The 10 passive rules of a Exchange/Training course no one talks about.
Well, here I am, back at old home, where nothing changed in the last 10days, but we, the participants, did.
After an experience abroad you can see that it is good if people are sad when they’re back.
Still, there are a lot of things that could be better in the past training course, that could make the best things there were even better. Some things that are avoidable by some passive rules that irrationally no one talks about. Everybody knows them, but no one recognizes their passive infringement of the rules.
NOTE: This is my opinion, should not be taken as a constitution, as a limit, or an invention. It is based on a good experience and on a “looking from the outside” experience. Please don’t think I hate you, because I know I broke all of them also, but less.. please don’t eat me!!
(please?)
Ok, here we go:
1 – BORA BORATE ALL THE TIME,
This is great, people should BORA BORATE every time, and Zora got a very good introduction to it. BORA BORA is something that you should say that asks people to speak a common language that you understand so the conversation is never excluding anyone, since most of the time social INCLUSION is an aspect on many of these experiences. So, say “BORA BORA” whenever you feel like you want to join a conversation or a group.
2 – DON’T BE LINGUISTICALLY SELFISH,
It is great to practice the languages that you speak, and if you do, after 10 days you will have improved your skills a lot, or acknowledge other person doesn’t understand. You’re trying to help, but wouldn’t it be better if you would explain people what you are saying? Being in one place, hanging out with 10 people and starting to speak another language sometimes makes it akward you know? To see that anyone could join your conversation about the price of ketchup (a random example) but no one does because they can’t speak your language, or they don’t undestand. This rule should avoid BORA BORATING all the time. Of course in extreme situations where you really can’t explain in other than your language, you have no choice, but it’s not like you keep on the conversation in the same language leaving people behind. Trust me, if you explain people around you what you are saying and everybody understands, it creates a much better environment.
3 – SI SI SI
This is what an EVS volunteer in Croatia says. Although we will never know him, this detail became a very big ice breaker and got a lot of people to have fun, and it’s catchy. Basically the volunteer says SI SI SI (Yes 3 times) when he understands something (I think?), and the participants from Croatia started to repeat this when they heard italians saying this (also spanish, Portuguese say this a lot) because of this one memory. It became catchy, so naturally SI SI SI, became SI SI SI, NO NO NO, SI SI SI, NO NO NO, SI SI SI, NO NO NO, Morto! With hand movements and stuff, this was like a lot of people caught this. So, even at the airport on the way back, these things make you smile, no matter how bored you are (THANKS CROATIA). So, don’t be afraid to make a silly game, because maybe it will get catchy, like the “FASTER FASTER, LIKE SHAKIRA” game, like the “Show me how you get down”, like many others that made people have fun. Be stupid, it’s ok!
4 – DON’T SAY BYE!
Everybody hates the last day (because it’s the last day that you see that group people all together), but I personally hate it because of one single thing: people say “goodbye, It was wonderful to meet you”. WTF?! Am I going to die? Why do you speak to me like if it’s the last time we meet, we talk, we laugh? Are YOU going to die? If so, please tell me (or create a facebook event for us, your friends, to know)… Oh wait, you’re not going to die so soon? Me neither? SO WHY THE GOODBYE? I really liked to meet you people, and I STILL DO, and that’s why I still want to hangout, that’s why I still want for us to laugh together, with or without phisical presence. If you don’t want this also, so, say goodbye, like if you will never see that person again. It just makes it very akward that when after you get back home, you add me on facebook and just write the same stuff and then we don’t speak much more after that. This training course made me aknowledge a lot of things, and although I know I won’t speak to everybody eventualy (sorry for the honesty, but naturally this happens. If it’s not meant to be, it’s not meant to be), I know I will want to work with a lot of the participants, and laugh, and saying goodbye as if it’s the end of a relationship, just doesn’t fit… This is just a beggining.
5 -DON’T MAKE PROMISES YOU CAN’T KEEP
This one is also regarding to goodbye, or to how much you plan during this things. People tend to commit to doin’ something, being somewhere, saying something and then they don’t do it, because they forgot (it’s common because a lot of thing happen at the same time), because it’s late and theydon’t have the time, or because it just doesn’t make sense to say it now that you think of it.
Personally I feel bad after arranging stuff for a picture, bother people to do it with me, and then don’t do it. But we have to be realistic. I don’t offer you a room in my house because I don’t have it, I don’t promise I will go to your country because I don’t have the money, and I can’t promise to be there with you if you come to Portugal because maybe I will be working so much, or I also don’t have the money to go and meet you (transportations are expensive). It is hard if you promise something and you fail to your emotions, eventually these things(the memories of braking a promise) will come back to remind you.
6 – IN CASE OF GLASS, BREAK FIRE
This is about how people usually react, there is an fire and they run to get the fire extinguisher, and they don’t even read the message well, so “In case of fire, break glass” becomes another message, that even stresses more the panic. I haven’t been in many abroad experiences, and I am no PROticipant, but one thing we learn is that, in the end, everything is going to be ok. Weather if it is the Flights being cancelled, or the losing a memory card with all the photos you had, makes no sense to panic and start worrying, instead, trying to find sollutions helps much more. If anything goes wrong, there is always a way out, even if it’s goin’ home on foot, asking someone for borrowed money for the trip, or to buy a new memory card and make the pictures again. Adventures are bad, but looking at the funny side of it makes them much easier and in the end, the solution is the same, only changes the way you get to it.
7 – STOP YOUR CLOCK
If you have fun, time will pass running, and if you look at it, you will see it passing (duh!). What you should notice, is that this creates some anxiousity (is this even a word) and on the day before we will be looking at the clocks like “God, we only have one more day, it was so fast!”. Instead, thinking “WOOOOW, we still have one day, let’s make the most of it” would make the fun even funnier instead of being always sad for leaving :(. This, together with rule 4 create a much bigger smile!
8 – CLEAN YOUR STUFF, QUIETLY
It’s amazing how people fill a table, room or bed with stuff and think “tomorrow it will be magically cleaned”, and then they get to their room and think “gosh, it was not cleaned, let me clean it now and make a lot of noise”.
Well, going to bed after someone is already in your room, is something that requires special skill and respect. I am sorry if I ever woke you up with the noise, and please try to also be sorry if you make it, because that only makes people quietly want to eat you.
9 – DON’T EAT EVERYTHING
Ok that European Programmes usually finance this opportunities, but seriously, why does everybody have to eat everything? Everytime I put my folder on the table, I had to say for people to not eat it, and one time, I am sure that someone was eating the chairs in the restaurant… Come on guys, this is serious! Eating chairs is bad for you stomach and it will grow inside of you… all of the sudden, you will want to eat your bed and sleep on the ground, and then you will get a cold, and die, and be a zombie, and eat other people that will be zombies and then… after a week… there are no chairs, people, beds and everybody will be in a huge indigestion.
10 – DON’T BE SOCIAL, SOCIALIZE!
Seriously? 14 people in the same room, on serveral tables, on facebook? What about.. I don’t know? having a conversation?
The thing is simple: You are abroad, and spend all the time on facebook to speak with your friends at home, and then go home to speak with all of your friends from the training course?
THAT MAKES NO SENSE!!!
Again, it’s just my opinion.
Please don’t eat me!
