Dagoca Blog

Dear Reader,

Today I officially enrolled in school. It has finally started. At 8:45am, with a form check and a quick photo taken, enrolment was done. Afterwards we went for a quick test (we had to fill out a test at registration, but as it turned out afterwards they were looking for the right group for us). 4 of us took the test, 3 of us were put in a group with students who had been here for weeks or months. That made 6 of us in a group.

After writing the test we sat in the first class. Actually, today's lessons were about us and the teachers getting to know each other. We introduced ourselves to each other in different ways and solutions and how much the wind of nationality hit us was incredible. One guy from Spain is from an island, two guys from Saudi Arabia, one girl from Thailand and we have a fellow Ukrainian national and I am from Hungary. It was interesting to me how much they don't know about Europe and countries outside Europe.

In the morning there was a little language learning, but the afternoon was spent chatting. Everyone had to write 10 words about themselves and the others had to ask questions to find out what the word meant. I think that's my game. Ask any question, any time (I'm sure I'd do better in good Hungarian). Maybe interestingly, I can also describe going out for a meal in a Greek restaurant with the Spanish and two Arab guys. And we had a really good conversation in the meantime. They are all younger and most of them are still studying. One of the guys told me that there are universities where they don't teach anything but English, and he doesn't know any English anymore, or some now. The bottom line is that he came to learn English with zero English so that he could go to university afterwards.

To sum up: it was so good to be back in the classroom and it feels so good to know that it is the student and not the curriculum that counts. And the icing on the cake was that I understood a lot and had the courage to speak up, ask questions and have conversations.

Dagoca