Open 2014

ISSN 2228-0847

EATE Estonian Association of Teachers of English

The EATE Journal Issue No. 45 August 2014 HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION FOR ALL: ESTONIAN ACTION Merle Haruoja

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FAIRIES, LEPRECHAUNS AND THE IRA ― TEACHING IRISH CULTURE IN ESTONIA Kärt Vahtramäe

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“TO MARKET, TO MARKET, TO BUY A FAT PIG”: STREET FOOD IN NEW YORK CITY Julia Hirsch

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SHARING AND GETTING EXPERIENCE IN KONGO VILLAGE, NORTH-GHANA Anu Joon

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THE FIVE WONDERS OF SPAIN (CATALONIA), ITALY, FRANCE, THE UK (WALES), HUNGARY, POLAND AND ESTONIA Maarika Ruuse

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TEACHING TOLERANCE THROUGH ENGLISH? YES! A PERFECT MATCH! Kati Bakradze

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LANGUAGE LEARNING AND MOBILITY Tiiu Müür

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Experienced Educator An interview with Reet Noorlaid

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Reading Recommendations FOUR HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN ENGLISH Enn Veldi

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POSTHUMOUS PUBLICATION OF A DIGNIFIED WORK Ilmar Anvelt

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Come and Share GOT A PREMIUM? Ilmar Anvelt

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Photos by Reet Noorlaid

EATE Annual Conference 25 October 2013

Evi Saluveer showed us the faces of multicultural Britain

Enn Veldi spoke about language corpora

Natalja Zagura introduced Facebook as a language learning tool

Helle-Mari Märtson spoke about creative writing

Ülle Türk’s theme was multilingual Britain

Reeli Tänavsoo took us to Numberland

Kärt Rummel discussed how to develop writing skills

Estonian Association of Teachers of English www.eate.ee Chair

Editor of OPEN!

Current account

Leena Punga

Ilmar Anvelt

10152001597007

Phone 562 13292

Phone 7375 218

in SEB

e-mail: leena.punga@gmail.com

e-mail: ilmar.anvelt@ut.ee

HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION FOR ALL: ESTONIAN ACTION Merle Haruoja

Member of the Board, Estonian Institute of Human Rights

Article 26(2) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted 65 years ago, on 10 December 2013, specifically addresses the concept of human rights in education: Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

Human Rights Education for All Article 5 of the UN declaration on Human Rights Education and Training states: 1. Human rights education and training, whether provided by public or private actors, should be based on the principles of equality, particularly between girls and boys and between women and men, human dignity, inclusion and non-discrimination.

2. Human rights education and training should be accessible and available to all persons and should take into account the particular challenges and barriers faced by, and the needs and expectations of, persons in vulnerable and disadvantaged situations and groups, including persons with disabilities, in order to promote empowerment and human development and to contribute to the elimination of the causes of exclusion or marginalization, as well as enable everyone to exercise all their rights.

3. Human rights education and training should embrace and enrich, as well as draw inspiration from, the diversity of civilizations, religions, cultures and traditions of different countries, as it is reflected in the universality of human rights.

4. Human rights education and training should take into account different economic, social and cultural circumstances, while promoting local initiatives in order to encourage ownership of the common goal of the fulfilment of all human rights for all.

We must learn how to understand and value human rights in daily life. Therefore, it is important that human rights principles be included in the educational system in Estonia. They do not have to comprise a separate subject, but should be present throughout the entire curriculum.

The Estonian Institute of Human Rights is currently organising a public awareness action in Estonia called “Human Rights Education for All”. The first stakeholders’ meeting was held on 12 April 2013.

Among its participants, there were representatives from the Ministry of Education and Research, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Culture, the UNESCO National Commission, various universities, NGOs and other organisations. The meeting was aimed at exchanging information in the area of Human Rights Education (HRE), collecting practical experience and discussing future activities, co-operation between the stakeholders and the ways to improve the human rights culture in Estonia.

I believe that, for HRE, a comprehensive approach must be applied that would incorporate the principles of Value Education, Civic Education, Global Education and Sustainable Development Education.

(Unfortunately, the project-based approach in education often results in the use of different terms for very similar content.) On the other hand, the application of HRE in practice must ensure that human rights values and methodologies underpin all aspects of learning, teaching and public awareness activities.

Teaching human rights in schools should start with teaching the teachers, but unfortunately, the UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training is not dealing with the HRE in schools. Therefore, the states, NGOs, teachers’ organisations and students’ organisations should tackle this problem themselves by focusing on the missing but very important area – teaching teachers.

The stakeholders’ meeting focused especially on the current HRE situation in Estonia, on the task of teaching the teachers and on human rights public awareness issues. The meeting concluded that the key to finding best solutions for the HRE is the close co-operation between all interested parties.

Regrettably, during all those 21 years the activities in HRE have been too much project-based and not system-creating. Until now, these activities still concentrate on the remaining projects.

The proposals and topics at the meeting were very broad, covering non-formal as well formal education: 1.

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To include HRE into teaching teachers in universities To include HRE into vocational education Co-operation in projects and other co-operation activities To look critically at the project-based approach to HRE To provide a holistic and comprehensive content and system-creating approach to HRE in Estonia 6. To compile textbooks with consideration for human rights principles 7. To ensure that the education covers disabled people and people with special needs 8. To integrate HRE into more subjects taught in schools and universities 9. To seek to harmonise the terminology basing on the content 10. To ensure the leading role of the state in HRE implementation according to international conventions and legal acts 11. To study the current HRE aspects and developments in Estonia The responses to a questionnaire distributed during the survey conducted in September 2013 indicate, for the most part, a lack of understanding of the very concept of HRE for all. The vast majority of respondents deem it necessary to conduct a research into the state of HRE in Estonia, although they are sceptical if its results would be of help. It is promising, however, that they recognise the need for such a study, so the research may pave the way for following steps and decisions.

The answers to questions on possible subjects for discussion indicated a seriously poor understanding of the encompassing nature of HRE. For example, respondents showed disregard to cooperation in projects and joint activities, development of practical skills, integrated teaching, discussing on the essence of HRE in Estonia, exchanging international experience and disseminating documents and materials of international organisations, and were not interested in learning the experience of NGOs and engaging them in HRE. The respondents did not attach value to the integrating role of human rights component in education, and did not find it necessary to study HRE in Estonia. They did not find that HRE should be valued over politics and policies, or that human rights should be integrated into various disciplines in universities. The respondents failed to grasp the importance of systemic integration between disciplines and practices, and showed low awareness of the need for modernisation, harmonisation and clarification of human rights terminology. On the other hand, the respondents considered it necessary to introduce a human rights course into teacher training programs and to make the topic of human rights an integral part in university teacher education, as well as to disseminate information on human rights and their protection in schools and among society at large, and to protect the rights of people with special needs and disabilities.

The answers collected during the survey expose contradictions in opinions, high variation in attitudes towards HRE, and the neglect to international knowledge and experience.

The analyses and conclusions, as well as future plans will be presented by the end of this year, but now we see fragmentation and not enough local HRE activities. It is important to find a balance between the international and other countries’ experience and the Estonian needs and challenges.

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Human Rights Teaching Material The author has compiled an Estonian-language teaching guide titled The Human Rights Teaching Material, which provides information on the relevant international law and the Estonian law and practice.

This guide, freely available on the Internet, was compiled based on the Human Rights Catalogue and is constantly amended with account for the international and domestic developments1. Unfortunately, for this year amendments are not yet agreed due to the lack of financial recourses. The material is used for the training of teachers, NGOs and university students in Estonia and covers the following themes.

1. Introduction to the subject of human rights: human rights as part of international law 2. History of human rights 3. Civil and political rights 3.1 Right to life 3.2. Right to protection against torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment 3.3. Prohibition of slavery and forced labour 3.4. Legal rights, right to personal liberty and recourse 3.4.1. Right to protection against arbitrary arrest, detention or deportation 3.4.2. Right to judicial protection in case of the violation of one’s fundamental rights 3.4.3. Right to fair, impartial and public tribunal and punishment according to the law 3.4.4. Right to be presumed innocent 3.4.5. Right to non-retroactive penal law 3.4.6. Right to be equal before the law 3.4.7. Right to privacy, right of immunity of home, right to protection against arbitrary interference into family and private life 3.4.8. Right to protection of personal data 3.5. Right to protection against racial, national, gender-based, language or religious discrimination 3.6. Right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion 3.7. Right to freedom of expression, assembly and association 3.8. Right to the choice of residence, freedom of movement 3.9. Right to periodic, free and fair elections on the common and equal basis 3.10. Right to marriage 3.11. Right to self-determination 3.12. Right to a nationality and citizenship 3.13. Rights of persons belonging to minority groups to protection 4. Economic, social and cultural rights 4.1. Right to food 4.2. Right to work, rest and free time 4.3. Right to join trade unions 4.4. Right to social security 4.5 Right to health and adequate standard of living providing health and welfare 4.6. Right to protection of the family 4.7. Right to education and participation in cultural life of the society, right to one’s own language 4.8 Right to own property and to its protection against arbitrary expropriation 5. Human rights protection in armed conflicts 6. Rights of the child 7. Rights of the women/equality between women and men 8. Rights of the refugees and foreigners 9. Rights of migrant workers 10. Rights of persons under imprisonment or detention.

11. Rights of the disabled/handicapped persons 12. Right to development 13. Right to peace 14. Right to a balanced environment 15. Right to good administration 16. Instruments/bodies of the realization of internationally accepted human rights documents 17. Institutions dealing with international human rights 18. The European Union and human rights

Inimõiguste õppevara’, Estonian Institute of Human Rights Online, http://www.eihr.ee/inimoiguste-oppevara/, 15 October 2013.

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Children’s Rights are Human Rights Article 29(1) of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child says: 1. States Parties agree that the education of the child shall be directed to: (a) The development of the child’s personality, talents and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential; (b) The development of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and for the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations; (c) The development of respect for the child’s parents, his or her own cultural identity, language and values, for the national values of the country in which the child is living, the country from which he or she may originate, and for civilizations different from his or her own; (d) The preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin; (e) The development of respect for the natural environment.

The Estonian Institute of Human Rights is the partner to the Estonian Child Welfare Union in the project Voice of the Child, financed by the EEA GRANTS and the Open Estonia Foundation2. The project creates conditions for children to monitor their rights. The results of the monitoring will be used to develop the child’s rights as part of the human rights module in universities. The project is strengthening democratic values in consideration of UN Convention on the Rights of the Child principles.

The project includes an important part for adults – teachers, youth workers, parents, experts and others. The project’s webpage shows how children and adults are connected to the project. In addition, we collect and disseminate the materials for adults participating in the project.

The project aims to promote awareness of children’s rights in society and child rights situation in coherent knowledge for children, young people and adults to act in the best interest of the child.

Subgoals •

To create active opportunities for children to participate, involving children from different risk groups. It is for intensifying children’s knowledge of monitoring of their rights through methodology that has been already developed. Through that the self-esteem, courage and activity of the children to fulfill and spread their rights will be improved.

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To systematically collect information connected to children’s rights through involving children themselves.

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To increase the students’ knowledge of children’s rights through an active learning module and to support the actions of inclusive practice and approach, involving different universities.

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To develop cooperation between different NGOs who are dealing with the area of human and children’s rights on the level of custody and local activities.

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To achieve wider resonance of children’s opinion in different levels, using the common means of the target group for active information dissemination.

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To ensure the availability of systematic information about children’s rights for Russian-speaking population (especially in Ida-Virumaa).

Through the project, children will be more conscious about their rights, and, thanks to increased selfesteem, they will be able to stand for their rights. The monitoring of children’s rights, which gives a very informative overview about the problems of children and youngsters, is completed and it also gives feedback on the problems of the system of children’s rights. The report of the monitoring is a good 2

NGO Estonian Union for Child Welfare’s project “A Child’s Voice” homepage, http://lapsehaal.lastekaitseliit.ee/?lang=en

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input for the study module in universities, for the alternative report that is presented to the Committee of Child’s Rights and for the further activities of the Estonian Union for Child Welfare.

To the target group (youngsters): •

Children (48 children from Ida-Virumaa, aged 14–16) have the knowledge and capability to participate in decision-making processes and they are consciously involved in formation of opinion in their families, at school, at the local level (involving the county); children’s activity is expressed through their initiatives and new ideas and projects. For example, local level projects supported by local government and schools are carried out with student organizations and youth groups.

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Adults (local governments of Ida-Virumaa, school representatives, involved parents) are using the knowledge they received in practice and they are spreading the information about children’s rights more widely at the local level and more systematically.

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Students (of social work, law, educational science, government and politics) are actively using the knowledge and experience they received in the perspective of their field and in work with children.

Final benefits •

Through social media, active communication work (involving the Russian-speaking population) and reports, the children’s right to participate is known more widely. This will improve the interests and the position of children as a vulnerable target group more widely (and completely) in society (involving Ida-Virumaa).

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Availability of systematic information about children’s rights for the Russian-speaking population will ensure more equal treatment in society, and that is the basis of democracy.

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Cooperation between the public and the private sector (involving NGOs) at the national and the international level is improved. This allows to evaluate the situation of children and human rights more effectively, to raise problems and questions, point out issues and help to solve them.

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Universities have a study module directed to children’s rights. When it is applied, the awareness of the students about children’s rights and in democratic values in general, will be increased.

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The capability and the experience in promoting children’s rights will be increased. Received experiences and practice is the basis for continuing work in other counties and local governments across Estonia.

Disabled Persons Rights are Human Rights The preamble to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities states: Recognizing the importance of accessibility to the physical, social, economic and cultural environment, to health and education and to information and communication, in enabling persons with disabilities to fully enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms Article 8 – Awareness-raising 1. States Parties undertake to adopt immediate, effective and appropriate measures: (a) To raise awareness throughout society, including at the family level, regarding persons with disabilities, and to foster respect for the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities; (b) To combat stereotypes, prejudices and harmful practices relating to persons with disabilities, including those based on sex and age, in all areas of life; (c) To promote awareness of the capabilities and contributions of persons with disabilities.

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2. Measures to this end include: (a) Initiating and maintaining effective public awareness campaigns designed: (i) To nurture receptiveness to the rights of persons with disabilities; (ii) To promote positive perceptions and greater social awareness towards persons with disabilities; (iii) To promote recognition of the skills, merits and abilities of persons with disabilities, and of their contributions to the workplace and the labour market; (b) Fostering at all levels of the education system, including in all children from an early age, an attitude of respect for the rights of persons with disabilities; (c) Encouraging all organs of the media to portray persons with disabilities in a manner consistent with the purpose of the present Convention; (d) Promoting awareness-training programmes regarding persons with disabilities and the rights of persons with disabilities.

Article 16 – Freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse 1. States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social, educational and other measures to protect persons with disabilities, both within and outside the home, from all forms of exploitation, violence and abuse, including their gender-based aspects.

2. States Parties shall also take all appropriate measures to prevent all forms of exploitation, violence and abuse by ensuring, inter alia, appropriate forms of gender- and age-sensitive assistance and support for persons with disabilities and their families and caregivers, including through the provision of information and education on how to avoid, recognize and report instances of exploitation, violence and abuse. States Parties shall ensure that protection services are age-, gender- and disability-sensitive.

Article 24 – Education 1. States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to education. With a view to realizing this right without discrimination and on the basis of equal opportunity, States Parties shall ensure an inclusive education system at all levels and life long learning directed to: (a) The full development of human potential and sense of dignity and self-worth, and the strengthening of respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and human diversity; (b) The development by persons with disabilities of their personality, talents and creativity, as well as their mental and physical abilities, to their fullest potential; (c) Enabling persons with disabilities to participate effectively in a free society.

2. In realizing this right, States Parties shall ensure that: (a) Persons with disabilities are not excluded from the general education system on the basis of disability, and that children with disabilities are not excluded from free and compulsory primary education, or from secondary education, on the basis of disability; (b) Persons with disabilities can access an inclusive, quality and free primary education and secondary education on an equal basis with others in the communities in which they live; (c) Reasonable accommodation of the individual’s requirements is provided; (d) Persons with disabilities receive the support required, within the general education system, to facilitate their effective education; (e) Effective individualized support measures are provided in environments that maximize academic and social development, consistent with the goal of full inclusion.

3. States Parties shall enable persons with disabilities to learn life and social development skills to facilitate their full and equal participation in education and as members of the community. To this end, States Parties shall take appropriate measures, including: (a) Facilitating the learning of Braille, alternative script, augmentative and alternative modes, means and formats of communication and orientation and mobility skills, and facilitating peer support and mentoring; (b) Facilitating the learning of sign language and the promotion of the linguistic identity of the deaf community; (c) Ensuring that the education of persons, and in particular children, who are blind, deaf or deafblind, is delivered in the most appropriate languages and modes and means of 6

communication for the individual, and in environments which maximize academic and social development.

4. In order to help ensure the realization of this right, States Parties shall take appropriate measures to employ teachers, including teachers with disabilities, who are qualified in sign language and/or Braille, and to train professionals and staff who work at all levels of education.

Such training shall incorporate disability awareness and the use of appropriate augmentative and alternative modes, means and formats of communication, educational techniques and materials to support persons with disabilities.

5. States Parties shall ensure that persons with disabilities are able to access general tertiary education, vocational training, adult education and lifelong learning without discrimination and on an equal basis with others. To this end, States Parties shall ensure that reasonable accommodation is provided to persons with disabilities.

The Estonian action includes the rights of the disabled persons in all education at the formal and nonformal levels. It is especially important to include the rights of disabled persons in teacher training and social workers training. In Estonia we are implementing the inclusive education principles3, but the supportive measures and services in education are not sufficient.

The co-operation between NGOs with different stakeholders provides the best content quality, thoroughness and effectiveness for HRE in Estonia and elsewhere.

FAIRIES, LEPRECHAUNS AND THE IRA – TEACHING IRISH CULTURE AND LITERATURE IN ESTONIA Kärt Vahtramäe

Department of English University of Tartu

Somewhere in the middle of the first lesson of my “Brief Introduction to Irish Culture and Literature” course – right after having taken three quarters of an hour to go through the course outline with my students – I usually invite the class to have a brainstorming session in which they put down the key words that come to mind in relation to Ireland. As a result of this exercise, the whiteboard features words such as green, shamrock, St. Patrick, leprechauns, religion, countryside, Riverdance, pubs, beer, whiskey, IRA. Sometimes, the list also includes references to contemporary pop music – The Corrs or U2, for instance – or to famous Irish writers, such as Oscar Wilde, James Joyce or Samuel Beckett. It is my task, then, to take these images and scraps of information, build on them and around them, and provide a slightly deeper understanding of what Ireland is.

Defining and describing the essence and experience of an entire nation is probably discarded as a mission impossible by anyone even remotely familiar with the complexities of the Irish history (or of the history of any nation, for that matter), let alone by those aware of the more intricate layers of Irish identity creation. Yet, this is exactly what the students taking my course have come to receive – a better understanding, a clearer mapping, wider knowledge of Ireland. “Which Ireland,” one might pose to ask. The magical-rural Ireland of the country folk? The happy-go-lucky Ireland of pub culture and jamming sessions? The wounded Ireland of the Troubles?

The disillusioned Ireland of the post-Celtic-Tiger period? How is one to decide on the principles of 3

Association Estonian Chamber of Disabled People homepage, http://www.epikoda.ee/avaleht/haridusvaldkond/

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inclusion and exclusion when undertaking the task of presenting a country, nation or culture in a classroom setting? In this contemplation, I would first like to address these already mentioned Irelands as possible choices for presenting Irishness. After a brief overview of their content, benefits and downsides, I will introduce the concept of stereotyping into the discussion and suggest that constant awareness of this phenomenon would greatly benefit a teacher.

Lastly, I will propose some principles for compiling courses or classes on Irish culture in Estonia.

The first image – Ireland as a wondrous green land of carefree rural life, “bucolic inhabitants” (Barton 2001: 193) and picturesque villages – is the one most frequently advertised by tourist sites, handbooks and souvenir industry. Ireland, seen “as a world apart from modern society with a relaxed pace of life” and relying heavily on “its beautiful scenery and welcoming people” in its appeal as a tourism destination, has been depicted almost unchangingly along these lines since the Victorian times (O’Leary and Deegan 2003: 214). At that time, “there was an increasing interest in the rural customs and stories of the Irish country people”, which only intensified in the framework of the Irish Literary Revival and lay the foundation to such a strong romantic myth of the Irish peasant that it was not systematically challenged before the late 1970s (Hirsch 1991: 1116).

An epitome of such depictions is the legendary and most influential collection of technicolour postcards

by John Hinde from the mid-1950s, which consists of a plethora of images of picture-perfect green preindustrial Ireland (John Hinde Collection n.d.). A great number of postcards available as recently as at the turn of the century still followed the same trend (Connolly 2003: 6).

An Irish thatcher at work

O’Leary and Deegan discuss the challenge posed by the accuracy of such pictures – a tourist whose expectations to Ireland have been shaped by Romantic pastoral images of the country might turn into a displeased customer when faced with a very different reality upon their arrival (2003: 222). The Ireland of 2003 commented on by these authors was the Celtic Tiger Ireland – a successful small country enjoying the attention of foreign investors, economy boom and all the benefits accompanying these developments – a progressive, modern, cosmopolitan, urban country very different from the Victorian ideal (Costa 2009: 34-35). Such experience of disillusionment is frequently addressed in fiction labelled as “exile and return” literature (for example, see Home Sickness by George A. Moore) and these literary endeavours are strongly supported by biographical accounts. Commenting on the latter, William Flanagan elaborates: “The traveller had come looking for something dear to him that had never existed in the place where he had come to look for it” (2007: 3).

The recession period that followed some years later changed the landscape again, but not back to the idyllic rural fairy tale, but rather to scenes with unemployed people – both locals and immigrants – and abandoned construction sites, empty houses, drained villages. The so-called “Ghost Estates” – communities in which the majority of buildings are empty or incomplete – became the symbol of the sudden end of the real-estate boom (see Macdonald 2011).

The image of Irishmen as happy people prone to drinking and bursting into a song at any given moment is based on the same tradition of Romanticism and illustrated by most tourist sites, which – side by side with images of green rural landscapes – proudly present photos of quaint local pubs or folk music sessions (in pubs). The advertisements of Tullamore Dew Whiskey also known from the Estonian TV channels contribute to the persistence of such images (Tullamore Dew Advert n.d.). While 8

The Bothan Scoir, Bunratty Folk Park, Co. Clare

the stereotype of the drinking Irishman is frequently presented as a positive one – emphasising the jolliness accompanying such practices – it may also acquire negative connotations when connected with pub fights and unpleasant drunkenness.

The “Troubled” Ireland also carries negative connotations. While the conflicts between royalists and nationalists did receive coverage in the Estonian news and are a matter of discussion in history lessons, the infinitely complex dynamics of the “CainAbel business” of the Protestants and the Catholics, or the Sectarianists and Unionists, are “frequently Collecting turf from the bog misunderstood by outsiders, and to a large extent even by people who live there” (Stewart 2001: 177, 181). When reporting on the events, and especially on the causes of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, one is in danger of leaving the simplified and somewhat condescending impression of there existing two stubborn monolith sides incapable of moving further from a “mere” religious-political conflict.

When taking a closer look at the historical development of the issue, however, one may discover how many different layers of historical experience, personal beliefs, definitions of nationhood, mappings of territories, and communal storytelling there are, and how intricately intertwined these stories have become over the years (see King and McMahon 1996).

In the case of each of these stock depictions Ireland, the nation or the country is reduced and limited to one category that is simplified to the degree of damaging its truth value. Such a process seems to map nicely on the definition of stereotyping suggested in 1922 by the founder of stereotype studies, Walter Lippman: “Stereotypes are simplified ‘pictures in our heads’ /…/ of people and events in the world.”

(Hinton 2000: 8) Lippmann sees the process of stereotyping as an inevitable part of our sense-making of the world, as the world as a whole will always remain too large an entity for us to comprehend firsthand and in adequate detail (Lippman 2003).

This natural and unavoidable process, however, always occurs with certain dangers. In addition to constructing simplified categorisations, stereotypes tend to shape, perhaps even determine, the way the world is interpreted. Lippman goes on to explain: “For the most part we do not first see, and then define, we define first and then see” (2003: para.6). The elements we identify as characteristic of a group of people are influenced by our pre-conceptions about which characteristics this group is supposed to display – “we pick out what our culture has already defined for us, and we tend to perceive that which we have picked out in the form stereotyped for us by our culture” (ibid.). Thus, in a kind of a vicious circle, we constantly reinforce the previously consumed stereotypes. The second – and perhaps most important – danger of uncritical stereotyping is its potential effect on the group stereotyped. A joke known in the circles of Irish studies semi-bitterly recounts the remarks of an Irishman: “The Irish have been terribly stereotyped as drunks and pub-brawlers for so long that it makes me angry enough to go, get drunk and punch someone.”

Even though such a link – that the stereotypes force the stereotyped into a certain mould – may at first seem too straightforward to be true, the history presents several accounts of this being possible.

O’Leary and Deegan (2003), mentioned above in connection to their concerns about the imprecision of portrayals of Ireland in tourist information as a factor that could negatively affect customer satisfaction, propose a number of strategies for reducing the differences between the Ireland advertised and the actual one. Among those, they suggest “getting the general public [in Ireland] to support and ‘live’ the brand”, which means making the locals connected to tourism aware of the “Irish” attributes emphasised in marketing and encouraging them “to be more proactive in protecting those core values” (O’Leary and Deegan 2003: 222-223).

In a way, O’Leary and Deegan’s suggestion is no novelty in the Irish tradition. John Hinde was notorious for his practice of ‘editing’ and ‘enhancing’ the images of rural Ireland not only by replacing the Irish skies for the “far cheerier Mediterranean version” (Burt 2011: para.13) but also by physically altering 9

the farmhouse settings he photographed by removing elements that were not aesthetic enough to his eye or covering them with blooming bushes (Connolly 2003: 6). When filming the documentary (later renamed ‘ethno-fiction’) Man of Aran (1934), Robert Flaherty had to employ an expert to teach the local community of fishers how to hunt sharks in a way they had not practiced for decades already (Barnouw 1993: 97-98). Already in 1843, in The Nation, Irish writers were complaining over the intrusive nature of stereotyping – having to fit the expectations in order to be received, being forced to recreate and reinforce the naïve and demeaning images of the Irish in order to be acknowledged as writers or accepted by the wider audience: Lay your scene principally in Galway, and let your chief characters be the officers of a regiment of dragoons. Represent them as habitual drunkards, as duellists, and as practical jokers; but take care to exclude from their tricks everything like wit. Introduce as frequently as possible, with the necessary variation only of time, place, and circumstance a tipsy brawl, with a table oversetting in the midst of it, and a ragamuffin, with a great stick in his hand, capering thereon /…/ and under the table fail not to place your comic character; for instance, your priest. (Wright 2008: 335) By employing the stereotypes without critical commentary, we are placing an entire nation into the position of “a product to be consumed” and forcing Ireland and the Irish to constantly play the role of “a self-conscious expression of a desired ideal” (Costa 2009: 34). It is no wonder then that the stereotypes “have proved most reluctant to change” (Bender et al. 2013: 336).

If stereotyping is an inevitable process in understanding the world and the others, how is one then to mitigate the potential negative influences accompanying it? Lippman does not leave the concerned readers without an answer and claims: “What matters is the character of the stereotypes, and the gullibility with which we employ them” (2003: para.22). As a solution, he calls people to a greater sense of awareness and believes that knowing a stereotype is only a stereotype helps people “to hold them lightly, to modify them gladly” (ibid.). Taking this into account, I believe a successful teacher would, firstly, take care to present a more diverse A farm house in Ireland and complex selection of snapshots of a culture or nation and, secondly, carefully and intentionally invest in indicating, analysing and presenting “what fairy tale, what school book, what tradition, what novel, play, picture, phrase, planted one preconception in this mind, another in that mind” (ibid.).

As a final comment, I would like to propose including different images of the Irish history and culture into the topics discussed in class – firstly, to provide diversity of representation next to the larger English-speaking countries, and secondly, to aim for a rounded depiction of the nation instead of one-dimensional and over-simplified ‘cardboard’ characterisations. Another option would be to take the aforementioned stereotypes and challenge them by discussing the credibility of the images [for instance, watch sections of the film The Quiet Man (Ford 1952) and analyse how realistic it is], pointing out the controversies [for instance, watch Irish whiskey advertisements, scan news about pub fights or alcohol-related crimes and discuss how the stereotype of the drunken Irishman serves as a negative and a positive trope, and what exactly determines that distinction] and comparing them against each other or laying them next to very different portrayals of Ireland [for instance, compare the postcards by Hinde against the news images of the Troubles and discuss how such pictures could represent one and the same country simultaneously].

The knowledge and perception of Estonian students of Ireland, Irish culture and history remains to be studied, but as a person given an opportunity to serve as a gate-keeper between these two cultures, I am acutely aware of my responsibility as a the one who “[tells somebody] about the world before [they] see it”, makes somebody “imagine [certain] things before [they] experience them” (Lippman 2003: 10

para.21). In addition to my being aware of stereotypes, I need to make my students equally acutely aware of them.

REFERENCES Barnouw, Erik. 1993. Documentary. A History of the Non-fiction Film, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Barton, Ruth. 2001. Kitsch as Authenticity: Irish Cinema and the Challenge to Romanticism. Irish Studies Review. 9: 2, pp.193-202.

Bender et al. 2013. National Stereotypes in Tourist Guidebooks. An Analysis of Auto-and Hetero-stereotypes in Different Language Guidebooks about Switzerland. Annals of Tourism Research. Vol. 40, pp.331-351.

Burt, Kate. 2011. King of technicolour tourism: A new exhibition celebrates John Hinde’s postcards.

The Independent, Saturday 09 July 2011. Available at http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/king-of-technicolour-tourism-a-new-exhibition-celebrates-john-hindespostcards-2307780.html, accessed April 2014.

Connolly, Claire (ed.). 2003. Theorizing Ireland. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Costa, Kelli Ann. 2009. Coach Fellas: Heritage and Tourism in Ireland. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.

Flanagan, William. 2007. Ireland Now: Tales of Change from the Global Island. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.

Ford, John. 1952. The Quiet Man. Hirsch, Edward. 1991. The Imaginary Irish Peasant. PMLA 106: 5, pp.1116-1133.

Hinton, Perry R. 2000. Stereotypes, Cognition and Culture. Hove: Psychology Press.

John Hinde Collection. n.d. The Archive / Ireland. Available at http://www.johnhindecollection.com/ ireland1.html, accessed April 2014.

King, Sophia Hillan and Sean McMahon. 1996. Hope and History. Eyewitness Accounts of Life in Twentieth-Century Ulster. Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press.

Lippman, Walter. 2003 (1922). Stereotypes. In Lippmann, Walter. Public Opinion. Digitalised by University of Virginia American Studies Program 2002-2003. Available at http://xroads.virginia. edu/~HYPER2/Lippman/contents.html, accessed April 2014.

Macdonald, Kerry. 2011. In Ireland, Ghosts of Towns that Never Were. The New York Times. Lens: Photography, Video and Visual Journalism. Available at http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/ in-ireland-ghosts-of-towns-that-never-were/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0, accessed April 2014.

O’Leary, Sinéad and Jim Deegan. 2003. People, pace and place: Qualitative and quantitative images of Ireland as a tourism destination in France. Journal of Vacation Marketing. 9: 3, pp. 213-226.

Tullamore Dew Advert. n.d. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acmn312GqCo, accessed April 2014.

Wright, Julia M. 2008. Irish Literature 1750-1900. An Anthology. Malden and Oxford, Blackwell Publishing.

Illustrations from: John Hinde Collection – the archive / Ireland.

Available at http://www.johnhindecollection.com, accessed 10 June 2014.

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“TO MARKET, TO MARKET, TO BUY A FAT PIG”: STREET FOOD IN NEW YORK CITY Julia Hirsch

Professor Emerita Brooklyn College (City University of New York)

Like many other cities, New York is a great place to eat. Guidebooks typically recommend restaurants and cafes, to say nothing of diners and fast food restaurants. But another way to enjoy food in New York (and a growing number of American cities including Portland, Oregon, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Houston and Miami) is to be found at food trucks, food carts and street stalls.

While they do not offer gracious places to sit, many of them supply outdoor tables (made of metal or plastic) and chairs where one can enjoy a casual meal provided that the weather cooperates. Many customers, however, will eat their food as they walk, or else take their purchase back to their home, office or other work place. Street food provides the pleasure of careful review and selection of what one is going to eat, face to face, dish to dish, and unlike takeout meals or meals ordered online, gives the customer a chance to talk to the food preparer or server. Street food needs customer loyalty and this personal aspect encourages it. Although the workers at fast food restaurants like McDonald’s or Subways are often cordial, they don’t have a personal investment in customer relations. Vendors of street food do.

And, in a large city where one can often feel alone, this is an important asset for both the vendor and the customer.

Pretzels, hot dogs, ice cream (both the frozen and “soft” kind), non-alcoholic drinks, sugar-coated nuts and roasted chestnuts (in winter only) sold from carts or trucks have long been part of the New York street scene and continue to be in business. However, the food trucks, carts and stalls I’m describing are relatively new, starting less than a decade ago and generate a considerable income to those who participate in the trade, to say nothing of the city which charges fees for its enterprise: according to one account the business of food trucks alone was recently assessed as being worth $1billion (http:// www.culinaryschools.com/history-of-food-trucks). The trucks are vehicles whose interior space has been turned into a compact kitchen and have one or two large open spaces at the side through which business is transacted. The vehicles can be rented, leased or bought and represent various levels of financial investment. A number of websites now cover the food truck business (see www.nycfoodtrucks. org and http://roaminghunger.com/ny). The carts, in contrast, need to be taken to their site by a vehicle that hauls them, or else they are walked by their operators from a storage area (like a garage) to where they will be operated. Street stalls are set up day by day in a set location, usually a commercial street with easy access to their potential customers. They sell a range of small wares including fashion accessories (such as hats, gloves, belts, scarves and handbags), electronics (including batteries and colorful cases for cellphones and i-pads), and fruit and vegetables.

Although it appears that food trucks first showed up significantly around the 2008 recession, ambulatory food providers, according to a few online narratives about them, have been part of the American scene as far back as colonial days. In earlier times, these informal ways of providing meals did not compete with many other food suppliers because there weren’t any. Today they often are perceived as doing just that—and for good reason. Food trucks offer excellent quality gourmet foods including Belgian waffles, dosas, and dumplings. The food from food trucks is less expensive than restaurant food, just as the produce sold by street vendors is priced lower than the same products in “brick-and-mortar” stores.

And food trucks generally compete with the food offered indoors in restaurants, cafes and diners for a very good reason. Many restaurant chefs lost their jobs as a result of the depressed economy, when a number of restaurants closed down, and began food trucks (see www.culinaryschools.com/history-offood-trucks) Food trucks represent a significant investment. As shown on the www.nycfoodtrucks.org web site, they can cost as much as $65,000. They can, however, also be leased or rented. But it is apparent that whatever method is used to acquire the food truck, it represents a significant investment. Typically, food 12

trucks are parked at a set location and are more common in a business district than in a residential one: maps of these sites can be found at www.nycfoodtrucks.org and http://roaminghunger.com/ny. Both web sites also offer information as to how to get started in the business, and it definitely is an enterprise subject to laws and ordinances, under the jurisdiction of the Board of Health. Operators must undergo training in food hygiene in order to get their Food Cart Vendor License or Permit. (The permit is valid for two years and costs $200 for food that has to be processed and $75 for food that does not.) A prospective customer should be sure to look for the vendor’s permit and identification badge bearing his or her photograph.

Food carts must also be licensed, but, as already mentioned, they are smaller and need to be transported to where they will be stationed. A likely spot for them is near a busy street corner, where they are exposed to the widest number of customers. Carts offer a smaller range of foods and tend to have a specialty. A large number of carts sell breakfast foods, such as bagels, rolls, doughnuts and muffins, as well as tea and coffee. The coffee-bagel carts often disappear at midday, having done their day’s business by then. Some food carts may include a griddle at which hot foods such as falafel, and grilled chicken with rice are served on a plate or prepared in a wrap; a sign posted on the cart is likely to let customers know that the foods sold at the cart are “halal” operating in accordance with Moslem dietary laws. An article written about food carts in 2007 reported that food carts in the city would be limited to 3000 and that no new licenses would be issued. This meant that an aspiring food cart operator might have to wait years for an opportunity to own his own cart. As a way to subvert these restrictions, cart owners began to rent them out illegally to aspiring vendors. The practice has now produced a thriving black market as the rental of an illegal cart runs for about $3000. (I have found no information to update this figure.) Most coffee carts that offer breakfast foods are run by Afghans, most roasted nut stands by Brazilians and Colombians, most smoothie stands are operated by Vietnamese, fruits and vegetables

by Bangladeshis. The trade is so ethnically fragmented, however, that even Bangladeshis, the single largest group of vendors, make up less than twenty percent of the total number of people running the business (www.nymag.com/restaurants/features/33530).

In the hierarchy of street food, the food stands which sell fruit and vegetables occupy the humblest position. Theirs is also the most vulnerable of trades as their wares have a limited “shelf life,” and even in the course of a single day of extreme temperatures can become unsaleable. Typically the vendor buys his merchandise at the wholesale market at Hunts Point in the Bronx in the very early hours of the day, and drives them to his stand from which it will be sold. Exposure to the elements is a challenge for the street vendor. (During this past winter, which was exceptionally cold in New York City, the vendors I shopped from on East 86th Street in Manhattan, were unable to work for weeks at a time.) On the city’s very hot nights, vendors will often spend the better part of the night at their stands, catching some rest in a nearby doorway, to be replaced by an associate early in the morning.

In addition to their lower price, street food is appealing because no reservations are needed to get ones meal, and the waiting time for service is usually less than in an indoor establishment. Nor does one have service— or tips—to deal with, although sometimes a truck will have a discreet jar at the side of the window with a small sign indicating that they are welcome. But street trade is not without its legal challenges. A number of websites report police harassment and unwarranted fines for violations of various city codes and ordinances. But as other websites attest, despite these challenges, street trade is showing up in a growing number of American cities and represents an engaging and welcome turn in the complex world of consumer. Years ago, people worried about the spread of brand-name chain stores Food cart and the erosion of family businesses (see William Kowinski, The Malling of America, 1985)1, and while this trend continues, the growth of street trade appears to be a countercurrent. Street food trade has been and continues to offer an important opportunity to immigrants and to small-scale but ambitious A 1985 reviewer observes that as Kowinski sees it, the mall has “no room for barebones bargains independent merchants — or groceries.” Gail Clay, “Cathedrals of Consumption,” www.nytimes.com/1985/02/17/books/catherdrals-of-consumption.html.

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entrepreneurs to make a living. Few language skills are necessary: what is required is ample energy, initiative, good will, business savvy and patience, assets which cut across cultures. (An interesting study of worldwide street trade can be found at Wiego.org/informal-econmy/occupational-groupsstreetvendors/4/21/14.) And that aspect of street trade which emphasizes personal communication, eye-contact, the buyer’s opportunity to look at the merchandise closely has, apparently, been incorporated on a large scale in the design and management of many large urban sites. Both Grand Central Station in New York City and Union Station in Washington, D.C., are now lively shopping Food truck hubs, filled with small stands, which sell fashion accessories, electronics, sweets and souvenirs.

The first floor of Bloomingdales, the upscale department store in New York City, is broken up into separate units where the products of different designers are sold in discreet spaces artfully separated from each other by either architectural features or lighting. At the same time the distinction between pharmacies and grocery stores has been blurred in many large chains: CVS, Rite-Aide and Duane Reade, large pharmacies, sell beer, snacks, canned spaghetti in tomato sauce, soup, cereal, simple underwear, greeting cards and wrapping paper. The distinctions are similarly blurred in supermarkets which now, in addition to the predictable inventory, often include pharmacies and sell the very same products available there. We can now multi-shop as well as multi-task.

While I am only a casual, but dedicated, observer of what is called “marketing” in the United States— the knowledge required to sell products—I look with fascination at the “new” way of appealing to the consumer. It seems to me that the success of street trade attests to an implicit yearning for a more immediate and personal experience of shopping. This yearning is also expressed in the popularity of farmers’ markets, where local growers and producers of food (including fruits, vegetables, flowers, breads, eggs, sausages, jams, and cheeses) bring their wares to a particular urban site (such as Union Square in Manhattan, or Borough Hall in Brooklyn) and sell them on specified market days which differ from neighborhood to neighborhood. There is certainly a romantic aspect to this kind of shopping. We can picture ourselves back in the day when towns were small, shopping took people to the general store where they could exchange local gossip and amiable chat about their children and their pets, and life was lived on a small scale. We’ve been urged to “think global” but “shop local.’ But I think there is also more to it than that. We are becoming globally aware of the some of the more severe implications of agro-business and global commerce. While these realities no doubt are part of street trade (where were those apples grown? Were they treated with herbicide? Who were the apple pickers and under what conditions did they work?), taking those apples off the heap or out of the cardboard box in which it traveled from the wholesale market instead of buying the apples, identical in size and neatly labeled and crowded under plastic in a Styrofoam tray, takes us back into a simpler time when we had more immediate contact with the sources of our food, which had at some level represented more control over our lives. Street trade, which favors diversity as well as the vendor’s individual initiative, looks backwards in some ways, but it is also a keen feature of the present scene in New York City.

SOURCES www.culinaryschools.com/history-of-food-trucks www.nycfoodtrucks.org www.nymag.com/restaurants/features/33530 http://roaminghunger.com/ny http://wiego.org/informal-economy/occupational-groups/street-vendors

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SHARING AND GETTING EXPERIENCE IN KONGO VILLAGE, NORTH-GHANA Anu Joon

Zaanoore! Zaare! (welcome!)

Toma-toma! – Nambaa! (hello!)

La a yella? – La a somma! (How are you? – I’m fine!)

These long-lasting, melodious and almost ritual greetings in the Nabti language are always accompanied by a broad and friendly smile by the people in the Kongo village in the Upper East region of the Republic of Ghana. During my three-month stay in the Kongo village this happy African smile certainly made me feel welcome, safe and accepted in the local community. Hearty greetings together with numerous handshakes were almost compulsory and an important part of the socialization exam for me. What struck me most was the warmth and friendliness as well as the soothing and reassuring remarks – one more very important thing every teacher should be aware of. “You’ll be all right!”, “It will be no problem at all!”, “Nothing bad will happen to you!“, “You’ve done well!” In difficult situations in a far-away country, this is exactly what you need to hear. And it works wonderfully! Here is the thought – do we have time to think what kind of signals we send to our students and friends – do we convey confidence or an uneasy, alarming state of mind?

It was during my fourth month in Ghana, then already in the southern part by the Atlantic Ocean, when I had plenty of time to look back to the past three months of my volunteer work. It surely was an extreme kind of experience for me, but it provided a lot of exciting practice and new knowledge about the lifestyle and educational system in Ghana. Maybe it gives you a better picture of what I lived through when I tell you that it was not only a trip to a geographically faraway country but also time-travel to the era of my grandmother’s childhood. A fifteen-hour journey by bus from the capital Accra to Bolgatanga took me to the forgotten part of the world where people have to put up with difficult climatic conditions, poverty and insufficient medical help and scant clean water. In In many schools there are more students than spite of all that, I very much admire their spirit and classrooms. A class working outside in Logre Junior friendliness. All of a sudden, time started to move High School. slowly, different values became important, hot weather dictated the pace of life. In order to be able to work and stay well, one had to carefully observe the natives and their habits.

To help you to imagine the local atmosphere – here is some background knowledge about the region.

Culture is projected through the medium of art, music and dance. Over many generations, the community has preserved their unique cultural environment. The most distinctive cultural features in the Upper East region are the layout and style of the traditional villages. The style of round huts with thatched conical or flat roofs, connected by walls to form compounds, is a unique type of architecture.

Some of the traditional buildings are painted in striking design motifs. Associated with the traditional architectural style are the living patterns of the local people which include village activities, agricultural 15

techniques, religious beliefs, rituals, customs and lifestyles (http://www.ghanaweb.com/public_agenda/ article.php?ID=3499). Through amazing dancing, drumming and sacred rituals the people of the Kongo village tell the story of their ancestors. The visual and emotional part of it plays an especially important role, as most of the local languages have no written form.

Community plays an important part in the scattered village of Kongo. Chief is at the top of the hierarchy.

The present Chief is very proud of his literacy skills. He solves the family quarrels and knows every person around the place. Although about half of the people are Catholics, all of them still follow the ancestral pagan traditions in their everyday life. A good example is their exotic and powerful funeral ritual.

Economic activities include farming (millet, maize, okra, rice, beans, groundnuts, sorghum, tomatoes, onions, pepper etc), keeping farm animals for meat and work (goats, pigs, guinea fowls, donkeys etc), smock (traditional cloth) weaving, pottery, basketry, sheanut and groundnut oil extraction, pito brewing.

Most of the things are done by hand – as mentioned before, it resembles the time of my grandmother’s childhood. Every third day is a market day – this gives the community a good rhythm and an opportunity to sell their handicraft and socialize.

Education. In Ghana, the Estonian NGO Mondo started a programme of supporting children, widows, and partnership schools in 2009. Mondo’s partner is a local organization – the Kongo Village Community Development Association (KoCDA). This year 135 children could attend school with the help of Estonian sponsors. These children are aged from seven to fourteen, are either orphans or have lost one parent, and would most probably be unable to get any education otherwise. Brilliant Fund is meant for Senior High School children with good results.

It must be said that education in Ghana Primary and Junior High Schools is free but the families cannot afford to buy school uniforms, a bag, sandals, exercise books and pencils. For many children school is still an unattainable dream. Absolutely all children want to go to school and study. They are very motivated, although the educational system in Ghana does not support independent thinking and uses quite traditional methods of teaching. Much attention is paid to discipline – the teachers never leave their cane behind. Correct behaviour is expected from all students. In Kongo Junior High School with 86 students in one class, this is even understandable.

One of my tasks there was to carry out workshops for primary teachers on the topics of “Getting ready to read” and “Teaching English phonics”. In order to get to know the local conditions better, I rode a motorbike every morning to one or two of the fifteen schools around the area. Very often, I ended by teaching the class myself because the teacher had not turned up for some reason or another. I wanted to make sure that my workshops had practical, realistic value for the teachers.

Most of the teachers are young men with college education. They are energetic and devoted to their work. The lack of teaching materials, often even electricity, makes teaching very theoretical – copying from the blackboard and repeating in chorus after the teacher. Good answers are acknowledged by rhythmical clapping of the whole class. To my surprise, I found many teachers’ rooms outside under the shade of the big baobab tree. The same is valid for classes without rooms as well!

English as the official language is used at schools from the beginning. In primary classes, teachers sometimes use the mother tongue to help the children understand the topic better. It took me some time to get accustomed to Ghanaian English and train my ear to understand what was being said.

Learning how to play OWARE, the oldest board game in the world 16

Volunteers in Ghana also work closely with linking schools. Besides letter writing and joint projects (like “Water and sanitation” for example), schools in Estonia have also provided the linking schools with some study materials and even a solar panel (from Rapla Vesiroosi Gümnaasium). Põltsamaa School made an album of

pictures of snow, which was very popular among the students.

NGO Mondo has done a great job both in Ghana and in other developing countries. The teachers appreciate the workshops and study materials prepared by Mondo. Be sure to visit Mondo’s homepage and read more from my blog http://vabatahtlikunagaanas.blogspot.com/ Finally, I give you one example of how to survive in a savannah. The following conversation usually took place among my fellow teachers and me in Ghana when I was going to the top of the hill for the internet (it was usually the only place you could send pictures and letters through). It took me some time to understand why it is important to report where you are going.

Anu, e ya ya? (Where are you going?) - Zuol la zuk. (The top of the hill.)

THE FIVE WONDERS OF SPAIN (CATALONIA), ITALY, FRANCE, THE UK (WALES), HUNGARY, POLAND AND ESTONIA Maarika Ruuse

Melliste Primary School

During two school-years (2011–2013) Melliste Primary School participated in the Comenius project “Friends around Europe” that was supported by SA Archimedes.

Seven schools from different EU countries worked together, shared experience and learnt from each other during our project: Escola Paisos Catalans from Spain, Llandago Primary School from Wales, Szivarvany Ovoda form Hungary, Szkola Podstawowa nr 199 from Poland, Ecoles Maternelle et Elemntaire de Pont from France, Direzione Didattica Atri from Italy and Melliste Primary School form Estonia.

These two school-years were very busy for both teachers and children. First, it seemed quite complicated how to fulfil all the goals of the project. For all participants, it was the first international project ever.

After some mobility meetings, sharing ideas and experience, our cooperation started to function.

Every school set up their own project blog where they could upload pictures and give an overview of the events in their schools. All schools chose their Comenius pet – specific to their area, supplied it with introductory material about their country and a travel diary. During the project, all pets moved to the partner schools and back home; their diaries were completed with children’s drawings, photos, stories and good wishes.

Comenius pets

In this project, we could not take our students with us but having a toy-visitor from different countries around the Europe brought them such a joy and excitement that they even took them home for Christmas and for the summer holiday. Students and playschool children were also involved in the project through creating drawings and stories for the folk calendar and the wonder book. They took part in creating 17

DVD-s about counting numbers, reading nursery rhymes and days of the week. They also acted in video clips about greeting vocabulary and birthday celebrations. There were two project corners set up in our school: for students and for teachers. Information, photos, the pet wheel, materials from the partners – the whole project life was in front of our eyes.

For teachers, the most valuable aspect of the project was the great opportunity to see the world, to meet other teachers, to communicate and to exchange experiences, to compare the education systems and schools. There were some agreed activities we did in all countries – visiting the schools and meeting with teachers, students and parents; doing at least one activity with students; making a presentation about a topic in accordance with the project aims. The presentations were always presented at a festive dinner with local and education authorities, teachers and parents. We dealt with topics like: Teaching children into languages; Students’ schoolweek; School management systems and pedagogical approaches; Multiculturalism, fighting against racism and prejudices; Five wonders of my country; Measurements of coexistence and conflict resolution. Visiting the sights and also some wonders related to the topic of “Five wonders” were also on every mobility meeting’s agenda.

In this project, we also worked on the theme of wonders. All countries could choose five wonders that every country values in their area and introduce them to the partners. The aim of this topic also was to awaken curiosity in each educational community to search and learn more about them in order to understand the range of European cultures. I would like to give a short overview of all the wonders and also to add some wonders that are not in our project’s final book Five Wonders of My Country, but in my experience felt really wonderful.

Spain (Catalonia) La Seu Vella de Lleida Cathedral – also known as “Lleida Castle”. This unique cathedral sits on the top of the hill overlooking the city and affords magnificent views of Lleida and the surrounding countryside of Segria County.

Expiatory church of La Sagrada Familia – a gorgeous building in Barcelona, indisputably one of the most ingenious buildings in Europe.

The building of the cathedral started in 1882 and it is still going on and could be finished some time in the first third of the 21st century.

Castellers (human towers) – a tradition that stretches back two hundred years within Catalonia.

La Sagrada Familia Towers are formed by people standing foot-to-shoulder. For construction, only human power and ingenuity are used. The towers can consist of hundreds of humans and they can reach heights of ten people.

Caragols, Calcots, Pa amb tomata (cooked snails, grilled spring onions and white bread with tomato) – a traditional food of Catalonia.

Parc Nacional D’Aigüestortes – the only national park in Catalonia stretching on 14,119 hectares; fascinates by its spectacular diversity of nature.

Impressions from Spain Lunch is a significant event in Spain. It lasts for two hours. Most of the parents take their children home to enjoy lunch together. After that, the parents bring their children back to school and lessons continue until 16.30. Such a long lunch break lifts the dinner to a very late time. The usual time for dinner is about 18

10 pm. For us as northland people, it is almost time for bed.

It was really surprising how actively the parents took part in the school life. They helped to organize and carry out the school events; they were the teacher’s supporters in lessons, organized swimming for children and morning groups for early children.

The days we spent under the Mediterranean sunlight in late October turned our thoughts to the inevitable factor that different nations have due to their geographical location. Our autumn dampness, gloom and darkness waste most of our energy and vitality. If only our education system authorities had enough wisdom and understanding to realize that our students’ allegedly too long summer holiday is indispensable for them for charging their ”batteries” to survive the long Northern darkness.

Estonia The Song and Dance Festival and national costumes – the more than 140-year-old Song Festival traditions with our beautiful national costumes.

The variety of Estonian nature – the sea, forests, bogs and marshes, animals and birds, islands and four distinct seasons.

Wonderful winter – mystical material – snow – and the wonderful spectacle of nature: ice-flowers, snowdrifts, snowstorms, icicles and snow caps.

Rye-field with cornflowers and black bread – although a nuisance for farmers, the sky-blue flower in amidst golden ears of corn is still loved, and so Estonian black bread is our delicious black bread.

E-Estonia – our e-society that includes e-school, e-health care, e-elections and internet connections around the country.

In our guests recollections, the indisputable trump of Estonia is the Wi-Fi connection that reaches almost everywhere. Also nature, black bread and our kind and calm people.

France Mont Blanc – the highest mountain in the massif of French-Italian Alps and also in Western Europe.

Nicknamed as the Roof of Europe (4810.45 m).

The Eiffel Tower – nicknamed as the Iron Lady, it is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, the landmark of Paris and France.

The Palace of Versailles – one of the most beautiful achievements of 18th-century French art.

The Lascaux cave – a cave in south-western France famous for its Palaeolithic paintings. The cave contains nearly 2 000 figures: animals that lived at that time, human figures, hunting success and abstract signs.

The Millau viaduct – the cable stayed road-bridge that spans the valley of the river Tarn near Millau in southern France. It is the tallest bridge in the world with one mast’s summit at 343 metres. The bridge received the 2006 International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering Outstanding Structure Award.

Impressions from France Lovely beginning of the schoolday that we experienced in the Échenoz-la-Méline Primary School near Vesouli. All the teachers were waiting for the children at the gate. Greetings – kisses and hugs with children and parents. Such a great amount of positive feelings for the day!

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A free day from school is the dream of Estonian students. For French students it is real. They have a free day in the middle of the week – Wednesday. For the teacher this day is for meetings, training and also for preparing for the lessons.

Greatly impressive was the meeting with the dignified director of Collège René Cassin, Mr Michel Tupin, who presented his school. The thought that he emphasized in his speech was just the opposite of our school reformers. Namely, he stressed the important role of the school for functioning and feeling as one family. In this school with about 200 students, this was more important than the so-called “good education” at the expense of closing small schools and establishing huge school-factories. He was also very proud of an official, one of the kind who allegedly exists only in the French education system.

The man who is responsible for order and discipline in the school. Not someone who formulates the documents, fills the schedules and theorises but a concrete person in action where the situation demands it: at the break time in the schoolyard, in the canteen, during the lessons in his room where teachers can send the students who violate discipline. His is a full time job – to prevent, to be present and to act on time!

Hungary Bory castle in Szekesfehervar – a fantastic castle built by the Hungarian sculptor and architect Bory for his loved wife symbolizing their eternal love and excellent marriage.

Hortobagy National Park – the largest preserve in Hungary and biggest natural grassland in Europe. Rich in animals and birds.

About 342 species of birds, including very rare ones, live there. This is the best bird-watching place in Europe.

Visegrad and the Danube Bend – Visegrad is a small castle town in Pest County. It is situated north of Budapest on the right bank of the Danube in the Danube Bend. In the 14th century, the medieval citadel became a royal residence and was enlarged with a new curtain Bory castle wall and palace buildings. The Danube is the second longest river in Europe.

Thermal waters – Hungary is extremely rich in thermal waters. Medicinal waters can be found in almost all regions of Hungary.

Lake Balaton – a freshwater lake in the Transdanubian region of Hungary. It is the largest lake in Central Europe and one of its foremost tourist destinations. Also called the “Hungarian Sea”.

Impressions from Hungary In Hungary we saw a programme of national song, games and dances presented by kindergarten children for the quests. Children wore costumes with national patterns. This was a touchingly lovely programme where the guests were also involved so that we all could learn some Hungarian dance steps. It turned out that once a week every playschool and primary school had singing and dancing lessons where children learned traditional folk songs, dances and games. Children seemed to enjoy it very much and demonstrated their dancing skills with great enjoyment. Where is similar systematic national singing and dancing in our schools and kindergartens?

We visited Altalanos Iskola Secondary School where we were introduced to the principles of the Hungarian education system and the methodology of learning reading and writing. In Hungary they do not teach reading and writing before school. Playschool is for playing and for social development.

Serious learning begins at school at the age of six or seven. There is essential emphasis on the teaching of sounds and division of words into syllables, which is a very important skill for learning reading.

Maybe this is the secret of Hungarian students’ high results in PISA tests, the children have enough 20

time for development in a natural way. Playschools create a strong basis by developing creativity, the physique and social skills, and only schools start the giving of knowledge.

Italy Calanchi – the nature reserve of Calanchi di Atri, established in 1995 (known as the Badlands of Atri), stretches over 400 hectares in Abruzzo County. Badlands is a typical geomorphological feature that appears in the Mediterranean climate. A fabulous spectacle of nature!

Andrea Delitio’s frescos in Atri cathedral – in the wonderful frescoes, the painter gives us an overview of the Abruzzi landscape at his times.

The ancient coins of Hatria – the coins of the old Atri (Hatria) are among the oldest in Italian history.

Casoli Pinta: a museum under the stars – Casoli is a small village of about 1500 Calanchi inhabitants. Since 1996, the village has hosted an exhibition of mural painting called “Casoli Pinta”, which has gathered famous painters in the production of frescoes on the outside walls of the houses.

A wonderful dish: homemade spaghetti “on guitar” – a typical dish of Teramo province. Making the dish that seems simple at first sight turns complicated when you have to knead and roll the dough.

This was really tough for the unversed hands. The unrolled dough is pressed onto a tool that reminds the guitar and rolled into small strips. The typical dish is served with tomato sauce, little meat balls and some parmesan cheese.

Impressions from Italy The most impressive was the Italians’ happy-go-lucky and joyful attitude to life. Even if something went wrong, it was not a big problem; life went on in its cheerful way. Everything they did, they did in a relaxed and delighted way. Sunlight, brightness and joy of living!

Food is very important for Italians. It is essential that it is fresh and seasonal. Italy is the land of pizza and pasta. These were offered to us for almost all meals. Italians said themselves that in Italy you have to eat all the time; at the same time they were slimmer than all the other nations. The secret is the Mediterranean diet.

The farewell dinner in Rurabilandia – a centre for people with special needs – was unforgettable.

Voluntary action has grown by now into a centre that offers services to parents who bring up a child with special needs. After school, they gather and do craft, learn necessary skills for living, communicate.

People with special needs are involved in the work of the restaurant where they can work as porters, waiters and makers of simple food.

Poland Fryderyk Chopin – one of the world’s most famous composers. He was born in 1810 in Zelazowa Wola, a village near Warsaw.

Masuria – Masuria and the Masurian Lake District are known as the land of a thousand lakes. These lakes were ground out of the land by glaciers during the Pleistocene ice age when ice covered northeastern Europe.

Baltic Amber – also known as “gold of the north”, the wonderful material for artists to create jewellery and objects of everyday use.

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Wawel – a hill situated on the left bank of the Vistula River in Cracow. The hill is the site of a group of historic buildings, including the Wawel Castle and the Wawel Cathedral. According to the Polish legend, the Dragon of Wawel lives inside this hill. His favourite food is humans, in particular virgins.

The Wieliczka Salt Mine – located in the town of Wieliczka in southern Poland. It was built in the 13th century and produced table salt continuously until 2007. The mine is often referred to as the Underground Salt Cathedral of Poland.

Impressions from Poland In Poland, we experienced politeness that we had not met for a long time, neither here nor in other countries. Namely, the taxi driver reached out his hand to help ladies out of his car. First I thought it was occasional, but when it happened again and again, then – what a wonder!

Knowledge of foreign languages is divided into two. The younger ones communicated in English, the older generation could use Russian. For historical reasons, Russian was not really popular in Poland.

However, it was wonderful to see that, in spite of the unpleasant memories, we could use Russian for communicating and understanding each other.

Wales Buildings and castles – Wales had about 400 castles, of which over 100 are still standing, either in ruins or as restored buildings.

Countryside and National Parks – Snowdonia, Pembrokeshire and Brecon Beacons National Parks are a real eye candy with their varied landscapes and richness of animal and plant species.

The Millennium Stadium and Wales rugby – The Millennium Stadium is the national stadium of Wales, located in the capital, Cardiff. It is the home of the Wales national rugby union team and frequently stages games, but it is also host to many other large-scale events, such as the Super Special Stage Wales Rally, Speedway Grand Prix of Great Britain. It was The Welsh language built for the 1999 Rugby World Cup. The Welsh language – At Wales schools children study in two languages, English and Welsh. For the preservation of the Welsh language, the Welsh Government has founded a support programme – both ideological and financial.

The Welsh culture – Wales has a distinctive culture including its own language, customs, holidays and music. Wales is primarily represented by the symbol of the red Welsh Dragon, but other national emblems include the leek and daffodil. The feast day of the Patron Saint of Wales, St. David, is celebrated on 1 March.

Impressions from Wales The most impressive in Llandago Primary School was the constant positive feedback and encouragement of students. It was surprising that there were no marks in Welsh schools. The teachers wrote down some notes for themselves about passing certain levels, but there was no continuous graded feedback for students and their parents. The schools’ atmosphere was really relaxed, no annoying bell sounds and noisy breaks.

The environmental friendliness is also remarkable in Welsh schools. There was the rain water harvest pipe to use the rain water to flush the toilets in many schools.

The head of Monmouth Comprehensive School (1600 students), Mr Davis, has an interesting way to 22

get to know all the children in his school. Every schoolday he has lunch with 15 children from different classes at festively covered table. During the schoolyear he meets and communicates with all his students in person.

Every Friday the children of Llandago School organise an assembly that starts with praying, then singing for birthdays. Children get their stars for the best use of Welsh, being polite or acting ecofriendly. We noticed that everybody was very pleased, even those who did not get anything. Later, talking to the teachers, it became evident that children get praised so much that nobody feels unhappy or sidelined.

The children were praised for sitting quietly, good behaviour, nice singing, organising the assembly. It all happened directly; therefore, the positive feeling was in the air all the time. Rules of behaviour for children, how to be a good citizen, were very briefly and clearly in sight on the walls of the hall. Lots of sentimental education like: I cope with my different emotions and new situations; I try to emphasise with how other people are feeling; I respect other people and their property; I try to keep all my friendships.

Wonderful!

The best way to get to know different people and nations is to participate in their lives. Thanks to AS Archimedes funding, we got the great opportunity to see and feel how people live and what they value in other European countries. To experience and realise that in the eyes of others we are worth more than we think ourselves. By learning to recognize our strengths and values.

The collected wonders and folk calendar are fully visible at: http://issuu.com/comenius5/docs/comenius_small_for_digital_priting http://issuu.com/comenius5/docs/kalender See the blog of the project at http://www.melliste.ee (Comeniuse projekti blogi)

TEACHING TOLERANCE THROUGH ENGLISH? YES! A PERFECT MATCH! Kati Bakradze

Tallinna Ühisgümnaasium Camp director in 2013 and 2014

Voltaire, a famous French philosopher, the leader of the Age of Enlightenment, wrote, “Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so too.” The notion of “tolerance” is a fair and objective attitude towards those whose opinions, practices, religion, nationality or any other aspects differ from one’s own. It is a willingness to allow people to do, say, act, behave, or believe what they want without any judgment. Letting them be who they are and accepting the challenge of differences.

For four years, the international camp “Teaching Tolerance through English” (henceforth TTTE) has aimed to bring together teachers and students of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds in the Baltics to foster the development of tolerance in our neighbouring countries and communities. Moreover, it is also about encouraging networking, close relations between the Baltic constituent republics 23

and people, embassies and teacher organisations, teachers and students, homes and families.

The background of the camp.

The first international camps took place in Latvia in cooperation between the Latvian Association of Teachers of English (LATE) and the US Embassy in Riga in 2011 and 2012. For two years in a row, two teachers of English with their students from Estonia participated in the camp in Salacgrīva, Latvia: in 2011 Merle Udso and in 2012 Kati Bakradze.

In Estonia, in close cooperation between the Estonian Association of Teachers of English and the US Embassy in Tallinn, the camp was carried out in summer 2013, and for the second time, it will take place in August 2014. The next camp will be organised in Lithuania in 2015, and hopefully also in 2016.

TTTE summer 2013 The third international TTTE camp took place in Estonia on 12–18 August 2013 at Hiiekivi, Pärnu county. The teachers and assistants were selected in cooperation between the US Embassy in Tallinn and the EATE. The teachers from Tartu Private School (Marika Reiko), Saarepeedi Basic School (Annely Piir) and Orava Basic School (Kaire Hakk) were invited to join with their five students each in teaching and learning tolerance through English in a multinational group. The Latvian representatives were from Dagda Secondary School and Lithuanian from Pumpenai Secondary School. All together, an exciting group of 13 girls and 12 boys was compiled where first Russian, Latvian, Lithuanian, and body language were Language learning took different forms used, but soon the English language dominated in the camp. In addition, three assistants (1 male and 2 female) were chosen for the camp from Estonia to fill the students’ early morning and afternoon time with team-building games, morning exercises, a science night, and nature hikes including a hike to Kurgja Farm Museum.

The 7-day tolerance camp, including arrival and departure days, was divided into the following topic days connected to the aim of accepting the variety of differences: unique world, tolerance, friendship, my country, all together. The teachers were using multiple ways of teaching and approaching the topics through playful situations, tasks, posters, presentations, videos, singing, role plays. In the afternoon, the assistants additionally connected their activities to the overall topic of the day and this way not only the teaching hours but also leisure time activities were focused on the main themes. At the end of the day, each student was asked to give feedback on the things he/she learned, liked, or found out during the day. It was all written on the symbolic boat of the camp the students personally made on their arrival day. The boat represents the water that connects us, is for travelling across waters (discovering countries), for reaching new places and people, “being in the same boat” with others but still retaining one’s personality.

Not only did intensive teaching and learning through English and only English take place, but also pure fun and exciting guests spiced up the spirit of the tolerance camp. Dave Benton with his two daughters visited the camp and talked about friendship and the importance of taking good 24

Children presented their countries and cultures

care of our close ones. He specifically adjured students not to hurt one another deliberately.

Kelly Grossthal from the Erinevus Rikastab NGO discussed the matters of racism and bullying with children. Mairis Tuisk, the media and PR assistant from the US Embassy, had video interviews with students about the camp topics, and later the feelings and emotions on seeing themselves on the video were shared.

Liisa Aavik from School No 21 introduced Junior Achievement Foundation and its prospects for the students. She made all the students think about the importance of dreaming, making the dreams to come true, and being creative and developing the competence of entrepreneurship.

Members of the camp Teaching Tolerance Through English 2013 Alia Udawala, an intern from the embassy, taught children the Texas cowboy dance and encouraged them to use as much English as possible for the final guest of the camp – the VIP. The very important and much-awaited person was, of course, the US ambassador Mr Jeffrey D. Levine himself.

He concentrated his conversation and interaction with the campers on the importance of making the world a better and happier place through oneself.

The days full of first steps taken towards more fluent English but also, literally, outside home towns; keeping in touch with brand new friends; remembering pure emotions; writing letters to homes to be sent out three months later as a reminder of the camp spirit, passed by quickly. Nevertheless, all that was learned, achieved, gained, experienced stayed with us.

More about the camp at http://teachingtolerance2013.blogspot.com/.

TTTE now and in the future In conclusion, the time at the camp was inspiring for the teachers in terms of cooperation, sharing ideas, materials, and methods. It was a motivational time for the students who gained more confidence in speaking English as well as became members of an international group, discovered new facts about themselves as well as the cultures of our neighbourhood countries and the US. It was clear that the short but efficient period of time, working with regular students in a multicultural and -national environment, especially with teacher aids, was accomplished successfully.

John F. Kennedy once said “If we cannot end now During the visit of the US Ambassador Jeffrey Levine our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.” Most definitely, the goal of the camp was to teach, enlighten, and express the attitudes towards the sensible ways of accepting and including the differences in people from cultural, ethnic, and linguistic diversities longitudinally.

This is what the camp Teaching Tolerance Through English does – it has joined the nations of the Baltic countries, bridged the cultures, and connected the teachers and students of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania for years and will do so in the years to come.

P.S. By the time you read this article, the second camp in Estonia will have taken place. For sure, it will be a blast again! More in Open! in autumn 2014.

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LANGUAGE LEARNING AND MOBILITY Tiiu Müür

Miina Härma Gymnasium

I had the pleasure to participate in the “Mobility programmes for sustainable plurilingual and intercultural learning” workshop that took place at ECML (European Centre for Modern Languages) in Graz, Austria, from 5–7 February 2014. The workshop united 20 teacher trainers and teachers for upper secondary schools and secondary vocational training representing 19 European countries.

Mobility programmes are unique opportunities for building up language competence and strengthening intercultural understanding. Learning mobility, however, need not automatically result in better intercultural or linguistic skills – students need to be prepared for mobility. PluriMobil provides useful tools to help the users benefit from their intercultural experience.

The main objectives of the three-day workshop were: • presentation of PluriMobil and the targeted use of the Council of Europe tools to prepare, accompany and follow up on the learning process of the participants; • enhancing a deeper understanding of the concept of interculturality in the context of mobility; • development of new lesson plans for upper secondary education (general and vocational); • getting feedback on implementation tools (the website, the Quick-Start guide, and implementation concepts); • networking.

During the event participants compiled learning scenarios (before-during-after) based on concrete cases of mobility experiences and created materials by practitioners for practitioners. In order to monitor mobility experience, Council of Europe tools were integrated. Each learning scenario describes the main stages of a mobility experience.

The COE language learning tools include the following: • European Language Portfolio (ELP) • Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters (AIE) • The Common European Framework of Reference (CECR/CEFR) • Framework of Reference for Pluralistic Approaches to Languages and Cultures (CARAP/REPA) • Development and Evaluation of Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICCintE) • Mirrors and Windows. An intercultural communication textbook • European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages – A reflection tool for language teacher education (PEPELF/ EPOSTL)

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Tiiu Müür (right) with colleagues from Iceland, Sweden and Austria

However, international teachers also drew attention to some burning issues about mobility: • financing • paperwork • difficulties in including mobility into the curricula • motivating teachers and pupils to participate • importance of mobility in school policy • finding necessary cooperation from the school management and colleagues PluriMobil scenarios have helped to Project team facilitate mobility experience as a part of the Leonardo, Erasmus and Comenius programmes as well as other mobility-oriented initiatives. These programmes involved not only actual mobility, but also different instances of virtual intercultural encounters. PluriMobil has proven also to be beneficial in teaching international classes consisting of students from different countries.

For further information, visit the PluriMobil website at http://plurimobil.ecml.at/.

REFERENCE http://plurimobil.ecml.at/Project20122014/News/tabid/2933/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

How well do you know New York? (pictures p. 37) 1. St. Patrick’s Cathedral, built 1858–1879 2. The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in Central Park 3. The Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center for Performing Arts, opened in 1966 4. The Metropolitan Museum of Art on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan’s Museum Mile 5. Morris-Jumel Mansion in Harlem, George Washington’s headquarters during the Battle of Harlem Heights in 1776 6. Memorial to Ulysses S. Grant, American Civil War General and President of the US from 1869–1877 7. Rockefeller Centre skating rink with the figure of Prometheus by Paul Manship

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Experienced Educator NEVER IN MY LIFE HAVE I REGRETTED THIS CHOICE An interview with Reet Noorlaid

One Hundred Years from Now (excerpt from “Within My Power” by Forest E. Witcraft)

One Hundred Years from now it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, how much money was in my bank account nor what my clothes looked like.

But the world may be a better place because I was important in the life of a child.

Why did you become a teacher?

It goes back to the years at primary school. There was a teacher who called me her colleague. It made me so proud then. This is another proof that we cannot deny the importance of what our teachers say or do and how much they influence their students. Though, when I was at university, the idea of becoming a teacher did not seem so attractive any more. I took to the profession again when I had my first trainee practice in Tallinn Secondary School No 7 (Tallinn English College at present) where my tutor was Ingrid Kuljus, in those days one of the authors of English textbooks for our schools. In Tartu Secondary School No 2 (now Miina Härma Gymnasium), it was Mai Varbola who set a good example for me. Both of the aforementioned teachers were very different in their ways of teaching, but what mattered was the fact that their students acquired a very good command of English. At that time it could really be accredited to their teachers. This made me see how important a teacher’s role was and at the same time posed a challenge to me. I have never regretted my choice. Being a student myself, I was very active and took part in different kind of activities. At present, I keep telling my students that they should try to get every chance to put themselves to test, thus gain experience and become more confident.

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What do you like the best about teaching?

The feeling of fulfilment, also the need to develop all the time in order to keep up with the changes, to be on the level, just a step ahead of my students. In this job it is not possible to be lazy. I also enjoy the company of young people, especially the ones who are enthusiastic about what they do. When my students accomplish something and are successful, I feel it is my achievement as well. I love to prepare them for competitions, especially in public speaking.

What makes students good?

Having an interest in their studies, being curious about new things, wishing to experiment and being dedicated to what they do. In fact, it all depends on their attitude to learning. If it is positive, success is easy to come. But, there is also the other side to the coin. As schoolwork is a two-sided process, it requires effort from both the teacher and the student. This is the principle that I have never forgotten and that I have tried to follow.

You have always been eager to start new subjects and learn by doing. How have you maintained enthusiasm for teaching?

I consider the teacher’s job one of the most challenging jobs in the world. It is also my hobby. I have always been keen on finding out about things and learning something new.

I feel that when developing into a teacher a student’s spirit never left me. Teaching makes life worth living for me.

Why Business English in addition to general English?

In the 90s of the past century, studies in economics became so popular that most of the secondary school graduates went to study In 2011 Reet Noorlaid received the President’s Educational Award something in that field. At the same time, (Head of MHG Ene Tannberg, President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Estonia had invited specialists from America Reet Noorlaid) to hold seminars in Business English for our teachers. Once again there was a challenge for me. There was also another reason. I wished to give my students some idea of what the subject was about. It took two years to make our head see that it was useful for the students and to include the subject into the curriculum.

Before starting with Business English at school, I had a chance to teach English to some University graduates of the faculty of economics, which was most helpful and, at the same time, made me a lot more confident. A number of years ago I attended a Business English examination course in England, which proved that I had been following the right track in my teaching process.

What has kept you in Härma Gymnasium for such a long time?

The atmosphere first and foremost. Teachers are trusted here, which in its turn makes you eager to give your best. I have always been an initiator and a promoter (IB studies, Business and Academic English, CLIL, translation, simultaneous and consecutive interpreting). I have been able to come out with ideas for doing something in a different way than earlier. There are no restrictions at this school, as far as students gain from what you come up with. A few years ago, I suggested that we start teaching Academic English as an optional subject. Students understood that social language was not enough if they wanted to continue their studies. So, this school year as many as 80% of the students made this choice.

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How would you characterize yourself as a teacher?

At the beginning of my career, I was a really strict teacher. I think I copied my own teachers. Paradoxically, I had to be grateful to them for choosing the profession. As time passed, I became more considerate and flexible. In my view, it is most important to respect your students and consider them your partners in the learning-teaching process. Caring is another keyword. If you care about your students and about your work, it is much easier to achieve something worthwhile.

Have any of your students followed your path and become teachers? If yes, name some of them.

There are quite a number of them, somewhere around thirty. The first coming to my mind are Ave Abroi, Reet Ainsoo, Anne Aluvee, Riina Joonsaar, Inga Koppel, Anne Kull, Leena Kurvet, Erika Puusemp, Pilvi Rajamäe, Carmen Ruus, Taivi Õigus, but there are many more. As far as I know, they are all dedicated teachers who love and enjoy what they do, be it at the gymnasium or university level.

What has participation in EATE activities given you?

It is the organization through which I have been able to realize my energy, put new ideas into practice and learn so much. I have also got many new contacts and lifelong friends there.

How do you combine the roles of the grandmother and the teacher?

Love for children is the leading power here. When you are a parent, you are not experienced yet and cannot fully enjoy raising a child. It is so much different when you are a grandparent. I must confess that babysitting has become an enjoyable part of my life. I think I owe a lot to my young relatives for having become more understanding with my students as well.

How do you spend your free time?

As I mentioned earlier, English is not only my work but also a hobby. So I devote much time to English, finding, compiling and testing new study materials.

I have always loved travelling. Once I had a dream of visiting the following five capitals: London, Paris, Rome, Washington and Tokyo. By now I have been to many more.

In my opinion, it is of utmost importance that teachers be given the chance to travel to study new cultures and expand their horizons.

I am also a granny to a number of grandchildren, five to be exact, and six by the time the journal comes out of print. They are one of the most important sources of wanting to live an active life.

In the Grand Canyon, Colorado

What makes you happy?

Strange as it may sound, it is often small things in life. Someone once said that we choose our own emotions. Since then I have always tried to think positively. In addition, I’m happy when my former students stop me in the street to talk to me or simply smile and say Hello! My grandchildren usually give me a big hug and add that they love me.

Reet Noorlaid was interviewed by EATE Committee members.

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Reading Recommendations FOUR HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN ENGLISH Enn Veldi

Department of English University of Tartu

Richard W. Bailey. Speaking American: A History of English in the United States. Oxford UP, 2012, 207 p.

The late Richard W. Bailey (1939–2011), professor of English at the University of Michigan, was an eminent scholar. Years ago I enjoyed reading his Images of English: A Cultural History of the English Language (1991). The book provided a host of original insights into various attitudes to the English language. The author is highly knowledgeable; one could additionally claim that Bailey’s true passion is the history of American English.

The book under review focuses on the history of the English language in the United States. Chapter 1 serves as an introduction to the book.

The book opens with the claim that “American English has often been seen, particularly in Britain, as an imperfect language…” (p xiii).

Bailey makes the reader think that on the following pages the author is going to challenge the traditional British-centered stereotype and that the reader is invited to an exciting journey through the history of American English. It is not a book that you can read at one go; take your time and think when you read. After finishing the book, I’m sure that you will understand American English differently from what you knew before.

Richard W. Bailey

However, before embarking on the journey I would recommend three sources for additional exploration and consultation. The first is the online (third) edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (www.oed. com), which is the “definitive record of the English language”. Many of its entries have been recently updated, also with regard to American English. The dictionary is accessible for members of many educational institutions, including the University of Tartu. The second source to consult is the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA), which was created by Mark Davies at Brigham Young University (http://corpus.byu.edu/coha). It is a 400-million corpus covering 1810–2009 by decades. Finally, some maps of North America showing its history would also be useful.

Richard Bailey’s approach to the history of American English is based on the idea that language change in American English has been driven by different regions. Thus, he divides 400 years of the history of American English into eight 50-year periods. The periods are as follows: Chesapeake Bay (before 1650), Boston (1650–1700), Charleston (1700–1750), Philadelphia (1750–1800), New Orleans (1800– 1850), New York (1850–1900), Chicago (1900–1950), Los Angeles (1950–2000). Each centre had a major role in the development of American English during the correspondent period.

The first chapters deal with the settlement history of New England. There are a number of important points, however. First, English was not the first European language that was transplanted to North America. Spanish had been used there for about a century before the English arrived. For this reason, 31

a number of early loanwords from American Indian languages reached English through Spanish, which acted as an intermediary language. Translations from Spanish included, for example, canoe (1555), cacao (1555), hammock (1555), hurricane (1555), and yucca (1555). The term New World (1549) did not originate in English either; its ultimate origin can be Italian; Amerigo Vespucci used novo mondo (1502) in a letter. There is also a map of the same year, which showed the same term in Latin (mundus novus). The term America originated from the Latinized form of the name of Amerigo Vespucci (1451–1512), an Italian explorer who visited South America; its first English use (1631) by the poets John Donne and James Shirley was in the sense ‘a place which one longs to reach’. It does not imply, however, that direct loanwords from Native American languages are totally absent. Such words include, for example, skunk (1634), squash (1643), squaw (1634), and wigwam (1624).

Second, what is perhaps surprising to some readers is the high level of (British) English during the early period of American English. The Puritans were very particular about the use and teaching of proper English. For this reason, Americans used better English than the people in their mother country.

This fact was noticed by several British visitors to America.

Third, the economic significance of Virginia tobacco (1588) can hardly be underrated. According to Bailey, “thus began the first of the English empires built on trade in narcotics” (p 22).

Charleston (1700–1750). This is the period when American English started to develop its own flavor.

This concerns first and foremost the vocabulary of slavery and African influences. An important word is Gullah (1739), which denotes “black people living on the sea-islands and tide-water coastline of South Carolina, and the dialect spoken by them” (OED). Other African words include, for example, mojo (1926) ‘magical power; a charm of talisman’, goober (1833) ‘peanut’, and gumbo (1805) ‘okra plant; a soup thickened with okra pods’. The impact of African heritage on American culture is remarkable; however, since one is dealing mostly with oral culture, early written evidence can be scanty. Bailey notes that “education in England was a requirement for the young men of the American elite” (p 66).

Philadelphia (1750–1800). William Penn had founded Pennsylvania in 1682. Being the geographical center of the British colonies in North America, by 1750 it had become also an intellectual center.

A prominent figure was Benjamin Franklin, who arrived there in 1723 at the age of 16. The period 1740–1760 witnessed massive immigration of German speakers from Europe. The German language became an important language in Pennsylvania; its variety spoken there is known as Pennsylvania Dutch. The name is somewhat misleading for some people; perhaps it is helpful to remember that Dutch is the English version of Deutsch, and Germantown is a historical center of Pennsylvania Germans.

New Orleans (1800–1850). New Orleans gained its prominence after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

Another important development was the introduction of the steamboat in 1811. It meant that now it became much easier to travel by boat upstream the Mississippi River. Earlier, river traffic was largely downstream; the upstream leg of the route was an arduous one. The cultural significance of New Orleans consisted in serving as a link between the Caribbean and the Mississippi valley (Memphis, St Louis). French (and Spanish) were important languages in New Orleans, and English speakers from the north were perceived as foreigners. Louisiana French consisted of three major varieties: the language of French migrants, the language used by Cajuns (deported from Acadia in eastern Canada), and the language of African-descended former slaves from Haiti. Characteristic words include levee (1718–20), bayou (1766), Cajun (1868) < Acadian, jambalaya (1872), and voodoo (1880). New Orleans lost its significance after the Civil War. New York (1850–1900). New York, on the other hand, became prosperous after the Civil War. It is characterized as a true melting pot of different nations. Ethnic diversity also gave rise to a host of pejorative designations for members of different immigrant communities, such as mick (1850) ‘Irishman’, dago (1832) ‘foreigner’, chink (1901) ‘Chinese’, sauerkraut (1858) ‘German’, greaser ( 1848)‘Spaniard’, etc. An important immigrant language of New York was Yiddish (1875), which has contributed many 32

words to American slang, for example, meshuga ‘crazy’, schnorrer ‘parasite, sponger’, schlemiel ‘stupid person’. As is known, the former name of New York was New Amsterdam (until 1664). The Dutch language, too, has contributed its share of words, such as boss, Brooklyn, and Bronx.

Chicago (1900–1950). In 1871 Chicago was destroyed by fire. When the city was rebuilt, it became a very modern city, indeed. In 1893 Chicago hosted the World’s Columbian Exposition, which boosted innovation. An important word in this respect is skyscraper. An early example of its use in the sense of a tall building in the OED is from 1888: “the ‘sky-scrapers’ of Chicago outrival anything of their kind in the world”. As many black people from the south migrated northward, Chicago became an important center of jazz and blues with its own distinctive sound. According to Bailey, jive, boogie-woogie, and scat are music styles that started in Chicago. According to the OED, the word jazz was “apparently first applied to music in Chicago” in 1915. In the Baltic context, it is important to note that Upton Sinclair depicted the life of the Lithuanian community of Chicago in his book The Jungle (1906). Below is a list of more words from Chicago: clout (1958) ‘personal or private influence’, con (1896) ‘to persuade, to swindle’ , the Loop. Chicago is also well known for its universities. In 1890 John D. Rockefeller provided funding for the establishment of the University of Chicago. As far as language innovation is concerned, the Chicago Tribune made efforts to rationalize American spellings; some of the suggestions have met with some success, for example, catalog and thru ‘through’.

Los Angeles (1950–2000). In the 20th century Los Angeles County witnessed major population growth as a result of extensive influx of people. The new arrivals came from other parts of the US (e.g.

New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas) as well as from many foreign countries. It became a rapidly growing multilingual and multicultural area where according to the 1950 census only 27 percent of people were natives of California (p 161). The 2000 census showed that “more than half of the respondents used a language other than English at home” (p 164).

Los Angeles is characterized by nontraditional lifestyles and the entertainment industry. Bailey claims that “Hollywood not only markets ideas about language; it markets language itself” (p 170). It is especially true in the case of various subcultures. One important area of language growth is beach culture and the vocabulary of surfing. Apart from various technical terms, one should point out the metaphorical use of the verb surf in surf the internet. Another important phenomenon is the emergence of Valspeak (San Fernando Valley + -speak), which represents the language of teenaged girls in the 1980s. Valspeak reached wider audiences through the song Valley Girl composed by Frank Zappa, which was performed by his daughter. Some typical words and expressions of Valspeak include barf out, gag me, freak out, to the max, grody.

California can be regarded as an important center of linguistic innovation in the vocabulary of several subcultures (the Summer of Love (1967), the New Age movement, and the rap and gang culture).

The latter contributed such words as dis (< disrespect), def (< definite ‘excellent’), crew ‘gang’, tagger ‘graffiti writer’.

Also, one should not forget about the computer terminology, which originated in California. Examples include software, firewall, mouse, cookie, spam, webcam, to name a few.

The book ends with two assumptions concerning the future of American English. The first is that all the previously described varieties will change beyond recognition. The second is that “the new varieties will be shaped from new materials, and they will not necessarily be specific to a time or place as in the past” (p 183).

REFERENCES Oxford English Dictionary. www.oed.com (accessed on 21 April 2014) The Corpus of Historical American English (COHA). http://corpus.byu.edu/coha/ (accessed on 21 April 2014) 33

POSTHUMOUS PUBLICATION OF A DIGNIFIED WORK Ilmar Anvelt

Department of English University of Tartu

Aino Jõgi. Inglise päritolu sõnad eesti keeles (English Loanwords in Estonian). Eesti Keele Sihtasutus, Tallinn 2014.

Aino Jõgi (1922 – 2013) worked at the Department of English at the University of Tartu for the better part of her life – from 1950 to 1992. In 1971 she defended her Candidate’s dissertation (according to the current standards a doctoral dissertation). Now, a long time after her dissertation was written, it is available in book form, published by Eesti Keele Sihtasutus.

At the time Aino Jõgi wrote her dissertation, she estimated the number of English loanwords in Estonian to be over 750 – not a small number, but who would have any idea how many of them are there now?

Chapter I of the dissertation includes an extensive wordlist from aaker (acre) to ökonomaiser (economiser).

The author has set herself the ambitious aim to find, if possible, all the English loanwords in Estonian, to fix their different forms in order to find the limits of variability and to establish when they were first used. The words are provided with explanations of meaning, example sentence and references to sources.

Chapters II–IV give a thorough explanation of changes – phonetic, orthographical, morphological and semantic – that the English words have undergone in Estonian. The general principle that “the words of English origin should be transcribed, as far as the phonological system of Estonian allows it, in accordance with the spelling rules of Estonian, approximately reflecting their pronunciation in English” was first laid down by Elmar Muuk (1935). Often the Estonian spelling and pronunciation have been influenced by mediator languages – German or Russian. For instance, under the influence of German, some borrowings where the English pronunciation includes /eı/, have been transcribed with ee in Estonian, e.g. Eng. baby, Est. beebi. Under the influence of Russian, the English /æ/ sound has sometimes been transcribed as e, e.g. in džemm (jam), or stend (stand).

An interesting, although unfortunately a rather short part of the dissertation is Chapter V, which provides the cultural and historical background to borrowing. The chapter divides borrowing from English into three periods: 1818–1918, the period of “bourgeois Estonia” (the compulsory term for the independent Republic of Estonia at the time the dissertation was written), and the Soviet period (1940–1971).

It would be interesting to note that the earliest English loanwords that Aino Jõgi found in Estonian come from O. W. Masing’s Maarahva Nädalaleht, and they were the names of some alcoholic drinks – rumm (rum), punš (punch) and viski (whisky). The borrowings from the turn of the 20th century include, among others, such widely spread words as huumor (humour), detektiiv (detective), intervjuu (interview), kloun (clown) and šampoon (shampoo).

The borrowings from the 1920s–1930s come from a number of spheres, including agriculture, 34

commerce, shipping, textile industry, entertainment. Aino Jõgi emphasises that nearly the entire international sports terminology is of English origin. Words like doping (doping), treener (trainer), matš (match), nokaut (knockout), sprinter (sprinter) and even sport itself date back to that period.

The borrowings of the Soviet period include many terms of exact sciences and technology, e.g. laser (laser), taimer (timer), buldooser (bulldozer), konveier (conveyor), pikap (pickup), treiler (trailer), antifriis (antifreeze).

The dissertation is accompanied by an introductory chapter “Keelehuvi kogu eluks. Mälestusi ja eluloolist” (Interest in languages for the whole life. Memoirs and biographical facts), compiled from Aino Jõgi’s articles and manuscript notes by Urmas Sutrop – Aino Jõgi’s nephew, currently Director of the Institute of the Estonian Language.

The cover picture shows Aino Jõgi taking a short rest in front of the main building of Tartu University in an armchair she got as a present at her 90th birthday party in Werner café.

More than forty years have passed from the time when Aino Jõgi defended her Candidate’s dissertation.

The number of English loanwords has grown immensely since then; the role of the English language in our lives differs greatly from what it was in the 1970s. While English had a very limited use in Soviet Estonia, today no one can escape exposure to it. A new thoroughgoing study of English loanwords in Estonian or, even more broadly, of the functions of the English language in the present-day Estonian society, would be highly necessary.

Come and Share GOT A PREMIUM? Ilmar Anvelt

Department of English University of Tartu

Getting what we call preemia in Estonian, is a pleasant event, although it seldom happens to us, teachers. The similar-looking word in English, premium, usually appears in different contexts and its meaning deviates from the Estonian usage. As the following examples from Macmillan English Dictionary (http://www.macmillandictionary.com) show, often (but not always) it also means a sum of money, but something that you pay out rather than receive. Very typical examples come from the area of insurance. Your monthly premium will be £36. Insurance premiums will increase again next year. The insurance company does not pay you a premium, but you pay to them for using their service. Customers are required to pay a premium for this service. This sentence is about other services than insurance; the idea is that this service does not belong to the regular package, but you have to pay extra for it. This leads us to the adjectival use of premium, e.g. premium brands of champagne, which are more expensive or of higher quality; thus, premium prices are higher than usual. If something is at a premium, it is difficult to get because a lot of people want it. If you put/ place premium on something, you consider it very important: In this school we place a premium on honesty.

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See if you can do this exercise or give it to your students to puzzle out.

Translate the expressions with premium into Estonian.

1. As I have advocated previously, weeding out unnecessary belongings is essential, especially in a studio apartment where space is at a premium.

2. Avian Adventures – Manufacturer of premium quality powder-coated and stainless steel bird cages and accessories for all types of exotic birds.

3. Both soaps were sold at a premium because each one in their particular niche represented the highest quality.

4. For those occasions when time is at a premium, you can grab a quick meal at Fourth Street Live!’s food court.

5. How much will your annual flood insurance premium cost?

6. Maybe someone can explain this to me: since land is at such a premium on the crowded Japanese islands, how can they let an amusement park rot? Why not raze it and build something else?

7. Most stores offer free-range and organic turkeys at premium prices, and fresh birds are priced higher than frozen birds.

8. Multinational corporations now place a premium on Indian talent, which ranks among the best in the world.

9. Overtime compensation is paid at the premium rate of one and one-half times an employee’s total hourly rate of pay.

10. Sunday premium pay is not paid for overtime hours of work.

11. We offer a wide range of standard and premium services for all of our customers, so check ‘em out!

12. Will consumers pay a premium for country-of-origin labelled meat?

13. A vehicle owner can insure the value of his or her vehicle against loss resulting from accident, theft and other potential problems. The owner usually pays a fixed premium amount in exchange for the insurance company’s guarantee to cover any economic losses incurred under the scope of the agreement.

14. The fact that ‘the poor pay more’ is not news. This report updates the picture and shows that paying higher prices for utilities and credit can raise the cost of a minimum household budget by around 10 per cent – a ‘poverty premium’.

15. Quality childcare comes with a premium price tag (title of a newspaper article).

Answers: 1. ruumi napib 2. kõrgkvaliteetne 3. kõrgema hinnaga 4. aega napib 5. kindlustusmakse 6. maad on nii vähe, maa on nii hinnaline 7. kõrgema hinnaga 8. hindavad kõrgelt 9. kõrgema tariifiga 10. lisatasu 11. tava- ja kvaliteetteenuseid 12. maksavad kõrgemat hinda 13. maksab kindlaksmääratud makset 14. I have never read about this concept Estonian, but I think that the context makes it clear – poor people pay more for goods or services. For example, if something is sold very cheaply, it would be wise to buy a large quantity of it, but you have to have ready money for it. 15. kõrgema hinnaga

REFERENCE Macmillan Dictionary. Macmillan Publishers Limited 2009–2014. Available at http://www.macmillandictionary. com, accessed 10 June 2014.

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How well do you know New York?

(Answers on p. 27)

4

1

5

2

6

3

7

Photos by Ilmar Anvelt