Moderating child and youth participation

Last friday finally my advanced training on becoming a moderator for child and youth participation started. It’s a certificated education by the Bertelsmann Stiftung and the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk and was devceloped together with the very well known Waldemar Stange who intensively is working on child and youth participation issues. For more information check the (unfortunately German) webpage www.kinderpolitik.de.

After meeting other people so highly interested in the topic, all having creative ideas and dreams for participation, my brain and heart are packed with ideas, plans, dreams as well as questions and the wish to study more. I’m looking forward the next seminar in 8 weeks. I hope we can learn from each other and exchange ideas and experiences we made.

I wish a day would have 35 hours that I have enough time for everything (job appliucations, my job on youth participation in Mainz, my other jobs) and now for being creative and able to satisfy my hunger for information on child and youth participation.

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Bachelorette

I’m done, I finished my studies of Applied Childhood Studies at Hochschule Magdeburg-Stendal (FH). And it feels good.I have a degree, I’m something now… And I already got accepted for a Master programme in Berlin. So from October on, I’m gonna be in Berlin!

My Bachelor Thesis

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Ich schaff das schon…

It’s a tough time for me… Troubles at work, thesis to finish, unclearness about the future (which starts in mid of June in my case),… And then in the morning the positive song, my mother remembered me again: „I’m gonna make it“. An old song, very old. From a German „Liedermacher“. Here the video and the English Lyrics.

When Maike was just under one year
she could already stand
She practiced tireless
to walk along the wall.
Easily she made three steps
and nearly the fourth as well,
but she prefered to make
a landing on the belly.
And she turned around a laughed
And maybe thought for the first time:

„I’m gonna make it, I’m gonna make it,
I’m gonna make it all alone.
I’m sure I can, I’m sure I can
come on my feet again.
I need for that, I need for that
maybe a lot of energy.
But I already made
Something totally different yet.“

When Maike was at school,
she felt very well.
only when she was standing at the parallel bars,
she nearly lost courage,
especially when the class saw,
how she plagued hereelf.
She wanted to bunk,
and she was very close.

But she was standing there and thought:
„I have to go through this, it would be a joke“

Refrain

When Maike was 17years old, she was totally in love.
She thought that there are only
rosa clouds for her.
But then, from one day to the other
her dreamworld collapsed.
She was totally distroyed,
and she felt herself so small.

But she stood up and thought:
„I probably just really woke up now.“

Refrain

The time was passing fast,
Maike has a child herself now.
The flat is not that big,
in which the two live;
but still every corner has
his one style.
So cosy and friendly isn’t it
for all kids.
And in some night Maike thinks
On what she thought as child:

„na, na, na, na …
Because I already made something much more else!“

(I know, it’s a bad translation, the song is much more beautiful in German…)

But I know, I’m gonna make it, because there are other thing, much tougher I already managed…

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Bachelorette

Auch an dieser Stelle alles Gute zum bestandenen Bachelor! Gratulation und lasst es krachen! 😉 Ist ja nu schon eine Woche her. Und hier das Foto: die beiden Bachelorettes, die mich einrame, ich ohne B.A. (FH) 😦 Aber bald bald…

Franzi (B.A. FH), ich (ohne Titel) und Doro (B.A. FH)

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WaItInG

• Waiting is killing me.
• Waiting for the letter from SFI.
• Waiting for an answer (please let it be positive) from studera.nu.
• Waiting for the trip to Berlin.
• Waiting to meet Cordel and Franzi after long time
• Waiting for middle of May.
• Waiting for the thesis to be over.
• Waiting for the weekend.
• Waiting for boredom to pass.
• Waiting for the future.
• Waiting for distraction.
• Waiting …
• … to be continued …

(Information about the second picture: Lorna Simpson, from „Call Waiting,“ gelatin silver print with silk-screened text, from the video installation „Call Waiting,“ courtesy the artist, 1997; retrieved from: http://ww1.prweb.com/prfiles/2007/05/03/523834/CallWaiting2.jpg)

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A sunny friday

I’m happy: the sun is shining, I’m finally happy about the structure of my thesis (thank you so much, Cordel!), it’s weekend again and I’m gonna go to Västerås soon, meeting with my Finnish friend, maybe with a Spanish friend from last year,… I know that we’re going to Berlin soon, meeting Jens again, and I’m gonna meet my best friend soon… 19 days!!!

It’s a good day today and I’m motivated to continue writing my thesis now! So let’s do it!

And I hope, some of you out there also gonna have a great, great day!!! Henkel, you specially, grattis på födelsedagen again!

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The Importance of a Degree

This morning in the public transportation in Stockholm, I read an article of Paolo Coehlo: „The Importance of a Degree“. It seems as if it was written for me. The main message for me in this text was the question if it makes sense always going the way most people are going. I’m about to finish my Bachelor thesis, I applied for different Masters in Germany and Sweden, but I don’t know if I get accepted for one. And another question: Is it really what I want to do? Studying Childhood Studies or Intercultural Communication/Pedagogies two more years? What about finding a job, in Sweden, or learning Swedish and then finding a job? Isn’t it better to study one year Scandinavian Studies and then see what the next step is about? But there are people expecting me to make the Master degree as well. Maybe I have better chances when studying more, but maybe I also have good qualifications if I learn Swedish and then see…

As Robert Frost said:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.

But right now, I have to wait, see, if I’m accepted for something at least. And then see, if I really really wanna do it or not. Leaving Sweden and moving back to Germany in September? I don’t know… Staying here, studying Masters and working as AuPair? I also don’t know… And going to Västerås, studying Swedish there and finding a place to live, a possibility to earn money? Mh… I don’t know again…

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intercultural marriages

A study about the youth of Germany from 2000 (13. Shell Jugendstudie) came to following result: 28,4% of German youth can’t imagine to marry somebody with different nationality. That’s more than a quarter… I cannot believe it…

(source: http://www.solutionfocusedblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/interracialhands.jpg)

Now to a study, two students made at MDH (I know those two somehow): intercultural couples are more similar than they think they are, while intracultural couples think they are more similar than they are in fact. This at least is what some articles the two students used, say. And the study was not representative enough to really prove it. But the two students really believe in it.

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yeah…

Just few days ago I was incredibly frustrated because of my thesis… But today is a good day, or as to say it according to Monika Feths book „Die grauen und die blauen Tage (engl.: „The grey and the blue days“): „a intensive ocean blue day“!

It’s not just that my thesis made a kind of a step. It’s also that I personally found a solution for a PC-problem! Now I know how to get a word-document in which other poeple only can write things where I want them to do it! And just because I think I have to explode when not telling somebody, I wrote it here 🙂 Sorry for disruption!

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/-innen; Innen; -innen und -en;…

A new trend in German language is the female form of all words… That means for example not only saying „Migrant“ but also to mention the female migrants: „Migrantinnen“. But with this more or less understandable change in language, new problems are coming up: Should I write „MigrantInnen“, „Migrant/-innen“ or better „Migrantinnen und Migranten“? And it’s getting more difficult: What about doctors? Should I only write „Arzt“ or do I also have to mention „Ärztin“? And how? „Arzt/Ärztin“? And then what about the nouns which don’t have a female form?

(retrieved from spiegel.de)

In my opinion, the word „Mitgliederinnen“ does not exist… But to be totally equal, should we create new words with „-innen“ just for making it right for everybody?

And a big question: Is it enough just to change the words, make thesis writing more complicated (Word for example does not know the female shortages). Or should better society change towards more equality about gender? Or can the change in grammar already be seen as a change?

I personally know that I can’t see the red wiggly line in word anymore! When a change of grammar is necessary, please also change these correcting programmes!

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