I took the time to Interview my good friend Mark, about Italian culture. Mark’s family is Italian with mother and much of her extended family coming from southern Italy. He was born in New Jersey, however he has spent his whole life growing up within a community of Italian immigrants and Italian-Americans. His family who he grew up around consisted of both those from Italy and America. Nonetheless, his family has carried the cultural characteristics along with them.

Italians are a close contact culture. This means they are generally more comfortable with touch and have less distance between them in social situations. Talking with Mark about this made things more clear. He said that his family is very extroverted and will approach anyone getting right up in their personal space without a care. “If they don’t know you, they’re coming right up to you, Mark said.” In U.S. culture this isn’t so common, as Americans we tend to have a greater distance preference. We have a personal space bubble that is larger to that of a culture like the Italians. He said that in his time in Italy this was really evident as well. In Southern Italy strangers really don’t have a problem getting very close

Southern Italians are a very family oriented culture. Everything centers back around to family in some way or another. When asked about formality, the first thing mark said was that the elders of the family are always to be treated with respect, even if they are always giving you a hard time, which they will. He says despite this they are always still very welcoming and guests get treated like family in gatherings such as family dinners.

When asked about the emphasis on private life vs. work life, Mark said that private life is considered to be far more important. “It doesn’t matter what you do for work, how you are with your family is always more important. Not showing up to family dinners and holidays is gonna put you in a bad spot. You got to make time for the family.”

Mark also said he bases his identity around his relationships with others. He described himself as a loyal friend, family person, and hard worker. These ideas are very collectivist in thought. I thought this was interesting considering that Italy is known to be a mostly individualistic culture. Upon doing research this made more sense. According to Hofstede Insights, Southern Italy is known for being more collectivist in nature considering that everything is extremely family oriented within that culture. It is always about doing something for the good of the family rather than the individual.

Southern Italians are a very warm and welcoming group of people. They are very family oriented and if you treat them with respect, they will always welcome you in as part of them. They are very extroverted people and will have no problem asking you all kinds of questions. One should best engage with this culture by being as friendly and open to conversation as possible. Be aware of their cultural extroversion and meet them with a similar level of extroversion while at the same time being respectful. If not, you might come off as being somewhat cold and rough around the edges.