Exchange Students Soak Up American Culture

For 42 students from Italy, summer English classes at Cal State Los Angeles were academically challenging. But just as important, they said, were off-campus adventures to learn about American culture: riding buses, touring movie studios, partying at nightclubs and eating at In-N-Out Burger.

“I’d like to experience life as real Americans do,” said Luca Pedrotti, 23, who was enrolled in the Italian Summer Program at the Eastside campus. “This is what I’m looking for, to live true Los Angeles life.”

Over the past month, the Italians -- all from Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan -- took intensive language courses five hours a day, five days a week, and then explored the sprawling landscape of Los Angeles, from Bel-Air to skid row.

“You can’t live in this country without learning about the culture,” said Sally Gardner, director of Cal State L.A.’s American Culture and Language Program, which sponsors the courses. “They are learning about our customs, our culture, our food.”

The Italian students, who all knew at least some English before their trip, paid about $2,000 for their classes, food and on-campus apartments with kitchens. They took morning courses customized for their group and afternoon classes with the 187 other foreign students enrolled in the American culture program this summer.

After their courses end on Friday, most of the Italians will return to the Milan area and resume preparation for careers in business, advertising, translation and psychology.

With many American students away from the Cal State campus for summer vacation, the Italians often practiced conversation with their teachers. For more exposure, they ventured from the university’s somewhat isolated location just west of Alhambra aboard Metro buses for trips to downtown, Santa Monica and Rodeo Drive. They took weekend trips to San Diego and San Francisco and frequently ate at fast-food restaurants.

The students picked up mixed impressions of Los Angeles. They were dismayed by the large number of homeless people but impressed by the racial integration.

“In Italy, all races are not combined,” said Giovanna Pedrinelli, 24. “It’s very good [to combine races] because it’s the future, but in Italy, we are not used to it.”

American food took some getting used to as well.

“We don’t like it,” said Frederica Piga, 24. It’s “too fat, too rich. Our stomachs are not used to that. Italians don’t use ketchup and mustard. We eat pasta, veggies, olive oil and tomato sauce.”

Learning slang was important to them. They watched movies like “Forrest Gump” and “Dumb and Dumber” in class to learn colloquialisms, such as “stupid is as stupid does” and “freaking out.”

In a Practical English course, the students spent 10 minutes playing slang bingo, with one student giving clues.

“Where you go to get drunk,” said one student.

“The liquor store,” several yelled while crossing off that phrase from their bingo card.

“A man that obliges women.”

“A pimp!”

As part of an assignment in this course, Pedrotti had to ask an American about the differences between New York and Los Angeles. His answer came from a Texan who was at a barbecue Pedrotti attended: “New York has intellectuals; L.A. has surfers.”

Outside the classroom, the students’ toughest challenge was tackling Los Angeles’ mass transit system.

“The problem here is, the city is too big,” said Francesca Parziale, 24, from Turin, Italy. “It’s difficult for us to visit because you must ask how to get where.”

During her second week in Los Angeles, Parziale and a friend tried to reach the Huntington Library. But they encountered several bus drivers who, said Parziale, “were not informed about the routes.”

“We kept asking, ‘Where is?’ ‘Where is?’ and no one knows,” Parziale said. Seven buses and two hours later, the pair finally reached their destination, only to find it closed.

On a recent afternoon, a dozen of the Italian students stood on a Beverly Hills corner trying to decipher the best way to reach Sunset Boulevard, without Metro maps or schedules, and the best venue for a night of food and fun.

They boarded a bus headed for downtown, transferred to a Sunset-bound one and received advice from passengers.

“You’re looking for Sunset?” asked an elderly woman. “Sunset and what?”

“Ahh, we don’t know,” replied Francesca Fusetti.

“Because Sunset is big and goes to the ocean and downtown.”

“Ahh, we don’t know.”

Upon discovering the students’ nationality, the passenger tried to help. “There’s a nice Italian restaurant ... “

“No, we don’t want to try Italian food,” said Fusetti, almost frustrated at the suggestion.

So the students got off and walked a few blocks on the Sunset Strip, read several menus and settled on Carney’s Restaurant. Their trip culminated with eating hamburgers and hot dogs in the train car that houses the restaurant.

Foreign exchange experts said international students are beneficial to America’s economy, its security and its image abroad.

When foreign exchange students hear misconceptions about Americans, “they can say, ‘Hey, I was there, and I saw these people, and it was not like that,’ ” said Yenbo Wu, director of the Office of International Programs for San Francisco State University. “This friend-making is very important right now.”

During the 2002-03 school year, 586,323 international students attended colleges and universities in the United States, according to the Institute of International Education, a nonprofit administrator of the Fulbright Program. Only 3,287 Italian students studied in America last school year -- tiny compared to India’s more than 74,000 students in the States.

“Studying abroad, even a few weeks outside your own country, gives you a whole new perspective about yourself, the world and the people you are visiting,” said Allan Goodman, president and chief executive of the institute. “It’s not so much the length of time as it is the dramatic act of leaving your country and hunkering yourself down in this new environment.”

Roberta Sironi, 22, however, wished her stay at Cal State L.A. was longer than a month.

“When we arrived here, a month seemed to be very, very long,” she said. “I wish I had more time. But I’m young, and I will come back.”