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A taste of cultures

EISP celebrates International Week

November 5th, 2008 issue

By Joann Plocková

MICHAEL HEITMANN/The Prague Post
Students Isa Zweep (above), Amy Howell (below), Jae Hwan Lee (two below), Sam Howell (far right) and friends enjoy some treats during EISP's International Week.
MICHAEL HEITMANN/The Prague Post
Berke Yener and Ata Oflaz participate in the food festival at the English International School, Prague.
MICHAEL HEITMANN/The Prague Post
Kira Karafotas and Stephanie Blackbourn survey the action.
FOR THE POST
They walk the same hallways, wear the same uniform and eat from the same lunch menu. But when the schoolday is over, students at the English International School Prague (EISP) —  comprising 44 nationalities — go home to eat foods, speak languages and practice customs that might be unfamiliar to many of their classmates.
Giving students an opportunity to learn about these other cultures was the idea behind EISP’s recent International Week.
“They share a school, but they might not know what our nationality knows,” observes Milinniah Venter, an EISP mom from South Africa.
Held in late September, this special week was a schoolwide event aimed at “raising the children’s awareness of the world they live in, celebrating the uniqueness that each and every nationality brings to the world and helping them feel part of an international multicultural community that encourages them to be themselves,” according to a statement from school leaders.
Each grade focused on one specific region of the world — including Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Asia, the Americas and Australia. Weekly lessons and activities were structured around the countries within each grade’s specfied region. Kids had the opportunity to participate in such things as Taekwondo, Czech puppet-making, Irish dancing, Chinese calligraphy, French crepe-making, Czech Polka as well as a school-wide limbo contest. There was even a sushi class and frog-leg tasting.
Students also produced various crafts including posters representing their home countries and a large 3-D structure made up of monuments from the different regions they studied, including Big Ben, the Egyptian Pyramids and the Great Wall of China.
To set the mood, a selection of international music was played around the school during break times, and the library displayed books about the different regions of the world.
But the highlight of the week was no doubt the international food fair, featuring homemade delicacies from more than 19 countries.
“I like this part [the food festival],” says Emma Vos, an eighth-grade girl from Holland. “It’s nice to try different things. I didn’t know you could make ice cream and coke. It’s really good.”
Students, teachers and families were able to sample food from a diverse range of countries. Among the offerings were chlebíčky (canapés) and koláč (pastries) from the Czech Republic, corn bread and chocolate chip cookies from the United States, haggis (stuffed sheep intestines) and bacon from Scotland and bobotie (spiced mince meat) from South Africa.
Along with the food, each table displayed recipes, food descriptions, flags, maps, books, pictures and other representations from its particular country. Parents and students also dressed in the costume or colors of their home country.
“I live in the Czech Republic, and I don’t know much about it. It’s nice to learn about where I live,” says Justine Douglas, an eighth grader from the United States. “And it’s nice to eat American food again.”
Patricia van het Bolscher, head of the parents association, notes: “I think it’s fantastic to learn about other countries. It’s a great opportunity to learn about the other children. So many people were enthusiastic about doing this.”
Held for the first time, International Week is something EISP would like to do every year.
“Our nationality base has grown greatly,” says school spokeswoman Shelley Leighton. “We follow the British curriculum, but not all the children speak English. The parents and some of the teachers felt a need to recognize the international nature of our school, to give all the nationalities a voice. It was an opportunity to show their own country, to be proud of their own country and gain a greater understanding of other countries through fun.”
Teachers also had fun tailoring their lessons to fit in with the international theme.
“Instead of learning the regular languages — Czech, Dutch, French and German — the students learned Chinese and Spanish,” says Lucie Poole, head of the school’s language department.
Fittingly, EISP’s International Week coincided with the European Day of Languages, which is celebrated Sept. 26 each year.
“I learned to count to 10 in Chinese. I didn’t know any Chinese before,” says Lauren Alden, an eighth-grader from England.
Adam Stewart, the schools drama teacher, organized two special theater performances: a Japanese puppet show for the younger students and, for the older students, a French play performed by an English-speaking theater group about the communication between two people who speak different languages.
“Because [students] speak English all day, they were happy to speak their own language, to talk about their own country. They were really excited about it,” Stewart says.
“I know it sounds cliché, but [students] seem to have much more of an awareness of the world we live in. We seem to be more of a family [now]. Everyone was really behind one another throughout the week, cheering at the assembly for example. It’s really brought everyone together from the school. We have the flags from every country up in the school, and we are going to really embrace them.”
Joann Plocková can be reached at specialsection@praguepost.com


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