Basque students in Hasselt

2. Hasselt (Flanders)

Our second transnational meeting and first transnational learning activity for students took place in Hasselt from Sunday 10 April till Saturday 16 April. The Flemish were happy to host us and Sardinian friends. We participated in our host's family life and could experience what the daily life of Flemish pupils is like.

They introduced us to some important Flemish/Belgian cities and cultural events: we visited Hasselt, Leuven, Bokrijk and Brussels where we visited the cities' most important highlights, we were provided with some historical background information and in Brussels we visited, of course, the European Parliament.

During this well - filled week we were also able to achieve many of the project goals. First of all, the linguistic competence of our pupils increased considerably. In the beginning of the exchange communication may have been a bit awkward but by the end of the week the pupils were able to communicate fairly fluently. As the pupils are interested in languages they spontaneously compared their mother tongues, both the language itself and its position in today's society. This process was stimulated by the language activities at school: a language quiz, language classes, research into the history of our (minority) languages, the creation of linguistic family trees etc. As a result our pupils are more aware of the position of our languages in Europe. This information has been and will be shared with their peers, their families and friends.

Time flew past this week and we all had a very exciting, instructive and exhausting experience. And very important: we are still in touch and we are looking forward to meeting again in Tolosa!