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Comparatists from the Former Yugoslav Republics United in Skopje

Friday, May 10 2013 By mladiinfo

Photograph taken by: Milos Ilic

The students at the Department of General and Comparative Literature from Skopje, Macedonia had the honor to host their colleagues from Belgrade and Novi Sad, Serbia and from Zagreb, Croatia. It was the first students union of comparatists on the level of Ex Yugoslavian countries. The event – organized for less than a month! The energy – you should have been there as a true comapratist to feel it. The organizers: the students themselves! All they needed was will, love and enthusiasms.

Literature is important, as it is always present to feed the other branches of the society. Comparatists are among the rare agents of society today whose focus would not necessarily orbit around profit. It’s the profession which aims to truly embrace what is humane. Profound interest and knowledge in books, cultures, tremendous curiosity to all social phenomena – those would be just few characteristics that could pin down the comparatists.

The gathering took place from 12 to 15 of April in Skopje, Macedonia. And this is just the beginning of the adventures. Next destination should be Zagreb, Croatia! Here are some highlights from part of the organizing team!

1. What was the reason for this gathering?

Andrea Kocev (part of organizing team): There are few reasons why this gathering was conducted. Some of the reasons have academic origin or in other words, the aim to compare the curricula and what is being taught here in Skopje, and what is being taught in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Zagreb. We wanted to have the students from Sarajevo as well in the gathering, but hopefully they will join us next time. As well, we wanted to scope the different approaches to comparative literature, to exchange contacts with colleagues coming from the region and hopefully to assure serious collaborations in the future in the field of Literature and culture in general. Finally, there was this exquisite wish to get to know each other!

2. Which topics were covered and which professors appeared to deliver a lecture?

Andrea Kocev: The gathering was warmly welcomed by all of our professors at the Department of General and Comparative Literature in Skopje. From our department we had the pleasure to hear unique lectures from one of the first professors of the department, as well as author and researcher in the fields of the Modern and Avant-garde era of the 20th century, prof. Vlada Urosevic who delivered a lecture on the surrealism and the tradition.

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An Internship Experience at the Council of Europe

Sunday, April 28 2013 By mladiinfo

Written by Eni Mazniku

In my professional life thus far, I have had a few achievements. One of them, on which I want to focus in this article, is the internship at Council of Europe Office in Tirana. It all started during a Moot Court Competition organized by EURALIUS (Consolidation of Justice System, Mission of the European Union in Albania). I was selected to be one of the representatives of the Faculty of Law at the University of Tirana during the Moot Court. After a successful presentation in that activity, the Council of Europe Mission in Tirana showed interest in the finalists in the competition. After an interview and a selection process, I was appointed as an intern at the CoE Office in Tirana.

On September, 2012, I started working as a legal assistant in the CoE Office. Personally it was an amazing professional and social experience for me. The staff there was really respectful, professional and patient to help me get adapted soon with the rules and the way of working. The main goal of every CoE Office in Europe is to promote human rights and other important core values and that was what everyone in the office used to work for.

A normal working started at 9:00 and finished at 17:30. Every day we used to sit in the morning at the round table in the kitchen, drink coffee and discussed about what we were going to do during the day, shared opinions on several topics related to the Office’s issues. And later the day was full of different activities, roundtables, conferences and other similar event. The office was very often visited by politicians, decision-makers, ambassadors and delegates from CoE Headquarters. So it was an amazing opportunity to get in touch with very notable people who were good contributors in their fields. Those contacts were very important for me and have served a lot during my professional life.

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Volunteering in Finland – the Land Where the Sun Never Sets

By mladiinfo

Author: Halid Muratoski

Once, when I was a teenager I promised myself that I will go to the land of thousand lakes, the land where the sun never sets during summer days. It all started during high school days where I became a Finfanatic, lurking through the stories of the Kalevala – the national epic of Finland. Väinämöinen has been my hero and Illmatar my muse ever since.

Growing up in a remote village in Western Macedonia, I didn’t get to see the world much. It all started from Mladiinfo’s Facebook page, where I noticed a call for a volunteer in Finland, in the pearl of the North, Helsinki. HELSINGIN LYHYTAIKAISKOTI JA TYÖPAJA LYHTY RY was looking for a voluntary worker, via the European Voluntary Service, to work and assist a group of intellectually disabled men in their outdoor workshop for botany and gardening. Given the attractive location, Helsinki, many people applied for the position. I was thinking – I do not stand the chance, but then I decided to give it a go? Other than my own preference, I was drawn to this specific voluntary position because my own sister is handicapped. I live in a society where people with special needs are considered second-class citizens. People with special needs require love and attention as much as everybody else. I was good to go and ready to discover what this Nordic country does to aid these people.

Landing at the airport, I was picked up by my support person, Nina. I arrived in Vantaa, where she lived. First thing, I open the venetian blinds. Shocker! It was 11pm and it was still all shiny and bright. The following day I was introduced to my host. It was an unusual experience for me. Why would they open their doors for me, a foreigner? I highly recommend that you live with a host family, so you get to live with the true spirit of the country you reside in. My cultural shock started very soon. It went as far as I couldn’t turn on the shower or scan my bus ticket on the scanning machine in the public transportation! The price of goods, alimentation and beverage strike me as one of the highest in the EU. The living standard in Finland is high, there is hardly any gender or race discrimination, you can live freely not fearing of being judged for your views. It is one of the safest countries to be in. Finns are a proud nation and big patriots! Finland is the best country to live in, say this out loud, and you will be loved. Finns are a timid nation and small talk is out of the question. Honesty is one of the best traits of Finns. A promise is a promise. Time is of the essence, so do not be late or you will be scolded.

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U.S. & Macedonian Students Diving Deep Into A New Academic Adventure

Tuesday, April 9 2013 By mladiinfo

Macedonian students with Dr. Steve Faulke and Carine Ullom

A group of students from the Department of English Language and Literature at the Blaze Koneski Faculty of Philology in Skopje, in the current spring semester of the 2012/2013 academic year have the opportunity to be part of quite special and unique course, “Regions of the Balkan and the U.S.”. The course simultaneously integrates students from Ottawa University in Kansas and the English Department at UKIM. Both of the students groups are linked via an on-line academic platform called Blackboard where they have the chance to explore and learn both about U.S. and Balkan culture in general, to delve deeper into important historical moments, discover admirable geographic landscapes, get acquainted with a variety of ethnical groups and perform other creative tasks. Apart from their regular tasks, the students also communicate regularly through different technical tools like Zoom, Skype or Google Hangouts.

The course is led by visiting professor at UKIM, Dr. Steven Foulke coming right from Ottawa University in Kansas and Dr. Rumena Buzarovska as a co-teacher from UKIM. The technical online support and the online training of the UKIM students is provided by Carine Ullom. Thus, we must admit, this is something quite new and different. The ongoing activities also bring within a little sense of premonition as to where the future of education in Macedonia is headed in the years to come. For more extensive information, here is some insight from Steve and Rumena.

1. What is the reason that sparkle the initiation of the special course Regions of the Balkan and the U.S.?

Dr. Steve Foulke: The short answer to the first question about the genesis for the idea of the online course linking students from UKIM with those at Ottawa University in Kansas came from my wife, Carine Ullom. A few weeks after I received notice from Fulbright that I would again be teaching in Macedonia, Carine mentioned the idea of the online course. I quickly agreed with her. We then contacted Rumena Buzarovska, and she soon warmed up to the idea.

It is worth noting that when I was at UKIM in the spring of 2007 on a Fulbright, I knew then that I wanted to bring back my experience in Macedonia to my students in Kansas. In the years following I would often make reference to Macedonia in my lectures to my students at Ottawa University, but I struggled to find a way to connect them to Macedonia. I sensed that there must be a method in which I could make Macedonia more real to them, but I really struggled find a bridge. I am convinced that this online course can create meaningful connections between students in Skopje and Ottawa University. [ Read the full article|http://www.mladiinfo.com/2013/04/08/u-s-macedonian-students-diving-deep-into-a-new-academic-adventure/]

Trapped Between Two Educational Systems

Saturday, April 6 2013 By mladiinfo

Written by Maria Vizdoaga

Education saves people. It opens doors and creates new opportunities for development and change. Education changes mentalities and shapes patterns. These are the main conclusions I can draw after experiencing two different educational systems: one in Moldova and the second one in the Netherlands.

During the last year of my Bachelor in Economic Law at the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova, along with preparing for the state exams, I was applying for Master programs in the European Union countries. This personal initiative resulted not only from the fact that I did not feel ready to embrace the Moldovan working class yet, but also I somehow knew that I needed to study more, but this time in a different educational system. After half a year of writing and submitting applications, followed by rejections and partially being accepted, the University of Leiden offered me the Platinum Excellence Scholarship. This grant made it possible to enroll in a Masters program in European Union Studies at one of the oldest European universities. This was one of the happiest moments of my life. Many people might find my enthusiasm naive, especially those who had the chance to study in a good educational system all their lives and cannot imagine that such methods as ‚rewriting everything the teacher says’ still exists in some countries. Even though both Moldova and the Netherlands implemented the Bologna requirements in their educational systems, in practice there are still huge differences.

From my personal experience, I identified 4 categories of differences between the post-soviet Moldovan education and the Dutch one:

1. The attitude of teachers.

In Moldova, many teachers feel like gods and demand a weird type of respect from their students. Moreover, independent thinking and confronting ideas are not welcomed in the Moldovan universities, since the teachers might perceive these actions as undermining their ‚authority’. On the other hand, a teacher in a Dutch university would feel almost offended if he or she would not get confrontation from his or her students, because this would mean that the lecture was not interesting.

2. The attitude of students.

This is a little bit tricky in the case of Moldovan students, because in my opinion, there is a huge gap between very hard-working students and very irresponsible students. Therefore, it wouldn’t be fair to have a general opinion regarding the attitude of Moldovan students towards education. In comparison to the Dutch students, the Moldovan students do not know their rights and if they do, then they are extremely humble when it comes to defending them. This attitude is based on two factors: fear from embarrassment and the lack of knowledge. I was amazed how far Dutch students would go in order to defend their rights, or to prove that they are right.

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