One
of my friend, met this women, Mrs. Margarita, in Europe, who lives in
Sweden and is an English teacher there. A few months back we had a
video conference with 5 of her students in school through Skype,
interacting with each other, talking about our cultures and so on.
Basically an intercultural programme.
Today
we did the same thing, but this time she had 40 students from her
side whilst we were 4! Our supervisors were CAS coordinator Mr. Rolf and English Head of Department, Mrs. Elizabeth
Before
we could begin, we jotted down a list of questions to ask the
students, took a diary and pen (to take notes) and set ourselves in
our school's conference room (we actually felt like professionals!).
Technicalities were handled by the IT department.
Initially,
we started off with introducing ourselves to them. Next followed the
exchange of questions.
Our
side: “What makes you choose to learn English?”
Their
side: “We're forced to do it!. We have no
choice”
Our side: *We see them wearing jeans (influence of the Western culture)*.
What do you do at your spare times?
Their side: Party, music and other hobbies.
Our side: Same. How do you celebrate birthdays?
Their side: Sing a song for the birthday boy/girl (christmas tune).
*They begin singing for us in Swedish*
Our side: *Clapping*. When was your culture influenced by the Western culture?
Their side: When our parents were small. So we are used to it now.
Our side: Do you watch English films?
Their side: Subtitles are there, so it is made a bit easier to understand.
Our side: Are boys and girls treated equally in your school? (question asked when boys were not around)
Their side: Interesting question! But no, we're not treated equally. Boys take up more space in class!
How is it like in your school?
Our side: *Laughs* We are treated equally. You see, all of us even wear the same kind of uniform!
........and the conversation went on (about festivals, holidays, marriages etc..).
They too asked several questions. Both sides seemed equally curious!
This 45 minutes was an engaging and a fun experience for each one of us. We definately learned quite a bit about their lifestyle, also, were all happy to exchange the facts and information.
Afterall, knowledge is a powerful weapon!
Duration: 1.5 hours
No comments:
Post a Comment