“At the beginning of a colleague’s participation in this project, he/she never succeeded in pronouncing or writing the word Finland correctly. He/she always said and wrote Filand!
Once one of our pupils was alone and crying in the middle of the playground of Clemens-Europaschule in Lollar. We came closer to him/her and asked him/her what was wrong. His/her answer was just because he/she missed his/her mother. We put him/her in contact with her and the situation became a little better for the moment but not hundred per cent.
With this example and many others, we can say that we helped hundreds of our pupils grow up.
On one of our travels to Stord, in Norway, one of our pupils kept all the time pronouncing and writing Noruégua instead of Noruega ! We corrected him/her but he/she didn’t succeed. Every time he/she did so we all laughed our heads off. This is the kind of joke that doesn’t sound that funny/comic in the translation which is Normare.
One day in Poland, we heard by chance one of our pupils calling his/her mother on the mobile: “Mum, I can’t bear this horrible food. Now they have just served me a disgusting red soup !” It was a tasty beetroot soup.
Another time in Poland again, we were visiting an important religious centre. It was about three p.m.; our breakfast hadn’t been a substancial one and we were starving. Suddenly we read an inscription “Jascumin”. One of us gave the immediate translation into Portuguese “Já se comia !” And all the Portuguese group laughed like a drain. Although our Polish colleagues and their husbands/wives didn’t understand any word in José Saramago’s language, they served us a lot of cakes later on, just after the visit.”