Italy
From AFSWiki
AFS Country Code: ITA
Contents |
Placement
- Age requirement:
- Language requirement:
- Health restrictions: Prefer to know well in advance if student has physical disability
- Graduates:
- Smoking:
- Dietary Restrictions: hard to place students with very specific diets o gluten free, strict vegetarian (vegan), picky eaters upset families
- Dress:
- Other: Placement Realities": There are two islands, Sicily and Sardinia, in Sardinia, the chapters are very well organized. Some students are hosted on the islands: ~80 of 300 total. Near border, some German-speaking placements-strange dialect don’t host that many students-less than 15 - ½ and ½: boys and girls. South: resists hosting boys.
Travel Information
- Visa:
- Departure Preparation:
- Arrival & Orientation:
- Departure: students cannot stay in the country after the program. AFS-ITA is ultimately responsible for that student. The student has to leave Italy that day, but can fly to France, Switzerland, etc.
Host Families
It is important to integrate with host family/community and be interested in language. There are times that will be tedious and boring, but student needs to take initiative - families expect students to be punctual at meal times. Host moms get angry if the participant won’t eat, don’t study, don’t get good grades. If the student is going out, the parents want to know when they’ll be back; are very anxious, want to know where student is all the time. Unfortunately, we can’t guarantee a non-smoking family (unless it’s a health problem) as everyone smokes. In 2004: no smoking in bars, restaurants. Now: not in offices. - Chores: set and clear table, clean room.
Teen Life - normal to drink wine with meal with host family at lunch and dinner - teenagers usually don’t get drunk with friends, just drinking with family - Italians don’t drink outside of meals, not a culture of drinking to drink - Nightlife: discothèques-okay and legal o Parents or neighbor kids’ parents pick students up from discos - All Italian teenagers smoke whether or not their parents know they smoke - In small towns, shops close from 1-4, open 5-8pm. Parents also go back to work from 5-8 - In large towns and cities, businesses are open all day - In the summertime, everyone goes out at night Diet - Breakfast: coffee and milk, biscuits/bread and jam (not an important meal) - Lunch: ~2pm if near school, ~3pm if farther o Big meal: 2 courses-pasta or soup, meat/cheese/fish/protein, vegetables or salad - Dinner: ~7.30pm northern, up to ~9.30 southern o Vegetables, pasta, meat, leftovers from lunch - Europe: meals very varied on a daily basis-type of meal and how it is prepared-like variety - Not much packaged food - Make everything fresh and from scratch
- Hosted-in: Most hosting in small towns, rural areas. Several cities host, with limited hosting capacity, included: Milan, Rome, Venice, Florence.
- Transportation:
- Extracurricular:
Support Information
AFS-ITA: 111 chapters, 3,000 volunteers, 1,000 active volunteers
Academics
School year runs from mid/end September to early June, students attend 6 days a week and a typical day runs from 8.30am – 1.15pm. Home for lunch is often difficult for participants as teachers ignore them. Participants can’t choose courses, but courses broken down into four areas:
1. Basic lessons in Classico: Ancient Green and Latin, Philos, Italian, Math, PE, History, and Art
2. Scientifico: 1 language (English or French), math, PE, science, Italian, Latin
3. some courses offered in Linguistico: 3 languages; Italian, philosophy, geography
4. Tecnico: 1 language, business school—math, administration, law, Italian, science, etc.
Note: private schools very rare; 25 is average class size; very formal: interrogations-spot test; give student a mark for that; a lot of homework: ~3 hours a day; advisable that participants take school seriously; Breaks/vacation Christmas: 2 weeks.Easter: 1.5 weeks. Carnaval: 3 days in February
- Transcript/Diploma:
- Language: Obligatory Italian language course after school 3 times per week. English-basic; French and German somewhat more advanced
Scholarships & Sponsored Programs
See Scholarships or Sponsored Programs for Sending for more information.
General Country Information
- Description:
- Climate: range of climates—snow even in Sicily
- Geopolitics: previously a collection of principalities, variation in lifestyle, culture, even language
- Language: still speak dialect in home language that evolved from Latin
- Religion: Catholic with very little access to other religious denominations.
- Politics:
Return to the Country Information page.
For information, questions or concerns on the Sending department Wiki, please contact Program Information Specialist at countryinfo@afs.org
