Interning Abroad the Italian Way

Hi everyone! 

I hope you are all safe, happy, and healthy.

I have been in Rome for over two months now. I have been having the time of my life exploring the eternal city, and I have also been having a lot of fun working a full-time internship. I am lucky enough to be interning for Il Romanista. I get to help produce media for AS Roma, one of Rome’s soccer teams. Rome has two teams, Lazio and AS Roma, but I’d argue AS Roma is the better of the two! In general, there are about three times as many AS Roma fans as there are Lazio fans in Rome.

As an intern, I work on the weekly English newsletter for Il Romanista. Il Romanista has a prominent Italian newsletter, but the company wants to expand its reach to its English-speaking audience. AS Roma has fans located all across the world, and Il Romanista wants to continue expanding its reach to these fans. Soccer is the national sport of Italy, and therefore, working in the media industry for the most popular sport in Italy can be a daunting task. I love what I get to do for work, but it was a bit challenging to get used to right off the bat. I am not fluent in Italian and have therefore had to use various translation services in my work, but once I got used to this, translating and correcting errors became a lot easier. I also continue challenging myself to improve my Italian. 

When I first began my internship, I also had to learn a lot more about Italian soccer in order to be able to translate articles efficiently and correctly. As a Division I pole vaulter, I have always been an avid sports fan, but I needed to brush up on my knowledge of Soccer in order to be a reliable intern. 

Also in order to be a reliable intern, I had to adapt to the Italian Workplace Culture. Back home, in the United States, chatting during work is far less common than in Italy. During the first two weeks of my internship, I kept to myself and this was a big mistake. I unintentionally appeared closed off and uninterested in others. However, since then, I have learned the importance of getting to know my colleagues and we converse while we work and share our coffee and meal breaks together as well. The Italian Workplace Culture is far more personal than the American Workplace Culture and this is something I have had to adapt to.

But despite these challenges, I have been able to translate and produce some great projects. Each week we showcase about five or six articles in the newsletter, and I have had some of my own articles published as well. My first article “An American’s First Experience With Italian Soccer: Becoming a Romanista” was published in Il Romanista’s English version and later in its Italian version as well. It was so much fun to see my work come to life. I am excited about what I can write next!

Ciao for now! 

Andy =)