Groupwork and guestteachers

The last few weeks were about guest teachers and group work. The guest teacher gave lectures about different subjects. Some teachers had success and some not that much. With a few teachers I was missing the connection between their subject and our course. That makes it difficult for me to pay attention to the lectures. But I also have to say that there were some really interesting lectures, for example the lecture from Tim Gully. It was really interesting to discuss about how to threat these children and what to do. With these discussion you can learn a lot about the different countries and their legislative system. With a discussion you need your classmates to tell something about their country. I still think that it is difficult for people to speak in a big group. Although I can understand this, I hope the coming weeks more people will participate in the discussions.

Group work

When we started this project I was surprised. We had a lot of time and a maximum of ten pages. But after a few meetings a realized that working together with different cultures (and a language difference) is harder as I thought. We needed extra time to discuss, because there were a lot of misunderstandings. These misunderstandings were caused by language difficulties. This makes it sometimes really hard to work together. Sometimes we worked on some parts individual (for our own country) and then we would compare. When we started comparing we saw not everyone did the same. When explaining and discussing in a different language, the way of understanding can be really different. So my conclusion is that good communication is very important in group work with a different language.

I want to finish this blog with a statement. In the first year of my education at my university, I learned about this statement. For me it is important in conversations with people who have difficulties with expressing there selves.

"The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said."

Something like culture and monkeys...

"Culture is about everything what we do and the monkeys do not"

At my university in The Netherlands we talk a lot about culture. Every time I ask myself: What is culture? When I talked about culture in my home country, I only recognized my own culture. In the first weeks here in Copenhagen I realized that i only have (real) knowledge and experience about my own culture. But I also realized that I can't give a definition of culture that fits me! I started searching for stories on the Internet about culture and founded a 'monkey story.' It was a weird comparison between humans and monkeys. It told about the habits and strongholds of humans, because a lot of people have a routine. For me there was a connection with our discussion about the habits and when something is culture. And I thought about that our culture is in a lot of small things. It depends of many factors and it is something dynamic. To go back to monkey story, they claimed that there is one 'monkey-culture'. But now I developed my own theory about culture, I can say: That's not true! Because the 'yoran-theory' says that culture is in a lot of small things. There are 242 different kinds of monkeys and I can promise you, they don't have the same culture!

Cultural meeting
When we did the practical visits, we visited a after school care facility. I was surprised by the long day of the children. They had to do school, after school facility and most of the times sports or hobbies. So the children are busy! I had to thought about the children I worked with at my internship. It was quit the same. Only we don't have something like an after school facility, we have longer school days. At my internship we sometimes complained that the children are bored and had to do some sports. But now I am thinking: why do they have to be so busy? Ofcourse if they get bored, they could do something. But a child is still a child and sometimes they just hang around! Nowadays we always want them to be busy, it's like a habit. You can think of a lot of reasons why it is good to do sports or hobbies, but don't ask to much of the children.
My internship is for me my 'future work.' I like the work and i am thinking about to apply their for a job. If I would work their, then I will think more about habits. Why do I ask this from a child or what are his habits? What are my habits and how does it influence my expectations? I realized that culture and habits are connected and these habits influence our expectations or thoughts.

Indtil næste gang!

First days in Copenhagen

Hi, I'm Yoran from Holland. This is my blog to tell you about my experiences in Copenhagen. First I shall introduce myself. I am 21 years old and I am studying Pedagogical work in Enschede. It's my fourth and last year now, and I hope to graduate in June 2011.

Now I've just started at the UCC Frøbel with the international course pedagogical work with children in a European perspective.

My first impression of Denmark is good one. The Danish people are really kind people and almost all speak English. If I asked something, they always wanted to help me. Also it is easy to travel with the public transport, although it is expensive. The people at the international line are also very kind people. They all talk English and we are all helping each other.

I noticed some funny things here at home, which the owner calls typical Danish. The lamps at this place are hanging very low. I think at 1,70m high and that's difficult because I am 1,90m tall! Luckily the owner offered to hang them a bit higher, so I don't have a headache all the time. Also the owner shuts down all the lights at home when he leaves a room. In Holland I always put on all lights, so you can see well. So now I have to get used to put off all lights.

For the next few months I expect to learn a lot about other cultures. I think we talk all lot about similarities and differences between our cultures, just like today. I also expect to learn a lot about communication between different cultures. I noticed the past few days that there are differences between communication in cultures. I saw different ways of speaking English and different ways of expressing yourself.

I hope to learn a lot and looking forward to the coming months.

Greetings Yoran.