Tuesday, 8 February

Select a day

Home
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14

Dig down deep - expect a lot!


Teaching Culture! Lecture on stereotypes - Student's perspective

At lunchtime we had an exciting lecture about stereotypes which people have about other nationalities and cultures. In the lecture we were given a list of typical habits and were invited to find somebody who would affirm having this particular habit. Everybody stood up and tried to find out whether, for example, Fernando from Spain would have only coffee for his breakfast or if Thomas from Germany likes to have tea with his hot meal.

We then sat together to find out the results and had an interesting discussion about some of the points raised during the exercises. It was interesting to see that whereas some were quite familiar for me, they were actually surprising for others. By doing this exercise we realized that some stereotypes apply to almost everybody from that country and others are more bound to the individual person.

Alexander zur Linden
 
 

 

Lunchtime lecture: “National Stereotypes” - Teacher's Perspective

Who has only a coffee for breakfast? Who knows a song about a frog? Who takes always his or her shoes off when he or she enters a house? Who orders always drinks at the bar of a pub?
At the beginning of our lecture, which deals with national stereotypes, the students moved around with “Find somebody who...” questionnaires to find as many different people as possible for the above mentioned questions. During the discussion of the results, we asked the students if they expected these results and we came to the conclusion that some of these questions are some kind of stereotypes; others are more personal. Talking about stereotypes, we agreed that they are generalizations and, in many cases, they allow us to “fill in the blanks”, if we have not a complete picture of other cultures or countries. They might or might not be true, but in the intercultural context, like for example in our cottages here on Achill, they can be very useful to understand the habits and behaviors of people from other countries.
During the lecture, most of the time, there was a very lively and interesting discussion and the students and teachers exchanged a lot of intercultural experiences. And for Antje and me, it was also a really positive experience to give a lecture on intercultural issues in English!

By Simone Schlüter

 
Slievemore

Today, we went up the road past the IT center to look at the Deserted Village of Slievemore. There were two groups of us, the Hiking Group and the Stone Group. The aim for the hikers was to cover the traces of emigration by the people who had lived there before it was deserted.

Andreas, who had done some research on the area of emigration from Achill, was telling us that the people who used to live in the area had probably gone down to live by the sea and make a living on fishing in Dooagh.

First we went to the graveyard which was very beautiful with small pots of flowers and Jesus Christ figures on some of the graves. Along the way, we met a guy guiding his sheepdog with whistles so that the dog could gather the sheep in a herd. The Deserted Village was quite big and all the “houses” were standing in a row. We also saw some of the gardens where they used to grow potatoes. Surprisingly enough, they were still in the same shape as in the old times.

By Björn Wigeman
Conversations in the convent

The Silver Surfers workshop went to the convent for an interview. Sister Mary introduced us (Katja, Alexander and Lydia) to Pat and Brian, who visit the convent twice or more often every week to offer activities there. We prepared an interview so as to get to know them and their lives. While the conversation was moving in this direction we also got interested in their experiences on the Internet. Brian told us that he is already learning a lot about computers; everyday he is getting better and better. He has also installed a computer at home to write emails to friends in England, Germany and New Zealand, but he also uses his computer to write letters. Pat, on the other hand, was the one who told us more about his own story, which we will use for our “Grandma goes on-line” part of the Silver Surfers workshop. At the end, we interviewed sister Mary as well to collect some more details about her and the daily life in the convent. We got lots of impressions and good conversations until we had to leave for the next activity.

By Lydia Sawatzky


<< Previous day - Next day >>
Co-ordinator: Dr. Laurent Borgmann, Remagen
FH Koblenz, RheinAhrCampus
page by Marie Nilsson and Daniela Dung