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The Volunteer’s Blog

Осенний лагерь «Язык для успеха» для школьников

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Сегодня пытаюсь писать по-русский. Я надеюсь, что будет понятно. После пять классных дней в осеннем лагере школы иностранных языков «Язык для успеха», у меня есть время чтобы писать для Блога. Если вы уже когда-то были в лагере языка для успеха или Содружество, вы наверное знаете о санатории на озере ШАП. В осенний лагерь Языка для успеха, я приехала сюда с преподавателями школы и с группой иностранных волонтёров. Всего там было шесть русских вожатых, восемь иностранцев и 41 детей от 6 до 17. Кроме долгосрочных волонтёров из Италии, Словакии и Германии, приехали ещё три волонтёра из США и одна из Тайвани.

Основные наши обязанности были – уроки языков, мастерклассы, игры и презентации о своих странах для детей. Каждый день у нас был день одного языка. Это значит, что в этот день был презентация об этой стране и весь день играла национальная музыка. В самом начале, я все ещё надеялась на хороший сон, но как показывает лагерная практика, высыпаться в окружении сорока с лишним детей практически невозможно. Так как лагерь был только четыре дня, каждый день была очень насыщенная программа. Например:

 

8.30 Зарядка                                              16.00 Чай

9.00 Завтрак                                               16.30 Мастерклассы

10.00 Собрание                                          17.45 Презентация страны (e.g. Германия)

10.30 Урок английского языка                    19.00 Ужин

12.00 второй иностранный язык                 20.00 Вечер талантов, тейбл квисс,

13.00 Обед                                                                     дискотека, Хеллоуин,…

14.00 Тихий час                                          22.00 Свечка

15.00 Спортивный час

…и после этого у нас было собрание вожатых. Лично для мне, лагерь был конечно немножко выматывающим, но вообще этот неделя была одна из самых лучших в России до сих пор. Мне была особенно интересно разговаривать с детей о то, что их важно, что они думают о жизни и какие у них планы на будущее. И я была даже немного удивлена, что на каждый мастеркласс были желающие, даже на мои начальные занятия по рисованию комиксов и карате. Теперь, я с нетерпением жду следующий лагерь в ШАПе – в январе мы приедем сюда ещё раз в лагерь Содружества.

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The Volunteer’s Blog

Daily Life #1: Environmental issues

 

I am used to having four garbage bins at home – one for plastic and packages, one for paper, one for organic waste and one for all the rest. And there are always exceptions. For example banana peels and most non-edable fruit peels don’t go in organic waste, except for nuts and local products. A package out of carton doesn’t go with other packages, but with paper. However if it has plastic content, you have a problem. And now think of a half full carton of organic yoghurt, apple flavour, with pieces of fruit that is paper outside and plastic inside…

Plastic bottles are always recycle ones, of course, and even some glass ones. You bring these back to the shop to get back a bit of money. However if you then need a plastic bag at the shop, you might spend all your freshly earned money from dutifully recycling all your plastic bottles for a plastic bag. Like in most European countries, they are not free. Out of our system of recycling a little economic network has developed – on all major public events some homeless people will ask you for empty bottles. It’s their way of earning a bit of money.

Environmental protection is of course also an important part of German politics. Since the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) with our chancellor Angela Merkel has decided to put all atomic power plants out of service by 2022 after the catastrophe of Fukushima in 2011, we hear the words „Atomausstieg“ (engl.: nuclear phase-out) and „Energiewende“ (engl. Energy tunaround) a lot on the news. It means that with only nine remaining atomic power plants a lot of money needs to be invested in building up a working system of wind and solar energy plants. Of course, while most people seem to support this step, it’s still a controversial topic and origin of many political debates. – And ironically, while trying to be super environmentally friendly, Germany still imports the biggest part of mineral oil and gas from Russia…

But I don’t want to say that no one cares about the environment in Russia. In fact, there are more public garbage bins in Cheboksary than there are in my hometown. And thanks to the daily work of дворники, you will not find a single piece of garbage on public gardens here. Also, I have seen a lot of people reuse their old plastic bags, and in some shopping malls you will even find some divided garbage bins. And then there are projects like Sodrujestvo’s ecological workcamp „Clean City – Чебоксары чистый город“. Still, whenever I throw a plastic bottle to the garbage here, I always feel a bit guilty, as for years I was taught about piles of garbage taking years to decay, about garbage islands in the oceans and sea animals suffocating because of floating plastic bags and debris.

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The Volunteer’s Blog

18ый международный фестиваль языков 

                                                                                            

челхе фестивале     

lingva festivalo

 

I. LANGUAGE CARAVAN

Our first big task – This year’s Language Caravan. The work: preparing and holding a presentation about our languages and countries – in my case German language and Germany – in schools in Cheboksary and Chuvash villages. Almost every day from Saturday of last week (12th) to Friday (18th) I went on one of our two language caravans together with a group of short- and long-term volunteers. We visited two schools in Cheboksary, the Russian-Chuvash school in Кугеси and the Марийский Государственный Технический Университет in Йошкар-Ола.

And this is how every visit went:

 1. Reception and welcome. In Кугесях we were even welcomed by two students in traditional Chuvash costumes with a Chuvash poem, and some kind of salt cake.

2. Tea. Tea with school principal or teachers. (you really drink a lot of tea here..) And almost always some delicious пироги.

3. Presentations. We presented our country in different classes 4-5 times in a row. I was surprised at the level of interest, which all students showed. After the third time I could be sure that at least one student would ask what I think about Rammstein, how we see Russia in Germany and that the expression «Hände hoch!» is the most commonly known part of German movie culture. Still, the most unexpected, and, frankly, completely absurd question I was asked during our presentations in Кугесях. A very well-dressed, serious looking boy approached me after the presentations and politely asked, if he could ask a question. So I listened up, expecting some kind of intellectual pondering – «So is it true that in Germany everyone can fart everywhere they want?», the boy asked… Amazingly, he was not joking.

4. Lunch. The hospitality of the schools we visited was amazing. After having had already practically a full breakfast, some more tea and Акконд candy we were usually invited to eat lunch in the school canteen.

…and then, having had about three kilos of food, we went back home with a lot of new and interesting impressions.Cheboksary school Thur3      Кугесях1 russian-chuvash school

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II. LANGUAGE FESTIVAL

(19th -20th Oct)

On Saturday and Sunday the main presentations were held in the institute of foreign languages in Чувашский Государственный Университет. The presentations were twice as long and therefore a bit harder, but I enjoyed being able to present some lesser known parts of life in Germany, German politics and current affairs. – And who would have thought that I would learn a bit of Лаосский and Вьетнамский язык in a small city somewhere in Russia…

Unexpectedly, for me the most interesting parts of the festival were the opening and closing ceremonies. There, a series of very impressive international dances and songs were presented by school children and teenagers from the area. Most of these performances were traditional Russian and Chuvash. During all the festivities it seemed to me that these kind of celebrations of regional and national traditions would be very uncommon in Germany.

Of course there is Oktoberfest, but even there people use their national Bavarian costume (Lederhosen and Dirndl) more like a joke, like something to justify silliness and drinking lots of beer already at 12 o’clock during the day, while listening to the very worst of German Schlager music. In Germany, people generally know only these Bavarian traditions, because other national songs or dances are not part of public celebrations, school events or national holidays. maybe it’s possible to say that we don’t really use traditions as a way to identify with our country or region. In general, people don’t care about flags, emblems and uniforms. And usually the ones who do come from a more rural area or serve in the army. In any case, traditions are less integrated in public events in Germany than they are in Russia. And the traditions, which are still celebrated (like Oktoberfest and Schützenfest, a fest for hunters), are somehow connected to drinking and most popular with old men.

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The Volunteer’s Blog

Привет другие волонтёры, друзья волонтёрства и гости нашего сайта,

Well done, you found my super awesome blog about my EVS (European Voluntary Service) in Chuvashia’s beautiful capital Cheboksary. Here, you will hear all about the projects I work in, about camps, life as a long-term volunteer – and life in Russia through a ‘немка’s eyes.

I have lived here for about a week now but I haven’t found so many of the ’typically Russian’ things which my friends and family repeatedly told me about – brown bears, vodka, snow, Banjas, Kalashnikovs, vodka, meat, mafia – and again vodka. What I have found instead is a clean, peaceful city, very good (and cheap!) food, of course some vodka, but also lots of чай, квас, кефир, and about a hundred other milk products. As for dangerous wild animals – the most exciting encounter with Russian nature was a homeless cat unexpectedly crossing my path when I left the house. So…really, forget about clichés. …Cheboksary might not be so different from my German hometown after all. Want to know why I was still surprised when I entered the first Marshrutka? Why I didn’t believe ’Русский Стандард’ is the name of a bank, and that people don’t divide their garbage? – Come back and read this blog!