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Dealing with discrimination in TL culture | ||
Tags: Discrimination | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| hello_panda Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4519 days ago 3 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 9 of 24 20 January 2012 at 6:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
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This has been playing on my mind somewhat as I do intend to visit Italy and possibly
study there, but I know it is quite religious, specifically catholic which isn't known for liberalism toward homosexuality. Could anyone tell me what it is like? should I be closeted if living with a host family, from my peers, etc? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5275 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 10 of 24 21 January 2012 at 12:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I can't tell you anything specific about Italy. Hopefully someone who knows the country better than me will be
along with some advice soon. But what i would advise is to just play it by ear. There's no need to make a big announcement on the doorstep of your host family, but there's also no need to tie yourself up in a bundle of lies, not only because that's a miserable way to live, but also because it becomes impossible to keep track of your own stories! Personally I think a nice, low-key way to deal with it is to kind of just let everyone figure it out at their own speed. They are then free to deal with it in their own way. If they deal with it in a very negative way, they are not people you want to be hanging around with anyway, regardless of nationality. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6408 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 11 of 24 21 January 2012 at 7:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Most Italians I know like gay fiction... though this says more of me than of Italians, I suppose :D
Anyway, this probably depends on the host family - try to find a more open-minded one. I've not even lived with a host family but from what I know it's a unique experience, and you'll miss out somewhat if you can't form a bond with the family. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hampie Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6470 days ago 625 posts - 1009 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Latin, German, Mandarin | Message 12 of 24 22 January 2012 at 3:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
I think that the situation in Italy is better than in many other countries, especially if you visit a big city. For gays cities are usually a blessing. Use the internet to learn to know gay people from Italy, preferably the area where you want to go, and investigate the terrain. Some areas in the USA are to my knowledge certainly worse than most of the countries in the EU’s collective homophobia combined. Japan have a lot of homoerotic culture, TV-show hosts that are men acting as women, yet homosexuality is not as accepted in Japan as in Sweden where we have none of those. The respect culture in Japan though, as far as I know, makes the place easy to live in because although people don’t like what you’re up to, they just don’t intrude — and being frozen out is better than getting one’s ass kicked. One should also be careful to draw the conclusion religious == homophobic, secular != homophobic: there are very devout christians that accept homosexuals and there are a lot of secularised people who just can’t stand the fags and want to kick them in the crotch. People who make other people’s life a living hell are idiots, something I think we all can agree on independent on what our views are regarding homosexuality, sadly some cultures seem to foster more of those than others, but none are immune. People gets killed in Sweden because they’re gay. I have friends that have been beat up because they’re gay. Swedish neo-nazis threw bricks! at the Pride parade not so many years ago, and some people got severely injured. The most prominent Swedish openly homosexual politicians have been gaybashed. Just because Sweden is a country where homosexuals have a very strong protection by law and are held as equals by the political elite it does not mean that we have no morons that think their opinion justifies kicking them in the head. The world is a both mysterious and dangerous place, what makes it with living are the lovely and warm people scattered all over it. I’m sure I could find someone who accepted my and with whom I could become a good friend even in Iraq or Afghanistan — it would be harder — but it would be possible. One should not live life in fear of death and violence, but rather because of love for doing stuff. If you want to go to Italy, go to Italy — you don’t have to be best friends with the pope! 13 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| hello_panda Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4519 days ago 3 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 13 of 24 23 January 2012 at 12:25am | IP Logged | |||||
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yes, that's very true, thanks everyone who replied :) I was probably thinking too much
into it 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| benzionisrael Triglot Groupie Spain Joined 4476 days ago 79 posts - 142 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, SpanishB2 | Message 14 of 24 27 April 2012 at 6:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
That is one mistake you should avoid, to assume that religious people are always going to be homophobic. As you have said yourself, many many people intolerant of homosexuality are completely secular people who never go to church and know nothing of the word of the gospel. But I really doubt that the very devout christians who you speak of really "accept" homosexuality. If you are talking about liberal christianity which has distanced itself from the gospel and transformed itself into a liberal philosophy you might find "christians" who truly accept homosexuality and view it in a positive light. Bible believing christians however would never "accept" homosexuality as something positive because doing so would contradict what the Bible says. Some devout Bible believing christians do tolerate and treat civilly homosexual people, because they do not want to be responsible for judging others and want to show the Lord´s love to all, but that doesn´t mean that they truly accept homosexuality. Tolerate and accept are by no means synonimous. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6408 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 15 of 24 27 April 2012 at 8:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
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That's getting offtopic, but if you're interested, watch "For the Bible told me so".
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hampie Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6470 days ago 625 posts - 1009 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Latin, German, Mandarin | Message 16 of 24 27 April 2012 at 8:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
I prefer to leave theology to my friends who study that, but, I would say that people who try to live by the Bible without hundreds of years of thinking and progression is probably going to be very weird due to the fact that it's a collection of books written during a time span of more than 1000 years in three languages, collected and decided upon hundreds of years after the death of Jesus, translated either from translations or from a language that has long been dead. I myself am an atheist, but, I would not question the faith of my dear friend who is openly gay and will be ordained next year, nor my convert jewish friend, also openly gay, who converted for an orthodox synagogue and is studying to be a rabbi. What religion is is up to the person being religious to decide, weather that is to accept mosaic law as binding or not. No one, not even fundamental evangelical Christians who say so, can live up to everything stated by the Bible, especially not since it sometimes contradicts itself. However, I think that even among those who are very strict open and reasonable individuals can be found. Some mothers kill their own sons, some mother visit their murderer sons in prison as much as they can. Even if someone has done something very awful according to your moral compass I think that if you do have a heart big enough that it's very possible to work it through. Edited by Hampie on 27 April 2012 at 8:42pm 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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