E tu come sei al lavoro? #beniceratwork Campaign

Inizio ufficialmente una campagna, #beNicerAtWork. Per tutti quelli che hanno bisogno di ricevere un sorriso in più al lavoro.

Qué no os quiten nunca la ilusión ni la sonrisa!

Riflessione:

Educhiamo i più piccoli e non sappiamo nemmeno la responsabilità che ci prendiamo.  Ma chi sono quelli che educano i bambini, gli educatori, le educatrici, i prof, i genitori, parenti, noi, persone in generale.

Cosa ci rende veramente un modello da seguire? Ma esiste veramente un modello da seguire?

Educhiamo i bambini ad esprimere la loro frustrazione civilmente, un bambino di un anno e mezzo arrabbiato non ci pensa due volte a mordere - fino a che non ti fa male, fino a che non hai più lacrime da piangere.

E noi gli insegnamo a non farlo.

Cresciamo e diventiamo due tipi di persone, quelle che mordono e quelle che vengono morse. Solo che i morsi degli adulti non lasciano traccia.

Al lavoro ci rispondiamo male, ci parliamo dietro alle spalle, ci trattiamo con ironia e non ci aiutiamo nel momento del bisogno, ci diciamo bugie e calpestiamo sempre - sempre il più debole.

Un bambino di un anno e mezzo dopo che ti ha morso non ci pensa due volte a darti un bacio per farsi perdonare.

Perché? Perché glielo abbiamo insegnato noi, sì, sì, proprio io e te. Ma cosa gli stiamo insegnando?

Gli insegnamo a dare un bacio per sistemare le cose oppure a non mordere?

E noi, che cosa abbiamo imparato?

There's more to English than Exams

La Generazione del First Certificate

Alle soglie dei 25 anni spuntiamo noi, la generazione degli anni 90, divisa profondamente in due: quelli che sanno parlare Inglese e quelli che hanno il First.

 Ma cosa vuol dire veramente avere il FCE, comunemente chiamato il Forstt

1.    Secondo le tabelle del QCER corrisponde ad un B2, ovvero un livello intermedio superiore in cui si è in grado di intavolare una conversazione riguardante temi personali senza nessun tipo di problema. Per quanto riguarda invece altri argomenti come, politica, economia, sociologia, scienza, lavoro e quant’altro lo studente del First non si può ancora esprimere con una proprietà di linguaggio adeguata.

2.     Avere un B2 in cinese o in russo non è come avere un B2 in Inglese. La concorrenza è spietata, in Inglese oggi come oggi il FCE è il vostro punto di partenza, non la vostra meta.

3.    ‘Per quanto riguarda le abilità linguistiche, vorremmo sapere in dettaglio le Sue capacità in Inglese’

“Nessun problema, anno scorso ho dato il PET e ora devo dare il FIRST a settembre!”  Bravo ti sei appena aggiudicato un posto atempo indeterminato come controfigura del Gabibbo!

‘Dunque ragazzo, vada un po’ più nello specifico, potrebbe mantenere una conversazione telefonica con dei fornitori diciamo, scozzesi?’

“Mah, guardi, io l’Inglese capire lo capisco, ora è che a parlarlo mi blocco, quando parlano veloce pure, e l’Americano poi è difficile anche se devo dire che l’accento scozzese è quello che mi dà più problemi! Però ecco, quando parlano piano, con un accento tipo quello di Londra (‘mboccallupo) e vedo la bocca che si muove quando parla, capisco bene…. Ecco basta che non parli in slènggh” Quindi non parli una ceppa d’Inglese ecco dettonduparole

‘Grazie bene dovremmo fare un intervista in Inglese per assicurarci che Lei sia il candidato adatto, martedì prossimo’

Ed è così che chiami mamma e inizi…

“no vabbé, questi so stronzi forte, gli ho detto che ho il PET e che mi sto preparando al British per il Forsst e pure mi vogliono fa’ il colloquio in Inglese… cioè veramente”

4.    Le istituzioni che certificano le vostre conoscenze di Inglese come la Cambridge, il Trinity College (che tra l’altro nun ve serve a niente), Eudcational Testing Service (quelli del TOEFL) in questi anni hanno nuotato nell’oro grazie alle bugie e al mito della Certificazione Linguistica.

Avere il Proficiency non vi rende bilingui, vi dà solo il merito di aver passato un test linguistico in chiave matematica.

5.    Quest’estate se passo il FIRST vado a Londra per un mesetto a lavorare, magari inizio in un ristorante italiano e poi se vedo che prendo un po’ di Fluency faccio il CAE.

Oddio un altro hipster che va a Londra a imparare l’Inglese e metterà un altro album su Facebook intitolato London Calling.

Che alternativo! Diglielo allo Speaking del CAE mi raccomando!

6.    L’80% delle persone mente nel proprio CV, e capisco il perché, anche solo per avere un colloquio per un tirocinio non pagato la situazione è critica. Una piccola bugia nel CV non ha mai di certo fatto male a nessuno, ma quando dici che sai l’Inglese l’unica persona a cui menti è a te stesso. Soprattutto quando per fare il fico su instagram scrivi ‘Have fan!’ e  ‘Coming to home, WTF!!”.

6. Ah, BTW, scrivere  WTF, FYI, OMG non vuol dire che sai l’Inglese. E nemmeno guardare i film in versione originale coi sottotitoli in Italiano dopo aver preso 110 e Lode nella tua tesi su quante volte Shakespeare andava al bagno.

Cosa possiamo fare per migliorare?

AD/HD Calls for more Awareness

Erasmus: a very short introducation for Haters.

Your back hurts, you're relentlessly peckish, you set aside and devour books that depict exotic lands and, eventually, you go all Gandhi about travelling.

That's how it all started, once 19 I turned in my Erasmus application - my only getaway.

Erasmus is usually synonymous with funfunfun! bonkers!

 and got-totally-wasted-and-puked-on-the-taxi-home!

I'll spare you the details this time, however I will try to jot down what studying abroad entails for a 20-something year old student. So guys let's break down a couple of stereotypes on going on Erasmus, since unfortunately lots of students still state that 'it's a waste of time' and 'it's tailor-made for slackers'.


MONEY
"My friends went on Erasmus and are blowing their parents' money"
Most scholarships amounted to about 250 euros a month which I, personally, formally received after 5 months since I moved to England. How did I get by? I started working part time well before even getting accepted at Warwick, saved up money and helped myself while I was studying. The students who go on Erasmus usually turn into self-made accountants in order to avoid bankrupt, these are the kind of practical skills you'll need for good.

STUDY
"My friend went on erasmus and did fuck-all"

The English university system pivots on self study, lectures are minimal meanwhile the idea of a seminar is thought and designed to be more of a swap of ideas rather than concept drumming. So yes, I only had 10 hours of class per week. Which,of course, for most Italian students is inconceivable. However I can't keep track of how many books I have read, how much hours of research I've put in, plus time spent seeking out information at the library, talking with other fellow students, demos, and volunteering. Yes, I did volunteering work while on Erasmus and I was not the only one.

I scored embarrassingly high marks in the exams, and no, they didn't know I was an exchange student - exams are anon in the UK. I didn't know what I was capable of till strangers marked my work. Most importantly, I was acquiring quality knowledge. 

SEMINARS
"My friend went on Erasmus and his teacher gave him alcohol during class"
There are many ways as to conduct a seminar, however one could easily say a seminar is a sort of intellectual get-together. You meet up in small groups of students usually led by someone who has a broader field experience - be it a teacher or not. It's when students clear up doubts, ask questions, and express their opinions. That's even most important than any other top-down lecture you can attend to, which might be wonderfully illustrated but still quite unilateral. Sometimes, especially in England, can happen that a teacher brings in a bottle of wine as to kindly apologise for a late-in-the-evening seminar for instance.

FRIENDS
"I already got pals I don't need no one yo"

Despite my skepticism I found amazing people coming from all over Europe  who made me an all-new person. Knowledge is priceless, relationships are priceless, openmindedness, tolerance and culture are our most precious legacy and on those you can't certainly put a price.
Most of those friendships have proved to being strongest links I have to my sweetest memories and memories-to-be. I have been blessed!



TRIPS
"I don't care where they travel to, weren't they supposed to go there to study? Look at their facebook page!"
Once you leave your country you'll want to see more and more. Yes, on Erasmus we travel a lot and I'm sorry to break this to you but that's a wonderful thing to do, as has been said before it's the only thing you pay that makes you richer. The sense of fulfilment you gain from your trips is genuinely addictive!

So don't go all hater on your friends who 'went on Erasmus and were always hanging around'. You're just bit jealous ;)


LANGUAGE
"She can't even speak English that well"

If you don't feel fluent with the language of the country you are going to, don't worry about it. We all feel that way. My literature teacher had me writing an unassessed essay and soon thereafter she called me up after a couple of days and told me that if I wanted to reach good results I had to get my act together.  I needed to widen my vocab and work hard on the contents, I was too shallow and green to excel. Once you come to terms with it it's all downhill from there.

Work hard, read, watch series (something students really know how to do), bomb yourself with language, go out, have fun and you'll learn twice as much. Your mind is receptive and powerful, learning doesn't necessarily mean racking you brain. Straight up!

At the end of the year the same teacher told me she was amazed with what I achieved...mostly by enjoying doing what I was studying.

CULTURE AND STEREOTYPES

"Racism is treated travelling" Miguel de Unamuno once said - the naked truth. Go see for youself what other peoples are like, and you'll find out an aweful lot of things about yourself. Someone else will make you question yourself and it'll hit you like a ton of bricks on the head.

By collaborating with peers of other cultures you learn about tolerance, fellowship effective teamwork. The grounds for a better and fairer society.

TIME

"If you go abroad you won't graduate on time".

Point 1: you can graduate on time if you smartly use your time. I did two full exchange programmes and I pulled it off.
Point 2: even if for some reason you couldn't, a couple of months of delay will make absolutely no difference in your life.
Point 3: most employers set a high value on your experiences and sense of initiative and prefer it over the actual duration of your study. Get over it!

CONTEXT
It's not easy to self-administrate your life when you just turned 20. We're kids, we like travelling, we're alone and we have to get along with lots of new friends whom you just met and will be your family for about one year. Most of them don't speak your language and come from a totally different culture.
It's like attending a master degree in international relationship and mediation, and if you think that this is a wee over the top means you should pack your stuff and go see what's around you. You have no idea!


FUN
That's pretty much self-explanatory, you go on Erasmus and apart from building up your self-confidence you also have a blast.
Is it THAT bad? You surely won't believe that Erasmus students do fuck-all only because we enjoy going out, will you?
This certainly calls for more of a mature judgement rather than a lame label! :)

A quick Glance at All-round Education

A Forbidden Education

We've all been students, regardless of what, when and where we've studied. But what is studying?

Think of an answer.

Studying is the process of learning something by … going to school! University! Getting an MBA?

Think back, about all the things that you've had to mug up since you were a kid, at the age of 4 most of us were taught how to read and mastered basic counting techniques. At 6 most of us were familiar with the concept of problem.

Problems needed to be solved.

In primary school my math teacher introduced this by putting a key onto the last shelf of the wardrobe and said 'go get it kid!'.

Back then I was about 3ft 7 and I genuinely told her, 'I can't! it's too high away - I should get a chair...” That was the very first problem I came acroos at school. Clear and well-rendered.
What happened afterwards? Why has everything gotten so hard to understand and utterly useless. Why have teachers forced us to learn endless notions of history, latin, analytic geometry. We have spent our childhood and teenagehood cramming on books. Hundreds of pages, dates, formulas and what have you. Learn this learn that, grind away, get the best marks or – or what???
They made us cry our souls out, they made us want to drop out when we couldn't possibly bone up everything, we just couldn't. Some told us we were thick, others told us we needed to stay focused and stop hanging around with friends. We all had to be good in everything, we couldn't get by, we needed to master everything in order to face real life.

How many of the things they taught you at school have had any practical use in your life? Reading, writing and basic counting? Well this you could do at 5.

What about all the things you couldn't do when you went to school, e.g thinking. What did you think back then, what problems did you come across, and I'm not referring to the X you had to find in you math workbook.
Where was the key you couldn't reach? What about the mere 8-minute break my school generously granted us to take a break. 8 minutes in a 6-hour school session, and we were only 14 when we started. What about getting to know other cultures, talking, visiting without the fear of profiling a detailed report depicting what we did? What about getting to respect the surrounding nature by making the most of it and living on emotions.
Why couldn't we have class outside sitting on the grass when spring was in bloom – because we'd get distracted.

Of course we would, we were never given the time to look around us to explore, to ask questions. We had to pack up Earth Science notions from a book! When we could have just walked out of the freaking classroom and go touch things. I'd have loved a teacher who could show us the environment we were living in rather than seeing it on a picture or craning our neck towards the window if we got any luck. We spent days without looking at the sky.
Experience is learning and culture is what remains after you've forgotten everything.
In an era in which technology is making life so much easier for us there is something that, as teachers, we should pass onto our students.

No computer will replace the joy of a fresh brush on a canvas, marine breeze and the smell of a recently bloomed flower. Take your students out, let them speak their mind, listen to them and they will ask you to teach them things. Just like they did when they were 3 and they had all the time to play, but they'd beg you to teach them how to read instead.