V petek, 28. 9. 2018, se je v pritličnem prostoru Mestne knjižnice in čitalnice Idrija odvijala prireditev ob evropskem dnevu jezikov, Naš včeraj, danes, jutri. Na prireditvi so sodelovali Gimnazija Jurija Vege Idrija, OŠ Idrija in Spodnja Idrija, svoj košček pa je pristavil tudi Mladinski center, z EVS prostovoljcema. Roni in Mireille sta pripravila predstavitev v svojem jeziku. Mireille je izbrala kratko zgodbo Lev in miš (La Fontaine), ki jo je interpretirala v Francoščini. Roni pa se je prepustil finski mitologiji, ki jo je nekoliko predstavil, nato pa še prebral oddlomek pesmi, ki je priložena tej novici.
Roni je poleg prireditve v sodelovanju z gimnazijo, dopoldne sodeloval tudi pri dnevu jezikov v OŠ Idrija. O petkovem dogajanju je zbral svoje misli o dogajanju in jih strnil v spodnjem zapisu:
"I was tasked with a presentation for elementary and high-school in Idrija. The teacher told that most other presentations are focused around poetry, so I decided to jump in the bandwagon and chose Kalevala, an old Finnish collection of poems, as my main topic.
As the presentation was also for elementary school I decided to focus on pictures more than words in my presentation. After a while of researching I remembered that Donald Duck magazine published the story of Kalevala, so I chose to have this as my main focal point as most people know the Duck and Donald is also a BIG part of Finnish cultural heritage among all generations. Most grandmas have towers of Akkari (Finnish slang word for Aku Ankka magazines) in their attics. I thought this would also hit the spot with high-school students and their parents as well as a cast of international teachers attending the evening program of the project. And it did (Yay!)
The morning came and I went to elementary school and was hit by the magnitude of work the students had put into their shows: video about Idrijan heritage was spoken in multiple languages, like English, German, Spanish and Slovenian (maybe even more), self written poems were well constructed even for non-Slovenian speaker like me, the hosts of the event were as professional as elementary school students can be. Just WOW.
The evening came and it was time for our event for the grown ups. I was again surprised by the effort that went into making this gala: suits for the hosts, costumes and make up for theater and well made fliers with time tables and short descriptions about the event. Also the cast of international teachers gave presentations about the topic of poems and language heritage in their countries. Impressive! I felt like I could’ve prepared and dressed a little better for such an official event, but in the end my presentation was met with applause that satisfied me. What really impressed me about this event was the theater plays: with only body language by my side (moja Slovenško je slabo) I still understood what was going on, without history and nuances of course.
It’s always nice to get invitations to these kind of events as it shows that Idrija respects its heritage immensely and the people here also respect other countries’ heritage and are genuinely interested in them. I’ve learned that Idrija has a really strong sense of “we are” that I haven’t seen in Finland, although we Finns also have this sense it’s difficult to see it from inside the box. Before I came to Idrija I didn’t have as much awareness for my own culture as I do now. Thank you for showing me that culture and heritage actually matters and its good to be proud of it.
EVS and Donald Duck enthusiast - Roni Jernfors"
