During our first two weeks in Denmark, we had two lessens of Danish lit and film.
Again, I was really looking forward to these lessons, because I’m very interested in literature. In Flemish, we have a saying: ‘Op je honger blijven zitten.’, which means that you are not satisfied because you had higher expectations than what happened in real life.
I thought it would be more theoretical, that we would be given some texts which we then had to analyze. Sadly enough, we were given a few words about Denmark’s culture and got the assignment of making a short presentation about our country.
We talked for a short time about Karen Blixen and then saw a movie about her life. I think it’s a pity that we haven’t learned more about her books, maybe read some sections of it and then discussed it. Okay, we now know about her life, but not about her style of writing.
The week after, we all presented our country and our city to each other.
I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but I still expected that we would learn more about Karen Blixen. Nope, I was wrong again. This time, we watched a movie about H.C. Anderson. Again, we didn’t discuss any of his fairy tales, even though everyone knows them. We watched half a movie about his life. I didn’t really learn something interesting about Denmark or Danish literature and film.
In fact, during these three months, I learned more about the countries of the other Erasmus students than about my host country. I think that’s sad.
About Me
- Stefanie
- Hello everyone! My name is Stefanie and I am an Erasmus student in Denmark for the following three months.
Off we go!
Showing posts with label not so happy about. Show all posts
Showing posts with label not so happy about. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
International week
Monday, march 15th 2010
All of the Erasmus students and international student gathered around in the new cafeteria for introductions and some explanation of the program.
Personally, I was overwhelmed by the amount of people in the room. When you’re used to be with 26 other people, 45 seems like a crowd. Even for me, it felt a little bit uncomfortable. Who are those people? I can imagine what the others thought of us, a crazy Erasmus group of 27.
So, it was time to get to know each other. Everyone presented themselves, and afterwards, Jette explained the schedule.
After the short introduction, it was time to learn more about the different countries that were represented in the room. The group was divided into groups, each representing their own country. Of course, because there were a lot of Belgians, we were divided into more than one group. We had to make drawings about our country. After two months in Denmark, and presenting ourselves and our countries more than once, we knew what to draw.
Afterwards, we were given another country other than our own, to make a drawing about. If I have had Spain or the Czech Republic, it would have been fine. But now, I had to make a drawing about Austria. Pff, I can’t even locate Austria on a blind map if my life depended on it. After some discussions in our group, we were able to pinpoint some of Austria’s famous things.
After lunch, we were given a short Danish lesson by some third year students. Then, I was again confronted with my little knowledge of the language, but it was still fine. I enjoyed it.
The Danish lesson was followed by a short explanation about the Danish school system by Jette. The presentation took about half an hour, but even I, after being here for almost three months, don’t understand it completely. It is so different from ours.
Tuesday, march 16th 2010
Tuesday was a long and hard day.
First of all, we had to chose two workshops that were given around campus at different times.
The first workshop I chose, was the cooking class. We prepared a proper Danish lunch for ourselves and the rest of the group. We were given more information about typical Danish meals and how they are prepared.
Then it was up to us. We knew what the Danes eat for lunch, but now we had to prepare it. Because I am a very picky eater, I used some of the typical Danish ingredients and mixed them up with some Belgian customs. At noon, we all ate our lunch together. Hygge!
My second choice of workshop was the one where we had to create a pocket film.
Lynn and I teamed up with Isabel and Marie, another international student from Belgium.
First of all, we had to write down 3 things we find strange about Denmark, things that intrigue us. Then, we had to investigate why those things are the way they are.
We chose the following subject: ‘Why does the traffic light turn orange before it turns green?’
Our theory? In every light, there lives a little person. The orange person can play when the light turns red, but also wants to play before the light turns green again. That’s why the light turns orange before it turns green. Tadaaa, another mystery solved.
At night, we prepared a buffet with typical foods from our country. With about 20 people, we tried our best to cook the meal of a lifetime. And what can represent Belgium better than French fries and waffles? The right answer is: Nothing, except chocolate maybe. After pealing 15 kg of potatoes, we tried to fry them in a small frying pan. The fries have to be pre-cooked and then fried again to make them golden brown and crispy. It took about 5 people and 3 hours to prepare all of the fries. Still, you can never do wrong by me when you’re preparing French fries.
It cost everyone a great deal of blood, sweat and tears, but the buffet looked stunning! I tasted one thing of each country, and didn’t have any more room for anything else. I’m shy to say that I almost stuffed my face..
Then, it was our time to speak. We each had to team up with people from the same university or college and prepare a small exhibition. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of interest from the students towards our college. Their loss. =) For us on the other hand, it was nice to see where the other Erasmus students live their lives at school. We have heard them speak of their college and university a lot of times, but now they had the opportunity to proudly present it to us. And so they did, and they did it well!
Jette called us all together in the assembly hall after the presentations to go over the program for the next day. To be honest, I was glad to be able to go home after a long and hard day at school.
Thursday, march 18th 2010
Sadly, the PE lessons in the morning was cancelled. Like I told you before, I’m not really a sporty person, but I still like Jakob’s lessons. The lesson was replaced by a literary lesson by one of the visiting teachers.
Time to go to Ribe! I was really excited about this part of the day. After a bus drive of about 45 minutes, we arrived at Eysberg, to see the lock (sluis). It was impressive to see. In Belgium, we also have a few locks, some nearby my hometown. I can understand that some people are even more impressed by it. Because of the wind, I returned fairly quickly to the bus.
Once we arrived in Ribe, I couldn’t wait to see the Viking museum. All of the museums I have visited so far are really interactive. It’s amazing how much you are focused on the child. This is what Belgium lacks. To visit a museum where children can touch and smell and experience things, you have to travel miles and miles away. In museums like these ones, I even feel like a child. It’s amazing how many of us played dress-up and fought with the swords. That’s what a museum should be like, that’s a place where children learn!
At night, we had a Eurovision song contest. Belgium was once again divided (just like in real life =) ). We were represented by 3 groups (which made our chance at winning bigger).
I was impressed by all of the performances! I knew that we all had some musical talent inside of us (except for Lynn and myself), but this much? I enjoyed listening to all of the performances and had a really good time. Everyone was cheering everyone on.
Until my heart stopped for a second: ‘And now, the third Belgian group is up. This is the group of Caroline and the others.’ Little did they know that we chose a song, made a dance to it and practiced it only an hour before the show? We just all went up there and enjoyed ourselves. Apparently, it worked. Just like in 1986, Brian called: ‘And the winner is: BELGIUM, group number three!’ We all started clapping our hands for the winner, and only later realized that WE are group number three! We were given a beautiful basket filled with Easter treats.
Still, my favorite of the day was Viki, our runner up. She performed all by herself, representing Hungary at her best!
Friday, march 19th 2010
My day didn’t start that well. I was woken up in the middle of the night by a terrible headache.
Unfortunately, the headache didn’t slow down during the day.
In the morning, Lynn and I finished our pocket film, but then, I had to leave the university behind and had to seek the company of my bed and my friend called Dafalgan.
Therefore, I wasn’t able to say goodbye to the international students at the farewell lunch.
A sad ending to a fun week, full of repetition. =)
All of the Erasmus students and international student gathered around in the new cafeteria for introductions and some explanation of the program.
Personally, I was overwhelmed by the amount of people in the room. When you’re used to be with 26 other people, 45 seems like a crowd. Even for me, it felt a little bit uncomfortable. Who are those people? I can imagine what the others thought of us, a crazy Erasmus group of 27.
So, it was time to get to know each other. Everyone presented themselves, and afterwards, Jette explained the schedule.
After the short introduction, it was time to learn more about the different countries that were represented in the room. The group was divided into groups, each representing their own country. Of course, because there were a lot of Belgians, we were divided into more than one group. We had to make drawings about our country. After two months in Denmark, and presenting ourselves and our countries more than once, we knew what to draw.
Afterwards, we were given another country other than our own, to make a drawing about. If I have had Spain or the Czech Republic, it would have been fine. But now, I had to make a drawing about Austria. Pff, I can’t even locate Austria on a blind map if my life depended on it. After some discussions in our group, we were able to pinpoint some of Austria’s famous things.
After lunch, we were given a short Danish lesson by some third year students. Then, I was again confronted with my little knowledge of the language, but it was still fine. I enjoyed it.
The Danish lesson was followed by a short explanation about the Danish school system by Jette. The presentation took about half an hour, but even I, after being here for almost three months, don’t understand it completely. It is so different from ours.
Tuesday, march 16th 2010
Tuesday was a long and hard day.
First of all, we had to chose two workshops that were given around campus at different times.
The first workshop I chose, was the cooking class. We prepared a proper Danish lunch for ourselves and the rest of the group. We were given more information about typical Danish meals and how they are prepared.
Then it was up to us. We knew what the Danes eat for lunch, but now we had to prepare it. Because I am a very picky eater, I used some of the typical Danish ingredients and mixed them up with some Belgian customs. At noon, we all ate our lunch together. Hygge!
My second choice of workshop was the one where we had to create a pocket film.
Lynn and I teamed up with Isabel and Marie, another international student from Belgium.
First of all, we had to write down 3 things we find strange about Denmark, things that intrigue us. Then, we had to investigate why those things are the way they are.
We chose the following subject: ‘Why does the traffic light turn orange before it turns green?’
Our theory? In every light, there lives a little person. The orange person can play when the light turns red, but also wants to play before the light turns green again. That’s why the light turns orange before it turns green. Tadaaa, another mystery solved.
It cost everyone a great deal of blood, sweat and tears, but the buffet looked stunning! I tasted one thing of each country, and didn’t have any more room for anything else. I’m shy to say that I almost stuffed my face..
But the buffet wasn’t all about the food, it was about talking to each other, singing songs and having a hyggelig time.
Wednesday, march 17th 2010: International day!
The day started at the assembly hall, where we were given a presentation about internationalization and globalization and how to teach it to our children. I couldn’t tell you whether I liked it or not, because it was all in Danish. Even after Jette’s translation, my mind was slipping away. I’m sorry for that.
Time for another workshop. I chose the workshop didactics, which was taught by Iben. 
Jette called us all together in the assembly hall after the presentations to go over the program for the next day. To be honest, I was glad to be able to go home after a long and hard day at school.
Thursday, march 18th 2010
Sadly, the PE lessons in the morning was cancelled. Like I told you before, I’m not really a sporty person, but I still like Jakob’s lessons. The lesson was replaced by a literary lesson by one of the visiting teachers.
Once we arrived in Ribe, I couldn’t wait to see the Viking museum. All of the museums I have visited so far are really interactive. It’s amazing how much you are focused on the child. This is what Belgium lacks. To visit a museum where children can touch and smell and experience things, you have to travel miles and miles away. In museums like these ones, I even feel like a child. It’s amazing how many of us played dress-up and fought with the swords. That’s what a museum should be like, that’s a place where children learn!
At night, we had a Eurovision song contest. Belgium was once again divided (just like in real life =) ). We were represented by 3 groups (which made our chance at winning bigger).
Until my heart stopped for a second: ‘And now, the third Belgian group is up. This is the group of Caroline and the others.’ Little did they know that we chose a song, made a dance to it and practiced it only an hour before the show? We just all went up there and enjoyed ourselves. Apparently, it worked. Just like in 1986, Brian called: ‘And the winner is: BELGIUM, group number three!’ We all started clapping our hands for the winner, and only later realized that WE are group number three! We were given a beautiful basket filled with Easter treats.
My day didn’t start that well. I was woken up in the middle of the night by a terrible headache.
Unfortunately, the headache didn’t slow down during the day.
In the morning, Lynn and I finished our pocket film, but then, I had to leave the university behind and had to seek the company of my bed and my friend called Dafalgan.
Therefore, I wasn’t able to say goodbye to the international students at the farewell lunch.
A sad ending to a fun week, full of repetition. =)
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Danish lessons
What happened?
Let’s cut straight to the case: I was a little disappointed by the Danish lessons.
Before I came here, I expected to be drowning in the Danish lessons, so I could communicate with the people on the street, in the shops, at the café. Sadly, this wasn’t the case. After five Danish lessons, I have learned the following:
- how to say my name
- how to say where I come from
- how to say which language I speak
- how to say ‘thank you’ in 7 different ways
- the numbers from 0-100
My impression after the first lesson was pretty optimistic. I was very proud of myself that I could say some Danish words, even if the pronunciation wasn’t always right. After the second lesson, my enthusiasm dropped. We repeated what we’ve learned the week before, and didn’t learn that much more. What frustrated me more, was that I still couldn’t order a simple bread in the store. We expressed our thoughts to Jette, who told Lone. For our last lesson, we all brought a recipe from our home country. Lone had brought some folders from supermarkets. We had to make a poster about our typical food with images from the folders. We also wrote the Danish names for each ingredient on the poster. This was actually meaningful for us.
What can we learn from this experience?
Looking back, I still think I would have loved an intensive language course. After two and a half months, I can now order a bread in the store, but I can still not have a very simple conversation with a Dane. I feel helpless each time I have to say: ‘I’m sorry, I only speak English.’ I would really like to have learned the language during my stay here in Haderslev.
Where can we improve?
I would like to suggest an intensive course in Danish for the following Erasmus students. I think it is part of the whole experience to learn the language of the country from your stay. It helps a lot with the integration. Sadly, I still feel like an outsider. The gap between the Danes and ‘the foreign students’ is still pretty big.
Let’s cut straight to the case: I was a little disappointed by the Danish lessons.
Before I came here, I expected to be drowning in the Danish lessons, so I could communicate with the people on the street, in the shops, at the café. Sadly, this wasn’t the case. After five Danish lessons, I have learned the following:
- how to say my name
- how to say where I come from
- how to say which language I speak
- how to say ‘thank you’ in 7 different ways
- the numbers from 0-100
My impression after the first lesson was pretty optimistic. I was very proud of myself that I could say some Danish words, even if the pronunciation wasn’t always right. After the second lesson, my enthusiasm dropped. We repeated what we’ve learned the week before, and didn’t learn that much more. What frustrated me more, was that I still couldn’t order a simple bread in the store. We expressed our thoughts to Jette, who told Lone. For our last lesson, we all brought a recipe from our home country. Lone had brought some folders from supermarkets. We had to make a poster about our typical food with images from the folders. We also wrote the Danish names for each ingredient on the poster. This was actually meaningful for us.
What can we learn from this experience?
Looking back, I still think I would have loved an intensive language course. After two and a half months, I can now order a bread in the store, but I can still not have a very simple conversation with a Dane. I feel helpless each time I have to say: ‘I’m sorry, I only speak English.’ I would really like to have learned the language during my stay here in Haderslev.
Where can we improve?
I would like to suggest an intensive course in Danish for the following Erasmus students. I think it is part of the whole experience to learn the language of the country from your stay. It helps a lot with the integration. Sadly, I still feel like an outsider. The gap between the Danes and ‘the foreign students’ is still pretty big.
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