Over the last couple of weeks, I had three opportunities to speak at two different Polish high schools. The first school was a technical high school in Poznan, Poland. This group I have spoken with on seven occasions since my arrival in Poland. However, this last week was only the second time that I was able to meet them in person. It is so much easier to communicate in person. Unfortunately, Poznan is just a little bit too far away to make routine trips there. Usually, I put together a PowerPoint presentation that covered five different subjects. I did have to be careful because I do know the saying “death by PowerPoint.” It does have a certain amount of truth to it, but there are challenges to making a presentation of a subject in a foreign language (English) over TEAMS. This time the presentation I put together a very simple presentation on US Geography, so I could easily talk in very general terms in person about the U.S. from the original 13 colonies, the major river systems, Lewis and Clarks travels, the entire U.S., to the Interstate systems that are a marvel of transportation, and probably the most well know highway, “route 66.” I ended up talking to these students for about three hours. I must have killed them! 😊
This allowed the students to ask and talk about a large variety of subjects. They were amazed by the culture and reliance on automobiles that the Americans had. They asked about driver’s licenses because these 18- to 19-year-old students were starting to get their own licenses. They were surprised by the similarities between the licensing requirements for both the U.S. and Poland, with the major exception of the age requirements. They were intrigued that we (Americans) could obtain a legal license to start driving at the age of fifteen ½ years old.
Shortly thereafter the visit to Poznan, I visited a high school in Lodz. This city is exceedingly difficult to pronounce as it sounds nothing like it looks in English. Lodz was about halfway between Warsaw and Poznan, which made it an easy place to drive. This U.S. studies class was a bit surprising. My first impression was with the three flags related to the U.S. on the wall of the classroom: the Texas state flag, the Confederate flag (stars and bars), and the “Don’t tread on me” flag. They all knew about the flags. I do not think they knew about the sensitivity that the Confederate flag has caused recently, and I really did not want to get into that discussion during my first visit to that school. I have to say that four or five of these students spoke English quite well.
Talking about the geography of the United States is easy. It was also a straightforward way to get the students to talk about areas of interest. They wanted to see or visit or have curiosities due to the publicity gained by various areas within the United States for a variety of reasons. New York was one of the more interesting areas to them. Probably because it has such a long and rich history and is an icon in America. It is also easy to pronounce correctly. It was also an area that was well-known to a lot of people throughout the world. Therefore, it piqued the interest of these students. Unfortunately, I really could not speak to any authority in the area, because I had never been there. However, that did not stop the questions and discussions.
National Parks are a subject that I enjoy talking about. I have visited about twelve of the parks throughout the pacific northwest area of the United States. I was able to share firsthand experiences at the parks that I visited. Using the National Parks website (www.nps.gov) I showed them how to explore the national parks within the U.S. using this site. It was handy! In the process of talking about the national parks I have also learned new facts and they gave me suggestions for future visits to the national parks in Poland.
It was difficult to find a good list of National Parks in Poland, but I did find a decent listing on Wikipedia (go figure) titled “National Parks of Poland.” I have already visited two of the parks – “Kampinos” and “Beibrza.” This summer we have plans to visit three or four of the National Parks here in Poland this summer and I am really looking forward to the trips. I will be writing more about these trips later after I can get pictures.