Our Etwinning Project
Since last year, we have been working on a project funded by Erasmus+ called ‘’Protection of our Cultural Heritage’’ which consists of talking to students from the Czech Republic in English about our countries.
We started by introducing ourselves and then our schools. We found out that they have a similar system to us. They work five days a week, from Monday to Friday, and get the Saturday and Sunday off. Unlike us, however, they have lessons from 8 am to 2 pm and each lesson only lasts 45 minutes, meaning they have much shorter days than us. They also have a lot more free time, as their breaks can last up to 15 minutes. Their school year is split into 2 semesters instead of 3 like ours is. The Czech students start school on the 1st of September like we do, but their holidays are fairly different from in France. They have 3 days off in Autumn (from Wednesday to the end of the week), 10 days for Christmas and New Year, 6 days in spring and 2 months for the summer holidays.
We then talked about our various traditions for Christmas and Easter. For example, for Christmas, they make little boats out of walnuts and let them float around in a bowl full of water. They also have a tradition where a girl throws a shoe at the door and if it lands pointing towards the door, it means she will one day get married and leave home. However, if it doesn’t, she will remain home and won’t marry. They do have some that are similar to ours too, like decorated a tree in their houses and sharing gifts. For Easter, there are lots of traditional food recipes such as Mazanec, which a form of bread, lamb-shaped cakes covered in chocolate or icing sugar called Beránek, sprouted peas cooked with salt, pepper and butter called Pu?álka and a whole bunch of egg recipes. They also celebrate by reading short poems and carols and with a big parade with people dressed in costumes which anyone can join.
We also talked about our countries’ various monuments or historical places or things that are special to us and our countries. For example, on the French side, we talked about Guedelon Castle, the chateau in Bazoche, Vezelay, types of cheese… and the Czech students told us about the Schwarzenberg Tomb, the Dív?í Kámen which are the ruins of an old castle, a castle called Orlík which dates back to the 13th century and another called Rožmberk which is one of the oldest castles in the country. They also told us about bagpipes being a key part of their culture and how the beer produced in the Czech Republic is the most famous beer in the world.
To conclude, we learnt a lot about each other and it was over all a really fun experience. 
Dans cet article nous avons parlé de notre projet sur Etwinning. Nous nous sommes présentés et on a appris beaucoup de choses sur eux comme sur nous, comme par exemple des différences par rapport aux programmes scolaires, comme les placements de leurs vacances et leurs horaires de cours. On a également appris quelques traditions, principalement de Noël et de Pâques, par exemple quand les femmes jettent leurs chaussures au pas de la porte pour savoir si elles seront mariées et quitteront enfin la maison de leurs parents pour vivre leur nouvelle vie à Noël, ou alors faire flotter de petits bateaux en coque de noix dans un grand récipient d’eau. On a également découvert certains monuments comme le ‘Schwarzenberg Tomb’ ou encore un magnifique château nommé Orlík. Pour conclure, c’était une très belle expérience d’en apprendre un peu plus sur l’autre.
