Week Two

Personal Experiences

This is the end of my second week living in Denmark, and a lot has happened allowing me to have a better understanding of the culture and the society that I am living in. We started classes on Wednesday, and met thirty-five students from around ten different countries throughout Europe who I will be studying with over the next four months.  We were given information about our modules many of which will allow us to become familiar with each other’s education systems and the similarities and differences between these.

At the weekend we went away to a youth hostel in Ishøj just outside Copenhagen.  This hostel was near the beach, and we were told we would be going to visit the beach at some point during the weekend! As it was snowing and the temperatures were in the minus numbers, none of us were too excited by this prospect! This weekend away was to do with our Comparative Education module and not only provided us with the opportunity to get to know each other better, but to begin to make a start with this class.  We were given many different tasks and activities to do throughout these days away, including an activity where we were paired up with a student from another country, and using drawings of ourselves we had to explain the things that characterized us and were important to us, whether these were values, people, objects or places.  I found it was interesting to do this but then to consider the other persons point of view also.  We were encouraged to consider differences and similarities between these posters in larger groups and it was really interesting that although we all come from many different backgrounds and countries, most groups found it easier to find similarities with each other than differences.  This not only helped me think more about my own cultural identity but also to consider that of others, and to become aware that the diverse nature of our group is a positive thing as it allows for a variety of different opinions.

Task to look at differences in our education systems.

This is something that I feel will tie into my teaching practice here as we have been placed into groups of four for teaching practice, all of which are mixed nationality, in my group I am with people from Austria, Belgium and Spain.  Already in our early discussions of the education systems each of us have been through, and our views of this, I have discovered so many different ways of teaching and learning. I feel that to teach with such a diverse group of people will help me in my future as a teacher, as I have already had my eyes opened to so many different ideas, and am therefore excited to go out on teaching practice with them in April, as I feel all our differences will be of great benefit in this.

All the ERASMUS students at the beach in the snow!

We have also had the opportunity to start Danish lessons this week, and although it is hard, it is enjoyable. I am glad that we have this opportunity, as it will be beneficial when out in schools, as it seems the younger children will have very little English, and this should hopefully help with some of the communication difficulties.

Classes here are different from at home, some lasting for 3 hours, but I am excited to continue these, and to see what other learning challenges arise over the next few months!

The frozen sea!!

(Also, we did go on that walk to the beach, and it was so cold that even the sea was frozen!)