International week

The first day of the international week. We meet our new "schoolmates" around 9 a.m. and after some organizational infos, we start getting to know each other. Then we teach the others our "line dances" and have a good time all together. An interesting lesson with Jette follows. It concerns with body language and its significance in communication. We also try to practise our body language. In groups we´re given a pile of cards with a picture depicting a person in a certain position/with a certain expression in his-her face etc. and we´re supposed to mime it and others in the groups have to guess/discuss what the concrete expression indicates etc. I find BL very interesting and decide to get to know more about this "topic" later on...(Jette recommends me a book with a title:"The DefinitiveBook of Body Language" written by Allan and Barbara Pease)..Afterwards the first Danish lesson for the IS comes..The Danish students who participate in all our lessons this week are our teachers!:-) Well, we Erasmus students are already a bit more knowledgeable in Danish after a few Danish lessons we had in previous weeks but it doesn´t matter because today we also learn some new phrases (Hvor gammel er du? Hvad er klokken?)..In the evening we meet at school again to have dinner in the canteen and to sing some Danish songs too. However the day doesn´t end for me yet. Me and my Czech "collegues" prepare some children´s rhymes and songs for tomorrow´s lesson.Tuesday lessons in the morning are led by Ole, Daniel and Karsten who have prepared a plan for us. The title is"intercultural competence and stereotypes", we discuss how foreigners percieve Denmark and how Danes can see themselves. The results are quite interesting. Foreigners talk about rather practical things, e.g. expensive way of life in DK, cold weather, design, "special" coins etc.), unlike the "natives" who pick up rather the Danish character -e.g. open-minded (porn, gay weddings), eager to learn foreign languages but scared of foreigners, keep distance, liberty of speech (Muhammed drawings), Jante law, "Hugge" etc. This was Denmark but what stereotypes do we keep about other European countries which we come from... ?Work in groups and each is given one country to think about ( we have to write down "typical characteristics" of Belgium and to draw a "typical representative" of that country)- Afterwards each group presents their "product". All countries are depicted in a more or less positive way (except for one remark made by a Danish boy who describes a "typical Austrian girl" to have a small mustache:-))..only our country- the Czech republic comes from this "activity" as a total loser..:-( In the picture we can see the figure of a boy wearing a Nike- T-shirt, holding a glass of beer in one hand and a bottle of vodka in the other, the package of cigarettes lying at his legs...The "interpretation" of this drawing is given by a Danish girl: People in CR wear false- brand clothes sold by Chinese, we drink a lot of beer and vodka ("never drink vodka with a Czech guy") and many people go to our country just to buy cheap cigarettes...that´s all! This means Czech Republic for the others??? Quite sad, I would say..We are quite struck by these stereotypes and feel quite sorry for those who made the drawing because they managed to prove in this way how limited knowledge they have... and I was also quite disappointed that these people didn´t show a slightest sign of empathy or "etics" (what one can afford to say not to offend the others). Democracy/freedom of speech is a nice thing but it should have its "moral limits" otherwise I would call it rather ignoracy...However the day goes on and we remember our childhood playing some "traditional" games, singing "national"songs and saying "national" rhymes...more or less we find out that in many countries the songs/games/chants/rhymes are similar and that these are sth that "connect" us regardless of which part of Europe one comes from...It´s raining and we´re setting off on a trip to Ribe..in the mini buses we´re "praying" for better weather till we arrive at the destination but we aren´t lucky..At first we visit a Vikings museum with a very rich exposition..we also come back to our childish years when dressing up the Vikings clothes and "fighting" with swords as real Vikings..:-)A short walk through the town, visit of some beautiful design shops and hurrying to "warmth of our mini buses"...It´s a pouring rain and we are all cold and wet but we can´t miss to see the sea! Way back home doesn´t take so much time and quickly home to change the soaken clothes. In the evening our "Czech Three" is cooking! Easter cakes for Thursday! We have to acknowledge we´ve done a good job;-) and are falling to our beds completely tired...
We spent the Wednesday morning at basic schools as every week just to observe and get "a taste" of the Danish school system... This time we´re going to visit "Realskolen" along with Sarah from Germany and Saskia from Denmark...At first we´re welcomed by the headmaster and told the basic infos about the school- it´s a smaller private school and what is quite special about it there are 11 classes including the class 0 and 10 ( additional voluntary school year)..The school also tries to focus on the development of good relationship between the school and parents...The school is also involved in a social programme that should trace this relationship and it´s given grants for it from EU..Then we are allowed to have a look into an English lesson in the 7th grade..afterwards the two lessons of religion in the 9th grade...At the beginning we Erasmus students are asked to introduce ourselves in English to the pupils and say sth about our national school system...We also make the children familiar a bit with the Erasmus programme..We get ot know that our country is not so "foreign" for the children in this classroom because every year the nineth graders go for a trip to CR for a few days..nice..:-) The lessons are however led in Danish so we don´t understand much but still, it´s quite interesting just to sit there, observe pupils´behaviour and percieve the frinedly and relaxed atmosphere in the classroom...I like it..Then it´s time to go back to school and discuss our school experience with other schoolmates... Unfortunatelly the planned hip hop dance lessons are canceled because of the teacher´s illness so we use the free time to go to the gym...
Thursday and morning lecture about "Soundscape" with an Austrian teacher from Wien Jutta Kleedorfer- we listen to a record of sounds that follow the trip of a fictional American girl Rosie that is for the first time in Wien..It´s a kind of experiment made by the pedagogical institute in Wien how one can imagine a completely foreign city, one has never been to, just according to sounds...Then the teacher reads us some children´s stories with morals in the end ( a symbolic story called "Zack bumm" and "Esel"..quite "educative"..:-) However the long expected event comes afterwards- the international afternoon! There are some stands for us Erasmus students, international students(who have come here just for this week), Danish students who experienced a school practice in Nepal for 6 weeks, Euro prof students, Inter health stand..The idea of this event is to present visitors all these interantional programmes and in the same time also their own country...We´ve got our own "Czech stand" where everyone can have a look on our presentations form our stay hete in Denmark, on the brochures promoting our country and to taste our Czech Easter bread ("mazanec").. in the evening there is another plan for us- pizza with others and "Eurovision song contest"...Our "Czech Trio" chose a Czech song "Kdyz se nacancam" and we accompanied it with a small "pantomime" just to depict the story of the song so that the audience could at least a bit imagine what the song is about...and we were successful;-), got to the final three best singers and in the end we won the contest! Wow, that was great and we had a lot of fun practising it and also were happy that the audience enjoyed it with us..Dancing at Crazy Daisy till two a.m. was another perfect event..;-)
And how would I summarize the past week? I really enjoyed it even it was so busy that we went to bed quite exhausted around midnight every day, but the experience was worth of it! The international students brought a kind of "fresh air" into our Erasmus group... thanks to them we had the possibility to get to know other cultures (Portugal, Austria, the Netherlands) and it seemed to me as if I travelled the whole week long through above mentioned countries on my own...I realized that European countries are of course different in many ways but still we can find some similarities (the "national" songs and rhymes, even the food!- the Portuguese guys brought for the international afternoon a kind of Easter sweet bread that was quite similar with our Czech "mazanec"- that was a bit surprise for me:-))...I´m really happy that we could experience this "journey through Europe" and thank to all of its participants!;-)