“YYGS didn’t change me – it improved me. It supported my curiosity and helped me in my growth, it showed me unknown aspects of the world, and pushed me to think critically. After one week, it helped me regain my motivation which was lost in 2020, and I couldn’t be more thankful.”
I go to an international school located in the Balkans, more specifically - Bosnia and Herzegovina. After the war this has been a very interesting place to grow up in considering three nationalities coexist - Bosnians, Serbs, and Croatians. Which also entails three languages; Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian. With a lot of tension between the people, me and my friends wanted to start a course lead by students of all three nationalities, designed to teach the members about the culture and languages, and to bring the leaders closer.
We called it Local Language, and with the help of our school’s librarian organized it and let the students know. As the times are obviously tough, one of our goals was to make it a bit easier for all the students starting this year. We brought snacks and dishes specific for the culture, played local music and started learning basics of the language, slowly moving to more complicated concepts. Our school loved the initiative and invited us to lead Zoom webinars for three weeks, with all students invited and encouraged to participate.
As we are in lockdown now, we try to organize ocassional movie night of films in the language and stay connected with our members, helping them find a home in the country they are temporarily living in.