Sunday, October 17, 2010
We arrived in Munich after a 9 hour flight. Our connecting flight from Munich to Poznan, Poland was canceled so we were held over at Munich for a couple of hours waiting on another flight. Poznan is a town with rich history and architecture. There are several memorials various wars and conflicts. This town has been through a lot through history.
We met up with a teacher from one of the high schools who gave us a tour of the market square and spoke to us about Polish schools and the University. She teaches English to students here. She is a second year teacher. In Poland, new teachers don't get a full-time job. She works 4 hours a day teaching and works nights translating and teaching business classes. She shared many cultural things here and stated that all students in Poland must learn English and are very proficient by the time the graduate. However, up until 20 years ago, all students learned Russian and German while they were a communist country. So, the generation that is 40+ years old doesn't speak English, while the current generations do. A real divide. She knows as much about US history as many of our students do. We spoke about the Marshall plan from WWII, she knows the US geography, landmarks, etc. She's familiar with US issues and policies. Very impressive.
We are meeting with the Physics department this morning. They want to learn about Teleplace, the online community we'll be using, so that they can help us set it up. I forgot to mention that we are staying in a hostel, which is much like a dorm room. Very modest, but comfortable. It makes you realize the differences in wealth of our country compared to others. As far as the schools go, they are 99% caucasian of Polish descent. Not much diversity.
No comments:
Post a Comment