Week 6

This week we familiarized ourselves with the outcomes of a Grundtvig -project called Memory Matters - the Making of Social History. I explained what the Finnish, Polish and English partners did within this project, and then we focused on the Irish partners' results. They used short films as a means of recording and preserving social history (traditions, customs) to future generations. We watched three short films in class, and even though we had some technical difficulties with the sound, people said that they found this topic very interesting. In the first film, the Udder Way, we saw and heard how milking a cow has changed over the years during the past few decades. A Day in the Bog showed us how the Irish people have long lifted turf and used it as fuel. In this short film people used traditional tools that have been used for turf lifting, and I must admit that it seemed that those rather simple tools are a useful way of making turf blocks. In the third short film, called the Box Iron,  we saw four ladies talking about how difficult ironing was (and still is!) with a box iron.

Next week I thought we could talk about cultures and cultural differences. For that purpose I'll ask people to bring some souvenir(s) to class. An ideal item would be something that is typical to that particular culture, and something that brings back memories to the person who brought it. The idea is, of course, to talk about the observations of different cultures people have made when travelling, and perhaps compare them to our culture. I'm actually really looking forward to these discussions. Let's see what we'll come up with!