Week 8-9 Monday November 17th -  Sunday November 30th 2008 - Review of answers received, reflection on learning process. - Summarise and draw conclusions; write and send summary to partner schools in LC.

We are teenagers and our life is full of adventures and ambitions. As a rule, we study a lot and our schools, class and teachers are our second home and faithful family. And this autumn our class got an exiting opportunity. Incredible, but we visited foreign lands! Thanks to Global Teenager project, we got acquainted with 7 unusual countries and schools. It was like a breath of fresh air for us!

     It was a usual day, we prepared for the English lesson and learnt new words and phrases. Our lesson topic was ‘’Advertising’’, but suddenly our teacher surprised us! She told not about adverts and commercials, but about the project, that was starting in September and would be finished in December. In other words, in this time we will get new knowledge about other cultures, types of food, music styles and traditional religious days and holidays. Obviously, our faces lit up and we applied for this project, and never regretted it. Yes, on the one hand it was hard work, that demanded a lot of time, but on the other hand it was a great possibility to learn better English and to get experience in the this sort of work.

      First of all, we sent our photo and introductions. We wrote about Kraslava, our school and pictures of very attractive 17 young ladies and 4 young men. It was very fine, that our and other teenagers’ interests are alike! Why? Because they are also listening to music, reading books, going out, using Internet and chatting with friends.

        Secondly, we asked our question. Look at it one more time! ‘’Describe one particular holiday tradition that is characteristic to your culture and distinguish it from other cultures of the world.’’Dear friends! Thanks for your answers! When we read them, we admired your countries with distinctive holidays’ traditions. Of course, we got fantastic moments, and then we could see that many unusual holidays are celebrated in all continents. Right away, look at some answers!

          Macedonian students write about Easter, it is one of the most important holidays there. On Thursday before Easter eggs are dyed. But this country has an unusual technique of decorating eggs. Because eggs not only are colored red, but also beautiful designs are scraped on the service of a dyed egg with a sharp instrument. The first egg to be dyed is put aside and called ‘’Protector of the House’’. Macedonia’s typical menu includes lamb soup, snuffed cabbage and delicious cakes.

           Romanian teenagers told about their Christmas events and sent us recipe of some tasty dishes. It was corn meals, cabbages’ rolls and beef’s meal. Romanians also celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25, but unlike other countries Romanians have 12 days cycle (December 25-January 6) symbolizes the 12 months of the year. During this period the year grows up, gets older and finally dies. That’s why all rituals from these 12 days are meant to symbolically restore the world. In addition Romanians told us two legends about Cratiun, who rides a white gimp horse.

         Answer from Netherlander moved our class, because we admired their holiday. It is Sinterklaas celebrating on the 5^th of December. They explain that Sinterklaas is a person, an old man with beard and a traditional red costume; he gives all the children presents. But actually, that never really happens, because Sinterklaas does not really exist! Firstly, we decide, that these traditions are like our Christmas, but, of course, this holiday is absolutely different! Because in the Netherlands children put their shoe in front of fireplace, they don’t decorate the tree! And when children are about 10 years old, parents tell them the truth that they pretend to be Sinterklaas. Very interesting!

           Our friends from Ukraine introduced us with their traditional vareniks with cherries and with mysterious holiday (July 6-7). It is the Holiday of Fire and Water named Ivan Kupala, surrounded with many legends and rituals. In this night water of lakes and rivers becomes warm. Youths would jump over the flames of bonfires and float wreaths of flowers. This night is the only time of the year when ferns bloom, therefore young pairs of men and women go to forests in search of exclusive fern flower. Yes, it is a wonderful Ukrainian night!

           Finally, we want to tell about African imaginative traditions. In Ghana, there are many holidays, for example, Fetu Afahye, Hogbetsotso and Teduduza. Each of these is celebrated in a grand style with drumming and dancing. Their chiefs ride in a palanquin on the shoulders of some people. Speeches are made usually about how to develop the towns and villages. Ghana’s student told about popular food is called Fufu. But, unfortunately, we can’t prepare it, because we don’t have these ingredients, for example, cassava and yam.

            In South Africa people have a rich blend of different forms of heritage, which makes their culture unique in the world. They have Heritage Days, which are celebrated on the 24th of September and are characteristic only for their culture. On this day different people from different cultures dress up in their traditional clothes and come together with other cultural groups. In addition, people learn about other cultures, dancing also occurs on this day and cooking meat and sausages over a fire outside in the garden with family and friends.

        Unfortunately our fascinating educational trip is coming to the end. In our opinion, our school was successful in the project, because we not only cooperated with other countries, but also found out new information about foreign people lives. To sum up, we liked it all, because this project is really outstanding!  We are going to repeat it once again next year.

Group CW 2 from Latvia

Summary CW 3 SOTU Gorgi Naumov

Dear GTP Friends,

Here is what we summarised from you answers:  

CW3 Team from Macedonia

Summary CW 4 Liceul Teologic Reformat

Thank you for all your answers. The following classes  was send responses to our Sponsored Questions:  http://gtpculturesoftheworld.pbwiki.com/Page+with+question+from+CW+4+and+space+to+add+your+answers

We were very happy to learn about different cultural practices in different countries. Learning about other people’s culture can lead to a better understanding of people.

Best

wishes,

CW4

Summary CW 5 LiceulTeoretic Tudor Vladimirescu

Hello friends and thank you for all your answers which were very conclusive and the informations covered all the points followed, and this is a reason to be satisfied. We are glad that we communicate and exchange our experiences.

   Moreover, we discovered that many historical, cultural, social and other aspects are common , even if our countries are unique and different.

  We are happy to discover new things about other countries and we are impressed by some facts of your country’s aspects:

  For example: We are impressed by the Legend of the ClockTower from Macedonia, where 60.000 eggs were mixed in the mortar to make the walls stronger.

  Also, everybody knows the famous dutch painter Rembrandt and some of his famous paintings and this is an artist about we can be proud.

 Communicating with people from other countries is a new thing for us and we find it very interesting.

 In conclusion we are pleased about all your answers and we are happy to discover many new things about your country.

 We look forward to hear about you.

Summary  CW 6 Southern Victoria High School

Summary CW 7 Rhodespark School

Summary CW 8 Roma s Secondary School

Summary CW 9 Norkem Park High School

1. Name a few cultural differences that exist between different cultural groups in your country.

 Most countries in our learning circle have different cultural groups and religions. They differ in some form of music, dance, mentality, manners, and even language.

 In some countries there are big religious differences-for example between the Muslims and the Christians. The Christians are again split up in Roman Catholics and Protestants.

In other countries there are immigrants from foreign countries and native tribes who influence each other- for example in Canada with its 5 ethics groups.

There is also as large a difference between the younger and older generations as there is between people who live in the rural and urban areas. The various groups express themselves differently.

Most countries in our learning circle have more than one culture or language which sets them apart from our country which has several cultures more than any other country.

2.  Please give us some examples of cultural differences that cause misunderstandings

From the answers received from all the schools around the globe we have come to a conclusion that in some countries there are some examples of cultural differences that do cause misunderstandings, while in other countries these misunderstandings do not occur as the cultural differences do not cause misunderstandings. For example in Kraslava State Gymnasium which is situated in Latvia the students state that indeed in their country there is cultural differences that do cause misunderstandings, for instance the teenagers, who have a language differences among them, often sing folk songs that display displeasures against each other; this happens because of the language differences

. In Macedonia students in SOTU Gorgi Naumov state that as young people they try not to have any misunderstandings among them but often misunderstandings are caused by politicians.

Luckily in a country such as Romania students from Liceul Toretic Tudor Vladimerscu haven’t experienced any cultural differences that cause misunderstandings among them while at Southern Victoria High School in Canada has serious cultural differences for example in their school there used to be a case of . This made it pretty unsafe as the whole issue got out of hand. This resulted in the community stepping in to solve this matter. In Ghana there are cultural differences but these cultural practices do not cause any misunderstandings among them as a society. There are misunderstandings in South Africa for example when one is accused of lying or showing disrespect because of not looking in the eyes of the person they speak to. This is a cultural difference among us as black and white people because in the black society one is showing respect when not looking directly in the eye of the  elderly person where as in the white community not looking elderly person in the eye it is seen as disrespect this often causes misunderstanding as this is the way we were brought up and taught morals.

 Question 4

Different countries embrace the cultures in different ways, this we found out through the answers we received for question 4. The main thing that is embraced is the use of different languages. In Latvia sometimes people speak Latvian with a Russian accent in Latgale or if people in Rigon speak Russian they have a Latvian accent and the English language has a great influence on their speech nowadays. Macedonia’s textbooks are written in different languages and in some of their cities all inscriptions are in 2 or 3 languages. In West Africa they recently had programmes on television promoting understanding of the different cultures in the country. The only two countries that answered differently were Romania (Teoretic Tudor) with the answer that people who travel around the country adopt the religious culture.  The Netherlands answered that in their capital city Amsterdam, there are schools with only black children and there are schools with only white children. We as South Africans answered that in our country we have embraced and accepted the changes that have been brought about by cultural interaction. The reason for our answer is that we have learnt to care, share, love and respect each other, growing up together and being in the same schools has brought most of us together and far away from separation.

Summary CW 10 West Africa Senior High School

Dear Friends of  Learning Circle,

We the participants of the Cultures of the World Project at West Africa Senior High School in Ghana, wish to express our sincere thanks to the following classes that sent responses to our Sponsored Questions: CW 2, CW 3, CW 4, CW 5 and CW 9.

Our first question “What do you understand by the term culture?” brought in different definitions of culture. However, most of the definitions brought out the idea that culture has a lot to do with folklore, music, dance, language, traditions, norms, ideals, beliefs, a set of values, mode of dressing, art, behaviour, attitude to nature, architectural designs, marital rites, types of food and monuments.

 The next question was “What are the main cultural practices in your country?” We were very happy to learn about different cultural practices in different countries. Some of the cultural practices mentioned were the Ligo celebration in Latvia; Chrismas, Easter, marriage ceremonies, exhibitions, theatre performances, fairs, parties among others.

Our third question “Do you think different cultures of the world can unite people in various countries and promote peace?” invited very interesting responses. The majority of the classes thought that it is possible that cultures can be used to bring about understanding, unity and peace in the world. They were of the opinion that understanding and respecting other people’s culture, avoiding discrimination and racism can bring about understanding, unity and peace in the world.

Our last question was “Suggest ways by which cultures of the world can be used for the promotion of understanding, unity and peace in the world”. The main suggestions given are as follows:

   i) People should try to know about different cultures in other countries.

  ii) People should respect the cultures of other people

 iii) International cultural festival competitions should be organized.

 iv) Opportunities should be provided at international seminars and conferences for people to show

      their culture so that there can be an exchange of ideas and experiences about culture.

  v) Learning about other people’s culture can lead to a better understanding of people, break down

      physical barriers and reduce the impact of geographical ‘distance’ and ‘time’.

In conclusion, we the members of CW 10, wish to describe culture as “a way of life of people in a geographical area such as a country”. In our country, Ghana, we have cultural practices such as festivals, different languages, traditional music and dance, traditional folklore, a unique  way of dressing, cordial attitude to strangers, just to mention a few. We agree with those Classes that are of the opinion that cultures of the world can promote understanding, unity and peace in the world. We think the suggestions given to achieve this goal are very useful.

We thank you all.

CW Class,

West Africa Senior High School,

Adenta, Accra,

Ghana, West Africa.

Summary CW 11 Revius Lyceum

Summary from CW 11

Music is very important, no matter what country you’re in. Every country has is own music, their own style and own clothing style belonging to the music. Our questions were about culture and music and we receive a lot of different answers.

It’s very obvious that for every country Music is very important. Each country had their own different type music which especially has a effect on clothes and instruments. In some countries the music even differs per region.

Each country own their own national anthem, some countries even add the lyrics in their files which has been sent to us. All the lyrics aren’t from this century, but has been written in earlier days. Most of the anthems are about the people and mostly representing liberty and equality. Respect for their national anthem is shown by all the people from all the countries.

We also had a question about what role music played in the history of their country, but various answers were given. For every country being true, music has existed for a long time already. In the early days, music was made especially to cheer up the people, in war time or poor times. By a lot of traditions belonged special music, wedding, funeral, religious holidays and so on.

All participating countries own their own traditional holiday/ religious music. But Africa doesn’t, they were saying that they do have a couple of songs they sing at special events, but with every event they sing the same so no songs relating to holidays. Very striking is that the Latvians told they sing a lot, except for Christmas because they see Christmas as their silent time. All the other countries sing during Christmas.

I’ll name a famous artist or band from some of the countries:

Latvia: Marija Naumova, cw3: the pianists Simon Trpčeski, Romania: Marcel Pavel,

cw5: Valeriu Sterian, cw6: Nickelback, cw9:  Mandoza   Ghana: Daddy Lumba.

Most of these artists or band we have never even heard of, except for Nickelback, which is a national popular band. We wonder if they have ever heard of Marco Borsato?

Simone, Claire and Emmelien

Summary CW 12  Lyceum No. 208

1. What do you mean, when you pronounce “culture”? What are, in your opinion, components of a concept of culture?

 Culture is everything that makes a country different and unique, everything that separates country from many others. The components of culture are special people’s traditions, customs and beliefs. Also components of culture are art, music, literature, architecture and language of country.

2. What style is characteristic for architecture of your city, country?

 The architecture styles are different in each country. There are different styles such as baroque, gothic, classicism, Byzantine, antique, colonial, modern, urban and others.

3. Whose names (writers, ports, artists, architects, sculptures, musicians et cetera), on your opinion, make the gold fund of world culture?

 Actually we meant only the main world names.

 There were named only such world-famous figures as: Shakespeare, van Gogh, Rembrandt, Plato, Herodotus, Socrates, Cicerone, Caesuras, Ovid, Vergilius, Horace and Elvis Presley. 

4. How do you consider, whether there are factors, influencing on a bloom or decline of culture? If yes, name some of them and ground your opinion.

 Activity of artists, poets, writers, musicians et cetera of country can influence bloom of culture.

 Decline of culture can be caused, for example, by affect of other culture and cultural globalization. Also interest of people and regard of government can influence on culture.