ILEP scholar Leo Dalbosco shares his intercultural experiences

Last week, the AHS Journalism class was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to interview the four ILEP scholars currently visiting Northeast Ohio from around the world. Leonardo Dalbosco, who asked to be called Leo, said that everybody in his homeland of Brazil uses first names or nicknames, a signature mark of Latin America’s friendly, relaxed atmosphere.

Naturally, one of the first questions that arose was what differences the scholars noticed between their education systems and ours. Dalbosco opened up by saying, “The students here are much better behaved!” Surprisingly, the others agreed, giving us all a little pride.

Dalbosco went on to describe how his school district, located in Aracaju, Sergipe, will soon be undergoing a curriculum reform requiring all students to take English. In turn, they will have more freedom in choosing other electives.

As in our culture, technological advancements receive strong emphasis in his country; however, a notable imbalance manifests itself in Brazil when students who lack good shoes can be seen with a phone in their hand.

The class size at his school averages out at the comfortable number of 30 students, although this number reflects the absence of around ten students who enrolled but failed to attend. Dalbosco explained that a government program provides benefits to families whose children attend school, which motivates them to enroll, but fails to promote regular attendance. As a result, the school has a psychologist/social worker who reaches out to the parents of an absentee and visits the students at their homes to address issues preventing them from attending.

The climate in Brazil, characterized by summer nearly all year with a rainy season in July, differs greatly from that of Ohio; however, the school “seasons” of both countries are pretty similar.

“In Brazil we have two vacations. There’s one in the middle of the year for three weeks and then another one for about a month and a half at the end of the year. In a normal calendar, classes would start at the end of January with a break between June and July. School starts again at the end of July and goes till December,” said Dalbosco.

Although the Brazilian academic calendar closely parallels ours, frequent strikes delay graduation.

“The thing is, there are a lot of strikes in Brazil, in the public education system,” said Dalbosco. “So what happens sometimes is that the students go without class for a month.”

The class of 2016 at his school is just now completing its final year.

Seeing as how the ILEP scholars visit AHS classrooms only about once per week, we were curious to find out how else they’re spending their time here. The four teachers currently call Kent their home, each staying in a studio apartment in University Inn. To further explore the American education system, they are each enrolled in a class on literature and a class on technology. In addition to those courses, Dalbosco elected to study descriptive grammar and sociolinguistics.

“We’ve been presenting cross-cultural dialogues too,” he said, “Which is a comparison between two countries. So far, three groups have presented. The first was Mexico and the Philippines, the second was Bangladesh and Senegal, and yesterday it was Brazil and Uganda.”

“I talked about our countries and a little bit about how technology has changed our countries,” said Dalbosco.

For anyone interested in watching the presentations, the Gerald H. Reid Center at Kent state has made them available on their Facebook page. The Center’s mission is to “serve as a catalyst for the advancement of international and intercultural education.”

During their stay in Ohio, which will last until May, the scholars are participating in cultural activities with host families such as going out to dinner, shopping, and attending Super Bowl parties. Dolbosco’s unique perspective on our culture was both entertaining and thought-provoking; he mentioned aspects of daily life which I had never thought about as being particular to America.

For example, when asked what he thought about American entertainment, Dalbosco said, “Commercials-there are too many commercials. I don’t know if it’s part of the legislation here, but when it’s a commercial for a medication, are they supposed to show all of the side effects?”

He then triggered a bout of laughter by saying, “First it starts off talking about the benefits of the medication and people are riding horses, but then it says oh well this causes suicide…”

Some of Dalbosco’s favorite cultural experiences consisted of trying American cuisine, visiting local venues such as Five Guys, Bar 145, and Buffalo Wild Wings. He’s also a big fan of our chocolate, which was plentiful during the weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day.

“Valentine’s Day is celebrated in a different way in my country,” said Dalbosco. With a fun sense of humor he explained, “Valentine’s Day is for lovers, not for friends. So in Brazil, if I give Mohamedou a gift for Valentine’s day, they’re going to look at us really weird.”

The scholars’ host families plan to give them the complete American holiday experience, even incorporating festivities for the 4th of July, which won’t occur until the scholars are already back home.

When asked of the American stereotypes that exist in Brazil, Dalbosco said, “There are some people who think that Americans have prejudice against different races and different cultures.” Naturally, he also mentioned the standard portrayal of Americans as predominantly white, overweight individuals who love their hot dogs and burgers.

In his region, however, he sees less judgment, “What I’ve noticed is it’s actually a very open-minded relationship. They try to know who the person is.”

“The community here is very different from the American stereotype that people have in South America,” Dalbosco happily confessed. “What I’ve seen here is a very educated society. People are polite. People are progressive, willing to help us, gentle. I only have good adjectives to describe them.”