Intercultural/communicative skills (opdracht)
In this assignment I will tell you which important elements and skills have been developed or rediscovered within my foreign internship. To discover what I've learned about myself, the culture and the way I interacted, you can read everything below. Thankyou!
First I want to talk about the languages here. The first language they speak here is English. In addition, there are not many people who speak Dutch here.That was not what I expected.
I had to teach group 1 and 2 at the sister magda Primary school in st martin, which is located in the Dutch part of the island. When I went to observe in my class, I immediately noticed that the children could not understand or could hardly speak the Dutch language. I quickly became insecure about it because my english is not perfect. I started thinking about how I was going to handle this and whether it would be okay. Even though I had to adjust myself to their accent and language, I gladly accepted the challenge! I already saw it as a great (learning) opportunity. By using the English language more and more, I became stronger in the language. I learned a lot about both languages. I learned new words and made correct sentences. The children understood me better and better with the necessary funny mistakes ofcourse! It feels like success to me because I accepted the challenge and I completed it. By having to react quickly in English and Dutch (mixed), I became stronger in both languages and I could use languages without any problem and because it came so unexpectedly, I hadn't really prepared myself to improve my English either at the beginning.
This made me more confident. Throughout this internship I became confident about myself and I dared to take on more challenges that are new for me. I wasn't always treated well in my opinion, but I put myself above it. I left it behind and carried on! I have completed my internship to an end with which I am satisfied. I learned a lot about the culture and met some great people.
Besides being open to new things and people on my internship, I was also open to the culture and the new people around me. I knew I was social but not as social as I noticed here. I've found that I can say yes to a lot more than I thought. I discovered myself through other people around me and also in the party culture like the latin night that goes on here every tuesday in soggy dollars. The people enjoy life and dance to it every time they can, this is really something for me too! I love to enjoy life by dancing it away.
I also started thinking more open minded. The people on the island are mostly very relaxed. They don't rush for anything. When something can't happen it's no problem at all and they move it to another moment. I noticed this in my internship but also in daily life. I actually liked this and it suited me. The result, I was often able to suppress the high pressure and my stress level. I often can't do this in Belgium because there is pressure everywhere.
The last thing I want to talk about is that I can let go of things faster now. I noticed this especially in traffic. This is necessary because I wanted to integrate with the local population. They have little to no traffic rules here. And it's quite a change when you drive here.
For this you need patience and you have to be kind. There is often a traffic jam between 5pm and 7pm because there are only 5 main roads that are used, so it can get busy. People are used to this and have no problem with it anymore. They kindly let people in and out. The people let you know when you can go through by honking 1 time. When they honk twice back, they want to thank you. That is basically how they communicate in traffic. In Belgium this would have been a completely different story. We don't have that type of communication.
While writing this post, I have also come to realize that not every child experiences the same or can be treated the same. Diversity is very important and should be worked on in every classroom. It takes a lot of time and work, but together you are strong!
I am grateful for all these new skills that I have learned or have been able to accept more. I can apply all these (new) skills that I learned in daily life but also during job as a teacher in class. I think it is important that these skills stay with me in order to transfer them to the children. I become their role model as a teacher and this certainly contributes in a positive way. I'm grateful for the culture I got into and would do it again without thinking about is twice!
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