WHAT THE EUROPEAN UNION DOES FOR ME

The European Union  does various things for us such as making the mobile phone companies produce the same chargers, protect children from sexual abuses... Today, we are going to focus on the new translation services.

It is always disconcerting to find yourself face to face with the law. However, it's even more disconcerting if you don't understand the language they use for them.

Therefore, the EU has reacted and has decided to do something about it: EU will help foreign people by giving them a translator for free. So, from now on each member state is required to provide with this service.



In our opinion, this new legislation is a great idea and also very useful because more and more Europeans travel, work and study abroad.

Made by: Ainhoa and Sara

WHAT IS THE EUROPEAN UNION AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

We have just finished the first term and one of the main things that we have studied are the institutions of the EU. We haven't found it easy as they are quite simillar to each other and have simillar names. Here are to videos that explain everything you need to know about the EU clearly and it's very easy to understand.

WORLD CAFE

As I wrote in one of my posts, four of us had the opportunity to go to Gasteiz to a World Cafe that was organised the day of the languages. We spoke about a lot of subjects to do with Europe  and then in class we were asked to take some photos about the diferent subjects. Here are two photos that I took.

• This one is for the exchanges, last year we went to Italy for a week on a cultural exchange:

• This is the currency that is mainly used in Europe:

ICH KANN DEUTSCH SPRECHEN!

Hallo!
I can only say some words in German because we have been taking classes every monday for about a month or two! Daniel, from England teaches us every mondays for an hour. He studied German and is here on a programme like Erasmus. Until now we have studied the numbers and I can count up to a hundred. Last week, we started with the alphabet. I can also do a little presentation of myself in German.
Everybody says that it's quite a difficult language and I agree with them but I think that little by little we will be able to have a simple conversation with somebody german.
I recommend anybody to give german a try, you have to be patient but It's a nice language and people say it might by as important as english in a future!
Here's a video as an introduction of the language:

TCHUS!

A RED CARD FOR RACISM!

 The European Union is not perfect, there are still some challenges that we need to find solutions to.

As you are bound to know, lots of people are judged because of the colour of their skin or their origin. Not only  is this  a problem around the world but also in the European Union.  This problem is due to xenophobia and racism which lead to discrimination.

Whereas xenophobia is the fear of foreign people,  racism suggests a difference of races, where  people say that one race is superior to the other. 

Racism and xenophobia have always existed. For example, during World War II the Nazis decided to kill the Jews who lived in Germany because they thought the world would be better without them. They killed about 6 million (The Holocaust).

Nowadays one of the biggest problems of xenophobia is to do with  Gypsies. Lots of people think that  Gypsies just steal and are not honest. They judge them without knowing them. Black people also have  big problems, they have  always been  judged on the basis of their skin color.

It’s true that they are trying to find solutions to this problem. In football there are  lots of campaigns against racism. In the past,  people used to shout racist things at some of the players.

 So what is the solution?  I think the first step is  to teach  kids that we are all the same and  we all have the same rights. So then they can teach their own  kids the same lesson and hopefully this message will be passed on to the next generations.

ARE THEY MESSING AROUND WITH OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM?

The Spanish Minister of Education, Jose Ignacio Wert, planned to cut funding for the Erasmus programme.  In his opinion, he said that this money should go to those who needed it more.

After a rebellion in his own political party, Partido Popular (PP), he has had to back down. He was also under pressure from the EU who said that they should have notified  them about this before as  this meant that lots of students already abroad  were going to lose their grants. Furthermore, the students that still hadn’t left,  were going to lose their opportunity to take part.

Not only did this pressure come from his  political party but also from students who went on various demonstrations to make their point clear. What they were fighting for was a chance to study abroad and so experience living away from home as most Spanish students tend to stay at home while doing their degree.

To my mind, I’m worried about the present government. Not only will they withdraw this funding next year but also they are beginning to mess around with our education system.

For futher information visit this web page: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/05/spain-student-funding-cuts-erasmus

TRIP TO REYKJAVIK!

Ainhoa Azpeitia and me, whe have been preparing a trip to Reykjavik for our classmates. We have written all the information in a blog so you can see the price and all the activities that we have included. We chose Reykjavik as the destination because we are interested in the north-european countries. We hope you like the trip!

Here's the blog:

Trip to Reykjavik

STUDYING ABROAD

Maitane Andueza is a student who was born in San Sebastian and is actually studying her fourth year of teacher training in "EHU", the university of the Basque Country. Last year, she had the great oportunity to go and do her third year in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She went on a similar programme to Erasmus. I asked her some questions about her experience abroad:

ME: Why did you choose to go to Argentina?

MAITANE: I'm not really sure. Since I was a child, I've always liked it as a country.

ME: How was it at the beginning, did you have any problems?

MAITANE: At the university they were all really relaxed and didn't really care about giving in the work. It

took time to get used to that. Here they are much more strict with the deadlines.

ME: What was the experience like in general?

MAITANE: It was a great experience, I really loved it and I learnt and got to know lots of things.

ME: What was your favourite thing?

MAITANE: The people. When I came back I realised that what they say about Basque people is true. We are not very sociable people, whereas in Argentina they are all really open and friendly. They helped me at all times and they made me feel as if I was part of their family.

ME: What did you like the least?

MAITANE: I was located in Buenos Aires and I didin't like their lifestyle. I thought it was really chaotic and I often felt quite lonely. I didn't get used to their lifestyle at all.

ME: Anything special about your stay?

MAITANE: As I also spent the whole summer there, I had the opportunity to travel around with a group of Basque students that I met there. When they left, I was on my own and I learnt a lot of things. That was really special, I could have never imagined myself in a country like Argentina on my own.

VISIT TO THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY!

A few weeks ago, we visited the university library located next to our school (about 3 minutes walking). We had a look at the books they had and what facilities the library had. On the one hand, there are a lot of books of many different subjects so It's a great place for finding information for schoolwork. On the other hand, they also have a lot of tables for studying so It's a good place for studying. They also have rooms for doing group work and quite a lot of computers if you want to check something on the Internet. The access is permited to everybody, It's not only for people studying in the university.
Afterwards, we went to have a wonder around the area to see if we could find any students from abroad on the Erasmus program. But saddly we only found a girl that was from America who was doing a different project but was very happy here and she liked the city.
In my opinion, it was a great visit!
If you want any information about the university or the library visit the website:
http://www.ehu.es/p200-home/eu