Nasi Partnerzy
Students from the Secondary School in Gorzyce abroad.
We know that exchanges between countries are really interesting. They allow us to visit other countries, meet other people, speak other languages, learn a lot and store up unforgettable memories. We started working on the Comenius Programme September 2011 and we are so fascinated by it.
The benefits for our students are numerous:
• Experiencing a foreign culture widens their horizon, enriches their minds and has the potential to turn them into tolerant and fully rounded individuals.
• Students who have taken part in the exchange say that their confidence in speaking the language has vastly improved and that their listening and speaking skills have been greatly enhanced.
• Students have established a strong and long lasting friendship with families and partners in France.
We the teachers and students of Joseph Sarna School in Gorzyce know now after our visit in December in France 2011, that the value of High School student exchange between foreign families is an experience of a lifetime. The mixing of cultures and backgrounds provides young people with an unforgettable awareness of and lifelong appreciation for each other. Everyone in the family in fact benefits from a new understanding and friendships blossom.
We all know now that there is no better way to learn about another country, its customs and the way of life of its people than by experiencing it firsthand as a High School student exchange participant. They gain skills they could never learn by staying home: Maturity, Self Confidence, Communicativeness, and they learn to become a global citizen.
Those few days in France affected us in many ways. Our experiences as travelers added a new dimension to our personality in ways that we could not have expected. We got to have the experience of being immersed in a new culture, living its daily life and being a part of a native family, their home life and customs.
We have found that after our return we have a stronger ability to come to conclusions and that our ability to make decisions has increased significantly. We also have found that we are better able to understand our weaknesses, successes, and failures and that we know better our goals, values and emotions. Our sense of self-reliance increased as we have gained a new independence and have come to be willing to accept responsibility for our own actions. By going abroad – for the student exchange to a city called Compiegne we became adventurers, travelers, and explorers. We learned by experience. Most of all we got the opportunity to understand a foreign country and people of another culture in a way that is never possible as a tourist. And what we learned will give us self-reliance when facing the world as a student, as a professional, as a traveler, and in countless other circumstances.
We will never forget the time that the teachers and students introduced us to their favorite foods and took us sightseeing to their favorite places. Just the same, we will never forget their hospitality and their style, surprisingly different to our own. We'll always wonder about how our new friends are doing, what is happening in their lives in the country were we stayed for the 5 days, so far away from our families.
After returning home we keep in touch by email, telephone, and letters. We will never ever forget our time there.