Ma 10/05 - Tekst presentatie België in assembly

Good morning school.
We have been attending the assemblies for the past three months, but we have always been in the back. Here are we now, in front, on stage. Sitting at the back was more relaxed than this.

It all started last year in April, we had the choice: doing teaching practice in a Belgian high school or going abroad. For us it wasn’t a difficult choice, we would like to go to Africa. Because of Jonathan Nowakovski and Steven Van Leirsberghe, who were here last year and doing well now, we contacted Mister Geldenhuys.
Three months ago, just arrived here, we immediately felt welcome. The first two weeks, we had to adapt ourselves in these whole new surroundings. For example, I remember always having my dictionary with me, when I observed lessons. Now we feel very comfortable in the school and enjoying ourselves!

Mister Geldenhuys asked us to present Belgium with this presentation. I remember one of the first geography lessons that I observed. Mister Du Toit introduced me in a Grade 8 class and asked the learners to point Belgium on that huge map. They were doing like this and this… I hope they will remember Belgium is not in Asia or America. You can find our small country here (ppt: werelkaart), between The Netherlands, France, United Kingdom and Germany. (ppt: kaart Europa) It’s a small, small country; did you know that Belgium fits forty times in South Africa…?

Belgium has three official languages, not eleven like in South Africa, but although: Dutch, French and German. In the northern part where we live, we speak Dutch; actually it’s Flemish, a kind of Dutch. Our Flemish is almost the same as Afrikaans. I remember when I was in the register class of Mister Kruger during writing test in Afrikaans, most of you thought that I can speak Afrikaans. It’s not, but a lot of words are the same in Flemish and Afrikaans. That’s why we can understand Afrikaans, and if we talk slowly in Flemish you will understand us as well. In the southern part of Belgium they speak French, in the eastern part a little bit German. (ppt: kaart taalgebieden)

(ppt: foto Noordzee) We want to show you some pictures of different landscapes in Belgium. Our coast is not that beautiful as yours. We don’t have that beautiful bays and rocks, it’s just sand, water and buildings. Although that sixty five kilometers coastline is a popular place to go in summer. By the way, when we left Belgium it was freezing and snowing over there. When we go back next week on Wednesday it will be spring.

(ppt: foto ‘De Polders) This area is called ‘De Polders’. As you can see on the picture there is a lot of grazing land and farms in this flat environment. The main city over there is Brugge, where we live and study. (ppt: foto Brugge) It’s a very old city as you can see. Don’t think that we live in those beautiful old houses, all the inhabitants of Brugge stay just outside the old centre. (ppt: luchtfoto wijk + foto standaard huis). On the picture you see such a district and a standard house, where most people live.

In the north of our country, we have a lot of big cities. We saw already Brugge; Antwerpen, Brussel, Leuven, Gent; (ppt: kaart België) and that’s where most Belgians live. In the south of Belgium live less people, you can find a lot of forests on the hills. If you like to walk and enjoy the nature, that’s the best place to be in Belgium. (ppt: foto Ardennen)

(ppt: foto’s lesgeven) All right, time to say something about education. In Belgium there are some differences with the South-African education. Studying is compulsory till you are eighteen years old. You start in the pre-primary school when you are three. At the age of six you go to the primary school. After six years in primary school, you go to a high school for another six years. Then you have the choice to go to university, to college or to look for a job. But most of the learners choose for the first two options. So, this structure is almost the same as here. But learners, as you, have to learn fourteen different subjects in high school. Another difference is that there are maximum 25 learners in one class and the way of teaching is a little bit different.

We tried to introduce that way of teaching in our subjects. My five Geography learners: I hope you enjoyed the active exercises, the pictures and the movies we saw.

My mathematics class of Grade eight: I hope you enjoyed ‘the snake’ and maybe you can propose to Miss Barnard to do it again!

Our Grade 10 Life Science class: We know sometimes our life science lessons looked like an art lesson, but we hope you liked the drawings of the cells.

And last but not least. All the learners of the French club: Speaking French is not easy, but you did a great job! Merci beaucoup!

Next to teaching we did a lot of other activities. (ppt: foto in Holocaust museum) We went to the Holocaust museum with Grade nine. With Grade eleven we went to Robben Island. (ppt: foto Robbeneiland) Miss Van Tonder took us, with the Grade tens to ‘Rhodes Memorial’. (ppt: foto Rhodes Memorial) We had the chance to accompany the Grade tens on the camp in Grabouw. It was nice to see you working together guys.(ppt: twee groepsfoto’s kamp) We enjoyed all these activities a lot!

(ppt: foto Tafelberg, Thanks to…) We would like to thank some people therefore. First of all, Mister Geldenhuys: Thank you very much for giving us the chance to be a part of Groote Schuur. Mister Kruger, Mister Du Toit and Miss Barnard: Thank you very much to support us and to trust us by teaching your classes. We will take these great experiences with us! We would like to thank Mister Joemat for solving our computer problems, Miss Holland, Mister Van der Westhuizen, Miss Van Tonder and Mister Vandenheever for taking us on excursions. We appreciate it a lot! All the rest of the staff: Thank you for being so nice to us and to make us feel welcome!

And you guys, thank you for your attention. It was nice to meet you all! We wish you, your families, the staff, the school and South-Africa all the best in the future! Good luck with the exams and all the best with the world-cup! Thank you so much, baie dankie, dankjewel! (ppt: foto)