??? -.-)
A mixture of absolute nonsense, that makes crystal clear they have no idea of their future. Anyone who does it's either a nerd, a twat, or a misfit. Careful: they could even accuse of cheating during your finals because of this. It happened to me. That's what envy can do to people.

Italy really needs to open its eyes and start to support who have initiative. But i guess we're just going to die slowly, and recognize what we have done to our society when it's definitely too late.


Chinese school...

and Italian's. Find the differences.

6 comments:

  1. Oh God. My opinion is exactly the same as yours. I hate Italian school system and I totally think most of the subjects we study at High School is completely useless(has anybody said "Latin" yet?) and even the potentially useful ones go to waste when they are just remembered by heart.
    I don't want to stay here, damn, I can't stand this. I've been two weeks(yeah, that's nothing compared to your experience, but it was enough to me) in London this summer and I hated how we Italians seem underdeveloped and closed-minded.
    And most of all I hate my teachers who are a bunch of incompetent nuts, they are the REAL misfits, and claim to teach us how to be even more than them. I'm scared to ask my English teacher to write me reference letter because I know for sure that my English is better than hers, but I can't ask anyone else.

    Well, it'll be hard but I definitely have to try. Thank you very much and enjoy your awesome student life in Leeds and Asia ^^ I'll keep reading your blog(s) :)

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  2. Hi! This is all very interesting, but when you say: "Living one year in London/New york/ Berlin/ Paris [...] it's pointless, since you: won't find a job that can support you, won't learn the language, won't gain any relevant experience for you personal CV" and the "which at the end becomes at most two months, then the average italian goes back to his mama's kitchen" part, I was wondering: do you personally know people who have done that? Have you? If no to both, how did you form these opinions? Did you hear/read stories of specific people? If yes, what happened to them to make you say this?
    Ciao :)

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  3. I know four people that have done so, and came back after a couple of months. They went to London, stayed a week in a hostel with their friends, looked desperately for a job and a room the week after, starve after three week cos they had spent all they money, end up accepting a not-so-legal and extremely underpaid job because they either overestimate their abilities or underestimate the cruelty of life abroad. Before the end of the third month, they were home again.
    It was silly and pointless, as I said. Plus, they weren't exactly people I respect. I have never met anyone who has actually succeeded in going abroad from nothing, find a job and create a new life without having any connection/a job found from his or her hometown. I am pretty sure they do exist, I have simply never met them. Though I strongly believe they never get a really helpful and well-paid job, and overall is always an experience that unfortunately, nowadays, is not as hard and impressive as it could have been 10 years ago. People that succeed in making something really impressive and important are really few, or simply chose to follow an easier and less nonsense way to do it.

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  4. I'm sorry you think what we study in italian schools is useless. Maybe we're narrow minded or whatever, but having studied abroad tought me that thing are not good just if they're useful; things are often good if they're beautiful. Why should it be useless to study latin or latin literature? Whithout my knowledge of latin, learning russian would have been extremely more difficult than it actually was. More: literature, art, poetry... They all are USELESS things, I must agree on this, but - still - they're beautiful and I'm happy to learn about those subjects.
    We should try not to put every part of life in such a strict scheme. Italian school IS good if you want to create a cultural background on which you'll be able to build something new. Of course, if you just need some technical skills or whatever you can actually use in real life - I must say - you won't learn it in any italian classroom.
    I've never been mistreated because of my choice of studying abroad and most of my teachers have always been interested in it and really helpful.
    Saying that "the average high school will fight by all means at its disposal to deceive you" is, somehow, really blind. I always complain about my school because I have to study hard, but I will never be able to say that my school is not teaching anything to me and is just trying to deceive me. I'd be lying.

    Of course, different places, different schools, different experiences, different points of view ;)

    Ciao Leti

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    Replies
    1. You misunderstood me, or maybe I didn't express clearly my thoughts. I have studied for 5 years something that could be defined useless as well, and I couldn't be happier of my choice. What is definitely useless is the approach used by the average italian school to teach such subjects, which usually ends up with students hating - almost loathing a certain subject. You cannot say this is not true, unfortunately. We are not taught to find a way to think about these things by ourselves, neither we are to use these knowledges in a way that can be applied in nowadays world. And...maybe you were lucky, but I can assure you my school was nothing but against my desire to study abroad. To quote you "Of course, different places, different schools, different experiences, different points of view ;)" maybe in a different environment I'd had a better opinion on italian schools.
      Holaaa Andre :D

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