The second week in Szeged passed quickly and I had knew day by day more about these lovely kids.
On Monday we visited on the Szent István square the 100 years old water tower, from which we had a magnificent view on the whole town.
On Tuesday, I talked about China and made milk tea to let the kids taste it. I was happy that they said that homemade tea was good. I was surprised to find that a girl in Peter’s group was interested in Japanese comic books, which I like too. Anna and other girls were really nice by smiling all the time; their oral English was just perfect: advanced vocabulary, perfect tone…! In English class, the boys in Piroska’s group introduced Szeged to me from different aspects. Thanks to them I knew how colorful summers in this town are, what Hungarian typical food looks like and how wonderful job the Foundation does. I envied them given chances to travel to the U.K. if they achieve a high academic performance. On the other hand I was proud of them because they work hard to be the one to travel!
I thought listening to me talking was not a good way to introduce China to the boys so I decided to do it by holding a quiz. After that I showed them some card-tricks and luckily two of them had known more than I did. I turned out to be audience, and they were the entertainer but I enjoyed, since we had common topics and they used the language. :-)
On Thursday I was with the youngest group. During the lesson, I found that they knew some English words that I didn’t know. Vanda was really active and had never been afraid of making mistakes in class, which is really a good quality to own. Lily had been a shy girl but when she was telling everyone the game’s rules in class she had a really loud voice. Zoli made them speak and ask each other – I thought this was the best method to push them to use the language – and it worked!
On Friday I was in Peter’s class. The kids made a circulatory system for seeds to grow after Peter taught them how. I can only say they truly did an amazing job. It was complicated but they mastered it.
On Saturday I went to swimming pool with Piroska’s group. I spent most of my time with Patrik, Zsolt and Mark. Zsolt and I talked a lot (well, that was because I followed him all the time and kept asking them). It was useful for them and obviously they enjoyed it.
I love the outdoor swimming pool. How amazing it is to just wear a swimming suit in such cold weather!!! Your top half can feel the extreme cold but you are still surrounded by warm vapors. We had a really good time with talking with Patrik, Zsolt and Mark. It was also fun to surprise the kids with snowballs when we were heading back home after swimming pool. :-)
When we were on the way back to the Community House the mentor Piroska expressed how happy she was hearing the kids chatting and interacting so much in English! She said she was really proud of her group! She also told me that one girl in her group called Aliz wish to be an actress. Fingers cross for her! I hope her dream will come true.
Julie, AIESEC volunteer from China