Classroom culture: West and East

Let's bridge the differences

It seems that the differences between West and East are innumerable. However, each individual has different perceptions of them - some students prefer Western and some students prefer Eastern style of education. What is most important is to recognize these differences and make an effort to bridge them, because any encountering of something different than what we are used to is a new valuable experience, which is exactly what shapes a young European citizen!


By LARA VUJOVIĆ
from Bremen, GERMANY


What is it to be European? How many of us, geographically positioned in one of the European countries can say that they feel like citizens of a whole Europe? What kind of a person would you picture in your mind as a prototype of a European citizen? Educated, tolerant, open-minded individual who likes to travel and meet new people? Is he/she coming from Western or Eastern part of Europe? Most likely you have imagined someone coming from one of the Western European countries. Why is this so? Are differences between West and East so big that we cannot possibly overcome them and enjoy living in Europe "united in diversity"?

One of the most important social organizations of each country is its system of education. In order to dwell more into the distinction between Western and Eastern European countries, we have tried to investigate in how their education systems differ.

Iliya Stoyanov, 22-years old student graduating from a private university in Bremen told to WAVE magazine that he experienced cultural shock when he first came to Germany: "Lectures differed a lot from what I was used to in my high school in Bulgaria. Atmosphere in the classroom was much more liberal, allowing students to interrupt the professors any time they want and encouraging them to ask questions. Lessons were usually interactive, inspiring students to think and be critical about what they learn and are presented by the professor. In my high school in Bulgaria, most of the time we were merely listening to the teacher, and we were rarely given the opportunity to question his authority and knowledge".

More freedom - more responsibility

However, Lamija Bešlić, 19-years old girl from Bosnia and Herzegovina, currently studying in Vienna, has quite different opinion from Iliya. She says for WAVE Magazine that she feels Western classroom style is much stricter, which is most of the times good, but she is afraid that it might inhibit her creativity. Even thought more liberal, do students coming from South Eastern Europe perceive Western classroom as also more strict? Since they are given the freedom to question and criticize, they are given more responsibility at the same time. Indeed, both Lamija and Iliya claim that it was much easier to study in a South Eastern system: lectures were more conservative and traditional, and students were not required to be active throughout the whole semester - as soon as they would get graded, they would just forget about that course.

20-years old Kristina Stojmenova is studying in Maribor, Slovenia. She says that the biggest difference about student life in Macedonia (her home country) and Slovenia is that in Slovenia students are provided with much more facilities: student dormitories are very good and available for a reasonable price; students have huge food discounts (in certain restaurants they can get a complete meal with a soup and a dessert for only a couple of euros) and they have more and better equipped libraries and study supplies at their universities. This issue, however, also reflects deeper problems of Balkan countries - the money. Most of these states are very poor and therefore do not invest enough money for the education, which leaves students either struggling to acquire knowledge under rather bad conditions, or it forces talented students to leave and obtain higher education in West.

Youth perspectives in East and/or West

But what is it exactly that makes these students leave their home countries and get educated in some of the countries of Western Europe? Maša Milić, 21-year old student from Montenegro, studying in Belgium, explains: "I got a scholarship to study in Brussels, which is the centre of the European life, and I could not think of a better place to be educated and prepare a solid ground for my future career". Blagojče Nestorov, 19-years old student from Macedonia, currently studying in Italy says: "I could not picture my future in Macedonia. I think much more opportunities for career development are offered in Western European countries. Besides, these countries are more open and allow cheaper travelling and interaction between the states, which is not a case in Macedonia. I still feel quite left out in a country where we need visas to visit other countries on a same continent."

However, some students decide to go back to their home countries in South Eastern Europe, such as Katarina Jelačić, a 20-years old student who studied in France for one year: "I just could not stand it. Even though I have made a lot of good friends, I felt incapable of entering that Western "money-making machine" and think in purely practical terms at the age of 20. I think the warmth of Serbia, my home country, and people in it, will allow me to have more carefree studies, but still offer me a good job and future".

It seems that the differences between West and East are innumerable. However, each individual has different perceptions of them - some students prefer Western and some students prefer Eastern style of education. What is most important is to recognize these differences and make an effort to bridge them and in this way encourage interaction and exchange of students from West and the East, because any encountering of something different than what we are used to is a new valuable experience, which is exactly what shapes a young European citizen! Iliya adds here that at his university, during the orientation week, all students went through the workshop about Western classroom style, and in this way, they realized the differences between this system and the one on the East, and got some useful advice and tips on how to adjust to this new studying environment.

By recognizing these differences, we will be able to examine them and get to understand them better, and in the end - love them, because they are precisely what make Europe such an exciting continent to live in!


(Published: 10.05.2009.)