Interview with Valentina

Valentina arrived in Devon in the summer of 2012. She was born in a little town called Fagnigola, in the North-East of Italy, and can speak Italian and English. Before moving to England, she worked in an English school in Udine which helped her to improve her English before moving to England. This made her integration into England a lot easier. However, she does state that one of the biggest difficulties, when she moved to Devon, was being able to express herself in a group of English speakers. In Italy, she always spoke English in a one-to-one conversation. In Devon, Valentina is very sociable and has a lot of friends in the city. She has a few Italian friends, but unfortunately, a few of them decided to return to Italy because of the pandemic. Valentia says that the people of Devon welcomed her, and she found a group of friends almost immediately. She also likes the fact that she feels freer in Devon, she says she has more freedom and a life here that she could not have at home. As a memory, Valentina showed a photo of her and her university friends. She studied at the University of Udine where she had a great group of friends. She said that one of the main reasons for her move to England was the fact that most of her friends had already gone elsewhere, and for her to stay in Udine without them, it broke her heart.