Exchange

Lessons about Belgium

Arts

Belgian art of painting was presented to us in a particularly interesting form (which is positive of course when it comes to acquiring knowledge of art for us - students), works by Dutch artists are pretty interesting (if only history could be interesting at all :) ). We have seen works of baroque and renaissance artists such as Jan Van Eyck, Rubens and Bruegel but we loved most the work of Rene Magritte. His paintings are very original, and by their uniqness they attract young people. We hope that during the exchange we will have a chance to see more examples of Belgian art.

Geography

 

I was asked to write a few sentences about our geography lessons. What surprised me most? I think your government. This is a little weird for me. I didn't know about the breakdowns of Belgium into three parts and that it has so many divisions and governments. It was quite an interesting class.

 

Literature

 

The lesson of the Belgian literature lasted three hours. In the beginning we had to guess which opus and which photo suits to the poet. In conclusion we did posters of the chosen poet.  Certain projects were really imaginative. The lessons were definitely very interesting.

 

History

 

Last month we participated in lessons about history of Belgium. That was a great opportunity to learn many interesting things about this country. What suprised as a lot was the fact that in Belgium there is in fact no government! We all admited that we can't imagine how the country can function normally without it. We also learnt some facts about history of forming of Belgium, how the country is divided, what languages Belgians speak and other intresting things. We all really enjoyed these lessons :)

 

NVC

 

‘If your three years old brother beats your sister and you tell him to stop, you shouldn’t be surprised when he starts to kick her.’ That quotation shows the kind of problems we have faced during NVC classes. Eva Rambala, our guide in the world of communication on the level of the heart, taught us a lot about empathy. She proved that people who are aggressive or use unpleasant words are often in deep emotional pain. The other extremely important aspect of the classes was the language we use. The typical reactions to criticism are ‘Yes I’m hopeless!’ or ‘And do you think that you’re better?’. Those destructive responses are called the jackal language in opposite to the giraffe language which focused on being assertive and accepting ourselves. But the most important thought Eva advised was being clear in expressing our needs and feellings. That’s the way to make our dreams come true or, in NVC language: ‘to provide for our needs according to our strategy.’