a sunny day

Hej

As you all know probably, Denmark is said to be a place where almost every day is raining. But thank God, whenever I have free time, the weather is always sunny. This happened on Wednesday, when I had a free afternoon, so I decided to go to the harbour of Haderslev. It was beautiful...I was walking a lot in the town and just enjoyed the sunshine.

This week

Hej,

After autumn holiday, it was hard to get back to school. But at the same time, I was enthusiastic to learn new things. On Tuesday, I had a short presentation on Hungarian education system. Unfortunately, the projector didn't work. I think I prepared a lot because I thought I 'd like to talk about the history of the Hungarian education system. So it was a "bummer" that we couldn't use the projector.
On Wednesday, we had a weblog class, where I learnt how to put some labels to my blog. I realized I don't like sitting in front of the computer a lot. Sorry...
The best day of the week was on Thursday, when we went to Aabenraa, (it's a city close to Haderslev). This town is a nice, cosy one, it has got a shopping street, and a beautiful church with plazma Tv inside. I'm serious, the church has got plazma Tvs, but I think they use it for service. :)

So we had dance and drama class at the Aabenraa college with the German students. Teachers spoke in German or in English. I think when I go back to Hungary, I'd like to find a German teacher, it's easy now, I'm always listening when Germans speak and I think I automatically pick up some expressions, so when I start to study German, I'd like to study Danish, as well. It'd be useful to communicate with people and to make friends. I also think I should learn Romanian, because my friend Ioana talks to me Romanian sometimes, you know when English doesn't work and she teaches me some expressions. (I still would like to speak Spanish) I like languages. :)

All right: So we went to College, we sent a text message to Ioan (German's Erasmus coordinator), but he didn't answer us until afternoon, I don't understand why he has got a mobile phone if he doesn't use it. So we had to call Sarah, at least she has the mobile phone, and finally we found out which building and room the lesson start. I have to tell you that we were on time, we just waited for Ioan to write us back. Oh well...
Okay, the lesson was about getting to know each other. First of all, we learnt some "ice-breaker" games and how to use it in classroom. Then, we danced a little bit with different kind of exercises, it was so much fun to listen to music and do some practice with the Germans. After all, we went to another room, where we had some massage with balls. All in all, it was great, and we're looking forward to next class. I felt like the Germans started to be open, they smiled at us a lot. Music connects people :)

In the afternoon, Ioana and me had a walk in the town, we didn't want to hurry back to Haderslev, so we decided to walk in the downtown. We had a free coffee at a coffee bar in downtown where Ioana knows the waiter who is from Romania. He has been living and working in Denmark for 3 years now, and he invited us for a coffee. It was nice. I started to feel that I should speak Romanian, I'm surrounded by Romanians :) Ioana, Ovidu (our new Romanian friend), the pastor's wife Cristina, Camilla... I think it's good to know them, being a Hungarian, I didn't hear good news about Romanians and we didn't learn good things about them. It's just stereotype, but I didn't want to start my view with stereotypes so now I have a different view on Romanians and it has been changing. Now, I don't understand those stubborn Hungarians with their fixed ideas about history and they cannot handle things and the future. I don't want to discuss it here. It's okay.

On Friday, I had English class, I enjoyed it. We learnt how to use materials for beginners in the classroom. I wish our Language Pedagogy teacher in Hungary was so enthusiastic about "teaching English" topic, but she is not. We're happy when she comes to class, not mentioning the fact that she doesn't like speaking in English with us. So, I found this class useful, I hope I can use those things at home what I heard during the lessons.

Friday night:
We were enthusiastic to meet with some Danish students so we decided to go to the Friday bar at the college. Sometimes I felt like I should give up making friends here, it's hard. Danish people are reserved a little bit, but as I said earlier, I don't want to believe in stereotypes, so we still try to make friends, I mean real friends, not just "hi, how are you" friends. :) It takes time. It's okay.
We had fun at the Friday bar, we talked to some students, and it was different because we had Ovidiu with us, (he is from Romania, moved to Denmark and he has a college degree. (economist)) So, we had a man with us, and now they were interested in how do you say cheers in Romanian or in Hungarian. It seems to me that whenever you're not alone from your country they're interested in more of your culture. So, we were surprised, but at the same time we enjoyed the situation. :) After all, we went home.

On Saturday, we went to Kolding to Bilke, it's a shopping centre, it's really huge with more than a 100 shops. We spent 2-3 hours there with Cristina and with her kids. It was nice to see the stores, however, I didn't buy anything, But a lot of things were on a good price.

That's all for today.

Strategy to make Danish friends

I was thinking a lot to write about it or not. My aim is not to hurt anyone, but just to let you know my experiences a little bit. It has been changing. This idea: to make Danish friends came from last week when I talked to Ioana, my friend and flatmate, about it. We've been in Denmark since September and we still cannot say we have got "true" Danish friends. Stereotypes: Danish people are reserved. Yes, it's true, we experience this, but we don't want to believe in this stereotype.
We had dance and drama class in Aabenraa last week (25 min from Haderslev) and we had a nice day. We liked the sport programes in school, we learnt how to use ice-brakers in class etc. On the way home,we saw one of my Danish classmates at the bus station, so we automatically thought, yes, here is another chance to make friends. :) So we went dircetly to him and kept talking to him. He was nice but a bit shy. We asked his opinion about Danish people in general and friendships. He said, it's hard to make friends here, because it takes a lot of time and people are not open. He has friends because he has been studying at the college for 2 years now, but he still finds it hard to make friends. I was thinking that even for him it's hard, what shall I say? I just here to have experience and whenever I talk to people, they are nice, very nice, but you have to do the effort to make friends. They won't ask about your country, culture, some of them do. It's really hard to write about this topic, because I try to avoid stereotypes and overgeneralizations.
On that night when I talked to my friend Ioana, (she is from Romania), we agreed: okay, this is the situation but we don't give it up. We still believe that we can make friends, and we're doing good.

Possibilities, chances to make friends:

1. In school: you have to "push", ask about Danish culture, and most importantly try to say some words, expressions in Danish. It works. :) When you enter the classroom, everybody sits in their own group, they don't talk to you. Lot of students don't talk at all. So it's a bit hard. However, I had some good experiences in class. :)
   
2. Friday caffee: it's a college bar on Friday to meet with your friends. Every time we try to talk to people, however they sit in their own group, or they are drunk and when you talk to them, the other day they don't remember you. It's sad. So we stopped going there because it's all about drinking alcohol, and we don't get drunk, we don't like drinking alcohol.
   
3. But we were thinking if we stop going there we will never have friends. So we try to go there early, maybe we can find some nice people. That's happened last Friday when we were there. They sat in their own group but at this time we were invited to sit with them. So we did. Nothing seroius talk happened, but at least we tried it. :)
4. I think, we need more time, and nothing wrong about it.

I will update you how making friends goes for us. :)

Copenhagen-Malmö-Haderslev 13-15th of October

Hello dear all,

http://picasaweb.google.com/juditpoczok
you can find my pictures here, I tried to do some nice shots, hope you like it.

It was a very nice trip, I think I will never forget it.

We got to see a lot, as it turns out from the pictures, we even went to Sweden, Malmö, for an hour, as for me, it was worth going there. :)
by the way, I had Birthday on Wednesday. I had a very nice Birthday. we started to celebrate on Thusday night in a bar, where the singer sang me Happy Birthday, and in the morning on 15th of Octobet we went to the Art museum, and then to Malmö, and then came back to Haderslev and had a pizza in the Istanbul Pizzeria (our favourite). Busy day!

On Thursday, we relaxed...

On Friday, we went to LEGOLAND, Billund...
Charlotte, she is a secretary of the school, took us there and her family came...It was very nice. We tried the rollercoaster and things...
I felt like I'm a child again, sooo much fun!

I had a nice autumn holiday.

I hope you're having fun at home, as well.

Farvell Practice....

with the 4th class girls


Hi Everyone,

I haven't posted any blog for a long time, but I was busy. Sorry...I don't know how many of you follow my blog daily, I hope you still like it though...

Okay, as you see from my title, my Practice job finished. Unfortunately!!
I miss going to Faurdalskolen and meet with the students.
I had practice on Thursday on 9th of October. I had to do some teachings in the 4th class, we learnt the TIME. It's not my favourite topic, because my English is not the best, and I don't know use words like quarter to, past, half past. Instead of these, I use 8.45, 8.30. At the same time, I realised, finally I could learn it, as well. Just before getting the diploma :) It's on time :)

This was the very first time I experienced that when I arrived to classroom, nobody stood up. It was strange, or I'd say: different.

After I taught the lesson, kids went to play with computer, they had fun.

We took some pictures during break time, and we said good-bye...


On Friday: It was a national exercise day. It means that right before the autumn holiday, every school does exercise. I got to see how it looks like.
It's similar to Hungarian "Egészséges nap"-hoz, where you jump, do some sports, and competitions.
Here, Danish students are not in competition, so they didn't get prize or extra points if they did good. The whole day programe was just for fun. :)

The weather was fine, a little bit cold, but it's all right.

I finished early, around 11.30 am, and got home and relax...



with the 0E class

Danish hospitality :)

trambulin
Originally uploaded by JuditinDenmark

On Monday afternoon we went to the College canteen to meet with my classmate, Kirsten. She invited us (Ioana and me) to have a coffe+cake and dinner with her family. We went to Christiansfeld where we picked up her kids and we had coffee and cake at a very cosy place in Christiansfeld and we took a short walk in the village and then we went walking in the forest nearby. Again, the weather was gorgeous and we enjoyed the sunshine a lot. :) After walking in the town and forest and got to know the history of the village a little bit, we went to Kirsten's family place. They live on a farm, a very nice one. There are some windmills near to their house, and they have got a trambulin where we jumped a lot with the kids. After all, Kirsten's husband arrived, and the dinner was ready, we ate and having a good time with them, chatting and getting to know each other. I was happy to meet with them and spent time together. Danish are hospitable nation!! Time goes fast, so we said good-bye and started to prepare for another day. (Note: If you want to see more about my time here, go to my Flickr site!)

Practice on Monday

I had a busy but beautiful day on Monday. I went to school by bike, it was a little bit chilly, but I like riding my bike, I think when I return home I'm gonna use it. :) Anyway, I started school at 8.10 with Special Needs Class, they were 12 years old and only 3 boys in the class. I like the way Tim always starts the class: First of all, he asks how was your weekend. Everybody tells briefly what they did, how they spent their weekend. It's a good way to warm up kids. :) Then, Tim introduced the task for that day, pupils had to make a photo. So, Tim asked them what's their favorite famous star, or what they're interested in general. Students have to learn how to use the Paintshop Pro program. So, we went to the computer room where they sat down and tried to look pictures on the net. Tim went to each student and helped them, explained them what to do, he showed it and then erased it so the kids should do it individually. They did a good job, I was amazed, because it's a special class, so again, a very practical thing to learn. Kids like computer in general anyway, and now, they're able to use this program and make decorations or have fun with this program. Finally, they printed the pictures and laminated. So, kids are able to use the laminator machine, (school has got one) and I have to tell you that I have never seen it in my life. Of course, I know about it, but personally I don't use it. So, I always give it to the shop assistant at home and let him do it. All right. So it was great experience again. There weren't a lot to do, like teaching, but for me it was really nice to watch this class.
After the break, kids could have the chance to make another one if they wanted to. Now, Tim didn't have to help a lot, so everybody did another one.

After this, I went to visit 9A class. There weren't a lot to do for me. They had tests in English (written part). I got a copy of the test, it's hard, they had to work hard on this.
It's still very strange for me, when the teacher arrives in the class, no one stands up. The lesson just starts. Tim said that it was the same for him, in England it's different.
I asked him about the grades in Denmark. Until the 8th class you don't get any grades.
Grade system in Denmark, in brackets you find the Hungarian version of it.
-3 it means you're completely don't know anything at all. (It doesn't exist in Hungary)
00 They use two zero because you can't replace it with any other number. You fail. (same in Hungary with 1)
02 It means you pass the exam. (Same with 2 in Hungary)
4 A little bit better than past. (same in Hungary with 3)
7 Better than pass (same in Hungary with 3)
10 Good (which is 4 in Hungary)
12 Excellent (5 in Hungary)

Different. We have grades for behaviour and hard working, they don't have it, they get comments on that.

It was interesting to visit and experience a lot in the 9A class.

Beautiful Denmark!

On Saturday, we went to Aalborg to see the town and the Utzon museum. On the way to Aalborg we saw a full-shaped rainbow. Correct me if I wrote it wrong. It was relly nice, I haven't seen rainbow for a long time, it was special to see one in Denmark. :)
The atmosphere of Aalborg is amazing. Again, typical Danish houses, which I cannot stop to looking at, I love it. We saw downtown and the harbour of Aalborg. (The building of Architecture University looks good). And my dream came true. We went to Utzon museum, it was gorgeous. I found out that in the 1950's there were 2 Hungarians (architects) in the competition of building the Sydney opera house. How interesting! Utzon won and he made the opera house in Sydney. :)
To get in this museum wasn't expensive. It costed only 30 DKK. It was absolutely worth visiting Aalborg.
After the museum, we went to Sunset Boulvard fast food restaurant and I had a coffee and an "in oven-baked" french frize. I was happy to be in that place because it was ice rain outside. Also, I was glad to have a coffee. :)
After it stopped raining we went to see the Monastery of the Holy Ghost. It's pretty, we just saw outside, it was closed for tourists.
We walked back to the car and came home. I was happy to have the chance to visit towns and travelling about 500 km at the weekend. Thank you so much buddy, good job! :)

Aalborg (North of Denmark), Észak-Dánia

Aalborg (North of Denmark), Észak-Dánia
Originally uploaded by JuditinDenmark

Flensbourg- Germany/ Németország

Flensbourg- Germany/ Németország
Originally uploaded by JuditinDenmark

Flensbourg- Germany

hej,

To continue: I was off from school at 14pm. and Carsten, Ioana and me went to Flensbourg. Carsten got the car from his family for the whole weekend and Ioana and me planned that we'd like to see Flensbourg, Germany, and other things in Denmark. So, we went to Flensbourg on Friday. You could tell it's Germany. Houses, streets, traffic lamps looked different. Unfortunately, every shop was closed, because it was a national holiday for Germany, East and West unioned in 1989. German Unity day: 3rd of October. But we could see the harbour of this town and it's very pretty. I loved it. We went to see a protestant church, it was nice. Finally, we went to shop, it's a border shop, where I could buy my beloved Milka chocolate. Actually, I bought two of them for myself, and one for a friend. Then we ate a fish sandwich at a fast food restaurant. When we got back, we were very tired, and we knew that the other day we had to get up early, so we said good night. ....

Practice on Friday

Hi everybody,

I hope you're doing well. :)
I went to Practice school on Friday, but I had a short day. I helped a little bit in the 1st class. I had to cut out "I" and "i" letters for the kids. They're adorable. We understood each other. I like the way how they are taught in school. They are not in competition like in Hungary. And it makes different. They don't get grades until the 8th class. There are types of comments which teachers give it to pupils 2 times a year. Very interesting.
So I was off around 10 am and went to town. I could see the Haderslev market. It's not as big as in Eger, but still it was soo good to see fresh fruit and cars with full of cheese. I bought a quarter of camembert cheese, it was on sale. The only thing I missed the smells of grapes, ohh... it's beacuse in my town right now, everything is about grapes. I wish I could buy some fresh grapes...it's okay. :) I was on hurry, making sandwiches etc. I went to school around 11.30 pm. because I had to call Sterling. I could call them at the first trying. YES, Lord! So, they put me 4th of December's flight. Two days later...
Finally, I had Art class, we made "montage". I did some drawings during the week, and I showed it to the teacher, one of them actually, she liked. I was so happy because as you know I don't really practice drawings at home, not at all. So, it was good to hear a positive stroke. :)
Now, I'm thinking to try painting, I will let you know how it went later on....

the machine at the back of the classroom

the machine at the back of the classroom
Originally uploaded by JuditinDenmark

Practical things??

Today, I had 2 classes with the 1st grade, and then one with the 4th grade. In school, everything is built or based on logic. Seriously, everything. While at home, we study or personally I struggle with studying linguistics in College, those 10 linguistics subjects, here I enjoy studying linguistics. I think, this is because the teacher makes it interesting and most importantly understandable for each student. Here, college students study the basic things about linguistics. (it's similar to Phrasal Syntax 1 and 2 at home)
Dear students fellowship and friends at home, especially those who already finished College: Have you ever taught clausal syntax in primary school? Do you use those stuffs, theories? I'm sure, that students at the age of 14, are not curious about Chomsky's theory, or the latest theory from sb.....So, my question, why do we study clausal syntax? We won't teach it, then for what is the aim to study it t? To have less confidence because you obviously fail the course, that's what the teacher promised and it became true. Personally, I failed the course...But I know, the rest of you guys failed, we can say it's normal to fail linguistics course. You can ask me back, why do you choose to study in Eger? All right, but just to let you know, I'm afraid of not be able to do that clausal syntax 2. course. It's okay.
How come students, if they study regularly here in Haderslev, don't fail any course? My experience is that even if I study hard, and spend time with memorizing books, and trying to understand what's going on in the books I fail the course. I just experience, things are different here. NO Stress! Enjoy what you're doing! It's your responsibility to do your job.
Practice today: I enjoyed the first 2 classes a lot. They studied the letter: I. Kids had to cut "i" letters from magazines. My job was to glue them on paper. They played games with letter "i". After, teacher brought a laptop and each kid had to sit in front of the computer and type the letter "i" and then color it in word document. Again, very practical. I'm so happy that I can visit classes like these special needs class. :))
4th class: they were singing songs, and praciced the English letters. One of the students needs help because she is almost blind. She has a special teacher, who stays with her all day. At the back of the classroom they have got a machine which helps students with special needs to study the same things as the other students do. I'm amazed....