Alberto : SYLE Report
The experience I had in Australia, through Servas SYLE, was fantastic; live the Australian way of life for a month, working daily with the English language, it was just as.
During these four weeks, I got to know extraordinary people, through a daily sharing of life experiences.
The people who hosted me have shown extraordinary human qualities, allowing me to feel at home.
The greatest discovery, net of the extraordinary places that I visited, were the numerous dialogues with the host families, which allowed me to fully understand Australia as a whole, from the socio-political point of view, to the economic one, from the cultural one to the juridical one, passing through numerous interesting gastronomic, naturalistic and environmental experiences. All this allowed me to look critically at the Australian reality, appreciating its many merits and understanding its defects.
I feel I have to advise young people of my own age this experience, made for those who want to get involved by learning the English language and approaching the typical Australian multiculturalism.
A warm thank you goes to Servas Australia, in the person of the coordinator Lauren Gordon, and Raffaella Rota, Italian coordinator of the SYLE projects.
A particular thanks to the lovely Servas Hosts:
- Valerie Orton
- Pam and Gil Webster
- John and Rosemary McLoughlin
- Robyn and Stuart Kerdel
Alberto Colamussi
Servas Italy
L'esperienza che ho avuto in Australia, attraverso Servas SYLE, è stata fantastica; vivere lo stile di vita australiano per un mese, lavorando quotidianamente con la lingua inglese, lo è stato altrettanto.
Durante queste quattro settimane, ho conosciuto persone straordinarie, attraverso una condivisione quotidiana di esperienze di vita.
Le persone che mi hanno ospitato hanno dimostrato straordinarie qualità umane, permettendomi di sentirmi a casa.
La più grande scoperta, al netto dei luoghi straordinari che ho visitato, sono stati i numerosi dialoghi con le famiglie ospitanti, che mi hanno permesso di comprendere pienamente l'Australia nel suo insieme, dal punto di vista socio-politico, a quello economico, da quello culturale a quello giuridico, passando per numerose interessanti esperienze gastronomiche, naturalistiche e ambientali.
Tutto questo mi ha permesso di guardare con occhio critico la realtà australiana, apprezzandone i numerosissimi pregi e comprendendone i difetti.
Sento di dover consigliare questa esperienza ai giovani della mia età , fatta per chi vuole mettersi in gioco attraverso l’apprendimento della lingua inglese ed approcciando al multiculturalismo tipico australiano.
Un caloroso ringraziamento va a Servas Australia, nella persona della coordinatrice Lauren Gordon, ed a RaffaellaRota, coordinatrice italiana per i progetti SYLE.
Report by the hosts:
From Valerie Orton
I recently had the privilege of hosting a young man from Italy on a SYLE program. I hadn’t heard of it either! It stands for Servas Youth Language Exchange. Alberto Colamussi applied to come here and stayed with four hosts – two in Sydney and one in Melbourne and one in country Victoria. I was his first host and luckily wasn’t working that week, so played tour guide. We drove down to Wollongong via the National Park, wandered around the city for a couple of days including tours of the major churches and lunch at the fish market. I also took him to the zoo via a walk along the Sydney Harbour foreshore, and of course a ferry ride to Manly. We walked and walked while we chatted, laughed and I gave him some English lessons.
We kept in touch during the rest of his stay and I know he had a wonderful time, and felt that all the hosts looked after him beautifully.
There is another SYLE young lady coming soon and if you are available I’d recommend thinking about hosting her.
And for we slightly older people, Lauren Gordon, our Secretary advise me that there is a program for us! It's called Making Connections - you can propose such a program to anywhere you'd like to go and the Servas country group can organise it for you.
Making Connections can be any sort of longer stay program, including language stays.
Lauren told me that there is supposed to be a list of programs already offered worldwide going around but it's also possible just to contact a country and make a proposal and they organise! So, many opportunities to find out about.