Monthly eddition | February 2020
Issue â„– 22
YOUTH VIBES International Center for Development of Education and Training
www.icdetbg.eu
International Center for Development of Education and Training
Youth VibE+s is the life style part of E+Media4YOUth media portal, collecting storyes of the participatin youth in different activities under Erasmus+ program and making their dissemination. All materials are made by the participants. The monthly most interesting materials are published in this electronic magazine, using the most innovative ISSUU platform as the most popular among young people in Europe and the world. The electronic edition is full of well-selected photo and text materials that makes reading enjoyable and useful to you.
The electronic edition is full of well-selected photo and text materials that makes reading enjoyable and useful to you.
www.icdetbg.eu/
TRAINING COURSE ‘‘Giraffes go to Theatre’’
LIFE+
Lagodekhi, Georgia
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"Giraffes Go to Theatre” is a TC involving 24 youth workers, leaders, project coordinators coming from 8 different countries - Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Portugal, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia. They gathered together from 24th November 2019 to 2nd December 2019 in the incredibly beautiful Lagodekhi National Park, Georgia. The project was organized by EMINA Career Guidande Foundation (EMINA Pályaorientációs Alapítvány).
by Krasimira Drumeva
The incentive for the realization of the training are the current trends which we encounter on a daily basis involving a plenty of negative factors that are difficult to overcome. We can notice an increased level of violence, radicalization, aggression and lack of tolerance. These all make youngsters more and more vulnerable and therefore Nonviolent Communication is recognized as a more and more needed way to learn and share. For these reasons, all participants have motivated to develop the competences to practice and embrace communication in a nonviolent way, building peaceful relations. On the first day of the activities we had to get to know each other. Our trainers kept us occupied with a lot of games so that we can remember the first name and some personal details about each participant. The atmosphere was brisk and positive. With the help of soft skills in communication, we quickly became one big family. We had the feeling that we were working for a common cause. The day ended with an Intercultural Evening. Each national group of participants had the opportunity to present their traditional food and culture. Ever since this day, we are friends forever! Next days we researched Self-Regulation tools. We studied how to get in touch with our emotions and needs, to go through bygone frustrations, and interpret them as a source of learning. Step by step we delved into
Non-violent communication which is a method created by psychologist Marshall Rosenberg. We developed an empathic attitude by forming a support group for ourselves. All participants shared their challenges with an open mind and a desire to gather knowledge and develop an understanding of peaceful communication. As a result, we managed to put in practice the skills and tools for coping with situations of conflict, tension and misunderstanding. We learned that proper means of communication and reaching a compromise are essential for the common good, growth and harmonic co-existence. In a short time, we were able to absorb a large amount of information and to experiment with the things we learned by completing numerous tasks. Our trainers Kety Zhvania - Tyson and Paata Alaverdashvili provided a balanced program of theoretical seminars, outdoor exercise and physical activity. This made the learning process interesting and effortless, and each participant worked actively and successfully. Being participants in an international project, we were very excited to get to know the local culture and traditions. Our hosts organized an amazing trip to Telavi and Nekresi Monastery. Our participation in this project has brought us a lot of knowledge, skills, inspiration, many friends and ideas how to improve our work. We are looking forward to Stage 2 of the training in Tata, Hungary! 02
Why are the design and
visual presentation tools so important?
O, hey, if you are reading this maybe you are as curious as me about this topic, aren’t you? Even if you aren’t in the end of this article I think you will be. Let me tell you the main part and then we think *you for you, me for me, here*. I am going to explain you what the main problem is, what we should do and something more. Let`s begin. 03
VIE+W
by Ava Dobreva
Nowadays we are being surrounded by advertisements, visually appealing materials both on the Internet and in the real world, and all of them am competing and hunting either for the attention of different groups of people, or for potential customers.
Brands started realizing that there are few characteristics that make them outstanding and shine brighter than the others offering the same type of goods or services, and this inevitably leads us to the concept that we, the customers, are no longer searching for goods but, on the contrary, brands are searching for customers. This immediately leads us to expecting more and more from companies, searching for better conditions and more friendly attitude, but what is more:
we search for good looking goods, well-packed products and well-presented services. There is this inexplicit understanding among customers that if product ‘X’ looks good, then it is logically good when it comes to the quality, and vice versa, if the quality is great but the packing is not impressive, then this product sells harder and needs more personal recommendations as a condition to attract new customers.
PROGRESS Looking at this situation from a wider perspective, we can easily understand the future trends through the very popular book ‘The Third Wave’ by the sociologist and futurologist Alvin Toffler. The book presents an historical overview of the past two human civilizations with objectivity and projects the third one that is in the process of unfolding as change sweeps across the globe. Three waves describe three different types of societies in sequential order and each wave pushes the older society and culture aside. The First Wave economy was of agrarian nature that began around thousands of years ago, where everyone made their own products for their own consumption and there was little or no trading between households. The Second Wave, commenced in 18th century,
describes an industrial society, where machine expressed its muscles to begin Industrial Revolution and urbanization around factories. By the end of II World war, however, we began to receive signals of a gathering third wave, based not on muscles but on mind. Having this in mind, we come to realize that we have easier access to anything we could imagine, and this situation leads us to wanting to receive everything in the best possible way. There comes the need of good design and visual tools and materials in the current industrial, political and social conjuncture. Good visual presentation is a promise for everybody that their messages, their ideas and concepts will be noticed in the crowd among the others competing for attention.
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EXAMPLES C R EATIVITY 05
Personally, I can display lots of examples of visual tools and designs that helped me over the years so I could eventually be successful in my job and in my personal projects. I never studied anything related to this specific kind of knowledge, never took any course in digital presentation skills. Being creative and motivated to reach your objective is enough most of the times.
why such a small number of fans was there, as we were the most recognized school in town. Then I realized what people need to see and made a strategy on how to manage that page:
A simple example is that I started working in a private school which had a Facebook page with certain number of fans. I was wondering
By now, I have made three times the number of fans we had in the beginning.
Few years ago, I was keen on pursuing my higher education in one of the very renowned universities in The United States. These universities have a huge pool of applicants and limited number of prospective students who manage to pass all the examination procedures and begin their studies. At this time, I was wondering how I could present myself in such a way that I stand out in the crowd and draw the attention of the admission committee to my application. As the Resume is a very important part of the application package, I came up
with the bright idea that my Resume won’t be the standard format, so I made a magazine. Believe it or not, I had no clue how that would work, and I am not famous with design works, I work in a totally different professional field. I found an online platform that allowed me to create a professional magazine: mission completed. Thanks partially to my Resume, I got admitted in a few very good universities. Resume here. Then I made a booklet for my school.
1. I always showed personal stories because people love to associate with others. 2. I managed to show them in very appealing way.
Build Your Brand Alone
Why are design and visual presentation tools so important?
I partially work as a volunteer in one of the well-known monasteries in Bulgaria, and two years ago we decided we can make honey and sell it, so we could collect money and build a new building there, which would allow people to come for trainings and sleep there. We made a 500 beehives bio farm, then started producing big amounts of honey, and later realized we need to make labels for the products we offer. Of course, we had no digital design volunteers, so I challenged myself I get that labels work done. I didn’t know I had to deal with Adobe Illustrator – the horror of all of my dreams. I installed the program, opened it and told myself ‘Goodness, that’s never going to happen. No way.’ It was so complicated that I cried. Then step by step, in a big hurry as we had no time, I made all the labels. I was scared someone would ask me at that time how am I making the labels: my answer would be ‘Frankly, I have no idea’.
The result is here:
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I have been teaching English to young children and teenagers for the past 12 years. It all started after I had a year off after graduation. I applied for a job in a private language school and was immediately hired. Since day one I understood that this was going to be my life. Teaching, helping, loving and taking care of children. Since day one I had a new dream, to have my own magic place, where I could teach the way I believe children are supposed to be taught. I got a lot of experience and professional ideas and I appreciate every single tip that was given to me throughout the years while I was working for other people. In 2016 I met a person who has the same beliefs and point of view as mine and so “WonderLand” was created. For me this is a place where I have put all my heart, energy and creativity. I believe that every child is special and the connection with the teacher and the other classmates is of great value. So, in my school we are all friends and we always talk to each other, we share, and we learn together. 07
My days always start with a smile. I go to work in the morning waiting for my students. We greet each other, we play games, we revise, we learn new words, we talk to each other about everything that has happened, we check our homework, we listen, we read and write. Each class is different because each child and each group has got a different dynamic and that's what makes my job extraordinary. Each holiday, both Bulgarian and international, are celebrated in “WonderLand”. Sometimes we organize a party, or a contest or we have special guests and have a chat. During the summer we go camping with some of our students usually in the mountain. While we are in Sofia, we visit museums, sports centers, we go to the cinema, the zoo or the swimming pool, we do different art and crats every day There is always something new happening. I feel blessed to have the chance to work what I love the most. I want to develop and to become a better teacher and person and give more and more to my students every day. If everyone did what thet loved the world would be an amazing place.
The World of “WonderLand”
How often do you wake up with a smile on your face? How often do you wake up in the morning, not caring if it is Monday or Sunday? How often do you wake up in the morning, being happy with the fact that you have to go to work? Well, for me this is every single day. No matter if it is raining or snowing, if it is sunny or stormy, I feel excited about every day when I have to go to “WonderLand”!
And so ... “WonderLand” was created!
by Viara Kazanaklieva
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Why we shouldn't
discriminate different people?
by Yasmin Draganova
O, hey, if you are reading this maybe you are as curious as me about this topic, aren’t you? Even if you aren’t in the end of this article I think you will be J. Let me tell you the main part and then we think *you for you, me for me, here*. I am going to explain you what the main problem is, what we should do and something more. Let`s begin. The so-called different people are people with different skin complexion, weigh, gender, disability, religion, appearance, age, finances, education status and etc., as clearly evidenced in our society. Simply read a newspaper or observe a school playground. There you will find examples of minority groups being persecuted for their religious beliefs or a child being bullied because he is “too little” to play with other children. There are a lot of examples of the types of discrimination. I think everyone of us have been discriminated somehow because of the reasons up there. It isn’t cool, is it? I personally haven’t been discriminated a lot, but I can relate so much to the those who are. Even tho, it`s not a pleasant feeling to watch it. I don’t know how you feel when you are discriminating someone on purpose. It neither brings you pleasure nor anything. I will ask you this question – What did cause it? First, for beginning let`s play associations with the word ``discriminate``, the first noun coming to my mind is ``difference``. To yours? Okay. Is it different much different than mine? For me difference is the reason for the actions, and from our lives we notice this. Come on, people, why this word ``difference`` exist between us in this case? It is true that everyone is different in his own way but why it is one of the reasons for our segregation? I am saying ``one of them`` because there are a lot more (I`m not going to waste your time with the others) ...We have to make a change! We don’t have to look at the other people in any different way. After all I`m going to tell you what the benefits can be like for you ;).
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For me everyone is the same. There is no religion, skin, weight or etc. You have to look deeper in the people *and just to make you sure in that you will find how awesome are they*. Anyway, omg, what am I talking, ha-ha. They are people just like us. They aren’t from another planet. WE are the ones who are building the wall between us and isolating them. We have to help these people to get more confident to interact with us. Although we have to make the first step to stop looking and telling them that they are different. We have to tolerate their uniqueness. Everyone is special in his own way. If they aren`t seeing this why don`t we help them? In this way you will see how happy they look, and personally for me seeing them happy also makes me happy. As I said there are some benefits from this. First of all, you will get the opportunity to meet new nice people because of my point of view most of these people are so nice when you get to know them better. I have some really nice friends who are victims of discrimination because of their appearance and religion and for me this stupidity is no needed, at all. You have to become more open-minded and to tolerate the different people. It is not an order. I am saying it like an advice. Also, advice you to take it. You will be happier. If you are doing good to the others, good things will happen to you.
I hope I helped someone to change his point of view on these things. Or even made you think about this. by Yasmin Draganova
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by Zahari Vaklinov
My first Sukhishvili experience It was time to meet with my international colleagues for the next phase of the ERMI (European Response in Migration and Integration) transnational KA:2 project. I was pumped up for my first experience on the other side of the Black sea. I had no other expectations than having a productive meeting with optimal results for the following phase. I had no idea what an impact this business meeting would have on me... We landed in Georgia, Tbilisi after a long and exhausting trip and we were taken to our hotel by our Georgian hosts. The atmosphere so far was nothing different than what I had seen before across Europe. However, in the morning of the first day, when I went out of the hotel for a breather, I was blown away by the dynamics of the Georgian work life long and annoying traffic congestions, people getting on buses, irritated, people walking on the sidewalk not making 1 smile. It came across my mind that in Georgia the driving was worse than in Italy and Greece, but better than in Turkey. The people however were barely smiling, especially the girls.
Nevertheless, we were welcomed there kindly as guests. On the second day we visited the Technical university of Tbilisi, where we met with part of the teaching staff and some students and discussed on the topic with them. We exchanged good contacts and hope to meet again. We also had the opportunity to work in open space - out on the streets. We put ourselves in the shoes of the locals who can’t find a job but need to. I was a bit anxious at starts, but since my colleagues, who were not so good with English, initiated conversations, I was supposed to be the one to continue and end them. It turned out a surprising success - we managed to organize a phone interview at one place, which was never held (obviously).
With my colleagues we used our spare time for cultural and gastro exploration - it was worth it. We barely had such a taste of the magic of Georgia, that there would always be a reason to go back there - one could just never have enough of it.
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PEOPLE+
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Design: Maria Voycheva