Week 11: International Week: Monday and Tuesday

I think that the only problem of the International Week was the fact that it was too short. Otherwise, we all enjoyd the programme thoroughly.

On Monday we were getting to know each other - we drew a picture of our nationality and then drew a picture of another nation. It was a great activity and I think we all did our best and the pictures were great and all the importang characterictics were included in them.:)
I also liked dancing lesson with Pia Paustian. It was really funny and all those dances were great. The only problem came when she decided to teach us a Danish song - Danish is just impossible to pronounce, at least for me.

On Tuesday we "learned" how to prepare sandwidches and Karen, our teacher, told us about the tradition of coffe table. It means that you prepare many different sweets, make strong black coffee, invite your friends and then eat and eat until you think you are gonna dien. Then you make a short break and then go on eating. Great tradition, I wanna try it once.:)

Then we had music with Annette, which is quite a nice teacher, but maybe too kind and she lets students do whatever they want. I`m used to teachers who are the only authority in the classroom and they organize activities and so on. It was quite different Annette - she had some ideas in mind but we also did our own activities - we were trying to learn a Spanish song, a Belgian one, a French one and many others.

But the best part came in the evening. Each nation prepared some specialities typical of their country. Then we put it on the tables in the canteen and ate it all. It was so delicious. So many different tastes. We couldn`t move in the end.

Danish and European stereotypes

Jete Lauren's classes are always very well prepared and interesting. And Jete is such a great teacher - always in a good mood, helpful and really interested in our problems and worries. We were talking about stereotypes - how they work, why people think in stereotypes and so on.
Before I came to Denmark, I thought that Denmark is quite an expensive countryk, Danish people are quite calm and reserved and that Danish school system is on a very high level. I would say that these ideas are quite true, although Danish people I've met so far were rather friendly and hearty. I didn't have any prejudices against Denmark and I really like this country. Maybe I thought that Danish people are more "green" and environmentally friendly. But I would say that the opposite is true. They seem not to recycle as there are no containers for recycled garbage /paper, glass, plastics. Also at school they waste paper - they use just one side of a paper sheet.
We played an interesting game with Jete. We were supposed to introduce ourselves in stereotypes. You can tell I'm Czech because...

• I drink beer a lot
• I love company and being with friends
• I am quite skilful
• I don't like rules and am quite good at breaking rules
• I often complain about things I do not like
  

Storytellers - Danish literature and film

We had 2 seminars of this name - one on Friday 5th, one on Monday 8th. The first one was dedicated to Karen Blixen - a prominent Danish writer. We watched a documentary film on her life. Moreover, there is quite a famous film about her which is called "Out of Africa" with Meryl Strepp and Robert Redford starring. The film was interesting but too long and it was quite difficult to concentrate on it. In the second part of this lesson we divided into groups and prepared presentations which were supposed to introduce our country to others but we had to include a story in it.

On Monday we presented our presentations to other students. Some presentations were very well prepared but some students presented factual information, not a story. Our Czech group decided to tell others o tale of the Astronomical Clock in Prague. We used some extracts from "Goat Movie" and our presentation was quite successful.
It's interesting how different nations presented their countries in many different ways.

Spanish girls used just music, pictures and text and didn't say a word. Turkish girls had a nice presentation but they didn't know what some of pictures used in the presentation depict and their speech was sometimes a bit chaotic.
On Monday we also talked about Hans Christian Andersen and watched a film about his life. The film wasn't bad but it was too long - more than 3 hours. It would have been definitely a better idea if we had watched it at home. Watching films is not a really good idea because students got bored after a while and they do not pay attention!

First Days At School

Our studying in Denmark is divided into a few modules. We are not asked to take tests and exams but to do homework we are given and specially keep this weblog that reflects our impressions of Danish educational system and their lifestyle.
Teachers seems to be kind and really helpful. We were even given coffee, tea and some refreshments during our first lesson. All information given to us was clear and concise and we received a file with schedule, maps and brochures about Denmark, which helped us a lot.
In my opinion, everything is organized perfectly at this university.