On November 25th, in the morning, I went to AbeOs, a school of Osteopathy in Bologna, where I met some of my friends. In particular, I had the pleasure of having an enjoyable conversation with four students Filippo, Luca, Clara, Erik, that I know from my childhood, with whom we discussed my experience in Macedonia. To present the project I took the advantage of showing images and videos that all the participants in the activities carried out did. They were all enthusiastic to share with me their opinions about it and some demonstrated interest in taking part in the next Erasmus+ initiatives.
The main aim of the discussion with my friends was to demonstrate to them the importance and advantages of learning foreign languages. Today, we consider it a “must”. The elements of our discussion were:
- New words, terms and expressions in other languages;
- themes such as inclusion, diversity and ethnicity;
- sharing different points of view about the topic of the project
- the emphasis on different perspectives, which are very necessary in order to form an opinion
- being a polyglot as a way out of the unemployment cycle;
- job opportunities abroad and opening career doors;
- critical thinking, problem-solving skills, creation, innovation and being a multitasker;
Everyone was captivated by the beauty of knowing some basic phrases of the local language, as well as of all the others. Nations, such as Italy, have their own idioms, proverbs and tongue twisters. For that reason, they were struck by the fact that although they sound different, they are very similar in structure.
They also showed interest in the “energizer” activities, which allow us to know each other better, as the days passed. Luca spoke of the fact that it was very interesting to share ideas in order to structure his own project, as he believes that it could be very useful for future experiences. Bringing together in a single structure many young people of different cultures and ethnicities is definitely a wonderful initiative to improve the inclusion of anyone in the community. Thus far, in a globalized world, it is essential to allow each individual to be part of society. In this project “Be Happy, be a polyglot”, every participant brought something of their country. In particular, Filippo could not wait to contribute with his ideas to show a bit of Italy abroad and to be able to learn more about the diversity of other cultures.
Erik, who was born in France but has German parents and decided to come and live in Italy, thinks that this type of project is very effective in having your own point of view, without covering the opinion of others. Having a suitcase of multicultural experiences, he was able to firmly affirm the importance of different points of view. He is also very good at speaking both French, German and Italian, as well as, of course, English, and this allowed him to always find a job during his life, in France, Germany and Italy.
Finally, Clara noticed that doing a multiplicity of activities and speeches, carried out during the experience, allowed everyone to improve critical thinking and so on, both guaranteeing linguistic skills and fun, living pleasantly the days.
I can say that, with this activity, I tried to show that once you learn a new language it would be easier to learn another one, especially if it belongs to the same group of languages. By learning one Slavic or Romance language it will be easier to learn and to be able to understand the other ones. The methods I used for organizing my activity were based on non-formal in order to capture everyone’s attention.
Thanks to a project like this one, we can understand better how much we are so similar to others and how every person has to be able to defend their rights, traditions and behaviors, even if are different, in order to break stereotypes related to cultural differences and raise awareness.
Learning how to self-reflect on actions and not to be afraid of failing or making mistakes are the best ways to face these projects. I will recommend Erasmus+ to everyone as it’s an opportunity to grow from all points of view.
– Follow-up activity implemented by: Julia Natalia A.
