Lectures at nearby school

Hi everyone!

We would like to tell you guys about our experience of giving a "lecture" about our homecountries to the kids at a nearby school! Sometimes it is easy to forget all the amazing things about your own country especially when you are out and about experiencing totally different culture. So it was actually a lot of fun even just creating the presentation. Also trying to figure out what kind of information the kids would like to know. It turned out to be really difficult to anticipate what they wanted to know, but more on that later ;)

First up was Poland:


I thought that I had already experienced Culture Shock and after spending 4weeks in Taiwan I would not feel it again. I was wrong. I forgot that I hadn't visited Taiwanese school, which turned out to be really different from European one. 

Firstly, I was requested to take off my shoes and received flip-flops which both  were the same - it didn't matter if I put it on my left or right foot! One of the teachers told me about that after watching me changing flip-flops from one foot to another and back for a few minutes 
- I hope it was fun for her to do that!

Another suprise didn't make me wait long - the classrooms didn't have walls. Each floor of the school was just a huge open space separated into smaller parts only with the curtains. The rest was pretty like 'at home': desks and chairs, table for a teacher, blackboard and chalk. 

When my presentation began, kids seemed to be enthusiastic about it, but what really 
attracted their attention was Polish coins and postcards 
brought by me from Olsztyn, my hometown.
 I think the language barrier caused some problems in our communication, 
but it really didn't matter when the kids saw photos showing Polish winter, tons of snow, 
the frozen Baltic sea and Polish cities during Christmas time.
 I'm sure that long 'wooooow' was heard on the whole school's floor. 

The kids' appreciation for my country make me think more about it and helped me realize in what a beatiful place I was born and spent my whole life. 

I confirm: you have to leave the place to fully appreciate it
 - so don't hesitate, Taiwan is willing to help you with that! 

Kasia

Next was Denmark and as a small gimmick the children got to taste "lakrids" (licorice) brought from Denmark. Surprisingly some of the kids liked it! Or maybe they was too jazzed about getting permission to eat in the classroom, which was out of the ordinary :D We will never know. A lot of them did have problems with the weird taste of "lakrids" though even the teacher :)

Eeeeewwww, not everyone enjoys the taste of "lakrids" :)

1) Presenting the flag of Denmark
2) giving out "lakrids" - licorice
3) The kids raising their hands were the ones that said they liked
the "lakrids". 

After the lectures, which gave them insights into both Poland and Denmark of course there was a LOT of questions and this is where we both were really surprised to hear the nature of the questions. "What time do kids go to school?", "Why is there holes in your coins?", "Which kind of wild animals lives in your country? and so on. It is so funny what kids can come up with. Especially things that you in no way ever had considered about yourself or your country.

We felt almost like superstars :P

All in all it ended up with signatures, pictures and all sorts of documentation on us being there and we must admit that we also ended up reflecting aspects of our own homecountries - the minds of kids :)

SAY CHEEEEEESSSSSEEEEE!

Christina