4th mobility in Romania

Our fourth Erasmus+ mobility

“The limits of my language are the limits of my world” – Ludwig Wittgenstein

Our fourth and last Erasmus+ mobility took place in the second biggest city of Romania: Cluj-Napoca.
Its over 400.000 citizens are mixed up, including Hungarian, German and obviously Romanian speaking people – from the young to the old. Thanks to its one of the ten best universities in the country, it is a city for students and young people but with its markets and parks it´s also worth living there for everyone else.

For the last time within the framework of the project, the Greek, Italian, Romanian and German classes met again and the theme “language” led us through a week of workshops, joy and community. We learned about how the Romanian language developed under the influences of many languages over the years and found a lot of similarities with the Italian, Greek and German languages. Besides that, the Romanians introduced us to their culture of living and especially eating. We had traditional meals like goulash and soup and lots of baked deserts.

During the scavenger hunt made by the Romanian students, we visited many places that are worth seeing, and we also learned a lot about Cluj´s history. We saw the central cemetery, lots of beautiful buildings and statues. On our trip to Maramureş we learned about the communist past of the country while visiting a former communist prison and got very moving impressions of this era.

We also went to a school for children with disabilities and in occasion of the first of March, we crafted so called “Mărţişor” with them. These are traditional bracelets made out of a white and red ribbons and you give them to your loved ones for luck and happiness, because, on this day, spring begins.

When we went to Sic to learn Hungarian dances the diversity of our group reached its climax. Our multicultural group was now joined by Dutch and Asian people and we experienced an evening full of laughter, dancing, fun and joy. It was a crowning finale for a thoroughly successful week.

We want to thank our Romanian, Italian and Greek friends and say “See you soon. It has been a wonderful week with all of you!”

Hannah Poppinga from Erasmus+

A German comment about the Romanian mobility

The fourth Erasmus+ mobility took place in Cluj-Napoca, Romania between the 25th February and the 1st March 2019. The main objective and purpose was to approach diversity and anti-discrimination through multilingualism and multiculturalism.

We wanted to show the similarities between us and the Germans, the Greeks and the Italians, therefore we started our activities with a presentation about the Romanian language, and we presented the roots of the Romanian language, which has origins in Latin, German and even Greek. We also had a look at the history of Transylvania, which was strongly influenced by Hungarians and Germans alike.

Another aspect that was very important for us to explore in this project was the multitude of languages and, subsequently, the large number of foreign students that we have in our city. We visited the European Studies Faculty of Babeș-Bolyai University, a well-known university in Romania, where we learned about the courses taught in five languages and about the students who come to study here from all around the world because of these benefits.

The visit to the German Cultural Centre served a double purpose: first, to show how German culture and language are promoted in ClujNapoca; secondly, to discuss subjects like bullying, and what can be done to prevent it. It was an interesting workshop where we learned more about us as a group and about the values that represented us.

To explore our Hungarian origins, the fourth day was dedicated to learning traditional folk dances in Sic, a small village near ClujNapoca. I think that I can speak on everybody’s behalf when I say that it was really entertaining to have such an experience. The atmosphere from that night is something to remember.

Thus, this mobility left us with new information about the diversity and the inclusion that we have in our city. Last but not least, it left us with great memories and with memorable friendships.

Program: program_C4_Cluj Napoca
Invitation: official_invitation_RO