In the last week I got an interesting proposal from one of the primary schools in my home region. I was invited to talk about my experiences of living and working in Brussels. The task was pretty challenging especially because I did not know how much pupils already know about the city and consequently also about “the EU town” inside of it. However, it turned out that youngsters between 12 and 14 expressed some interest about the topic. I tried to prepare as interactive presentation as possible and also to dedicate some time for thinking about their possibilities to travel and possible study or work inside of the EU. I noticed that they definitely posses a broad picture about sui generis structure, even though they do not necessarily understand its functions. A really brief insight was given Domen:
http://dotsub.com/media/94831539-e36a-4263-8af9-c3bb370bca6e/e/m (check a short video clip)
Children in general pointed out new experiences as one of the main reason for working/studying in a foreign country. And money, which should be seen in a perspective that most of the youth, did not express any wish to settle down abroad. Only 4 out of 28 children considered this as an interesting option. They would leave Slovenia only in case of getting better income. It is definitely not possible to draw any conclusion out of this statement, but I found it interesting especially because of a well-known fact that Slovenes do not massively leave the state; especially not for a longer period of time. Actually, it is very common that they spend the whole life in the same place (in some case even house).
At the end of the school day, I left the school with a smile on my face. They impressed me with their knowledge about the Slovenian presidency in the first half of 2008 and also familiarity with the Entropa’s story which one of the girls mentioned in a discussion. And I was thinking that “the sensation” actually provoked in the classroom much more interest about the EU than any other explanations…Bravo Černý!
(12 votes, average: 4.42 out of 5)
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And I got an update. Rebeka from the 9th class:
If you want to work (study) abroad, you have to speak at least one foreign language (English). You have to be open minded, tolerant, prepared for learning new things and motivated. You can get new experiences, different world’s perspectives and maybe find different solutions that can help you solving problem at home. In general, you are better accepted abroad and you have better working conditions.