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THE END OF AN ERA

It seems that this is the last time I will be checking in with this blog. What better to do than reminisce on what I’ve learned as I play an imaginary highlight real in my mind? Quite significantly, before this course I wasn’t even certain of what my culture was. I didn’t see myself as being a cultural person at all. Now I understand that it is exactly because I am so immersed in my own culture that I’m unaware of its existence, and it takes stepping outside of my own cultural context to be able to see it. I believe that pluralistic ignorance was the most interesting topic for me. I was ignorant to it prior to this course, and learning about it opened my eyes up to things that concern me as a young adult. Reading about it, I was able to look back in my own life and think to myself “wow, this phenomenon does seem to exist”. However, I probably would have never figured it out on my own. 

The stark contrasts between culture in Eastern Asia and Western culture really struck me and it was enlightening to be made aware of the ways in which culture can influence our psychology, and even the way we scan scenes with our eyes, for example. I also found it fascinating that different parenting styles can have different influences in different cultures, and my experiences very much lined up with the predictions that would be made of my outcomes on the basis of my parents�� parenting styles.

A random tid-bit that I thought to be interesting was that the sleeping pattern characterised by two periods of sleep separated by a couple hours of wakefulness in the late night is likely the “natural” sleeping schedule. This actually describes my sleeping schedule quite well. Some time in between 2 and 4 in the morning I will wake up and remain awake for a couple of hours, before falling asleep again. I always thought there was something wrong with my body clock, but perhaps there is something right. 

Before this course I would barely consider to question the findings of studies on the basis of the findings not being replicated in non-WEIRD societies, but now I understand the importance of doing so because of the large impact culture has on each of our lives and therefore our development.

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PREDICTING EASE OF ACCULTURATION

The Cultural Psychology textbook was discussing factors that are predictive of how smoothly an individual would acculturate into a new culture if they were to move, which made me curious to predict how easy it would be for me to acculturate if I moved to Italy. Moving to a culture with a small amount of cultural distance from your heritage culture is more likely to result in successful acculturation. 

One of the most important predictors is language proficiency, and the more similar the language of the host culture is to their mother tongue, the easier it will be to learn it. I am confident that I have the basics of Italian down enough to understand most of what people say to me. However, the practice I have had in having a back and forth flowing conversation is very lacking. In terms of its similarity to English as a language and thus the ease at which I’d be able to become fully fluent, there are many structural differences in the language. However, many of the words themselves are similar to English words and you can often identify what an Italian word translates to in English just by looking at it without any other contextual cues. The average TOEFL score of Spanish and French people was shown to be 85 and 86, respectively, and these are the languages most similar to Italian. This isn’t as good as the 100 scored by Dutch people, but is much better than the Japanese’s 70.

A country with many immigrants would be much easier to adjust to than a homogeneous society. I thought that Italy was a very homogeneous place, but upon googling it, I discovered that it has the 3rd most immigrants of any European country. Based on my physical appearance alone, I think I would blend in quite seamlessly in that I suspect others wouldn’t be able to identify me as not being Italian before I open my mouth. This would probably make my acculturation journey a bit easier.

I already am familiar with certain parts of the host culture thanks to the remote acculturation I have been doing, which would improve my ability to make friends and maybe attenuate the intensity or duration of my crisis stage. For example, I already love Italian food and I probably know more about old Italian horror movies than anyone I may encounter. However, my knowledge on pop culture in the 21st century could be brushed up on a bit. 

Cultural fit is also important to consider, meaning I need to think of how well my personality fits with Italy's values. For one, I have an independent self-concept. According to a map of individualism of IBM employees found in the textbook, Canada scores between 80-91 on scores of individualism, and for Italy scores are a bit less, but still on the individualistic side at 70-79. Extroverts tend to fare better in places where the people are generally extroverted as well. I am an introvert, and stereotypes would lead me to believe that people in Italy are extroverted. However, these are just stereotypes. I was somewhat mistaken in my belief that Italy is an extremely homogeneous place until I googled it and discovered how many immigrants they have, so it’s possible they are also much less introverted than I believe. In any situation, overall I think that moving to Italy would lend itself to a relatively smooth acculturation process.

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MY MORAL INTUITIONS

When talking about the five moral institutions which fit into the three codes of ethics, the author of the Cultural Psychology textbook gave a few scenarios to help individuals determine how much they value each moral institution. He said to name your price to violate each. The more money it would take, the more you must value the ethical principle. Given that I have liberal views, based on previous findings I suspect I will value avoiding harm and protecting fairness the most, which both comprise the ethic of autonomy. 

To determine emphasis on the importance of avoiding harm, he asks the reader how much money they would require to stick a pin into a random child’s hand. Well, I’ll start off by saying that jail is one place you will never take me alive. What he is asking would constitute assault, which is punishable by jail. Therefore, I just wouldn’t do that period. My answer more-so indicates my jail aversion than my dedication to avoiding harm, though. Even if I was guaranteed to not face legal sanctions, I’d be very hesitant to prick a child on moral grounds. It would need to be a life-changing amount of money, or I’d need to be in a very dire situation that could somehow be rectified by poking a random child. 

To assess my intuition to protect fairness he asks how much money it would take for me to turn down a friend’s request to help him move into a new apartment, after he had already helped me with the same thing just a month prior. Honestly, it wouldn’t take too much. I’d help them if I didn’t have anything going on, but there are much more enjoyable things I’d rather do with my time, and I don’t really feel morally obligated to help. Pay me $20 and I’ll come up with an excuse for why I’m busy that day. My intuition to protect fairness doesn’t seem to be very strong based on this scenario, although my own laziness might be confounding the results a bit. 

To determine loyalty to ingroups I could consider what it would cost to get me to burn a Canadian flag.. Personally, a flag doesn’t mean much of anything to me. It’s just a symbol and nothing more. My only reservations would be accidentally burning myself or offending others. I’d take $50 for the task. 

Respect for authority, the author says, could be determined by the money required for me to slap my dad in the face (with his permission) for a humorous skit. Well, I’d slap him for free if he gave me permission. However, if I’m acting in a play I think I deserve some compensation. I’d need to find out the details of this gig to name my price.

Lastly, I can gauge the strength of my intuition to achieve purity by my willingness to cook and eat my dog after it dies a natural death. I love my dog and I would not want to eat her, much less be the one to cook her. I think I could do it with $5000.

Based on my answers, it would appear that I have the strongest intuitions towards avoiding harm and achieving purity. However, I think that his scenarios weren’t very good, because most of my answers were guided by something other than the actual moral issue at hand. There are multiple aspects about each task that make them unappealing to do without incentive, some of which are unrelated to ethical concerns.

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MENTAL ILLNESS AND CULTURE

The topic on mental disorders in different cultures was intriguing to me, because I never before considered how something that we take to be an objective psychological condition could simply not exist in other cultures. It wasn’t much of a mental leap to realize that other cultures may categorize disorders in different ways and not consider one thing pathological that we would consider pathological here. I have personally thought about that topic before, because it seems that politics are involved in the creation of DSM-5 categories to some extent, and I try to avoid thinking in ethnocentric ways. Additionally, I had learned about the importance of being culturally aware as a therapist in my Introduction to Clinical Psychology class years ago. We didn’t so much learn about cultural variations in actual criteria for diagnosis however, but more-so an awareness and respect of the norms and customs of clients’ respective cultures. In fact, it was likely these classes that triggered my pondering on the topic. 

However, what really struck me as shocking was the fact that certain clusters of behaviours that constitute a disorder may occur in certain cultures but not even be present in another, such as dhat. An interesting culturally-bound disorder is hikikomori in Japan, where people self-isolate for at least six months and will confine themselves to their room, with their parents actually allowing it and not intervening, perhaps even bringing meals to their door. I have to wonder if this disorder would be present in my own culture if parents here held the belief that intervening could have disastrous consequences and were thus more inclined to allow the behaviour to continue. I honestly think I might take part. However, I can’t help but wonder what distinguishes this from agoraphobia in Western cultures. Additionally, it is a culturally-bound syndrome for which there is no DSM-5 category, and it may be misdiagnosed as other disorders. I imagine that hikikomori isn’t on the radar of most Western psychologists. Because of this, and that people with this disorder would be unlikely to seek help for it due to the very nature of the disorder itself, I can’t help but wonder if it’s more common in Western cultures than we know. It would be the family that would probably need to address the problem, and families in Western cultures would be unlikely to let the behaviour reach the 6 month time period required for a diagnosis in Japan.

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BABIES

Over the last week or so I have watched quite a few episodes of the Netflix series titled “Babies”, and it has made me think a lot about the topics covered in Cultural Psychology. It was very interesting and informative to view some of the research behind certain concepts I’ve learned in the course. For example, one of the few accessibility universals that has been identified is an understanding of the basic laws of physics. An understanding of gravity was demonstrated in young infants by having them watch a puppet show where an object either fell when its support was moved, or appeared to remain levitating. They measured the length of time babies looked at each scene, as this was believed to be an indication of their interest. It was found that by 4-6 months infants already looked much longer at the unexpected scene that violated the laws of gravity, as compared to the expected scene. These results indicate that the infants were aware, even at such a ripe age, that something strange was going on which went against their expectations. The fact that this understanding can be found so soon after birth supports the idea that it is an innate human ability, and may represent a necessary human capacity. This makes me wonder if they would find the same results with even younger infants. However, attempting to conduct such a study could be problematic because, as noted in the show, it takes babies a number of months to gain sufficient control over their eyes.  

It would also be interesting to see what would show up on an fMRI during studies while infants view scenes that are in agreeance with or violate their expectations of physics. However, as I also learned in this show, fMRIs using infants are very difficult to complete successfully because they require the individual to stay still and to remain focused on the movie in order to get an accurate reading. The first one ever done on an infant who was awake while watching movies was at the age of 6 months, and it took many, many tries to get this to work. So, a study such as this would presumably be possible, albeit quite difficult and time-consuming. 

Overall, this was quite an informative and interesting show. One thing I liked about the series is that the research wasn’t solely limited to American cultures, as I recall multiple different countries being represented within each episode. However, Westernized nations did seem to be focused on to a greater degree than non-Western cultures. It’s too bad that we can’t as adults simply remember what life was like when we were babies, because then it would be infinitely easier to unravel the mystery of their minds. In fact, the mind of the infant would hardly be a mystery at all if this were the case.

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PLURALISTIC IGNORANCE IN THE DAYS OF YORE

My lifestyle and health habits tend to be strongly influenced by whichever environment or cultural context I am in at a given time. These days I spend most of my time in my bedroom, where my laptop fulfills all of my school and leisure needs. I feel a bit like an elderly has-been reminiscing about the days of yore that feel a lifetime gone, but there was a time that I was deeply immersed in the campus culture at StFX. At most universities, and some would argue AT StFX in particular, drinking is a huge part of the culture and social life. When you live on campus at StFX, the weekend begins on Wednesday night for many people, meaning that it is the norm for people to binge-drink and go out on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday every week. I tended to just do Thursday-Saturday nights because of my schedule as a science student. In any case, it can’t be good for a person’s health whether they are binge-drinking three, or four nights, a week. In most other contexts, someone who is drinking to such an extent would likely be considered an alcoholic, and there are various negative health consequences, including liver damage. On StFX campus, however, it would probably be considered more strange if one weren’t to drink.

Knowing what I know now about pluralistic ignorance on university campuses, I can’t help but wonder whether such an effect was present in my group of friends or among the students at StFX more generally. As you, my fans and readers of this top secret blog likely know, pluralistic ignorance is a phenomenon that has been found among students on university campuses with respect to drinking culture. With this phenomenon, students hold a false belief that their peers are comfortable with regular heavy drinking, and thus pretend that they themselves are comfortable in an attempt to conform to this falsely perceived norm, even though they are not. I don’t believe that I personally experienced a pluralistic ignorance effect, because I was excited to have freedom for the first time in my life and I was completely comfortable going out and drinking every single time that I did. However, it’s possible that I was an outlier. Looking back, there were some hints to suggest that some of my friends may have had some reservations about drinking as often as they did. Friends of mine would sometimes debate whether or not they wanted to drink that night, citing that they should probably take a break from drinking on one hand, and a fear of missing out on the group activities if they stay home on the other. If I hadn’t been personally enthusiastic about the idea of partying, I can see how the peer-pressure or perceived norms of the drinking culture may have been enough to make me go along with it anyways. In any situation, it's certainly interesting to consider how something considered pathological in other Western contexts is encouraged, promoted, and normalized in the University setting.

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SHOULD I BE CONCERNED?

Reading about the Five-Factor model of personality in the textbook made me very curious to see how my personality would measure up using such an approach. So, I set out to take a test myself so I could see. Unfortunately, I was unable to find the official version, so I took a test on http://www.personal.psu.edu/~j5j/IPIP/ instead. Therefore, the results may be different than they would be if I took the official test. I went into the questionnaire with an expectation of being high on agreeableness, openness, and neuroticism, and low on conscientiousness and extraversion. The results came as a shock to me, in part because I was found to be low on agreeableness, and in part because of just how extreme my results were- in three of the five domains I had the most extreme overall score possible. This led me to question the validity of the results, so I decided to also take the shorter version of the quiz that was posted on the same website. My results are below (L= long version, S= short version).

Extraversion:

L: 32

S: 18

Agreeableness:

L: 1

S: 1

Conscientiousness

L: 1

S: 6

Neuroticism

L: 99

S: 99

Openness

L: 61

S: 90

I’m a tad bit confused about how I scored a 1 on agreeableness, given that I am a pushover who has an intense dislike of confrontation, although I assume my extreme distrust of everyone around me and apparent low level of altruism (oops?) has something to do with it. For me, the underlying facets within each of the five traits didn’t seem to covary together, although I didn’t do any statistical analysis to see their level of covariance. For example, my scores on Extraversion for the long version were Friendliness- 5, Gregariousness- 68, Assertiveness-1, Activity Level- 21, Excitement-Seeking- 99, and Cheerfulness- 26. For Conscientiousness I scored below 10 for all facets except for Achievement-Striving, where I scored a 70. The only domain where my scores were consistently on the same end of the distribution was neuroticism, where I scored high on everything. Apparently if I were an American, I would fit in best if I lived in New York or Massachusetts, because I am neurotic and not conscientious.

The textbook gives a couple prompting questions, such as whether the five-factor model represents largely Westernized ideas about personality, given that most of the research on it comes from such societies. I would have to answer with a resounding yes, because research with other cultures has identified some differences, such as openness to experience not being a factor for Chinese people, and the finding of an additional personality trait of “interpersonal relatedness”. Research with other cultures found various additional differences in traits as well. I’m honestly a bit confused by the concept that certain cultures could just not have a personality trait, unless they involved certain practices that simply don’t exist in other places. Everyone has experiences, and I would assume everyone would have a certain level of openness to these experiences, even if that level is 0. So in my brain, Chinese people should also have a certain level of openness to experience, although perhaps they don’t place emphasis on that trait, and maybe the underlying facets don’t show covariance in the same way they do in Western cultures. Similarly, I would also think that Western cultures would have some measure of interpersonal relatedness too. We also have people and relatedness to certain people, so how would we not have a level of interpersonal relatedness? Anyways, thinking about this is starting to hurt my brain, and it’s possible that I’m simply bitter about the way this test evaluated my personality and therefore am looking for ways to discredit it in my mind. Until next time, readers of this top secret blog.

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IF AMY CHOU WERE CANADIAN

I often don’t like to do assignments that have to do with reflecting on my life, because everyone else tends to have positive things to say, such as how their parents made them a great person and always believed in them. I have had the complete opposite experience and so I always end up complaining and sounding extremely cynical. However, that’s exactly what I’m going to do here because I find it quite interesting how well certain lessons from psychology explain my current state. Reading the textbook for this class, I found the section on parenting styles especially interesting because I feel like an exemplary case study of how different parenting methods can lead to different outcomes cross-culturally. My parents would definitely fit the description of being “authoritarian” parents. In fact, the description of the parenting endorsed by Amy Chou in the book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom” sounds just like my parents, except that acting in plays was yet another thing I was expected to do, and my parents didn’t actually help me with anything through “training”. Their lack of training is to be expected, as my parents are Canadian and training is thought to be a cultural aspect of parenting that would likely be added if the different parenting styles were redefined for East Asian cultures.

Even in high school I wasn’t allowed to stay out past 5pm on school days, and given that school ended at 3:20 and it took 40 minutes to get home, this meant I could spend time with friends for one hour, assuming they conveniently lived in the same direction as me. I found it to be very frustrating because none of my other friends had such restrictions and so I always felt like I could never become as close of a member of the group as everyone else was. I always imagined that I wouldn’t find it so bad if my experience was a cultural norm and all my other friends had the same restrictions. While these types of parenting styles would likely be associated with good outcomes for people in East Asian and certain other non-Western cultures, according to the textbook, they wouldn’t be for me.

I remember noticing as a child that some people I knew who had strict parents but had immigrated to Canada from a non-Western culture where such parenting styles were typicalnever seemed to be as bothered by it as I was. They would often chalk their experiences up to something along the lines of  “typical Asian parenting” and then leave it at that. It says in the book that the results of strict parenting will likely depend on whether happiness or achievement is prioritized in a culture. In all cultures children with controlling parents are often less happy, but in certain non-Western cultures they are likely to be more successful.. And here I am, miserable and still stuck in the pre-achievement stage of my life. So, based on my anecdotal experiences, I’d say cultural psychology has it right in the area of parenting styles and their effects on children.

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BELIEFS AND VALUES

For me, it’s a bit difficult to pinpoint exactly why I have the beliefs that I do.  Many of the views that I have stand in opposition to the ways my parents have tried to socialize me.  Just as a little disclaimer, I am in no way trying to imply anything negative about religious people.  I am simply speaking my personal truth.  From the minute I was old enough to understand the concept of God, I knew it was something I didn’t believe in and that religion was something that wasn’t for me.  However, my parents forced me to attend church, bible camp, youth group, and Sunday school for many, many years against my will.  I was even made to attend a ceremony to become a “confirmed Christian”, despite the fact that I don’t identify as such.  Often, people who are born into a culture or family that generally adheres to a certain religion end up being socialized into also following said religion.  When I look back at the past, I realize that I may have been socialized in the opposite direction.  Although I probably wouldn’t have been a religious person regardless of what my parents did, I believe that being made to do all these religious activities may have influenced my beliefs in a completely different way than they intended.  If I wasn’t forced to think about religion so much, and gain a deep understanding of the arguments people have for believing in God, I wouldn’t have even bothered to come up with so many counter-arguments in my head.  So, they basically made my conviction in my non-beliefs stronger than they would have been otherwise.  Also, it may have helped the general cultural climate in Canada (or at least in my friend groups growing up) seems to be moving away from a steadfast belief in God.  So, although my parents, whom I found to be very unreasonable and whose opinions held no weight for me, wanted me to believe in God, many of my friends and people I did look up to did not hold such beliefs.  

Some of the values that I have, I believe I acquired indirectly through my upbringing.  One of the things that I value the most in this world is freedom.  This makes sense because of deprivation effects, which says that people have a tendency to value things more than are lacking in their lives.  I grew up with very strict parents, and I always believed that freedom was the missing key to my happiness.  On a related note, independence is something that is very important to me, because you can’t have freedom if you are dependent on others.  I probably value independence so much as a result of both my upbringing, and the general cultural climate in Canada.  Lastly, friendship is something I deeply value, because what is the fun in having freedom if there is no one to enjoy it with?

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IT’S A CANADIAN THING, YOU WOULDN’T UNDERSTAND

Canada is a very individualistic place, and people are generally encouraged to be themselves and act as they please.  However, when I really sit down and think about the way I behave in my interactions with others, it becomes clear that my personality and the way I present myself are in some ways affected by the norms and social conventions that exist here.  Much of the way I communicate is guided by social scripts that are endorsed by many people in Canada.  The idea that Canadians and nice and polite is a stereotype that many other countries hold about us, and is often made fun of in American TV shows and movies.  This stereotype likely didn’t come from nowhere.  The norms we have enforce politeness, and human beings as a species are highly motivated to conform to norms in general.  Customary gestures such as holding the door open for people behind you (even when they’re so far behind you that it’s uncomfortable for both parties involved), and saying sorry all the time (even when you’re not at fault for anything), are ingrained in me as a result of living in Canada.  The importance of punctuality is also stressed in our culture.  I always strive to be on time for whatever plans I have, or 10-15 minutes early when it is for an important appointment.  

Things such as how open people are with expressing emotions can vary by culture.  I feel that in general Canadians are pretty open with expressing their feelings, although it is hard for me to compare us to other cultures given that I have never lived anywhere else.  However, the textbook states that Western cultures have a tendency to be more emotionally expressive than people from East Asian cultures.  This would be consistent with what it says in the book, that countries with more heterogeneous populations consisting of individuals who have immigrated from a variety of places (such as Canada) tend to be more expressive.  This is because people from very homogeneous cultures generally have ancestors that all came from the same area.  As a result of this, over time they have become pretty good at inferring the meanings behind the behaviours of others without needing to hear it expressed out loud.  I, on the other hand, never assume that someone understands what I mean unless I state it explicitly, and I am also very cautious in interpreting the meanings behind other people’s gestures if they haven’t specifically told me their intent.   It is also not uncommon here for people to verbally express their love to their friends.  In this way, my personality patterns have been influenced by my cultural surroundings.

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ME, MY CULTURAL SELF, AND I

When I think about my “cultural self”, not much comes to mind initially.  However, the fact that I can think about my own culture without triggering any associated feelings must mean that I’m pretty comfortable with my cultural self.  This is because as a white person of European descent in Canada, I’m privileged enough that culture isn’t something I have to notice.  Given that I fit into the dominant group, it is not a salient factor in my life.  Most of the people I encounter on a daily basis have a “cultural self” that likely differs little from my own, so it’s easy to feel comfortable with myself and my way of life.   Those who belong to a culture that is vastly different from the dominant group where they live may not feel like they fit in or can fully express their cultural selves without judgement.  It may be more difficult for said individuals to feel comfortable with their cultural self.

It was stated in the textbook that you often don’t notice your own culture until you have the opportunity to see how it compares to others.  I found this to be a very interesting point, and one that rang true to me.  Much like everyone tends to believe they are the only people who don’t have an accent, I don’t really see myself as having a culture.  As an aside, this can also relate to reference effects- people who say they don’t have an accent are probably those who speak in a way that is typical of where they live, and they are simply comparing themselves to those around them.   If I were to move to Britain, for example, it probably would be easier for me to appreciate that I do actually have an accent and I may be a bit more self-conscious about the way I speak.  Similarly, the reason I don’t tend to think of myself in a cultural context is probably because my culture generally does not stand in contrast to those around me.  If I were to move somewhere that is different culturally from Canada, I may come to notice through the views I am introduced to and the new things I experience, what Canadian culture actually consists of.

Although I’m not planning on moving to a different country anytime soon, I am attempting to live vicariously through the lessons covered in the 4th Edition of Cultural Psychology textbook.  As I read accounts of life in various places and contexts, I try to mentally visualize and imagine what it would be like to experience cultures other than my own.  Besides, you can’t feel the wetness of water until you cease to be submerged in it.

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GLOBALIZATION & ME

Unfortunately, I am not as globalized as I would like to be.  Canada is the only country that I have called home, and have never travelled beyond the confines of North America.  Whenever I have left the country, I was only gone for about a week each time, and only twice have I been to non-Western places (Cuba and the Dominican Republic).  Even then, both times we stayed in a resort, shielded from the poverty and harsh realities of life there.  We did go on a day trip each time into the city, where we were able to get a view of how people lived there.  However, while it was very eye-opening, I can’t call myself globalized because of these short-lived experiences.  I didn’t actually get to feel what life was really like there.  I only got to see their run-down schools and the poverty that they lived in, but at the end of the day we returned to our all-inclusive resort and were able to resume our cushy vacation.  

Despite my general lack of self-identification as a “globalized” individual, I have a respect for other cultures and am coming to be very interested in how culture can influence the way that people think.  People come onto this Earth with brains that are basically the same all over the world, yet they can come to be differentially shaped by our cultural experiences.  This course has been quite eye-opening for me and has sparked an interest in me to learn more about other cultures and the ways that certain psychological and behavioural differences have come to be.

However, that isn’t to say that I haven’t been affected at all by other cultures prior to this course.  Interestingly enough, Chapter 5 of the textbook mentions an area in Vancouver that is the 2nd largest Asian community outside of Asia, where 50% of the people living there identify as Chinese.  That place is Richmond and I lived there for 6 months this year, from January to July.  In a 2016 census on richmond.ca, it is stated that 23.7% of the population is not a visible minority.  Although the lifestyle there admittedly is still very much Canadian, the area is so greatly influenced by Chinese culture that I certainly felt as though I was influenced by the culture during my time there.  I learned a lot from people that I met, and tried many traditional Asian dishes that I never expected to enjoy as much as I did.  Unfortunately, during much of my time there I was stuck inside because of COVID, so I didn’t get to experience as much as I would have liked to.

I also feel like my sense of self has been somewhat influenced by the Italian culture.  This began with my love for Italian horror movies, which eventually inspired me to learn the language so I could ditch the English dubbing of questionable quality and take my movie experience to a new level.  I am currently taking an Italian language course at the University of Toronto and hope to learn more languages after I master this one.  I consume Italian media on a daily basis, watching Youtube videos to improve my skills, and I have even reached the point of being able to watch movies completely in Italian on Netflix Italia.  As an aside: pizza is my favourite food.  Italy is the first place I hope to visit once the coronavirus situation allows it.  The entire lifestyle there is very appealing to me.  Who knows, maybe one day I can move there and live in a place where the air doesn’t hurt my face.