Week 9 - Cultural

My new best friends and I!

Teaching this week was again brilliant, more so because I got to spend the day with Groups 1 and 2. The kids were so cute and made me remember the main reason of why I wanted to teach because of creating fun in the classroom, where all the children felt they belong and somewhere they would thrive. Throughout the day we had to try and speak more Dutch and understand what the children were saying to us, as they obviously did not know English. This however, turned out to be a good thing as in my opinion it let me see what Dutch phrases I could remember and say! They obviously must have worked as I had two walking shadows all day and a picture to bring home with me from one of the pupils… I was a happy guy coming home on Tuesday to say the least!

"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge."

Albert Einstein.

Inside an early Dutch house of a poor family

When talking about culture this week we really got to see an in depth look into how the Dutch lived in the

early days and then progressed to what they are now and this was because of our trip this week to the open air museum. To be honest, it wasn’t a day I was excited for mainly due to us having to get up early and be ready for the bus at 9.15am. However, I was pleasantly surprised as our day was full of history, culture and of course more laughs!

Making of the paper!

The museum started by looking at the Netherlands in the early days, when making the comparisons between rich houses and poor houses. The differences were clearly evident as the poor people lived in a barn like house with their animals; imagine the smell... Yuck! The rich however, had a proper roof, table and chairs and the house was animal free! We also got to see how they made paper before people started to cut down trees! They used old bits of cloth and soaked them in water and the particles then all stuck together and when lifted by a frame like tray, the particles formed a soggy piece of paper. Now as they always say they leave the best to last, in this case they really did! As in The Netherlands they are famous for their beer, we got to taste some of the beer that was on offer. It was home-made and in my opinion, it was no Coors or Fosters Gold but the beer still tasted very good!

Windmill at the Open Air Museum

All in all, this week I got to see that the culture of the Dutch really is like our country when looking at the early ages. However, getting to see the usage of the Windmills and the other typical Dutch items like beer or tulips, let us see that The Netherlands has a strong culture with a history that many people don’t know about and I now feel privileged that I know another country’s culture/history apart from my own. The main reason for this being that I can now be open minded about different things when I return home and see that all people may not be the same but this does not mean we judge them, we however should praise them for their difference as it lets us gain more knowledge and become overall better people.

“Cultural differences should not separate us from each other, but rather cultural diversity brings a collective strength that can benefit all of humanity.”

Alan, R

(Ps top tip for this week when getting free samples of beer in small shot glass like containers, quickly down the beer and re-join the queue and get more, to truly ensure that you get to savour all the different flavours of the beverage… haha)

References:

Alan, R (1922-1978). 20 Quotes Praising Cultural Diversity. Available on: http://www.ufic.ufl.edu/documents/20%20quotes%20praising%20cultural%20diversity.pdf. Last Accessed: 08/04/13.

Einstein, A. Albert Einstein Quotes on Education. Available on: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/quotes/articles/80874/title/albert-einstein-quotes-on-education. Last Accessed: 08/04/13