In the beginning of each
year YFU Estonia organizes an event called Keeletuur (Language Tour). The
purpose of the event is to let our volunteers and foreign exchange students in
Estonia hold presentations in middle and high schools in bigger towns (Tallinn,
Tartu and Pärnu) in order to give the students practical knowledge about culture. Normally presentations were held but in 2015 we decided to do
things a little differently. So instead workshops were held on the subjects of
culture, learning languages and of course living in a foreign country. The students
themselves have to participate actively. Giving the workshops is a great
experience for our volunteers and exchange students as well since they get to
practice foreign languages, meet new people and obtain pedagogical methods and
public speaking skills. One of our very active volunteers - Pauline from
Germany - speaks about her experience.
In the end of January a workshop was held in order to train
us for Keeletuur. The training camp began with defining culture. During
brainstorming and discussing we discovered the aspects we wanted to tell the
students. I think nearly no one of the 30 participants knew how much work it is
to prepare a lesson. Fortunately we found many useful tips about how to give a
lesson and how to make it more interesting. Although it was a long and hard day
it was a good one as well because of the great cooking team.
In order to practice speaking in front of a class we gave
lessons among ourselves. After three trial lessons that were held with lots of
laughter and fun we could see really well which methods work and which do not.
After that the camp was over. Everybody left well prepared for the following
two weeks and looking forward to giving the lessons.
During the next two weeks he held presentations every day
in many different schools in Tartu, Tallinn and Pärnu. The schools were visited
by different teams and with the help pf the YFU offices we managed to give very
good presentations. The goal of each lesson was to show the students how
important it is to speak about culture and cultural differences and of course
stress the need to speak foreign languages. By playing a simple card game we
managed to give the students an idea of how it is to live in a different
culture.
We gave the lessons in different languages' classes and
also spoke the respective language: English, German or French. Although we
probably made some mistakes we managed to show the benefits of speaking several
foreign languages.
We got various reactions from the students. For example one
fifth grader wanted our autographs after the lessons. Usually we got many
questions about going on an exchange year and being an exchange student. Most
of the students were quite shy and had difficulties asking questions in
English, German or French. The teachers often also joined the lessons but they
mainly listened and were very interested in what we were talking.
In the end the two weeks were really good and successful. I
believe we made a good team and as we can see now from the schools' positive
feedback we did a really good job.
Pauline from Germany, exchange student in Estonia 14/15
