Part of our job here in Zagreb, as volunteers, is to provide lessons of our mother tongue to people who are interested in learning a new language. For this reason, for a month now, me, Mathilde, Eduardo and Dolores, have started our language courses (respectively of Italian, French, Spanish and German). These lessons are basic level for people who have never studied one of these languages.
So the people who are following our courses (started last October and which will take place for the entire period of our volunteering, next June) in one year will be able to have a conversation, talk about themselves
and give information about their life in one of these foreign languages. But these lessons are not only aimed at learning a new language, but also at knowing something new about the culture of a country that otherwise would not be possible.
The courses, offered by Amazonas, are free and to participate people just need to fill in a google form. Of course, for the Covid situation, there is a maximum of participants for each class (which for example, for the Italian one is 10 people).
In return, the people who participate in the lessons trade their time and thus become volunteers in turn for the association. For people who are willing to volunteer for more than 10 hours a month for three consecutive months and who have work experience or who are studying in psychology and pedagogy, they can take part in our Tribo Moderna social program (of which I have already spoken in my last article), thus working in contact with children.
These local volunteers (as they are named) can also take part in the Brazilactita festival, the Brazilian culture festival offered by Amazonas, during which these people can either help us volunteers of the European Solidarity Corps to prepare our workshops or even prepare their own personal workshops. At last but not the least, they can join the Amazonas Media Team, creating social content such as articles or videos to help us spread on our social networks (such as the blog, or on Facebook and Instagram) for the promotion of our activities.
Francesco