“Just in the north of Finland, in the middle of a small village, in the middle of endless forests, the first meeting of the new project took place…”
Finland is the fascinating country, which has had our Language School Pelican in the viewfinder for a long time. Whatever it had meant for us to warm-up at the Finnish sauna, that nearly every Finn has at home, or to see perhaps only for a little moment a glimpse of Aurora. Finally, we only managed to catch a glimpse of a glow emanating from the “Greenhouses” in which the Finns proudly grow their tomatoes, but we were even for this light flowing from the huge illuminated buildings incredibly grateful, since it was basically the only source of light you can see in Finland during gloomy November days.
And that Finland is called a country in which the sun never fades? Well, not in November. In this period, Finland is the country where most of the day – is the night.
But don’t worry, PELICAN has not fallen from the lack of sunlight in the autumn depression, quite the contrary. The Finnish lifestyle, plenty of good food and friendly people lit our hearts just after arrival. And – today you don’t even need your passport to take a little vacation in Finland with us. Let’s see!
Finland, here we are! When the land of thousands lakes hide much more than we expected…
Before we jump right into the disclosure of the main goals of our trip, let’s get to know at least a little about Finland. There are plenty of things that even traveller PELICAN did not know before – and that there is so much to talk about!
Speaking about sauna has been already done, but this fact has yet to be emphasized (for 5 million people here you can find about 2.2 million saunas). In Finland you will find more saunas than cars – even for example in fast foods! Probably the most famous nickname of Finland (and it must be said that it is lawful) is the land of thousands of lakes and islands. Indeed, almost 10 % of the country covers the lakes, you can find here 200 000 of them (those that are bigger than 500 square meters). And the islands – these are almost the same number.
Among the other Finnish pearls, that we learned during our stay, is that: if you buy a chair in the Ikea store, it will probably be named after one of the Finnish places, national animal is the brown bear and a very popular sport here is: throwing a cell phone. Finns also boasts the largest number of heavy metal bands in the world. The profit from gambling is all about charity, and Finland is so green that almost 9 of 10 plastic bottles go back to recycling. Well done, Finland!
If you are interested in a bit of history, it is certainly interesting to mention that Finland is a relatively “young” country. Until 1809 the country was a part of Sweden. That’s why Swedish is still the official language in Finland – and in some areas (even in the one visited by PELICAN) Swedish is still a major language and where children start learning Finnish basically at a later age at school.
For PELICAN, who is a good and beverage gourmet (by beverage we are thinking especially a hectolitres of coffee), it was a great surprise that the Finns drink the most coffee in the world, an average of 12 g of coffee per Finn per year. Which basically means, that PELICAN could be considered as two massive Finns together. Well, when it comes to coffee, we were convinced after our previous trip to Florence, that no country could beat Italy. However – after a few days in Finland during the winter months, we have realized that coffee is probably really needed here more than anywhere else, because as soon as you wake up – you feel like it is already a night again. Caffeine, caffeine, caffeine – please!
And so we could go on forever. We kind has found out that although Finland is for Czech people relatively easily accessible country, the only thing we had idea was probably that the capital is Helsinki and the Finnish ice hockey has a pretty good (and pretty handsome) team, which can sometimes give even our ice hockey legend Jaromír Jágr pretty hard time. And therefore we are more than happy to realize that not only Finland itself but also its inhabitants have much more to offer.
And when you ever come up with complaining about the amount of the fine for speeding on our roads, remember the poor (actually rich) person from Finland. There are no fixed tables in the country to determine how much you pay for exceeding the speed – you simply be calculated on the basis of monthly income. Ooopzy!
But back to the fairy tale about how PELICAN found himself in Finland…
The fact, that our Language School PELICAN is not “just” a language school that provides its students with services in the area of language education, is generally known. A big part of our school is also a non-profit organization Association PELICAN within which we, all of pelicans (yes, usually including our students) are involved in interesting activities related to participation in European educational projects. Thanks to this, we are constantly “on horseback”, we can be creative, we can invent, be innovative and build – a new educational tools, which are then widely use in our courses, especially when it comes to learning a Czech as a foreign language.
And thanks to this, we can actually never get bored!
About one of our fairy-tale projects called MultiLib, which was designed to develop children’s language skills and multicultural understanding through fairy tales, you have already heard before. After all, who would not now our multilingual online library full of fairy tales for children, including 26 books translated into seven European languages and 12 books in minority languages of the partner countries and the book of activities which for created for all who wants to work with the library? Well, if you have not visited the library yet, then you have to catch up!
MusiLib project builds on a successful MultiLib!
How to involve music in intercultural education of children is the main question of the new project, called MusiLib. After a successful MultiLib project, mainly related to the involvement of books – fairy tales in language learning, the partners decided to build on it and move it further on. Do you ask how? By using a truly innovative medium in education – MUSIC, which has also an indisputable reflection of local culture in each partner country.
As a part of the new project, the existing MultiLib library will be expanded to include the “soundtracks” for each individual story, in collaboration with professional musicians who will do so through the traditional instruments of the country from which the fairy tale comes from.
Subsequently, partners will create a Multicultural online library of used instruments for children. In there you will find photos of all musical instruments including short record with typical sounds for each musical instrument. And of course, to stay in the fairy tales, each musical instrument will be accompanied with short fairy tale, explaining its origin and tradition. In addition, as with the MultiLib project, a set of activities and a handbook for teachers will be created to explain to teachers how to work effectively with developed tools. Was learning ever more fun?
Well, and that’s actually the end of the story about how PELICAN found himself in Finland. The project coordinator has become a partner from Finland, who has joined the already established partnership from the MultiLib project – to partners from Sweden, Belgium, Greece, the Czech Republic and Great Britain. Just in the north of Finland, in in the middle of small village, in the middle of endless forests, the first meeting of the new project took place.
So, to be clear, PELICAN really did not only attend the sauna in Finland. Hardly (but still with fun and smile on our lips) we have been planning together with our partners in 3 days what steps we will take to deliver the resulting materials to the target groups of the project (pupils in elementary schools in seven partner countries, migrant children and ethnic minorities in these countries, teachers in primary schools, but also just all those interested in language and multicultural education) as soon as possible.
As a part of the project, we plan to organize various workshops (not only in primary schools), which will allow all interested people to take a closer look at the project’s “secrets” and familiarize themselves with the created materials so that everyone can work with the tools efficiently. That’s the goal!
There is no other choice but to believe that the new MusiLib projet will be at least as successful as its older brother – MultiLib. So, at the end of this story, let’s just say – let’s keep the good work! And do not forget to play a nice song tonight!
Your (still tuned Finnish) PELICAN
