Diário de Bordo: Passaporte da Voluntária

 DADOS DE EMBARQUE

Nome: Emma Kiraly

Origem: Hungria

 Olá :) I am Emma and I come from Hungary.

In the spring I decided that before I will be 30 I would like to do some voluntary work in some country, which is totally different than my homeland and I'll get some new experience what would be unforgettable in my whole life. And because I've never lived near the see :)), I choose Lisbon and the literacy project of ALEM. In Hungary I worked in Roma communities and the other part of my life was working with children, so it was a perfect combination of my previous life. And it is related to my studies. First I studied social work and then I did my master degree in the field of ethnic and minority studies. Here in Lisbon we work with children in the schools, we support the teachers helping to the children to learn how to read, how to understand what they are reading.

This is a great opportunity to know new methods and new way of thinking what can be really improve myself.

About my Portuguese life: First impression was the language. When I got on my plane I was sitting on my seat and then the stewardess started to speak in Portuguese. At that moment I realized is Chinese for me. I've never learnt any Latin language before, so I couldn't recognize any words, and then I couldn't decide what is a word or what is a sentence. They spoke really fast (of course on the plane they do it in every language). It was scary, because my first goal was that I really would like to speak another language after my EVS and at that moment it seemed to me is impossible.

In these two months we had a Portuguese language course. It is a good challenge for everybody in the group (at least I think). Is a big challenge for me because is really hard for me and I learn it really slowly, is a challenge for the others who speaks really well because they need a lot of patience and is a challenge for the teachers who has to teach all of us in the same group. We have a lot of differences in our knowledge. But in the same time it helps a lot and maybe this way is better to know the language and study as quickly as you can.

The city (Lisbon) is beautiful and not just beautiful, is really lifefull in a natural way. The people are living in this city. In this month I didn't do a lot of tourist things, I didn't visit so much places but I moved a lot in the city. Go to school, go to work and to go out somewhere (is also a good way to know the city) and now I feel I have already started to know Lisbon, like my hometown.