FROschTOsch

by Philip Kulej (BvA)

Deeply religious? Hospitable? Ambitious?  Those are only a few of the best known prejudices about Polish people. But how much of it is reality? Only clichés or even more?  This and also the differences and similarities in comparison to the German culture, I, as a student with parents from Poland, would like to discuss in the following article.

The first prejudice is, that Polish men are much more religious than German ones and I have to admit, that it is even more than a cliché, it’s definitely the truth. Religion has a huge priority, especially in the previous generations of the Polish. During visits to the part of my family who is still living in Poland, it is quite usual to go to church every Sunday and there are only very few excuses, whereas in Germany, church only plays a minor part and  isn’t  that important in everyday life. In my life religion does exist, because of my parents, who have shown me the importance of faith and the Christian traditions. I don’t have to go to church every week, but on Christian holidays, church attendance is an inherent part.

In addition, they say that the Polish are a very sociable and hospitable people, that they are also rather active.  And I can say: It is no lie. While Germans, for example, prefer celebrating in a relaxed way, Polish parties are much louder and livelier.  So Germans can be characterized as showing a more silent and reserved behaviour, but nevertheless I can say that they know anyway how to have fun.

But the Polish and the Germans have something in common, too. One example for it is the precision and their conscience. Both of them take their work as well as other tasks very seriously, they are ambitious and perfectionists.

To sum up, I can say, that I can identify with both cultures and I wouldn’t like to miss one of them because both of them are enriching my life.

by Marta Lewandowska and Małgorzata Leonarcik (LOG)

School is really important in every youth’s life. Education determines our future career – our job, our status, our satisfaction. This is why deciding on our path is such a serious matter. In every field, we need different qualifications. School can help us develop our abilities.

When we decide on our school life, we also choose our leading subjects. That means we learn the subjects we need in our future job, e.g. Maths for engineers, Biology for doctors. However, when choosing a path, we are still very young and inexperienced. It is hard to make a proper decision. Youths are likely to change their mind as they learn new things and find their new passions and interests. It means that even if someone has been learning History diligently for 2 years, he can suddenly go on to learning Physics and taking a path of an engineer.

We conducted a survey at our school. We wanted to find out opinions of our schoolmates that chose different majors. The questions was their future job and their reason for picking it out. We think that the survey made many people think about their life.

The results of our work are quite interesting. We found out that people that chose Science as their main subject (and also Biology, Geography, etc.) are more likely to take jobs connected with it. People learn Biology and Chemistry because their plan for life is being a doctor, a nurse, a pharmacist.

If one spends much time on Maths, he probably dreams about being an architect, a banker or a businessman. The reason for that can probably have something to do with a specific character of the subject. A student needs to think logically and to understand many rules and laws of the nature.

There’s a difference in regard to humanistic subjects. The subjects are rather not very specific and it may be the reason why students’ plans differ so much. It is quite common to find people who want to be psychologists, lawyers, journalists, but others prefer being geodesists and doctors! They don’t care that it’s difficult to take this path, while they aren’t used to learning Science. They want to fulfill their dreams no matter what. Maybe humanists are just such full of passions people that think with their heart and not their common sense…

We also asked about motivations of young people. Most of them chose… money. Maybe Poland is still a poor country and that’s the reason why every one dreams of being rich. Wealth can help fulfill all the dreams and aspirations. Isn’t that sad?

However, many people choose their job according to interests. When someone likes drawing, job of an architect is actually perfect for him. One can realize his potential and be satisfied in his life. We are also proud that some of our schoolmates just want to help others- that is the reason for being a doctor or a policeman. Other causes can be: a contact with people, traditions in family, travels and prestige.

However, it is also quite disappointing that not every one has a good reason for choosing a particular path. Life is sad when one doesn’t have a motivation. It is harder to achieve your goals, when you don’t feel like really achieving them. That is why, our young age can actually create a problem. We are still indecisive and we don’t know much about the world. We can dream, but we can’t be sure… And (for good or for bad) it is the most important time for us, when our future life is being determined.

Let’s take this challenge!

by Izabela Woznicka (LOG)

In October 2010 the second edition of the project created by the global association AIESEC Poland took place in our school. It is called ‘Enter Your Future’ and this project enables students from the whole world to take part in the international practice.

In Gostynin we had an opportunity to meet three students from Georgia, Indonesia and China. Together with my friends, I had a chance to participate in these lectures. They were mainly devoted to enterprising and how to work in groups effectively. Of course, all of them were in English. This language was the only way to communicate for all of us. Never have we taken part in such classes before. That’s why, at the beginning it was really hard to forget about Polish. Some students were also stressed, but it wasn’t necessary to feel this way because it turned out that our guests, who came to Gostynin, were very friendly and sociable. What’s more important, they were very patient while working with students. The culture differences weren’t a serious barrier for us. On the contrary, we were extremely interested in listening to girls talking about their home countries.

After we had introduced ourselves, we could focus on the main topic. We worked in groups all the time and we were supposed to both communicate and get on with. Our tasks were really exciting and we had to even take advantages of our art abilities. Moreover, our views were taken into consideration because of sharing information about small and huge enterprises. I was really amazed by one task. It was connected with creating an advertisement. We could advertise one chosen  product. Both the idea and the art work were really important. The winner group received a special prize for the best advertisement.

We were really keen on these practical classes and it wasn’t a waste of time for anyone. Good fun helped us improve the foreign language. In my opinion, a nice atmosphere is one of the most important things in effective learning. I think practical lessons make everyone learn English more fluently and they can give us more useful skills than typical lessons. That’s why I was so excited about my visit in England in November 2010.

by Karolina Krukowska (LOG)

Catholic Church usually celebrates Easter in April. It is the springtime Christian festival, a very specific period of time for all the believers. The celebration of Easter is preceded by Holy Week, which begins with Palm Sunday. Palm twigs are indispensable accessories of the events of this day.  At Easter we celebrate Christ’s Resurrection,  and His victory over death and sin. On Saturday we go to church to consecrate Easter food, like bread, sausages, salt, pepper, and especially eggs. Egg is a symbol of new life. “Pisanki”  are eggs coloured by various colors , with decoration. They are decorated with wax and then soaked in dyes. Like the reason for decoration, people can resort to their imagination: flowers, plants, Jesus, bells, sheep of Easter, rabbits. These beautiful eggs will be a decoration of the table of Easter and it will be eaten next day,  during Sunday breakfast. It is a big ceremony.
Easter Sunday starts with the mass of resurrection. Then, breakfast will be celebrated by the family. Because it is breakfast, known as “holy”, which is the time of meeting with family in Poland during Easter. People wish one another “Happy Easter” (“Wesołego Alleluja” in Poland) and have an occasion to talk together, too. Often breakfast continues all day, because Poles likes much to remain at the table.
On Easter Monday, it is “Smigus-Dyngus” or “Lany Poniedziałek- Wet Monday”. This celebration is only in Poland. During all the day, it is allowed to throw water on others, same unknown! The best idea is thus to remain at home all the day, because during a short walk or  even going on foot to church, we are likely to be wet! And there is not the right to be annoyed. Obviously, one should not exaggerate with the quantity of water thrown on an unknown person. We should cultivate the tradition but without making people angry. Formerly, “Smigus-Dyngus” in the Polish culture was very  particular among the unmarried women and men: the men tried to put the biggest possible amount of water on the girls whom they liked, thus showing them their interest and their feelings! The more received water – the more the girl was loved. And the girls said “thank you” by offering more decorated eggs! It is a beautiful  tradition. Easter isn’t a huge celebration in Poland, but it is the happiest one and it is also the symbol of spring.

- Do video games encourage violence? -

by Ailish, Frauke und Oliver (BvA)

Many experts are discussing if video games make young people aggressive. Some of them say that video games should be prohibited for adolescents.

In our opinion video games aren’t the worst thing leading to an aggressive youth; in fact, those who play them need special skills when it comes to reaction, logic and agility. Multiplayer games also encourage teamwork.

Most TV shows for children encourage violence even more than video games. If small children at about 6 years of age already watch cartoon characters killing each other in a bloody bout and see them laugh at it, to us that is a lot more violence-encouraging than adolescents’ playing e.g. ‘’Counterstrike’’ – that is just the next step on what has started in their childhood.

Video games can be violence encouraging, too. But those youngsters who really became a danger for the people around them were mentally ill before they started playing those games.

So, to us it’s clear that most video games aren’t as bad as it is always said after one of those killing frenzies. It depends on who is playing them and it’s impossible to judge all adolescents by some exceptions.

by  Jessica and Denise   (BvA)

Shopping in England is just great. For example “Primark”. Primark is a big shop for clothes, jewellery and so on. In Germany we just have two shops of that chain; they are in Frankfurt and Bremen.

But in Germany we’ve got a lot of H&M shops. That’s our Primark. But it’s more expensive than Primark & the quality isn’t as good.

We think that Primark is a nice shop and we spent a lot of time in it when we were in Birmingham.

In England they also have some H&M shops but not so many as Primark.

It was a new experience to see a shop in England because they’re different from ours in Germany.

by Meike & Katrin (BvA)

The 12^th grade went to Berlin by train from 3^rd to 7^th October 2010. We split up in two groups because the German Railway didn’t allow 90 people in one train.

The first evening we went to the Brandenburger Gate because of the German Unification Day. There was a fair all the way down to the Column of Victory where we went in little groups of 3 or 4.

The next day we visited the Parliament Building, the Reichstag Building, with the whole group. We listened to a lecture about the building and after that we met Ms. Noll and talked about her work as the MP of our home region. Then we went to the top of the building with its glass dome.

For lunch we all went to the 12 Apostle, an Italian restaurant. The afternoon was free to explore the city or go shopping. In the evening we had time to party which we took advantage of thoroughly.

On Tuesday we all had to go on a 2-hour-trip on the River Spree which runs through the city. For lunch we could go on our own or with the teachers, but we had to meet at the museum “Story of Berlin” in the afternoon at 3 o’clock. After the museum we had free time until the next morning. In the evening some of us (60 people) went to a brewery which actually was more like a bar.

On Wednesday we went to museums in small groups. There was the Art Museum, the Jewish Museum, the Museum of Nature and the German History Museum. After that we had free time again.

The last evening we all went to the brewery again, this time with the teachers, which was a little bit boring so that after about half an hour most of us left to go somewhere else. Some of us went to another bar with the teachers which was lots of fun.

The next day we left Berlin by train again in two groups.

All in all we had a great time and got to see a lot of the City of Berlin.

Von Charlotte Dwyer and Ellie Smith (LHS)

In unserer Schule treiben wir jeden Tag Sport, weil wir der Meinung sind, Sport wichtig ist . Montags spielen wir Fussball, Dienstags spielen wir Netzball und Federball, Mittwochs spielen wir Kricket, Donnerstags spielen wir Hockey und machen Gymnastik und Freitags spielen wir Basketball und Rugby. Wir finden Sport spannend und spassig! Es ist gut für unsere Gesundheit, und für Teamarbeit.
Die `Lady Hawkins’ School’ hat ein sehr gutes und erfolgreiches Netzballteam in der 10ten Klasse. Wir sind dreimal Meister in Herefordshire geworden und wir haben in unserer Region West Midlands gespielt.
Die Schule gibt Studenten eine Sportskrawatte wenn sie sehr gut in Sport sind. Auch werden Studenten Preise für sportliche Erfolge gegeben.

by Scott Johnson (LHS)

Am Freitagnachmittag 19.11.2010 haben wir während des Comeniustreffens einen Weihnachtsmarkt in Birmingham besucht. Joe und ich hatten eine wunderbare Zeit.

by Henry Beaumont (LHS)

On Monday the 22nd of  November the Comenius group went together to The Big Pit near Blaenavon in Wales. Once we arrived we headed into the Museum and headed into the waiting room for the Underground Tour. We were only allowed down into the mine in groups of around 17. Once we were kitted up into belts and helmets we stepped into the lift and were lowered 90 metres down into the mine. There we were taken around by a tour guide who had himself worked in the mine when he was younger, and it was there that we learned children as young as five worked by opening and closing flaps for elder men coming through with mine carts.

As we went deeper into the mine we were told about the other workers in the mine and the horses. Horses in the early days of mining were used to pull around trains filled to the brim with coal. Once they had been taken down into the mines many horses never saw daylight again. That was until a new law was passed that required that horses had to have semi-regular holidays. Even after holidays had been introduced once horses were too old to work they were killed. Only two horses from the big pit were ever retired.

Towards the end of our tour we were told about the danger of burrowing into the Welsh Ground and Carbon Monoxide poisoning. The Miners used Canaries to test for this Gas and at the end of our tour after riding the lift, in miners’s tongue “the cage”, back up to the surface we met two other canaries before moving on and having our lunch in the miner’s canteen.

After this we went into the virtual mining experience where we saw a miners’ shower room and many historical photos of their  working life.