Bringing British Culture to Life by Ramón Antón
Hi everyone!
I am going to tell you about my participation in the project Desarrollo de los niveles avanzados, prepared by the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas in Elche, selected and financed by the European Commission programme, Erasmus +
For my mobility I enrolled in a course for teacher with a C level of language. The course called Bringing British Culture to Life was run in Bell Education in Cambridge, an institution that offerscourses for teachers, teacher trainers and students.
The venue for the course was Homerton College.
We spent two weeks in this place, a mixture of old traditional buildings like The Great Hall and modern blocks like the Mary Allen Building where we had our lessons, seminars and workshops,
We slept in individual rooms in the West House, attended conferences and plenary talks in the Science Auditorium and socialized in a relaxed atmosphere in the Buttery Bar.
We had a very complete programme on defining
British Identity as well as some very interesting talks such as the plenary Talk: “Uncertainty” by Jim Scrivener
The best thing about this institution was the sense of community.
We all had our meals in a very nice dining room, "Harry Potter style" where we exchanged opinions and impressions.
We met teachers from all over the world.We did many cultural activities together in Cambridge and in other places, we mingled with allparticipants.We walked the paths and the orchard where Virginia Woolf and Rupert Brooke once wandered in GrantchesterWe learnt a lotWe taught and shared with our Colleagues from other countries. We sang together. We learnt new expressions such as yarn bombing, did you know that one? Here is an example
We experienced Shakespeare at St John's, we studied British art and learnt about the authors at the Fitzwilliam Museum
We practicedold methods and learnt new onesWe bathed and rolled in British culture. We talked about intercultural competence.But, above all, we made the most of our time as teachers.