26th March - History - WWII

On Thursday 26th we had an additional lesson of history with Jorn, because we had asked for having this great teacher again. And Jorn told us a lot about Second World War. It was perfect to hear about WWII – all in 3 hours – the most important facts, connections, context and lot of interesting things too. I had never heard that so complexly before. And it was very interesting to hear about WWII “from outside”, also about happenings in the Czech history from someone from a different country. I was glad to have that lesson, mange tak Jorn!

16 March - Cooking Danish and Interantional Food

I am sorry, but my back is aching a lot again, therefore I have to write very briefly. Unskyld mig...and thank you for understanding.
On Monday 16th we had a very special lesson - our classroom was a kitchen :-)
We were preparing our own national meals... We enjoyed it pretty much. Unfortunately I had to leave for a chiropractor appointment, therefore I didn´t tasted most of the meals. Anyway - good idea to have such a lesson :-) Mange tak.

PS: Our Czech group made "bramborové placky" ("potato-pancakes") with jam/ garlic / sauerkraut...

23rd to 27th Feb - Fourth week

First of all I would like excuse myself : I am sorry, I have to write much more shortly since now, because unfortunately I have bad backproblems and I can´t spend so much time on computer. Thank you for understanding.

Anyway, I am still enjoying time in Haderslev very much!
On Monday 23rd we had a lesson with Karen about Language and Identity. We were making our body-pictures according to languages. It was very interesting to thing about what the languages I know mean for me, how can I express myself in them and how I feel using them. I think I can use this activity at lower secondary school with my future pupils too.

On Tueday 24th we had a continuation of history lesson with our excellent teacher Jorn. :) Thas time it was more focused on Danish history (but still in very European context) in last two centuries. Therefore we learnt a lot about the history of South-Juttland area, which was very connected with Germans. There was even a referendum whether the inhabitants want to join Denmark or Germany after WWI - and the present boarder is made according to that referendum. Amazing!
In the afternoon I had my first piano lesson -- Annette had offered me some piano lessons and I started to work on some short Danish pieces of music with her. Thank you very much Annette! :)

I had also a two Danish lessons. Plus school-visits and optional English with Danish students too (more about that later ;) )

18th - 20th Feb - The Other Lessons of the Third week

We were pretty lucky, because our school started at 12.30 on Wednesday - therefore we could sleep enough after Kafka café. We had a very interesting lesson with Torbjorn. At first he explained us the old and new Danish evaluation systems. I was really surprised - it´s completely different from ours!Why?

I will explain the old one first:
There were grades (from the bottom): 0,3,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 and 13.
0,3 and 5 meant that the pupil hadn´t passed.
8 was the average that teachers could expect.
And grades 11 and 13 were special grades - to appreciate really good students. 13 meant very excellent, above expectations, the very special grade.

I think it was very nice to be able to give an extraordinary grade to an extraordinary pupil - to appreciate him. Unfortunately, this grade disappeared. The Danish system was changed - we were told that the old system was to confusing to the rest of Europe.

And the new system?
There are grades (from the top) :
12 -expectations
10
7
4
2
------------ passed
and 0
- 3 (which is rather exceptional - for example for students who were cheating during the final written exam and failed the oral exam)

Torbjorn said us that he thinks the new system was a step BACKWARD. The previous could appreciate extraordinary students, however the new one measures, how much you don´t fullfil the expectations (from 12 DOWN). I could agree with him, I found the previous system very interesting.

One more note considering evaluation.
This system is from LOWER SECONDARY schools.
At PRIMARY SCHOOLS pupils get "only" written sentences to parents (to avoid too much competition amongst kids).


Then we had a lecture about Learning theories - e.g. three types of curricula:
A) content driven
B) objective driven
and C) process driven

It was very interesting to GO MORE BEHIND the differences at school systems and school approaches. Since it´s nice to observe differences of my country and Danish school system, but then it´s very useful to think -WHY? And this lecture helped me to start thinking about "what I intend to expect from my future pupils. And why? What is more important for me - the content, abilities of pupils or the process of learning itself...?"

All the subects and projects of "Living and Learning Together - not only about school systems, but also cultures - makes me thinking more deeply, to go more behind, to ask questions...not only observe and compare. And that is what I really like about this study programme.

On Thursday we had pretty exciting lesson of History. I had never thought before that history could be interesting. However, it can! Jorn Buch persuaded me :-)! I thought we were going to have a boring lesson about Danish history - dates, people, events...How wrong I was!
Jorn involved all our own countries´ histories - and helped us to see that almost all European countries had very similar history. Christianity, Reformation, Romanticism, Nationalism... Do you see? He surprised us, because he had pretty good knowledge about our countries´history, dates (even better that we had!) - and showed us a plenty of connections.
Astonishing! :-)
And I have to appreciate that eventhough he had had an accident during tennis-playing and has his arm hurt the evening before, he came - because he really wanted to teach us. Thank you very much!


We had also Danish lesson on Thursday - trying to develop our Danish language skills in basic conversations. I learnt a very useful sentence: "Jeg taler ikke godt dansk".
(For understanding use: http://translate.google.com :-) )

On Friday we had a lesson with Torbjorn about Globalisation.
Globalisation and its pros and (mostly) cons has been a pretty discussed topic recently - however almost nobody has been able to explain well WHAT globalisation really is. Therefore I was very glad that we started to think and discuss globalisation from different sides. What is it connected with, what does it cause, mean and what are its both possitive and negative effects...we took it very complexely (or "globally", if you want to :-) ).

The interesting and surprising idea for me was - that this is not the first globalisation in history. Because there was one before - throughout "Christianisation" (- spreading christianity, latin language and ideas).

And then we started to speak about different parts of globalisation
- sociology and antropology
- international politics and economy
- citizenship and democracy
- trade
- and pedagogy
I am really looking forwart to continuation of this lesson...

16th to 20th Feb - Our presentations

On Monday we had an "Education" lesson with Torbjorn - presentations of our own countries´ school systems. It was very interesting for me. I found Belgium system very similar to Danish one, however, they have differencies in primary school system. In Belgium one teacher theaches all the subjects - he or she has the only class throught the whole year. On the other hand, in Denmark they have different teachers for each subject - though at primary schools. (The Czech Republic is more similar to Belgium system in case of primary schools. One teacher for one class, usually. However, I was shocked that pupils on primary schools in Belgium have 8 hours per day (from 8 a.m. to 16 p.m.)! It means 8 hours a day for their teachers (and preparations for next day afterwards!!!) "A min Gud!" (Oh, my God!)

I was also surprised that Turkish school system is very progressive, they are not affraid of new approaches and methods. Unfortunately in Hungary there is completely the opposite situation - the society and state are not open for inovations too much, changes go pretty slowly. And for instance if you say "alternative school" in Hungary - people still think pejoratively about that.

Anyway, it was very useful to hear about another countries´systems - the more you can compare, the more you can think about your own country system - what is good, what is wrong, is it easy to change this, why? ...etc.

In the afternoon we had a second music lesson - we listened to a Danish piece of music, sing some other songs and play different rythms...

On Tuesday the 17th in the morning we had a computer lesson - we improved our weblogs and learned about sharing photos via Flickr (www.flickr.com). I found the lessons with Hanna very helful - she initiates us into various useful internet possibilities for communication and sharing pictures from abroad. I can use it not only for school (as the weblog, you know ;), but also for my personal life. And maybe in some language lessons too?

And in the Tuesday and Friday afternoon we presented our countries! Hurray:)
I enjoyed presenting my own country to the others and also learning new things about my schoolmates´countries very much. Did you know that Hungarians are related to Mongolians some way and therefore they used to be connected with horse-riding and using a bow?
And that the average elevation of Turkey is more than 1100 metres above the sea level? Wow! :)
Some people even prepared tasting, therefore we could enjoy getting to know the countries via (almost) all the senses ;)






What´s more, Zep and Caynan prepared a puppet show, tiptop! :) I have to say that my classmates are very imaginative and interesting people, I like "living and learning" with them very much!

12th Feb - Danish Lunch

On Thursday we had a special Danish lesson. Firt of all our teachers thought us some basic vocabulary we need for shopping (the most important thing in foreign country is to be able to feed yourself, of course! ;) ).
So we learnt numbers until tusind (I am sure you guessed right that it means thousand ;) ) and a plenty of words connected with food - kinds of fruits, vegetable, mælkeprodukter ;), meat and the basic conversation in the shop.
Some of the words are similar to English or German, therefore the written form is not difficult in some cases. However - the pronunciation! Oops, completely different!!! I think that is the most difficult thing about Danish language. We have to practice a lot;)

And the practical part came. Every group got a list of a few things which to buy in the shop. For instance our group had a task to buy:

• rugbrød (dark bread - it´s the basic of a typical Danish lunch - because the Danes eat cold lunch, the main meal is dinner then)
• mælk - at least three kinds including kærnemælk (=kefir). ( You can find different boxes of milk in Denmark: navy blue (3,5 % fat) milk, blue (1,5%), light blue (0,5%), but also grey milk (0,1%)-which is the cheapest, but horrible, it´s like white water.)
• spegepolse (salami)
• tomat

We went altoghether to Fakta and then to our teacher´s house to prepare it and EAT IT :). The best way how to experience real Danish lunch and try their various stuff (e.g. leverpostej and frikadeller (Danish liver pate and meat balls), yum yum! :)
We enjoyed this day very much. "Tak!"

9th Feb Danish culture and our cultures

On Monday the 9th we had a Culture lesson with Jette. Each of us had prepared some statements: I am Czech/Polish/Spanish etc. because... It was very interesting to think more about our identity and differences and uniguenesses in our cultures. I wrote for example:
I am Czech because:

• I can play a musical instrument. (It is said that "every Czech is a musician.")
• I like beer. (The Czech consume the biggest amount of beer per capita a year - 156,9 litres (including babies :) ), did you know that? )
• I live in the heart of Europe.
  
• I have a "clever pair of hands". (Czech people are said to be very handy, skilfull)
• I like cream sauces and unhealthy, fat food.
• unfortunately I have to keep an eye out for my things in the streets. (There are many pick-pockets and thefts).
• I send a lot of SMS.

I learnt a lot about my classmates´cultures - e.g.:
The Hungarians
love spicy food (I noticed during our common dinners, Mate and Noemi :D)
and kissing in the streets. ;) (I noticed too :D)

The Polish love Vodka ;)

The Turkish
drink Turkish tea in a traditional glass. (red tea, isn´t it, Zep? :))
and coffee (and then they foretell the future from the cup)
they kiss their relatives
the put money in the bra (Save, isn´t it?;) )
clean the bottom with water (Zep misses a water-closet a lot! First of all she thought that the toilet is broken. However, when she saw a couple of "broken toilets, she realised that maybe that´s like that in Europe.;) )

The Belgians eat a Belgium chocolate.

and the Spanish like sleeping (we noticed it right the first day when Carlos overslept :D)
wine and oranges. And parties, of course! :)

Than we spoke more about cultural awareness theory -e.g. Geert Holfsteed "Triangle": Human nature, Culture and Personality (s. the portfolio). And also about an "onion diagram" - what culture consists of: Values, Rituals, Heroes and Symbols. It was very interesting for me to deepen, to think more about culture.
I must confess that the longer I stay abroad and the more I learn about the others - the more I learn about MY CULTURE AND MY IDENTITY.

We also went through a questionare about Denmark and the text called "Xenophobe´s guide to the Danes". We are getting to know the country more and more... And some specialities about Danish culture?
For example:

• the Danes dance around the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. Did you know it?
• the Danes are always on time (it means even that if they are too early in front of the house in which they are invited for the dinner, they will stay outside in the rain until the right time!)
• A typical Danish conversation opener is: "Bad weather, huh?" :D
• The Danes put the flag on the dinning table when somebody has a birthday
• The national animal is Swan
• Denmark became the first European country to legalise same-sex marriages (in 1989!)
• one of the most important values is the freedom of speech, Denmark is very liberal country
• The Danes queue by a number system (we experienced it the first week - we hadn´t know about the system and we waited in a very small phone-shop (only 3 customers were there). And when we thought it was our turn (after very long 10 minutes), we found out that we didn´t have a number. OK, once again!... Therefore we learnt;) )
• And of course - one of the most important things in Danish culture is "HYGGE"
  

(to cite from the original text: "To have a hyggelig time is social nirvana in Denmark. It is not only cosiness related to physical surrounding...it is connected with people´s behaviour towards each other. It is the art of crating intimacy: A sense of comradeship, convivality and contentment rolled into one. Achieving hygge generally involves being with friends and family, and eating and drinking. Candlelight is used to encourage a hyggelig atmosphere...")

It´s is quite difficult to explain it, but if you experience it (hygge is really everywhere, especially when you walk in the old town in the evening), you love it! And as I said at the beginning - our beautiful house is really hyggelig.
If I should compare hygge to the Czech language, I would say "teplo domova" (the warmth of home).

I think that it is very connected with the geography of Denmark. Very often it is cold and dark weather, you can´t see many people in the streets. Everyone prefers a warmth home or a café together with his family or friends. People also don´t close curtains and light candles on the window-sills as well as switch on some table-lamp...
That is Denmark ;)

6th Feb - Danish culture and Danish language

On Friday we had a lesson with Jette in the morning. First of all we discused our school visits a lot. Then we checked ourHaderslev quizes. Our group: Maté + Noemi + me (+ Carsten, the most important person, of course! :) ) won - we had got almost all the answers. The freezing in the Wednesday fog was worth ;)! Yippee!

And during breaks I could observe some changes, which are gradually coming... A bit more a collective team? :)



In the afternoon we had our first lesson of Danish. Our teachers are Christina and Signe - students of "Danish as a second language"; they brought us a very nice cake. So we learnt that Danish people love cakes and they are good at it ;). It was really nice introduction to Danish culture :). Many thanks!




.....Mmmmm, very delicious cake, isn´t it?


Since Friday I am able to introduce myslelf a bit: "Jeg hedder Eliska. Jeg kommer fra Dobruska." However, heed! Danish language is pronounced very different way from spelling. Ooops! That´s why Danish is said the second most difficult language in the world. (After Chinese language. Can you imagine?! )

After the lesson we went altogether to "Friday café" to practice our Danish little bit.
"En ol" ("one beer") I asked a barkeeper. But her reaction was some question (I didn´t understand any word.). Uhhh? "Light or dark one?"...OK, I have to study a lot! :D
We enjoyed a table footbal (hurray, it´s for free) and around 4 p.m. we went home... I was pretty tired after the first school-week, however, I liked it very much...

3rd and 4th Feb - Lessons and other activities

On Tuesday we learnt how to create a weblog (therefore you can´t read this now ;-) ). In the afternoon we had a lesson with Jette - we spoke about our expectations and discused reasons why we wanted to became Erasmum students. There are a few of mine:
I would like to improve my English and get life experience, I love travelling and meeting new people, I want to gain knowledge about foreign educational system and practice teaching, and above all - I found the project "Living and Learning Together" very interesting.
I can say that so far, all my expectations have been filled very well.

On Wednesday we had a very good Music lesson which we enjoyed very much. We sang a" welcome song" and composed our own from the "greeting words" of our countries, played and composed different rythms with bottles and our body (for an example see the video), listened to a piece of music and drew a four-part pictures according to the music (and played it as a drama then) and sang a lot of songs... Thank you Annette!




After school on Wednesday me, Maté, Noemi and our buddy Carsten went for a walk in Haderslev to fill a "Haderslev quiz", which we got at school. There were questions about places, history and shops, which we had to find. And we also had to ask people in the streets or shops.
I think it is very nice idea, how to get the students acquainted with the town "actively".
Eventhoug it was foggy and chilly weather, we enjoyed it pretty much and found a lot of beautiful and interesting places. I´m sure we will explore them more and we will enjoy our time in this charming town very much.
The pictures speak for themselves...

2nd - An introduction to the Danish school system

On Monday afternoon we had a lesson with Torbjorn Ydedard (I am sorry, Torbjorn, I don´t have the strange special Danish letters on my keyboard to write your name correctly). The lesson was a part of the first-four-week module called "Comparative Studies" and Torbjorn introduced us to the Danish school system - its history, current constitution as well as the key ideas.

These are some main and interesting things that attracted me:

In Denmark "All children of school age shall be entitled to free instruction in primary schools."
It means that all children are invited to go to school for free, but still, if they parents want to educate them at home, thay can. (Anyway, they are examined then, of course.)
If they want their children to go to school, they have a free choice out of these:

• public schools (grade 0-9 / 10)

• private schools - grade 0-9 / 10

- "boarding schools (but not similar to English ones) 8 -10 grade

• private teaching
  

There is difference between private and public schools (="Folkeskolen").
Private schools are usually small and the teaching there is according to their own convictions. Therefore private school can differ according to their "beliefs" and ways of thinking and approaches. There can be muslim private schools, German schools (especially in South Jutland area which used to be a part of Germany for about 100 years before WWI) and a great variety of "alternative" schools... And parents have to pay 20% of the cost of the education at a private school.
However, there are some things, which both public and private schools have in common - so called "common goals" for each subject.

And some of the " key ideas" and characteristics of the education system in Denmark are:

• cross-curricular teaching
• cooperation of school and parents
• feedback to the parents - evaluations
• differentiated teaching according to individual needs of pupils
• teacher - pupil cooperation concerning individual- and class- goals
• equality between teacher and pupil
• children learn to be social
• focus on autonomy
• focus on pupils
• teachers often make self-made materials
• motto: "Have a courage to use our own understanding"

This is really interesting for me, because characteristics and ideas of the Danish school system is similar to Czech system called "framework educational programme" (=RVP). This programme has been being introduced to Czech primary and lower secondary schools since September 2007. The Czech programme is therefore in the beginnings (and maybe more in ideas, than in real practice since now, because its changing slowly). It´s why I was so curious about the Danish school system and I really want to see and experience it in practice.
And on Thursday our first visits of schools were to come...

PS: And I forgot - pupils address teachers always with their first names in Denmark!
(Equality and a freedom of speech are one of the most important things for the Danes, so maybe that´s why...) :-)