The Gypsy case again

Hi there! :) So what do you say to latest news?! One French mayor refused to bury body of a Roma child objecting that graves are for those who pay taxes... a difficult dilema appears here - the mayor's attitude is labeled as racist but on the other hand - shall we make efforts to integrate someone who often takes advantages of being the oppressed one and doesn't really want to contribute to the society and be part of it?
What do you think about it? You can view all the report here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/french-mayor-denies-he-refused-roma-infant-burial/2015/01/04/d2192950-941b-11e4-8385-866293322c2f_story.html

Portuguese Identity

Hello my dear colleagues :) I have just one thing I'd like to share with you, that is relevant to our classes. :) 

For another class, Radio Journalism, I chose to make a final project, (which should have been a radio report for 7 - 10 minutes) about Portuguese identity. I asked six young people - three native Portuguese (two boys, one girl), two immigrants (one Brasilian guy as a representant of the biggest national minority here, and one Belgian girl) and one Erasmus student - to share their opinions about Portugal (Portuguese language, traditions, economy, politics, media,...) and Portuguese people (their behaviour, character, stereotypes about them, etc.) with me. I won't keep you in suspense any longer, four of my interviewees were our colleagues from Intercultural Communication classes - Joao, Ana Rita, Naomi and Andreas. :) 

I pity so much that I didn't manage to make the report earlier and show it to you during classes, because these interviews brought a lot of interesting points of view and we could have had such a nice discussion about it! :/ Well, I can't change this anymore, but because I really think that the answers I gained were very interesting and you could find them interesting as well, I decided to share my final report with you.So if you are really interested in it, you can find my report here http://leteckaposta.cz/519135213 

You just have to clik on this link and then click on the sentence "Portuguese_identity2.wav" and it will start downloading (I had to upload it somewhere because it was too big ;) ). And in case you are not, sorry for a spam :D

Otherwise I must say that I really enjoyed the classes and our blog, that brought so many diverse points of view! Thank you all for that! :) And thus I'd like to propose, if there is anyone who would like to continue in contributing to this blog even beyond classes with me, I would be happy for that :) It doesn't need to be strictly regular, but from time to time it's really nice to read something different, to know what is happening in other countries, what's the atmosphere, opinion on sth. and to hear it from somebody who really experiences it, not to read "official" information in media. I think I will miss the diversity in opinions when I come back home. Everything will be just the same Czech point of view :D So whoever has the same feeling as I do, let's stay in touch by continuing in our blog! :) And merry Christmas to you all!!! :)  

stereotypes

I found a video about the stereotypes that I think is interesting to see. And I want to share with you. It is about the contrary situation that normal happens with white and black people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgocNXMP8CU

And the other thing than I found it is one site that it show us one book about the gender stereotypes

http://www.upsocl.com/diversidad/una-disenadora-resumio-todos-los-prejuicios-de-genero-en-15-pictogramas/

UAlg VS USC

Como estudante actual em Portugal gostaría de comparar o sistema universitario em Faro e em Santiago de Compostela.

Dende que cheguei no meu primeiro día nas aulas no campus da Penha já deu para percever as grandes diferenças que tem.

1) No primeiro o tipo de aulas, já que são pequenas, com mesas individuais e nas que como maximo so 20 alunos podem estar lá.Em Santiago as aulas são enormes com mesas como minimo para 5 pessoas.

2) O numero de alunos por aula. Em Faro a aula na que tem mais pessoas somos 30, mais em Santiago somos 120 alunos dum so curso, o que sería quase juntando os 3 cursos duma licenciatura aqui.

3) Os profesores. Aqui os professores são muito diferentes de lá. Para começar todos são muito cercanos aos alunos (nesto pode que influencie o numero de alunos na aula), podes encontrar com eles em qualquer hora do dia na faculdade e sempre estão disponiveis para atenderte. Em Santiago os profesores nem conhecen teu nome, e muito complicado encontrar com eles na faculdade, pelo que sempre e melhor enviar um email previo para confirmar que horas el vai estar disponivel para atender e quando o fan sempre tenhem prisa e precisam acabar depressa o encontro com você porque sempre tenhem outras coisas melhor que fazer segum eles.

4) Os recursos que podes utilizar. Aqui é muito fazil pode pegar emprestado qualquer material da universidade durante diversos días e para empregar para trabalhos da aula. Em Santiago, nem tenhem tanto material nem e tão fazil que o emprestem, sempre precisas de um professor que se faza cargo.

5)As materias aqui não são muito complicadas. Tambem pode ser porque as materias que tenho podem ser mais faciles ou adaptadas para erasmus por a lingua. Mas comparado com Santiago não se da tanta materia, lá os profesores gostam muito de dar muito temario sem se preocupar se os alunos estam a aprender alguma coisa e so se interesan em evaluar a prova escrita final, sem ter moi em conta o trabalho de aula.

6) O prezo do comedor universitario. Isto foi uma das coisas que mais me impresionou, como por 2,5€ pode comer tanto. Lá, custa 5,4€ e você so come um prato.

Istas são as principais diferenzas que eu encontrei entre as duas universidades e que achei interesantes de compartilhar.

Stereotypes about Portugal and Portuguese people

I always  been curious about  the stereotypes of Portgual and portuguese people, so I search for them in the internet and found several, here's  some of them :

“ Portuguese women have mustache”

I was already aware of this stereotype  about Portuguese women, and I must say that is not true!! Portuguese women (at least most) dont  have mustache !!

“Portuguese people are considered more taciturn and fatalistic than other southern European populations, probably because of Fado music (fado means “fate”)”

It is true, Portuguese tend to think only about the negative things  and are more taciturno. We complain, a lot ,about everything and everyone.

“People from Alentejo (one of the most rural and underdeveloped regions in the country) live life at a snail’s pace, are lazy and mostly old. They’re probably communists too.”

It's funny to find this stereotype about Alentejo and it´s people, because in Portugal  we also have this stereotype about this region of our country and it´s people. Like some Nordic countries in Europe see the southern countries as lazy, we (portugueses) also do that with Alentejo and it´s people.

On the question of being mostly old  people that live in Alentejo,  I can say that is true, Alentejo  like any  other inland regions of Portugal suffers from desertification,   younger people tend to go to coastal areas to find a better live and employment. About the part  that says that people from Alentejo are mostly communists,  well Alentejo is  one of  the areas of Portugal where Communist party have more fans, but it doesn´t  mean that they are all communists.

“(…) cultural habit to make an afternoon nap”

In Portugal we don´t have the habit of napping, unless  if you are child. In fact we associate this stereotype with Spain´, but I don´t know if it is true or not  . It's one of the cases where the Spanish and Portuguese cultures are confused.

“The Portuguese language even has a word, “saudade”, which doesn’t translate into English. It roughly means “nostalgia” or “homesickness”

It´s true  like any other languages portuguese language  also has a word that can not be translated ,the word  is "saudade”, as the phrase  said it can be translated as" nostalgia "or" homesickness "but it's much more than that.

In my sources  you can find  more stereotypes about Portugal and the Portugueses and also about  other European countries and perphaps about your own country:

http://www.nationalstereotype.com/european-stereotypes/

http://www.nationalstereotype.com/portuguese-stereotypes/

About Identities

1.Gender identity: 

Gender refers to the social expectations about how boys and girls should think and act. It is the biological , social and legal status that identifies us as men and women. Gender identity refers to how we feel about our gender and our gender roles and how to communicate those feelings trough the clothes, behavior and appearance. I think that's more important how do you feel than how are you, in biological sense, I mean that, you have to follow your owns instincts because the gender identity only exists by the society. It's a concept created by our own past society. For long years ago, society says to us how must be in our lives; How we have to be, how we have to wear, what kinds of activities we must do, etc. depending if we're from one gender or other.

For example in topics like esthetic, fashion, etc. gender identity, has a hard influyent component; "You can't have hairs in your legs, it's not for a lady". This is a "stupid" example that most girls add in our mind uncounsciously, and like this, thousand of examples.

Feminine traits are ways of behaving that our culture generally associated with being a girl or a woman. Male traits are ways of behaving that our culture generally associated with being a boy or a man.

There are some terms that used to describe usually the Femininity:
 Dependent, Passive, Emotional, Sensitive, Quiet Full of grace, Innocent,
Weak, Sexually, Suggestive and Educated. 

There are some terms too that used to describe the Masculinity: 
No emotional, Independent, Competitive, uncoordinated, Experienced, Aggressive, Insensitive Active Strong , Confident, Sexually Aggressive, hard. 

All men have traits considered feminine and every woman has traits considered masculine. We can also show differents characteristics at differents times. 
The cultures teach that men and women are opposites in many ways. The
 truth is that we have more similarities than differences.
 
2.   Sexual Identity: 
Sexual identity refers to how people perceive and identify themselves as 
sexual beings, whether a man, a woman or a mixture of both. Sexual identity 
beggins at conception when the male or female biological sex is defined.
After birth, sexual identity is built and modeled, depending on many factors,
 including the relationship with the mother, father and / or both, family, school, / as friends / as, media and social and cultural environment in which they live. 
All these factors will influence how learning to be women and men and girls 
and boys receive different messages transmitted that is feminine and
 masculine. This does not necessarily have to do with biological functions, but yes about the ideas and values ​​of our culture.
In my opinion, in Sexual identity as Gender identity it's more important the 
way that you feel with your self that the way that other people see you. 
 
3.   Age identity
About the ade identity I think it's an aspect very important to considerate.
I think it's the main aspect that you have to achieve more or less. I'm not saying that if you feel young you probabbly will live better and feel inside's better, what I've to say is that you have to live your life according your age more or less; You can have some aspects that you considerate as yourself differents, but you should to achieve with some things according your age, for example, if you are a parent, you must be a parent and do the functions of a parent, you can't avoid your responsabilities as a parent and live like a teenager because if you have some principles you probabbly feel bad. I think the same, for example, with the teenager people; If you had 13 years old an live like if you were 18, probabbly in the future you'll feel tired to do the same things a lot of years and don't feel like a girl with 18. Like these, a lot of examples. 
4.   Racial/ ethnical identity: 
I think that racial and ethnical identity are some constructions of the society. The society put "names" to the colors of our skins and considerated that some colors were strongers than others and vice versa, so, in my opinion is sad that in this century exists racist people or people that hates for example gypsis; Probablly if we have more human contacts between us we will be more tolerants and these "separations" will disappears. 
 
5.   Regions/ nacional identity

National identity is a social, cultural and spatial condition; These are 
features that have a relationship with a policy environment and that, 
generally, the nations are associated with a state. 
In some cases, national identity can exist without being certified by a legal
 document. For exemple, gypsies can talk about national identity despite his 
nation does not have a territory or state that as a social group for protection. A man, therefore, can have Spanish nationality or any other country and Gypsy 
identity. 
I think that is simply that you born in some place, but...If you were born in other place? I think nacional identity doesn't exists, I mean, I love Seville, my city, and my country, Spain,but it's simply coincidence. Sometimes, nacionals identitys of ourselves create a lot of prejudices and it's the point that I don't like. If we can live with our national identity without discriminate other people for the only reason that they belong to another place it doesn't mind but, unfortunatelly 
some people have very close mind and they aren't ables to live in peace with 
other nations or cultures. I think we're in the XXI's century and it's very sad that today we've to permit this kind of actitudes and thoughts. 
 
 
6.   Religion identity
The religion identity is the feeling to belonging in some religion, for example 
the cristhyanism, the judaism or islamism. I think it depends by the own self, I
 mean, if you believe in something, you have faith, it's allright, it's respectable. But, in my personal opinion I think it depends a lot in the place where do you born and the kind of education that you receives; For example, if you born in a catholic country and your parents believe in god and teach you since
 you born the catholics principles you probbably will believe in god and will be 
catholic. Sometimes it's not happens by the same way, but, it's very ussual. 
I think that school has a lot of influences too, because we spent a lot of time 
there and we forges our mains knows and ideas. 

7.   Class identity 
I think that it's not important to have humans relations, but, unfortunatelly for some people it has a lot of weight at time to have relations of any type: 
Friends, work, neighbours,etc. Some people thinks that have to take care this "reputation". In my personal opinion, it's very sad. I think humans first of 
all are humans, so, Why don't have relations with each people that we meet? I mean, if you talk some time with a nice person why do you should stop? Because he or she hasn't got money? It's an stupid thought, but a lot of
 rich people have it; Other no, of course, but it still exists, So like all these topics, Class identity exists since the human exists and it create a lot of prejudices. Since here I invite to you to know all people and then make your own oppinion :)

Why so many portuguese love lottery scratch – off tickets?

From the first months since I live in Faro, I noticed one interesting portuguese hobby, entertainment, amusement, don’t know how exactly to call it, maybe addiction, but it suprised me anyway. And what it is exactly? Their great thirst to buy scratch cards!

Every month I am going to these small shops to recharge my phone card and every time I see a large lines with people, who are buying these lottery scratch – off tickets. I have that strange feeling that every time I am the only one, who don’t buy these cards.  People are standing inside and outside with these tickets, which ask to scratch off at least three different areas on the card  that could be hiding different things such as numbers, shapes and symbols. I think these type of lottery are much more addictive than having to buy an actual ticket lottery, because addiction is primarly based on the fact that don’t have to wait long at all.  

But I can not understand why it is like that? Why are these cards so addictive to portuguese and others?  Is there a really big possibility to win several hundreds, thousands simply by scratching off the right areas? Are they really waiting for a luck or just don’t have nothing to do? I can not understand... but there are always a lot of people  in these shops – young, old, women, men...

In Latvia mosthly elderly people buy scratch tickets, although a couple of times my family has also tried, but just to try, but for us it was just a fun, and nowdays in my country it is not so popular, but of course still we have „players”, but certainly not as many as here. Maybe here is a bigger chance to win, I really don’t know, what is their secret to play so often J