Many times we hear a lot of guys saying that they want to go to study or work abroad. This is because we always think that the other countries are better than ours. Last week I made an interview to Siki and I presented her our magazine.
Why did you decide to go to California to teach?
I didn’t really teach there, I was a researcher because in California there is an important research institute that is called Mathematical and Scientific Research Institute and I had the opportunity to go.
Now what are you doing?
Now I’m an editor and I edit research articles because when you are a scientist you can write on magazines. I edit articles in mathematics, specifically in geometry and topology. This is a branch of mathematics and it’s all about the shape of objects.
If you could go back, would you make the same choice again?
It depends, because I made a lot of choices in my life. I grew up in Tonga which is in the south Pacific Ocean and I decided to move to New Zeland because where I lived there were only elementary and middle schools. So I moved there to finish high school. After the university, if you want to go higher, you have to move because New Zeland is a small country and so I decided to go to America. I went to New Jersey where I taught. Maybe I could make same changes but not because I regret the choices but just for being curios.
Would you suggest this experience to a young person that likes this type of job? I mean being a mathematician?
Yes, but it is difficult because there aren’t so many jobs available, for example in Italy you can focus more on engineering to make it easier to find a job. Being a mathematician is quite powerful because you have a lot of choices after your studies but maybe it’s easier in other countries. For examples a lot of Italians move to France, Germany, Switzerland or Portugal because the job is paid more and in Italy they pay quite less compared to other countries. If you become a mathematician and want to get results, you have to be always in a team because nobody knows everything and you should be able to work with other people. So the people who don’t have social skills can find some difficulties.
How was it to leave your country and family to go to study in other places?
I had to leave my family to go to study at a boarding school and I was only sixteen. The first time it is always difficult because you stay with people who look differently and speak an other language and make different things than what you used to do. But when I moved from USA to Italy there weren’t many differences. In all the countries where I lived everyone said that they had the best food in the world or something like that, for example when I went to NY they said that they were the centre of the world and the most important city and people in general were very proud of where they live. Also in Perugia you are very proud of the territory, the food or your traditions and this is because the people want to be very proud of themselves.
C.P.
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