EIL Intercultural Learning - Germany

Continually thinking in German

Brid McConnell — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 18:26:04 +0000

I'm now back a month after spending two months in Germany as an exchange student. It was an amazing experience and I'd even go as far as saying the best two months of my life!. I had soooooo much fun. I made many friends who I hope to have for a long time (some are planning on visisting me in the summer hols), I got to experience another culture and have grown to love it, I've tried many new things, become more organised and independant and my German has improved immensly.

I'm now fairly fluent and confident at speaking the language and I can understand what people are saying quite easily. My goal for the two month was to improve my German so that I'd be able to have a normal conversation with natives, to get to know and appreciate the German culture and to make friends. I achieved what I wanted to and even more. I'm now in the process of reading my second book in German. That's something that would have been unimaginable 3 months ago. Some might think I'm weird but at the weekends, when I have time I even watch my favourite German T.V. programmes.

When I first came back, I was constantly thinking in German and spoke a few words here and there by accident! I was delighted to see my family and friends again but I really do miss my German family, my friends, the schoolsystem and the lifestyle in general. I found it quite easy to adjust to the German way of life and it was a pleasant experiece but when I returned I found it quite hard to get back to my old routine. The school in Germany started at 8 and finished at 1.15/3.15, there was no uniform, the schools were mixed and their was not as much emphasis on written homework. This meant that I had loads of time for hobbies in the afternoon, I could spend time with family and friends and just relax. As you can imagine, it was a lot different when I came home as school and schoolwork practically dominates the day. I also experienced culture shock for a while. I kept complaining about Ireland and comparing it to Germany and almost everything here seemed to frustrate me! Things are only getting back to normal in the last week

I've enjoyed sharing my stories and experiences with my classmates and friends. I even told them the stories where I made a complete and utter fool of myself trying to explain things without the propper words. We all had a laugh at my expense but they learned many "need to know" phrases :P People seem to be quite interested in hearing about my time in Germany and some of my classmates are even making the effort to speak to me in German outside of the classroom! After doing the exchange, I have more respect for Irish culture and realise that it is unique like every culture is, I've more respect for the German culture and every other culture in general. I'm more interested and passionate about learning languages (though especially German) Learning languages in my opinion is never boring, because no matter how much you know, there's always more to learn and there's always room for improvement. I'm even considering learning another language

After spending 2 months in Germany, I'm 99.9999% sure that I want to pursue a carrer in German. I plan to become an Irish/German teacher or become a translator.

I'd like to thank EIL for giving me the opportunity to participate in the "Secondary School Abroad Programme", my German teacher for telling me about the travel award and nominating me and also my school who allowed me to go to Germany for 2 months. It sounds a bit cliché but it was a dream come true!!!!

Bríd McConnell <3

“Connecting the Dots” at a UN conference in Bonn, Germany

aislinn — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 22:44:51 +0000

Last month, I set off to Bonn, Germany to meet with other members of Federation EIL and represent the organisation at the 64th Annual United Nations NGO Conference. There were seven delegates from EIL representing with representatives from Germany, South Korea and Colombia. Bonn was a lovely host city which is situated on the river Rhine and is the birthplace of Ludwig van Beethoven. Bonn is Germany’s UN City, with 850 men and women working in 18 UN organisations, programmes and offices, mostly in the area of sustainable development. This made it a very suitable host city for the theme of the conference: “Sustainable Societies, Responsive Citizens”. The German branch of EIL also have their offices in Bonn.

The conference ran for 3 days and was attended by more than 1,700 people from 70 countries representing many different NGOs. On the first morning of the conference I met with the other members of the EIL delegation at the EIL booth in the main hall. Over the duration of the conference attendees of the conference were able to stop by the desk to learn about EIL and the volunteer programs. Lots of other NGOs and some UN agencies had desks set up where you could find out about their organisations and their work.

The opening ceremony was very illuminating and set up the themes from conference. The slogan for the weekend was “Connecting the Dots” and the speakers at the ceremony gave their interpretation of how this related to “Sustainable Societies, Responsive Citizens. “Connecting the Dots” makes reference to a speech Ban Ki Moon, made in January this year where he spoke of “tearing down the walls between the development agenda and the climate agenda” and he spoke to his audience about “connecting the dots” between climate change, water, energy and food.

One of the opening speakers in Bonn remarked that “connecting the dots” meant that sustainable development is not just an environmental issue, but an economic and social one as well, as sustainable development needs finance and needs to be achieved alongside social equality. Vandana Shiva, an Indian environmentalist and a keynote speaker at the opening ceremony, stressed the importance of connecting the anti-poverty agenda with an environmental agenda, claiming that hunger could be ended by using innovations in agricultural ecology with are also good for the environment. The Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information, Kiyo Akasaka, remarked that we need only look at the famine in the Horn of Africa to see how hunger is cause by the intersection of climate, conflict and governance. The opening ceremony also included a video address from Ban Ki Moon who spoke of the need to development sustainable economies in order to achieve the Millennium Development goals and protect the environment.

The conference consisted of a series of roundtables and smaller workshops where which sought to link volunteering, youth involvement and bottom-up approaches to the creation of sustainable societies and economies. Irish MEP Marian Harkin was among the speakers in a workshop on “Volunteering for a Sustainable Future” that I attended. She spoke of how economies weren’t sustainable because they were no longer related to people. This workshop highlighted how volunteering should take centre stage in the struggle to develop sustainable societies.

Over the course of the conference, a declaration was which brought together the ideas of all the ideas and contributions of the various organisations represented by the delegates of the conference. The declaration calls on governments to come to the Rio+20 conference on Sustainable development to produce a politically binding document on the issue. The Final Declaration is available here:

http://www.un.org/wcm/webdav/site/ngoconference/shared/Documents/Final%20Declaration/Chair%27s%20Text.pdf

It was a great opportunity to attend a real UN conference and a huge thanks to EIL Ireland for the opportunity and the delegates from the German office who were there to welcome me on the first day. It was a wonderful chance to meet international members of EIL and people from NGOs around the world.

Here’s a link to a video summarising the highlight of the conference

http://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/ngoconference/pid/16700

Opening ceremony of the conference with video address from Ban Ki Moon

aislinn — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 22:41:22 +0000

UN Campus, Bonn, Germany

aislinn — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 22:18:50 +0000

Experience exchange week end in Germany: Volunteer predeparture training and debrief seminar

Anton — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 14:46:13 +0000

Pictured here from the left to the right:
Anja Ostrowski (former Ireland Volunteer), Anne Kantel (Experiement Germany "Godmother Volunteer" for Volunteering Programs), Anton Kieffer, and Magdalena Ries (former Guatemala Volunteer)

EIL Travel Awards 2010: deadline this Friday and new awards!

Piers Meynell — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:46:15 +0000

The deadline for applications to the main group of EIL Travel Awards is this Friday (5pm 26th March). There's still time to get your application to us and there's a further group of Awards with deadlines in late April which you can apply to too. This later group includes two late additions to this years Awards: the opportunity to go to school and live with a family in Germany and the chance to be nominated for a scholarship to spend three months volunteering in Argentina.

Who are EIL looking for?

If you are a young person or student who has an active interest in world affairs and think that you would benefit from a challenging adventure in another culture then one of these awards could be for you. This year we are offering 18 fully funded awards where EIL covers all the programme costs and 12 partially funded awards where most of the programme costs are funded by EIL.

What is EIL looking for?

In assessing the applications we receive, volunteer or other community involvement as well as leadership potential will take priority over academic capacity. Awards are open to a range of different age categories starting from 16 years old and successful applicants need to be available to travel during the summer months.

What Travel Awards are available?

Individual awards: Fully funded

(Age 16-18): 6 weeks in Japan or 4 weeks in Ecuador
(Age 18+): 6 weeks in Mexico or 10 weeks in Argentina

Group Awards

(Age 16-18): 12 nights in Vermont USA (Full Funding for 5 participants)
(Age 17-22): 9 days in Hong Kong (Partial Funding for 8 participants)
(Age 18-25): 3 weeks in Eurocamp Germany (All costs in Germany covered plus €120 towards flights for 2 participants)

Other Awards

DEIS or Youthreach students: 4 fully funded places to join Hong Kong group
ACCESS students: 3 fully funded places for 2 months on a Volunteer Abroad programme of choice
Jack Wallace Scholarship (new): an opportunity to be short listed for the Jack Wallace Scholarship, a three month partially funded volunteering project in Argentina.
Secondary School in Germany Scholarship (new): live with a host family and go to school in Germany from a semester to a full academic year.
Global Awareness 8 weeks in South Africa or Nigeria: 4 partially funded places available

How do I apply?

Visit the Travel Award's web page and follow the instructions: typically you just need to download and complete a short applicaiton form and write a short essay before posting both to EIL. You can apply for as many Awards as you wish: though you do need to make a seperate application for each one e.g. you could apply for two travel awards by completing two application forms and writing an essay for each.

When are the application deadlines?

The deadline for the bulk of the Travel Awards is 5pm on 26th March 2010, this Friday! However there are three Travel Awards with deadlines in late April:

Jack Wallace Scholarship (5pm on 23 April 2010)
Hong Kong (5pm on 30 April 2010)
Secondary School in Germany Scholarship (5pm on 30 April 2010)

Who is EIL?

EIL is the oldest educational exchange organisation in the world and the Irish office is based in Cork city. EIL coordinates a range of programmes including study abroad, volunteer abroad, development education, group educational travel opportunities and other cultural immersion activities for about 2,000 people every year. This year The Trust for Education in International Living is pleased to be able to offer almost fifty thousand euros to help 30 people take part in EIL's programmes.

For full details of the Travel Awards and to download an application form log on to www.eilireland.org/travel-awards

Amelie Robrecht of Germany with host sisters and a friend in Ballybunion, Co. Kerry.

Gen — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:05:10 +0000

From right to left: Aoife (host sister), Clarisse (exchange student from France), Amelie and Meabh (host sister). Pictured just after Christmas during a winter snow storm in Ballybunion.

Kathrin Schneider

Gen — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:18:15 +0000

Kathrin Schneider with her host sister pose in front of a picturesque view of the Irish countryside.

EIL Travel Awards 2010

Piers Meynell — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:00:26 +0000

EIL Intercultural Learning are pleased to announce the launch of the 2010 Travel Awards.

Are you someone, or do you do you know somebody who would benefit from a challenging adventure in another culture. If the the answer is yes then you are invited to apply or to encourage somebody to apply for one of the 31 full or partially funded awards available this year including exciting locations such as Japan, Ecuador, Mexico, Argentina, Hong Kong or Nigeria amongst others.

What are we looking for?

We want to open EIL travel programmes to students and young people who have an active interest in learning about other cultures and in educating and involving themselves in global issues. In assessing the applications we receive, volunteer or other community involvement as well as leadership potential will take priority over academic capacity. Awards are open to a range of different age categories starting from 16 years old and successful applicants need to be available to travel during the summer months.

Individual Travel Awards: Argentina, Ecuador, Japan, Mexico
Group Travel Awards: Hong Kong, Eurocamp Germany, Vermont USA
Special Awards: DEIS / Youthreach & ACCESS students
Global Awareness Programme: South Africa / Nigeria

Fully funded awards will cover all programme costs including flights, food, accommodation and travel insurance.

Who is EIL?

For full details of the Travel Awards and to download an application form log on to www.eilireland.org/travel-awards

8 fully funded places for healthcare seminar in Bonn available for Irish nursing students

Piers Meynell — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 10:35:13 +0000

Our German partner organisation, Experiment eV, together with Bonn City Council and the Nursing Training Centre at the University of Bonn, Universitäts klinikum Bonn, are inviting applications for a fully funded seminar on the theme of "Intercultural Aspects of Healthcare". The seminar takes place in Bonn, Germany from 14th - 20th June 2009.

These 8 fully funded places are available for Irish nursing students or students of other health care disciplines. Flights, accommodation and meals are all included. Participants should bring their own pocket money.

Conditions

Applicants must be over 18 years of age.
Applicants must be an undergraduate student of nursing or another health care discipline

How to Apply

Write a short cover letter including your name and address.
Enclose an up to date curriculum vitae.
Write a maximum 1,000 word essay on "Professional Communication with Immigrants in Healthcare".
Supply details of two or more referees.

Applications should be either emailed to Fiona, faxed on 021 4551587, or posted to EIL Intercultural Learning, 1 Empress Place, Summerhill North, Cork, County Cork.

The closing date for applications is 5 p.m. on Monday 27th April 2009.

For further information, email Fiona or telephone 021 4551535.