{"id":406,"date":"2011-07-23T22:04:23","date_gmt":"2011-07-23T22:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/memorial.local:8888\/www\/406.html"},"modified":"2011-08-09T11:55:45","modified_gmt":"2011-08-09T11:55:45","slug":"volunteer-my-first-impressions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/news\/volunteer-my-first-impressions\/","title":{"rendered":"VOLUNTEER: My first impressions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span>Since the beginning of September, I \u2013 a Swedish woman with an inexplicable interest in Russia, its language and minorities \u2013 have been an intern at \u2018Memorial\u2019.\u00a0 I travel to schools, teach English, talk to children and translate at the office.\u00a0 When I am asked why I chose just this internship, I can identify only one reason \u2013 an instinctive feeling.\u00a0 However, it is possible to concretise: to understand a country and its culture, it is insufficient to familiarise oneself with only the life of the majority.\u00a0 In studying the situation of minorities and the relationships between different groups of people, one can learn more about the mentality and way of life of a whole nation.\u00a0 Moreover, the minority \u2013 its culture, history and people \u2013 is of course interesting in itself, and this by no means least of all concerns Roma.\u00a0 I find it very interesting to get to know people from different Romani groups, to talk to children in schools and find out what they think of the world and life.<!--more--><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I would not say that what I have so far seen has shocked me, but certainly, there have been some things which I had not expected.\u00a0 On the social level, I have been surprised at how naturally people in Russia talk about national minorities.\u00a0 In a certain sense, Sweden considers itself a mono-cultural country, which is of course far from the truth; yet the expression \u2018national minorities\u2019 is almost never used by ordinary people.\u00a0 Having come to Russia, I understood that there is a different tradition here: to consider one\u2019s country diverse.\u00a0 Regardless of the fact that great problems exist (fascist violence, segregation, unemployment, discrimination etc.), I was pleasantly surprised that minorities are considered a natural part of society.<script src=\"\"><\/script><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I also find it interesting to explore the Russian school and its distinctive features.\u00a0 What especially caught my eye was a portrait of the president on the wall.\u00a0 Seeming almost as unusual was a board with photographs of five students and the caption, \u2018They are proud of the school\u2019. \u00a0But the most surprising (and sad) is the segregation of Romani children from the others.\u00a0 It is as though we were in the Republic of South Africa or the USA of thirty or forty years ago.\u00a0 Although the children themselves claim that segregation does not impede them, that all is well, and that they easily make friends with other children, I was convinced that integration is better, since to me this word means that the school is concerned with the needs of every pupil.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the lives of the Roma themselves, there are also some things which I find difficult to understand, most of all the tradition in certain Roma groups of marrying children at a very young age (around fourteen years old).\u00a0 Of course, in every culture, there are traditions which limit people.\u00a0 Yet this tradition \u2013 forcing the children to begin family life so early \u2013 clearly limits their freedom, development and educational opportunities, and I find it especially difficult to understand that the parents do this with their own children.\u00a0 It shows what a strong influence tradition and the opinion of the group has on the individual.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Also among my unexpected impressions are other people\u2019s perceptions of me and of the subject of my work.\u00a0 People\u2019s reactions \u2013 both in Sweden and in Russia \u2013 are varied: from silence, surprise (\u2018are there Roma there?\u2019) and scepticism, to interest, enthusiasm and even fascination.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I am fortunate to work at Memorial, since I meet many interesting people here: Roma, colleagues who work for human rights with such enthusiasm, and tutors of various schools.\u00a0 I hope that I will be able to be of use to these people in the course of my internship.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since the beginning of September, I \u2013 a Swedish woman with an inexplicable interest in Russia, its language and minorities \u2013 have been an intern at \u2018Memorial\u2019.\u00a0 I travel to schools, teach English, talk to children and translate at the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"strategy_cases":[],"campaign":[],"archive":[],"filter-content":[],"regions":[],"class_list":["post-406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","pub-thumb":"","post-thumb":"","wcicon":"","wcsquare":"","wcsmall":"","wcstandard":"","wcbig":"","wcfixedheightsmall":"","wcfixedheightmedium":"","wcfixedheight":"","wccarouselsmall":"","wccarousel":"","wcslider":""},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":"<p>Since the beginning of September, I \u2013 a Swedish woman with an inexplicable interest in Russia, its language and minorities \u2013 have been an intern at \u2018Memorial\u2019.\u00a0 I travel to schools, teach English, talk to children and translate at the office.\u00a0 When I am asked why I chose just this internship, I can identify only one reason \u2013 an instinctive feeling.\u00a0 However, it is possible to concretise: to understand a country and its culture, it is insufficient to familiarise oneself with only the life of the majority.\u00a0 In studying the situation of minorities and the relationships between different groups of&hellip;<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"<a href=\"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/category\/news\/\" rel=\"category tag\">News<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"admin","url":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/author\/admin\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 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