My 'teaching' experiences in Denmark

Because I don’t speak enough Danish, we mostly observed during the two weeks of practice. However, because we (Stefanie and I) didn’t want to sit and listen all the time, we asked our mentor (Lisbeth Thompsen) if we could give a small presentation about our country and maybe play some games. Lisbeth was very excited about this offer and said ‘yes’ immediately.
On Tuesday, the 13th of april, we gave a presentation about our country to the pupils of the 6th grade. (We could only do this presentation in the 6th grade, because the younger children don’t understand enough English. )To see if they had paid attention, we did a little quiz afterwards. Most students got all the questions right. Lisbeth told us afterwards that the students really enjoyed it.


Today, at our last day of practice, we did some games with the pupils from the 3rd , 5th and 6th grade. With the 3rd and the 5th grade, we played ‘Schipper magi k overvaren?’ (Sailor can I cross the sea?)
We chose this particular game, because it’s a typical Belgian game and because the pupils could practice the English words they’d just learn. The game goes like this:

There are two sailors in the middle, the other pupils are standing in a line towards them. First the pupils have to sing a song (we’ve translated it to English). When the pupils are standing on the right part of the field, the sailors have to say a color. All the pupils who are wearing something who has this color, can’t cross the sea, so the sailors have to try to catch them. Those who aren’t wearing anything black, can just walk over. On the other side, it’s the same, accept that the pupils have to do something, a movement, again chosen by the sailors. Those who chose to don’t do the movement, can try to run, but they can be caught. Both Lisbeth as the pupils loved this game.


Because we had some more time, we also played ‘ 1, 2, 3, piano…’. (we also played this game with the pupils from the 6th grade) The pupils knew a similar game that’s called ‘ red, orange, green ‘.
There is one pianoman. He had to turn around and say “One, two, three, piano…”. While he is saying this, the other children can run and try to touch the wall, where the pianoman is standing. But after the pianoman has said his sentence, he turn around and all the other pupils have to stand still. Those who aren’t standing still have to go back and start all over again.
You can make some variations with this game, like we did. Instead of saying “one, two, three, piano…”, you can also say “one, two, three, animals” or “one, two, three, fotomodel” . And than the pupils have to stand like an animal or a fotomodel.

All three grades enjoyed those games and so did we. It was a great experience, both the ‘teaching’ as the observing. I’m just a bit disappointed that the practice was scheduled so late, because now we don’t have any time left to discuss this with the other Erasmus students or the teachers.

Teaching in Belgium or in Denmark?

After the First day of practice during the First week, I was really excited to go back to ‘Realskole’ and learn more about their way of teaching.
Stefanie and I followed a teacher, named lisbeth Thompson. A very nice and warm teacher who really loves her job. She is specialized in 2 subjects: music and English.
In Belgium, you’ve got only one teacher for one class. In Denmark you are specialized in certain subjects and you only teach those subjects. Both systems have their advantages and disadvantages:


- An advantage of working with specialized teachers is that they know (almost) everything about their subject and love teaching it. This is a big problem in Belgium. Because we have to teach everything, we just know the basic things about each subject. So if you compare the music lessons the pupils get here with the ones the pupils in Belgium get, you can say it’s a night and day difference. The children in Denmark learn al sort of things: rhythm, singing, theory, listening to music, and other exercises. While the pupils in Belgium just learn to sing some songs. I was really amazed by the knowledge of the children. For example, the children of the second grade can easily read rhythm, while I just learned to do this in my university. Another thing is that the Danish pupils are very familiar with music. They dare to sing very loud or play music, while in Belgium they are a bid shy to do these things, because they are not used to it. Lisbeth told us this has to do with confidence. The children get music lessons from when they are very young. They don’t know it differently.
So I would prefer that they hire people in the Belgian schools, who are specialized in music to transfer their knowledge to the pupils. Music can also help the children with a sort of things: from a better concentration and listing to a better coordination.
- Another advantage is that you as a teacher get a lot of variety by teaching from grade zero until grade 10. In Belgium sometimes a teacher gets fed up with always teaching the same age over and over again. You don’t have that problem over here.

- A disadvantage however from having different teachers for one class is the fact that the children always have to adjust their selves to the teacher. By this I mean the following: every teacher has his own way of teaching and his own rules. I think it’s very confusing for the children. With one teacher they can run around in the class, with another teacher, they can’t. A result of this is that the pupils sometimes have lack of respect. I talked about this with Lisbeth and she couldn’t agree more. She said that especially the older pupils don’t always show respect for their teacher.
In our school system, the value ‘respect’ is the first thing the pupils learn. You will never see pupils act the way they (sometimes) do over here. As a said earlier, Lisbeth is a great teacher, but sometimes she has to be more strict. There were times that she was explaining an exercise and the pupils were just talking and running around. In Belgium, such behavior will never be tolerated.
Another thing that really amazed me is that the teachers here work very expressive. In Belgium the way of teaching is often very sec. We learn the pupils the theory and afterwards the practice the theory by making exercises. Sometimes the pupils practice the theory by playing a game. But usually, they just have to practice things by writing and making exercises in their workbook.
Over here, that’s not the case at all. Here they learn by playing. I really love that kind of didactics.

For example, we saw the lessons English of the 6th grade. They were learning about Scottish clans. In Belgium we would learn them this by giving them a text that they can read or by just teaching them about this subject. Here, in Lisbeths English lessons they taught the pupils those things by letting them make their own clan. Every clan had to make a tartan, a crest and a history. I was really amazed by this. The end result is nearly the same, yet the children of Denmark had a lot more fun than those in Belgium would have.
Stefanie and I had to accompany a clan and help them by making their assignments. I once got really crossed with some students, because they were complaining about what they had to do. When I explained them how they would have to learn this in Belgium, they realized that this assignment wasn’t so bad after all and they stopped complaining.

If I’m honest, I have to say that I could never teach in this system. For me, the system is to chaotic. The classes are a mess and the pupils don’t always give the teachers the respect they deserve. An advantage of teaching here though is without a doubt, the didactic system they use. I really fell in love with the way the teachers teach their pupils something. I definitely going to put that in my bag and take it home with me.

Nevertheless, this beautiful way of teaching doesn’t compensate the disadvantages. I think I’ll stay in Belgium and try to teach my pupils things by playing.

International week

From the 15th March until the 19th of march, we had a special schedule, because it was international week. Students from all around the country came to visit UCsyd.


On Monday we got to know the international students by playing a game. Afterwards, when we knew one another a bit better, we had to make a couple of drawings of things that represent our country. Because we already did this twice, it wasn’t too hard to come up with typical Belgian things. We drew chocolate, beer, Herman Van Rompuy, our flag, French fries and seafood.
after wards we had to do the same, but for another country. This was more difficult. Our group had Poland and the only thing we came up with was ‘Vodka’.
When everyone finished, every group had to present the drawing of the other country. Then the people of that concerned country showed us their drawing and then we could compare those two. Most of the time the drawings were representative. I think this is because the weeks before we talked a lot about the countries all the erasmusstudents come from.
In the afternoon, we got a Danish lesson. Not very interesting for us, because we already knew those basic words… What I did find interesting was the explanation about the Danish educational system afterwards. We already talked about that, but it’s always interesting to hear and discuss it again.


On Tuesday we had 2 different workshops. I chose for ‘preparing traditional food from Denmark’ and ‘Creating a pocket film’. Both workshops were very good.



From 8.15 until 11.15 we talked about Danish food. The teacher showed us some pictures from a traditional coffee table. After seeing that, I can’t believe that most Danes are so skinny. Afterwards we made some sandwiches with some typical Danish food on it. The one thing that I found the most striking was the mackerel salad with mayonnaise. It was divided: 50 – 50, so 50% of mackerel and 50% mayonnaise… So not very healthy, but of course the unhealthy things are always the best…
After the lunch (made by myself) we had to make a pocket film. This film had to be about ‘the things I find striking in Denmark’. To be honest, I find a lot of things striking in Denmark. After a short discussion, we chose this striking fact: ‘Why do the traffic lights always turn orange before they turn back green?’ First we went to the crossroads and filmed the traffic lights, afterwards we made our own little ‘theater’. Stefanie was the red light, Marie was the orange light and I was the green light.
After our perfect acting, we had to put in on the computer and edit it. I have to say, the end result was fabulous. After a satisfying day, we had to prepare food from our home country. Stefanie, some international students and I made French fries (of course!). It didn’t went smoothly. We only had one fryer and fries have to be baked twice… After 2 hours in the kitchen we were done. I really enjoyed that evening. I loved the fact that we could taste food from other countries. With my belly all blown up and the button of my pants open, we left to our apartment to get a good night sleep, because Wednesday would be very exhausting as well…

And it was! Wednesday was the international day. At 8.15, all the students had an introduction to the day in the assembly hall. What I found very funny was the fact that the speaker was talking about cultures and how important it is to learn and speak English, but she only spoke Danish, while she could speak English…
Anyway, after this presentation we went to our workshop about internationalization. I chose the workshop ‘didactics’ with Iben. I loved it! It was so interesting! Every time when I had a lesson from her, I go out with my head filled with thoughts. She can really challenge you to think further… That wasn’t different this time…


After lunch, we had some time to prepare an exhibition about our home university. Stefanie, a few international students and I are all from the same university, so we worked together. I drew a poster from the college, Stefanie helped me with the colors and the international students made a more general poster about Belgium. Afterwards, there was a small exhibition. It was nice to see each other home universities. The only thing I found a bit regrettable was the fact that there were almost no Danish students… The weather was nice, so I think they all went home…


On Thursday we normally had ‘movement and physical activities’ in the morning, but the teacher was sick. Instead we worked with books. I didn’t really liked this alternative… After lunch and after a presentation about the university of Valencia, we went to Ribe. I’d already been there with my parents and my sister, but I didn’t find it annoying to go back, because I really love this village. It so small and cozy there and all the old buildings tell a story.


We didn’t went straight to Ribe though, we first made a stop at the sea. It was wonderful. The view was phenomenal. After we had the change to walk a bit around and take some pictures, we had to go back on the bus. The bus driver drove through Ribe, what actually is forbidden. I can see why… The streets are so narrow, you can easily get stuck in one… He stopped at the museum, which we went to visit. I really love this museum. There are 3 parts. Upstairs you can see a film about the old Vikings. Downstairs there is a part especially made for children and then you also have the ‘normal museum’. I went to see all three. As a teacher to be, of course I liked the part for the children the most.
It looked like a little ‘Vikingvillage’. The children can dress like knights or princesses and do all sorts of activities. After one and a half hour in the museum, we had some free time. We just walked around. Because it’s such a small town, we still had some time left before the bus would leave, so went to a café and drank a thee.

Back in Haderslev, it was time for the ‘Eurovision song festival’. Loes, Ine, marie, Caroline, Stefanie and I started practicing for our act. We chose a song of K3 (A very famous group in Belgium) and made up some dance moves to go with our play backing. We were ready. Every country did something. Most people sang a song. I was a bit scared after I’d see some great performances. But it was too late. We had to do it. And I’m glad we did, because Belgium got 12 point, meaning: our group won! I was so happy! We got our price and it was a basket of chocolate. (Not a great price for me, because I don’t like chocolate…)


After an exciting night, my alarm went off very early (a bit too early…). When I arrived at school we got some more time to work on our pocket film, because we had to present it later that day. At 12 o’clock we saw each other pocket films and we saw the end product of the music class. They sang a song and I have to say, it sounded great! Then the final activity took place: the farewell lunch. The lunch ladies made some lunch, especially for us and it was delicious. (I like the Danish food now, more than in the beginning)


It was a very exhausting week, but I’m glad I experienced it…!

How to make Belgian 'Hutsepot'...

Ingredients:
• 3 potatoes
• 3 onions
• ½ Savoy cabbage
• 3 carrots
• 3 turnips
• 2 leek
• 4 pieces of bacon (thick)
• Thyme and laurel
• 3 dl water
• Mustard
• Butter
• Pepper and salt

How to prepare it?
1. Cut the vegetables in big pieces (4 à 5 cm).
2. Stew the vegetables 5 à 6 minutes in a big pan.
3. Add some pepper, salt, thyme and laurel.
4. Add the water en let it boil.
5. Put the bacon on the vegetables. Let it stew for 45 minutes.
( ! : Put the lid on the pot !  otherwise the vegetables will be burned)
6. Every 10 minutes you have to shake the pot. If the water is evaporated, you have to add some water.
7. Let the ‘Hutsepot’ cool down. (remove the lid)
8. Serve it with mustard.

Danish lessons

I was really looking forward to learn another language. I was a bit amazed about the quantity of lessons we had. It’s very hard to learn a language in only 5 lessons, 10 hours. But I was hopeful… Very excited I went to the first Danish lesson in the first week. We learned to say our names and where we come from. I think this was a very good introduction. Satisfied with those two Danish sentences I went home. Stefanie and I practiced this the whole week. We kept asking each other’s name. 
But week after week I was more and more disappointed in these lessons. The teacher was really trying, but we went to slow. After these 5 lessons, this is all we can say:

1) Our names (Jeg hedder Lynn)
2) Where we come from (Jeg kommer fra Belgium)
3) What language we speak (Jeg taler flamsk or lidt dansk)
4) We can thank someone in 7 different ways (tak, tusind tak, selv tak,…)
5) We can ask if someone wants thee or coffee (Vil du have kaffe/te?)
6) And we can count until 100

So I’m a bit disappointed. We can’t have a conversation with a Dane. We can’t speak with the children of our practice school. I still feel like an intruder in Denmark after 2 and a half months, because I always have to speak English. I think it’s a matter of respect to learn the language of the land you’re in.
Maybe it’s a good idea for next year to increase the Danish lessons. Or arrange some outdoor activities in Danish. (Danish games?)
But I do have to say that Lone Selmer really had some good ideas to let us practice the sentences and words we already know. And I know it’s hard for her to learn us a lot of Danish in only 10 hours, because it is a very difficult language…

Climate and cooking

Finally, our First lesson with Danish students! (I don’t have any optional subjects)
I was looking forward to this lesson. And I have to say, it was great! The teacher was very friendly and she really tried to make us feel welcome. (But I think this is a quality all Danes have… )
The 8th of march, we had our first lesson. The Danish students were very friendly and helped us a lot. We started by brainstorming about climate friendly cooking. I think it’s very good that we started the way we did. These days, it is very important to be climate friendly. Afterwards we had to divide the tasks. Stefanie and I, together with 3 Danish students were responsible for the main course. With the climate friendly cooking rules in our head, we (Stefanie and I) decided to make a typical Belgian meal, named ‘Hutsepot’ during the cooking lesson. It was climate friendly because the ingredients were seasonal.
The 23th we met again. We had to go shopping for our ingredients. As always the Danish students helped and learned us a lot in the store: ‘Which potatoes were better, why they chose ecological vegetables, and so on.’ With a bag of Føtex in my hand I knew I was ready to make a delicious meal.
The 24th, the day the Danes would love our Belgian food or the day they hated it… Everybody started to make their own climate friendly meal. An hour went by and the kitchen was filled with delicious aroma’s. We laid the table, so that we could see if our noses didn’t tricked us. And I’m very glad to tell you that it wasn’t the case. Everything I ate that morning, was delicious. EVERYTHING!
The only thing I struggled with that morning was the fact that, although I skipped my breakfast, I was already full after the first soup. I can’t remember how I did it, but I managed to eat/taste it all. I do remember that I went home with my button of my pants open… 
In general, I can conclude that I really loved this lesson. It was great to work with Danish students and to learn a lot about climate friendly cooking, ingredients, typical Danish food,….

Danish literature and film

I was looking forward to this lessons. I’m very interested in this topic.
Unfortunately, I have to say that I was disappointed. I was hoping that we would read some stories / poems and then analyze and discuss them. But we didn’t do such things. We only saw 2 writers: Karen Blixen and Hans Christian Andersen. I already knew Andersen, his stories for children are famous, also in Belgium. But I agree, he is a very known writer and he comes from Denmark, so it is logical that we talk about him. I didn’t mind at all.
There are a lot of things that we could do with these authors writing work or even their life stories.
Unfortunately, we just saw a film about their lives. it was interesting, but the teacher could just tell us those things in 15 minutes. Then there would be some time left for reading their stories. Because, let’s face it, we know those people now and we know some titles of their most famous work, but we don’t know their stories.

Sport is good for you!

When we First met our buddy, she told us about het hobby: Danish gymnastics. I didn’t quite know what this sport includes. Nine (our buddy) told us that Danish gymnastics is a combination of normal gymnastics with modern dance. I think Nine could see at my face, that I still didn’t quite get it, because she asked me if I wanted to see a practice. Without the smallest hesitation I said ‘yes’.
So, the first week on Thursday Stefanie and I went to see this new sport. From the moment I saw it, I loved it. I use to do gymnastics and dancing, so a combination of these two in one sports was great!
Nine told us that they were practicing for a competition in march and asked us if we wanted to see it.
I was very interesting in this event, because now I could see more of this new sport. The 12th of march we got into the car and drove to Aabenraa, where the competition took place. We saw all sorts of groups, including the one Nine teaches. I really loved it!
What I found really amazing (other than the performances of course) was the fact that this sport is for everyone! It doesn’t matter if you small or tall, if your 15 years old or 60, you are welcome to do Danish gymnastics.

Cat howl and movement in one week…

Tuesday, the 23rd of February we had our first lesson of PE. I was a bit frightened, because the Danes are known as sportive people. In my mind, I could see us running 5 laps around the university, just to warm up… Luckily, that wasn’t the case. We just played some typical Danish games. I really enjoyed it. There were a few games I’d never played, for example the ‘bull in the red sea’ or the ‘carrotgame’. A very handy lesson for our future, because we can play them with our pupils as well. Another advantage is that we got to know each other a bit better…


The same week, on Friday morning 8 o’clock, we had music… I bought some coffee in the cafeteria, but I hadn’t got time to drink it, because the moment I walked in the classroom, we got a paper with some songs on it. That moment I realized that this wasn’t going to be a passive lesson. (Which I always find wonderful on a Friday morning). No no, we were going to make our own music… The people who know me, know that I’m not the world greatest singer. I inherited the singing talent of my parents, meaning: none…. Although I was really trying, the only sound that came out of my mouth sounded like cat howl… I think Stefanie would agree, because I was standing next to her and I saw her making painful faces…


After this painful experience of the music class (especially for the people who stood next me) , we had our second lesson of PE. This time we could use everything that was in the room to make our own exercise. Stefanie and I made a ‘climbing-exercise’, with success.
the exercises of our colleagues were all very different: from walking over a beam to hula hooping.
So, not very difficult exercises… Until we had to do them with a blindfold… I don’t know about you, but I’m not really comfortable if I’m hanging upside down with a blindfold and a head as red as a tomato. Anyway, I think God loves me, because I didn’t fell. He did punished me for an occasional swear by giving me a lot of muscles ache the day after.

A comparison of the Danish and Belgian school system

The first week we went to see a school nearby the university.

Immediately it became clear that there are a lot of differences between the Danish and the Belgian school system...

1. The number of hours

In Belgium a school day starts at 8.30 and ends at 15.30.

08.30 - 10.00: Lesson

10.00 - 10.15: short break (playing)

10.15 - 11.40: Lesson

11.40 - 13.15: Lunchbreak (eating + playing)

13.15 - 14.25: Lesson

14.25 - 14.40: Short break (playing)

14.40 - 15.30: Lesson

This is the schedule for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. On Wednesday they only have to be in school until 12 o'clock.

In Denmark the school starts at 8.45 and ends at 13.45, with an hour break from 10.45 until 11.45.

2. The amount of teachers

I can tell you two different things regard the amount of teachers:

The first thing that's different from our country is the fact that there are more teachers for one class. In Denmark, every teacher had his/her specialty and teaches that in various departments. So you can teach children who are 8 years old, but you can also teach children who are 12 years old. The advantage of teaching children of various ages is that you get a lot of variation. Another advantage is that the teachers are very good informed about their specialism. This is sometimes a problem in Belgium. We have just one teacher per class. This means that the teacher has to know and give everything; from mathematics to geography and spelling. We are not specialized in just one or two things.
However, a disadvantage is that you always have to adjust your teaching style and activities every time you go to another classroom, another age.

The second thing that's different is that in Denmark there's more than one teacher in the classroom at the same time for only 10 or 15 children. In Belgium there is one teacher for 20 children. I prefer to have my own class, without the interference of someone else.

3. The safety of the schools

In Denmark, the schools are not 'protected' at all... There's no fence, there's nothing locked and the children are put outside to sleep... This is unimaginable in Belgium. There are always fences around the school. Not because we are afraid that the children will run away, but because we don't want that strangers can walk into the school whenever they want to. Belgium has a history of kidnapping.

4. The surveillance

At first, I didn't believe it when Ibe said that there's no control of the teachers what so ever... They don’t have to follow a certain syllabus. I think this has both advantages as disadvantages.

A very big advantage is that they don’t know the word stress. What isn’t done today, will be done tomorrow. The second advantage is that the teacher can choose what he wants to learn the children. However this can also be a disadvantage. For example if a child moves to a different school. It’s possible that those children have learned completely different things… Then I think is very difficult for this child to keep up with the other children of his (new) class. Another disadvantage of this system is that you don’t know (especially as a parent) of your child is educated the right way. Is the teacher doing what he has to do?

So, my provisional decision is this:

Both the Belgian as the Danish school system has his advantages and his disadvantages.

The Belgian school system is too much focused on the “learning”. We don’t really look at school through the children’s eyes. We look to school through our eyes. And that is where we go wrong.

The Danish school system on the other hand is very ‘child friendly’. But I think that they are sometimes a bit too focused on the children. Sometimes they just have to learn certain things…

So, in my opinion, if we combine these two school systems, we get an ideal mix of ‘child friendly’ and ‘learning’.

These are my experiences until now, maybe they will change during another visit at the school… I’ll keep you posted!

Copenhagen, the city that never sleeps...

Finally! It was time to leave for Copenhagen! I was really excited, I heard a lot of great stories of this city…
After 3 hours on the train, we arrived in the capital of Denmark. Immediately, when you get off the train, you know the city tells a lot of stories. The energy of this city really carries you away. I didn’t had eyes enough when we walked to our hotel.
We got 15 minutes to get settled in. Then we took a little tour bus. This way, we got to taste a little bit more from Copenhagen. The only thing that really amazed me, was how expensive the public transportation is around here.


After this pricy trip, we walked to the Round tower. I think this was one of the peaks of our trip to this vibrant city. The Round Tower does not have an elevator, so we had to climb the winding. With my tongue on the floor, I arrived at the top. never the less, it was worth it.







The view from up there was phenomenal! We could overlook whole Copenhagen! For the first time in my life, I did not know what to say…







Afterwards, we walked into the longest shopping street of Europe: Strøget. On one side, you had shops like Prada and Chanel for the wealthy people. On the other side you had shops for people like me… At the end of Strøget, you had the Town Hall Square. Here you can find ‘The golden weather girls’. These girls used to tell the weather, but nowadays it doesn’t work anymore. After this first tiresome day, the bed in the hotel looked better than ever…


Thursday morning, at 7 o’clock my alarm went off. Normally I would just put it off and stay in bed for at least 10 more minutes. But not this time! I jumped out of my bed (bumped my head) and into my clothes, brushed my teeth and I was ready to go downstairs for some breakfast. After 3 cups of coffee, I was ready to explore more of Copenhagen.

The Thursday adventure started by walking among the riverside to ‘the Black Diamond’. There we waited for the boat to come, but it never did… So we started walking. I wasn’t too disappointed, because I’d probably died on the boat because of the freezing cold. And this way, we got to see more of Copenhagen. During our walk to ‘The Little Mermaid’, we passed Nyhavn and the Toaster, better known as the Opera House. Both the harbor as the opera were impressive. Nevertheless, I think the modern architecture of the ‘toaster’ and the Royal Library don’t really suit the old city…
Nyhavn on the other hand was, in contrast of its name, a really old part of Copenhagen. There was a romantic atmosphere here. We didn’t had a lot of time to contemplate about this. We had to keep walking or otherwise we would freeze to death…

After a long walk, we arrived at the famous ‘Little Mermaid’. It was smaller than I’d expected, but I’m glad I’ve seen it. From this fairy tale, we went to Amilienborg castle. We entered the domain and I was amazed… Four impressive buildings, a giant square and two guards. The queen was at home, because the flag was proudly waving in the wind.
On the inside, we had the chance to learn a bit more about this castle. I have to say that I was a bit disappointed by this. Except for some royal dresses and paintings, there wasn’t a lot to see… I’d hoped that I could learn more about their way of living…
After a delicious lunch and a deeper exploring of the pedestrian street, we met at Rosenborg Castle. I think this castle is much more beautiful and spectacular than Amilienborg. The garden was beautiful (the snow has its advantages) and also the inside of the building was phenomenal. You could really see how these people lived in at that time. I taught it was the most interesting thing we’d see so fare.
After our trip in the renaissance, we got some more free time. Because the temperature dropped even more. A few Erasmus students and I decided to go to a café and drink some thee. When we finally warmed up, it was already time to go to our restaurant at Riz Raz. When Jette told me it was a vegetarian restaurant, I was a bit scared. But I have to say that my horror was a waste of time. The food was delicious! I really enjoyed that evening. The food was great and the company was even better. A perfect way to finish the second day in Copenhagen.


Friday morning, my alarm again went off at 7 o’ clock. Although I was still exited to go to the national museum, I didn’t jumped out of my bed this time. This excursion had been wonderful, but at least equally tiring… After we had our breakfast and I had my caffeine, I was ready to go. We packed our bags, left them at the Danhostel and left for the National Museum.


I first went to see the exhibition about the ‘Rainforest’. It was beautifully made. The moment I walked into that room, I felt I was at the other side of the world… Although it wasn’t a museum, especially for the children, there were a lot of things to do. For example, you could sit in a typical boat from over there.


The second exhibition I went to see was the children’s museum. All the other museums I’d ever seen were nothing in comparison with this one. If I was a teacher in Denmark, without a doubt, I would go and visit this museum. The children could learn by playing. Something we try to do in Belgium, but it doesn’t always works… Even I, a 21 year old student couldn’t ignore all those activities and tried everything out. It was great!
The third exhibition was about the Danish history. Very interesting as well, because although we are staying in Denmark, we hadn’t seen a lot about this land. The thing I will always remember, is the next sentence: ‘We are red, we are white, we are Danish dynamite.’ Once again, it shows that Danes are very patriotic. They really love their country, they are proud of it. And so they should be.


After a two hour overload of information, Aurélie, Sophie, Ether, Marie and I decided to go the most famous brewery of Denmark: the Carlsberg brewery. After asking a lot of people instructions about how to get there, we arrived at the ‘beer palace’. We paid 60 kroner to get in, but it was worth it. We got to see the whole history of the Carlsberg brewery. Of course I got thirsty from all this information, so afterwards we drunk a freshly drawn Carlsberg beer. I like this beer, but as a Belgian I have to say our beer is better…
And with the beer taste still in my mouth, we left Copenhagen, the city that never sleeps. I’m sure this will be one of the moments in the whole Erasmus experience, I will cherish the most.

What color are you?

In this lesson we did all sort of things. We started by making our own ‘language portrait’. We all got a blank person. For every language you speak, you had to choose a colour that you found was matching to this language. My language portrait looked like this (picture).

The red colour represents Flemish, my mother tongue. I choose red, because it’s a warm colour. I placed it in my heart and all in the body, because this is the language that is running through my veins. I will never forget this language, it’s in my heart.
The iceblue represents German. Although my mother is German, I can’t really speak it, so that is why I put it in my feet. I also think it’s a cold and hard language.
I choose yellow for the English language. It’s a language that brings people closer together, because almost everyone can speak it. I put it in my head, because this is the language we are using the most now.
French is the darkblue color. I think it’s a very romantic language, that’s why I put it around my heart. I colored my legs and arms in darkblue, because I use them a lot when I’m speaking French to make myself more clear.
Last, but not least: purple for the Danish color. I gave it a warm color, because I would like to learn this language. I’ve put it around my heart, because I will always remember this Erasmus experience.
After we talked to each other about our portraits, we had to write an eleven word poem.

Goosebumps
Death, love
In my heart
I think about you
Everlasting

I think it’s a good type of poem to use with children. It always has the same structure. Especially for the children who are not good at writing, this is a great exercise.


The last part of the lesson we talked about colors and what they symbolize. It’s funny how colors can have different meanings in different cultures. For example the color ‘black’. For me, it represents ‘death’, but for Ondrej it represents ‘elegance’.
Because Belgium, and Antwerp in particular, is a multicultural country, this was a very interesting lesson. I will definitely use these exercises, because it can teach children that languages and colors can have totally different meanings for each individual. It can teach them to have respect for other cultures and opinions.
And also for the teacher the result of these exercises can learn him/her a lot about a child and his/her way of thinking.

Off to an adventure

31 january, 7.45 AM : It was time to leave Belgium... After a wet and emotional farewell, I jumped in my car and took off to Denmark, Haderslev. I was a bit scared, but mostly I was excited. We didn't had to many problems on our way here. Only the weather scared us sometimes. When we arrived in Haderslev 8 hours later my excitement only grew. The appartement was great: warm, big enough and with wireless internet. Haderslev is a very warm and sociable town. We leave nearby the centre, where all the shops are.

1 february, 8.30 AM : Nine, our buddy, picked us up to go to the university... We only had to walk about 10 minutes. The size of the building amazed me... They are a lot bigger than in Belgium.
At 9 o'clock the adventure continued. We got to meet the other exchange students. I never saw so many nationalities in one room... it was great! Jette gave us a lot of information about trips, lessons, practice,... It all looks very interesting. I especially look forward to the danish lessons.

1 february, 4 PM: Stefanie and myself went looking for a supermarket. We chose the "Netto" store... It was quite expensive, so the next time we have to buy food, we're going to look for a Liddl.

In general, I can say the first day was wonderfull... Now I can only hope that my further stay in denmark will be as great as my first day here. I'll keep you informed!