My son is living in the world I want, courtesy of the Italian Government.

[NNadir]

Because of some research my son did this summer at Oak Ridge as an intern, he was advised to apply for the "Italian Tech Award."

He seems to have won it.

His mother and I were not entirely happy about it, since it involved traveling to Italy for a week at the expense of the Italian government and is taking place now, right in the middle of the semester.

Nevertheless, he spoke with all of his professors, and they advised him to go, and to learn about some cutting edge Italian scientific research, at the expense of their government.

Well he's there, so I texted him to see how it was going. He's pretty thrilled. He told me that he got to speak Spanish, Italian, Russian and Chinese with native speakers all in the same day, had a wonderful conversation with an Iranian scientist on the subject of piezoelectric clothing, which converts body motions into electricity, made very good friends with a Mexican chemical engineering student, and met with people from Uzbekistan, Russia, Italy (of course) and China and is apparently being exposed to some wonderful science.

This is the good world, where people get together to admire one another. This is the world I want, one built on respect all humans for other humans.

I really didn't get why the Italian government was doing this for foreigners, but it occurs to me that all these winners, for the rest of their lives, will have a positive view of Italy, Italian science, and Italian business. My son is twenty years old, and hopefully will lead a long and productive life, always with Italy in the back of his mind, with fondness.

Governments can do great things, in spite of having occasions where they are led by vicious fools, like that corrupt ass in the White House.

[Ohiogal]

1. What a fabulous experience for your son!

People of many different nations all coming together for the sake of science. What a beautiful and noble idea that is.

Hopefully very soon America will play host to more of the same - as soon as we kick out the disgraceful and backwards science denying fools that have seeped into our leadership like a cancer.

[NNadir]

3. Yeah, this stuff keeps coming at him. I am working to let him know...

...that very few people enjoy the opportunities he has had, and although he does work hard and is broadly interested in many things, he should consider all the people who have helped him to this point, including but not limited to his big brother, and that yes, there is an element of luck in it, just being in the right place at the right time.

Being in the right place at the right time happens to him quite a bit it seems. When he called us to tell us about this, we just said, "What now?" He is ready, however, for the opportunities when they come.

He doesn't have much of a swelled head as of now, but I think it necessary to remind him that there's a world of people smarter than he is, and that he has a long way to go before he is ready to pay it forward.

Hopefully that's some of what he's seeing there.

I want him to be much better than I am; so far he is. I was no where near him when I was 20. I hope he will have accomplished things worthy of his opportunities when he has reached my age.

[fierywoman]

5. Yes there is an element of luck and being in the right place at the right time --

but the person upon whom that is bestowed has to have the balls (and/or naivete'?!? to take the leap AND has to have done the work to produce what those who give him a chance think he's capable of. Your son was very obviously beautifully raised by open-minded parents who knew how to further his talents and dreams --bravo to all of you, such wonderful news you've shared with all of us, thank you!

[NNadir]

14. Thank you for your kind words.

I discussed many things with my sons when they were children, but this son passed me intellectually quite some time ago and his brother is not far behind.

For this son, the one in Italy, his mother and brother have more to do with who he is than I do.

[Karadeniz]

4. Your son sounds wonderful and I'm so happy for him!. He speaks all those languages?

Color me jealousy green! Congratulations on great parenting!❤

[NNadir]

12. Yeah, he speaks a lot of languages; I've kind lost count. It seems to come...

...fairly naturally to him.

He won the French award in high school, and is fairly fluent. When he speaks to me in French, I have to ask him to slow down. My French is very rusty. Last year when he was in France for the summer, I told him to not people speak English to him, so he could practice his French in France, but apparently there were a lot of Portuguese in the lab, all of the graduate students and post docs with whom he shared an office, so everyone communicated in English, but he did learn a little Portuguese, which apparently came fairly easy because of the Spanish cognates.

When he was in high school he decided to learn Italian. I asked him, "what for?" (His grandfather could speak Italian, but did so only very rarely, and never to his Grandchildren.) What did I know? He claimed he forgot most of it when he left for Italy on Saturday, but now he says he's speaking it.

I know he speaks Chinese, and Spanish, and he can give little lectures on Japanese calligraphy and correct Hungarian pronunciation.

I have no idea whence it all came. The funny thing is, that he's only taken formal classes in French, which is, at least in my impression, his best language, from what I can tell.

I remember when he was in high school I heard someone speaking Chinese in his room, and I looked in to see if he had a friend over. It turns out it was him. He uses some program called "Duolingo." His Chinese friends, the American born ones, are impressed that he can read and write Chinese, because while many of them speak Chinese at home, not all of them learn to read Chinese.

It's apparently free, Duolingo, and he seems to use his cell phone to access it. It must be a pretty good program if you have the discipline to use it.

I think his Russian is pretty good. His aunt is into Russian; she has a Russian boyfriend. She says it's pretty good, better than hers. I see him reading Russian text, books we bought him that he requested for Christmas.

I make fun of him because he can't speak German, but probably I shouldn't, since he's likely to learn that too when I'm not looking.

I didn't know he spoke Spanish until he got a flight diverted to Madrid with a long layover, which he told me he didn't mind, being stuck in Madrid, since it gave him an opportunity to practice that language. He had a close Mexican friend in high school, but I only heard them speaking French to one another. Where and how he learned Spanish, I have no idea.

He also learned to play the piano in his freshman year, really well, jazz and classical.

He did all this while holding down the highest GPA in his department, an engineering discipline, while singing in the choir and the glee club.

He's something else that kid.

It must be his mother. I knew he was fairly bright, but I really didn't expect this sort of stuff; I really didn't. We certainly didn't put pressure on him to be this way, we didn't really know this about his abilities until he went to college.

Recently, by way of amusement, he informed me that the way I explained the concept of entropy when he was in Junior high school, which he apparently remembered, sucked.

[Heartstrings]

6. This warms my heart.....

There is still good in the world....peace and love to your family.

[alwaysinasnit]

7. K&R

[tiptonic]

8. Wow

My grandson has applied for a, Student Exchange Program, to go to Finland for a year. Best education anyone can get. I will forward him your post. Please tell your son, Congratulations!! (amen on your comment, about the maniac in the White House)

[MLAA]

9. Congrats to NNadir's son and his proud parents!

[47of74]

10. I thought I read somewhere that there was some serious recruitement going on by some governments

Mainly at getting up and coming scientists who want to do good in the world to come work in their countries instead of this country under the not so benign leadership of President Shit Stain.

[PatrickforO]

11. That is really cool! I'm really happy for him. And for us all, because you

shared a fun story with a great truth.

[Grammy23]

13. I have Duolingo on my iPad. I used it to try to get better with French

Before a trip we made last fall. It is a fairly easy to use App and will send you reminders to do your daily drills. LoL. I think it was a free App but like most can be ungraded if you need it.
Congratulations to you and your son. We were in Italy in 2002 and hope to go back. It was such an amazing place and we had a wonderful time. Hope your son enjoys it, too, and learns a lot!

[progressoid]

15. Cool!

But what's wrong with traveling to Italy at the expense of the Italian government?

[NNadir]

16. Not much, but he's in the middle of a semester with an intense...

...course load.

[Fla Dem]

17. What a wonderful experience for your son.

[3catwoman3]

18. The word awesome gets way overused for things...

...that do not come close to actually being awesome.

Your son, his accomplishments, and this wonderful opportunity are AWESOME!!!

I envy his facility with languages.