A colorfull lesson!

Yesterday we had a very special lesson about language and identity. In the beginning she told us what she had planned. I wanted to run away. Coloring with crayons to think about language, making a poem,... that's nothing for me. I thougt... but at the end I have to say I liked the lesson. We started to make a language portrait. You can see it in the picture. I have some explaining to do here.

Yellow: Dutch

This is my mother tongue, that's why I putted it close to my heart. But it's also over whole my body because I don't need to think about what I'm gonna say, how I am gonna say it,...

Blue: English

The English is in my brain. I'm always thinking how I'm gonna say things, what's the word for something.

Green: French

The French part has the same size as the English part because I learned French for a long time. I can understand, speak an writh French but again, I really need to think how to express myself in French.

Dark green: German

In my hands is the German language. I don't speak but I can understand it. I have to use my hands to express myself.

Brown: Danish

The Danish language is in my feet. I'm learning it step by step.

Reflection about this task:

- I was suprised that everyone knows more then 3 languages. I also learned a few new languages like some 'gipsylanguages'. I didn't knew that it existed.

- I don't know if I will use it because children in our primary schools know only one language. When they are 11 years old they learn French. But in the last two years of primary school it's a good instrument for evaluation. You can let the children color their languages and how think about it. So the teacher can see how they're feelings are towards the languages.

After this task we had to make a poem. An 'eleven word' poem. Better known as 'een elfje'.

yellow

the sun

in blue sky

I want some warmth

happy

presentations

Last week we had two presentations. Let's start on the first one. I had to talk about the school system in Belgium. First I started to tell that we speak different languages and that has his effect on the system. After that I continued with the Flamisch schoolsystem. A difference with Denmark is that the secundary school is split up. The children go to kindergarden, the same as us. But they have primary school and lower secundary school. After that they go to the upper secundary school. When they finish that, they go to higher education or universities. It's much more complicated then in Belgium. Another difference is in the teaching. Students who want to be a teacher need to choose 4 subjects. In stead of teaching everything, like me, they teach for exemple music, art, English and Danisch. Maybe it's better, maybe not. I have to learn a bit of everything while they can specialize in their subjects. They know their lessons very well.

The day after we had our second presentation. I could make it together with Carlos from Spain. All countries could work together but we are alone here so we could make it together. Try to combine the Spanish and Belgium traditions... not easy, but we dit very well! I talked about the typical Belgium traditions like Sinterklaas, the fisherman who get shrimps out of the North Sea,... I also talked about the differences in nature like the Ardens and the seaside. I told the history of Antwerp, the town were I study. And ofcourse the Belgian bears and food were on the program. We tasted real Belgian chocolate. And I could see on every face that they liked it! We also tasted a Spanish omelet. Not bad at all...

On our own initiative

We had a few days off during the holiday here. So we searched for the adventure and founded it!

1. Trip to the sea by foot

Wednesday 11th February we were really ambitious to find the sea by foot. What an idea... It was a very nice day, sun was shining,... After a few hours off walking we saw the fjord. Very beautiful! The nature here in Denmark is really something special. You won't see this in Belgium! After we had lunch we tried to reach the sea but it was to far away... We walked for 3 hours and then we came back home. This trip made me think about the 'guerillatocht' at home. Walking trough the field, crossing a little river,... Those were my first thoughts about home and my friends...

2. Trip to the sea by bus

Saturday 13th February we went back to the sea. But this time by bus! And yes, this time we made it to the sea! It snowed the night before, so the beach was all white. It was again, beautiful! Especially because the sun was shining! And we didn't saw the sun for a long time!

Aarhus

The 10th of February we went to visit Aarhus. First we walked to 'old town'. It's a place where the houses look like lots of years ago. I really likes it. Snooping around in the small houses, walking around,...

After the visit in 'old town' we went to the cathedral. Unfortunately we had to leave sooner because of a funeral.

We walked a litte bit around in the streets and then we went to 'Aros'. An artmuseum were I would like to go back a. It is really big and we didn't had the chance to see everything. I liked this museum. It's was new, modern,... not like other museums. For this museum we had given the other erasmusstudents a task. We had to organise something at each point off the excursions and I was in the artgroup. We organised a search trough the museum with a few questions. Both groupes scored 2 points at the end so there is no winner.

Stereotypes

On 9th of February we discussed a bit more the Danish habits. We also spoke about our own culture and habits. I learned more about the other cultures:

- I'm a belgian because I like Belgian chocolate was one of my statements.
- I'm Turkish because I drink Turkish the in a special cup.
- I'm Hongarian because I like paprika and kissing in the streets.
- I'm Hongarian because I paint Easter eggs.
- I'm Polish because I drink wodka.
- I'm Czech because I play music instruments.
- ...

After this we learned about a Belgian man: Geert Hofstede. I told with a red blush on my cheeks that I have never heard of him... Bad teachers at KdG... Geert Hofstede talks about culture. There are symbols, heroes, rituals and values in every culture and all parts have an effect on another part.

School visit: observation

On Thursdag 5 february we went to a primary school. This is how our day went.

1. Tour

Annette showed us the whole school. It was an old school with new buildings. When children arrive they can choose what they do: sitting in the class, playing in a hall, playing on the playground, reading on the computers,... In belgium they have to stay at the playground untill the bell rings and the teachers says that they can come in.

2. In the classroom

At 8.15 the pupils and the teacher are in the classroom and then it begins. They overflow the tasks of the day, the calender, the planning of today,... After the formal stuff we went to the artclass untill 9.45.

3. Art

The children made the week before statues from clay and now they painted them. We were sitting at the of the class. We couldn't help the teacher, we didn't understand the children,... so it was just sitting and taking pictures. At 9.30 we went back to the classroom and started the first break. The children were eating in the classrooms. This is another difference, we have a break at 10 and children eat at the playground.

What i did noticed and it's the same in Belgium: the children are being approached very positive. They get compliments all the time. I also do that for the wellbeing of the children.

4. Writing

After the break the pupils had to write the letter 'h'. I saw myself in this lesson. I gave almost exact the same lesson during my experience in November. The teacher made a big house and wrote the letter on the blackboard. The pupils practiced a litte bit and said all kind of words with 'h'. A creative lesson like I would have done it!

5. Maths

In this lesson I saw what I wanted to know about Danish lessons. Do they have differention in learning? Cause in Belgium, we do that a lot! And yes, they do it here to! There were 5 different things to do in the mathslesson! Some children were making tangrams, others were making figurs, other pupils played a maths game, others were building with specials cubes. And they learned by playing! That's the way it should be done!

Our first lessons were about the culture in Denmark. Of course we had to compare the culture to our own country. First we tried to find some things we already know (or think we know) about Denmark.

This is what I knew before I came here:

- There is a lot of nature, water, the sea, lots of fields

- small countries, plane roads

- storytellers like H.C. Andersson

- people who are blond and have blue eyes (not always true)

- Vikings

- fishing

- snow, cold

- no euro

- statue of a mermaid in Copenhagen.

I learned also new things about Denmark. Now I know that the mermaid isn't the national statue. It's a swan. When Danish people meet, they only shake hands and say hello. The favorit food here is 'frikadeller'. We also eat this in Belgium but the taste is different.

When it's Christmas they dance aroud the Christmas tree. I'm happy that my Christmas tree at home is standing in a corner... People in Denmark are very proud to live here. When we are walking to the school I noticed that all houses have a the Danish flag in their garden. Later we asked why... People in Belgium don't have the flag in the garden... It's because the people are so proud to be Danish. Even when they have a birthday, they put the flag on the table!

After this we made a drawing or art work,... about all the things we learned.

The first days...

I arrived on Saturday morning. We couldn´t find my place because I had a wrong number. So, its 18 in stead of 20. I was the first one to arrive. While Kris and Magali went to sleep I settled in. Tina, my buddy picked me up to visit the town and gave me a tour. She showed me the way to the school. She´s really nice, she helps me with everything. The other erasmusstudents arrived during the day and they are very nice! There are 2 girls from Hungary and 1 boy from Spain.

On Sunday we visited the town with the 4 of us. We went to find the school although we took another road then the buddy´s showed us. Ours is shorter, we hope. We need to go up on the hill. And ofcourse the school is behind the hill in a lower part of Haderslev. Time of walking: 30 minutes. I´m gonna come back to Belgium with a good condition. We also visited the town. It´s an old town, I love to walk around in it. All the typical houses, I like them. After that, we went to the lake. It´s the end of the ocean or something like that. It´s lovely with the paths for walking, the bridges, the special stairs to go the the semetary. It began to snow when we left the lake and it was getting colder because there was a lot of wind. So we went for a thee at Kafka´s. After that we went home and made dinner. And then the fun began, we had a little karaoke party till 00.30. It´s fun to getting to know eachother step by step! The 3 Polish girls arrived today. They were tired so we didn´t had to chance to know them better.

On monday, the 2th of February, we had to go to school. Tina picked the 3 Polish girls and me up so I didn´t had to walk. We checked out the cafeteria where we can eat an warm meal for lunch. The school is very big. There are 7 big buildings all over the street. And that´s only for the teacher education. The lessons starting most of the time at 9 o´clock. Jette Laursson had made us breakfast. The, coffie and little Danish bolls (´pistolleekes`). Njammie! After that we had to introduce ourselves. After that we had a class about the Danisch school system. It sounded quite familiar.

Today is the second day in school. We´re having ICT. Learning to make a weblog. But to be honest, i did read my e-mail first. I think everbody did. Finally contact with Belgium. Hopefully the internet works at our accomodation so I can keep writing on this blog. And that´s it for now!