THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF BUCHAREST
INTERNATIONAL WEEK 13-17 February 2006 International week is celebrated at ISB Primary every year in order to promote inter cultural friendship. We celebrated the third international week at ISB Primary. A variety of presentations, cultural dances, musicals and an international fair was organized this time. Six different countries’ embassies or cultural centres from four different continents came to our school and made some presentations about their countries throughout the international week.
The lessons focused on learning different cultures throughout the week. Each class chose a country and studied their culture, history and geography in various ways. A very international atmosphere could be seen at the school by just looking at the displays prepared by the students. A Turkish musical and a Romanian folk dance was performed in a special assembly by our students who helped to contribute to the diversity of the week. During the same week, a group of children from Palatul Copiilor came to perform a Romanian folk dance.
Monday 13th February: The first presentation of the week was by the German Embassy.
Nisa Koc’s observations of the German Embassy’s presentation: A man came from the German Embassy to tell ISB about Germany. It was a very good chance to learn more about Germany. Everybody was interested. He also spoke about sports and the world cup 2006 which will be in Germany. He gave us stickers and balloons.
On the same day, we also had some visitors from Palatul Copiilor to show us a couple of traditional Romanian dances. Romanian Folk Dance Some Romanian children came from Palatul Copilor to dance for the international week. There were three parts; the first dance was a traditional dance, the second dance was a ballet, and the third dance was again a traditional dance.
Tuesday 14th February The second day of the week started with the presentation by the Egyptian Embassy. At the end of the presentation, students asked many questions about the pyramids, mummies, and the pharaohs.
Ceren Erten’s observations of the Egyptian Embassy’s presentation: Egypt has lots of pyramids. The queen was Cleopatra. There were lots of mummies in the past. Most of the population is Muslim. They know Arabic. The queen liked to draw things on the wall. They were drawing the past on the wall because they wanted the people to see what happened in the past. The favourite sport is football. Egypt is bigger than Romania.
The presentation of the Nigerian Embassy was in the afternoon. Students watched a very interesting documentary about Nigeria and asked lots of curious questions. The number of questions they asked was an indication of how interested they were in learning about the different cultures.
Wednesday 15th February We hosted the Indonesian Embassy on Wednesday. Our friendly guests from the Indonesian Embassy showed a video about wild animals in Indonesia and answered lots of questions that our students had. At the end of the program children were very happy to receive some flags and other gifts from Indonesia.
The presentation of The American Cultural Centre was on the same day. Students learnt about diversity in the United States. Everybody was surprised to learn that many different races made up the United States.
Kate’s Report about the American Embassy’s Presentation The American Embassy was presented by two diplomats: Alicia and Deborah. They had a nice presentation about the USA and its culture. The USA is composed of different people. In fact, the USA has different skin colours, like white, yellow, pink and hazel. This is because when Christopher Columbus found America different people came there. There are Native Americans and emigrants which came from other countries. USA has 50 states. Some of them are: New York, California, Los Angeles and Florida.
The brochures and stickers they received from our guests made them very happy.
Thursday 16th February Two of our parents, Mr.and Mrs.Kisvari came from the Hungarian Embassy to give a presentation to the students. The presentation was very educational and a lot of fun. The amusement park in Budapest attracted much attention from the children.
We had two special assemblies on the same day. First, there was a Turkish musical called ‘Uskudar’a Gider Iken’ which was prepared by our Turkish language teacher Mr.Yakup and some students from year 5 and 6.
The last activity of the day was prepared by our Romanian language teacher Ms.Livia which consisted of a traditional Romanian folk dance.
Friday 17th February The biggest event of the week was organized by our parents at the biggest ballroom of the Crowne Plaze Hotel. Since the international fair has gained popularity over the last three years and although the hall was not big enough for all the visitors, the parents and ISB were very happy to see so many people. There were lots of events during the two-hour long event. It started with songs from different languages by our school choir followed by Andjelina Acimovac’s violin play from year 3.
As the guests were walking around the tables tasting food from different parts of the word, the costume parade was announced and people paused to watch 60 teachers and students walking into the hall wearing their traditional cos-
After the opening ceremony, visitors started visiting the tables. There were 29 countries represented this year. Parents worked hard to prepare their country’s table. Everything seemed to be perfect; the decorations, display materials, useful brochures and of course the delicious food.
Soon after the traditional costumes parade came the Turkish musical prepared by the Turkish language teacher with primary school students. Towards the end of the fair, a professional Romanian group of folk dancers performed.
When the program had finished, people were happy to see such a successful fair. The international fair was viewed on several national television stations during their news bulletins as well as national newspapers published in Romanian and English.