Stay.. or go..?

This is the question that by no means most of the Italian "graduate to be" pose themselves constantly.

I have just read an interesting article in the online version of Corriere della Sera (an Italian daily newspaper, first in sales), concerning young people in Italy, their ideas and expectations of the future.. the results of the survey are kind of... hm... let me put it this way: interesting...

First of all, 2 out of 3 undergraduates declare they want to start their working experience abroad just after finishing their studies. Only 36.8% of the interviewed decisively decline the idea. However, according to the commentators and work consultants, most of those intending to leave Italy have rather "romantic" approach to their future in a foreign country. They perceive the world abroad as better, easier and with more potential for their career and personal development... And now my personal view.. how the heck, are they going to succeed if 74% of Italian students study only one foreign lg, supposedly English, (source here) and I can bet that most of them are at the very beginner/elementary level.

But let's suppose they all go.. what are the countries they would choose? In the chronological order: the US, England, Germany, Spain, Sweden (?), and France.

And what is the first, the most important criterion when looking for a job abroad? Money, of course. This is understandable, especially if we consider the fact that statistically the first average salary for 43% of the post graduate in Europe equals 1700 euros, whereas in Italy most of the young employees receive a little bit more than a half of it.

And what is the list of jobs the Italians would never like to do? Well, let me cite the poll results: mechanic, operaio (physical worker), hairdresser (really??), aesthetician (really??), fast food worker, soldier, road sweeper and the most hated ever is the mason. According to the consultant there are two types of jobs: those ones which are taxing but not dangerous and those which are dangerous but not taxing. Mason is a combination of these two types. No wonder then that in Italy most of the masons are foreigners...

And now... what do you think about the Italians... : )

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Smile! Or cry!

A little part of the time I spent in Poland, I dedicated to watching tv. You cannot imagine how good and nice it is to finally watch programmes produced by your native tv stations. I loved to listen to Polish language, I cherished watching some fragments of Polish soap operas that I hated back in the past when I lived there.

One thing that I am always interested in and enjoy the most wherever I am are the tv spots and ads. And I saw one spot for an important language school in Poland that I absolutely need to share with you today here.

Of course it made me think. In Poland we were always a bit... hmm.. lazy about learning foreign languages. I must admit happily it starts to change (please note that I'm stressing the word "starts" here). I can see that more and more shop assistants at least try to communicate (and don't run away pretending there's a very urgent phone call they need to make at that very minute) when a foreigner comes in asking about the availibillity of colours of the T-Shirt he has just spotted on the display window, people don't turn around acting as if they didn't hear if a tourist asks them about direction to the nearest bank or post office. I'm not referring only to the English lg. I really hope that in a few years Poland we'll be more like Sweden (when children start learning languages in the kindergarten and sth like 70% of population speak English at an intermediate or higher level) or rather than Italy, France or Spain...

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