“Young in Europe – similarities and differences”, a youth exchange were 60 young people from six different countries meet in Denmark.
In 2001 the youngsters of the youth club Vænget encouraged their leaders to be hosts for an exchange in the summer 2002, and they came up with ideas for subjects and activities. As a preparation one youth leader from Vængetparticipated in a short study visit in Italy 2001, where she made contact with five different organizations and associations from Poland, Northern Ireland, Italy, Belgium and Lithuania. The leaders agreed to join cooperation about a multilateral exchange in the summer of 2002, with the theme “To be young in Europe – similarities and differences”. They agreed that Denmark would be the hosting country for the other groups. Back home from the study visit the details were discussed with the youngsters and after numerous emails, faxes and phone calls between partners, they sent an application by the deadline 1st of February 2002.
Preparation visit
The application was approved and the preparations started for real. Approximately two months before the exchange there were held a preparation visit for one leader and one youngster from each country, where the last details of the program and the practical circumstances were set and made clear. In the preparation meeting they also made a common policy concerning alcohol and hash, and the leaders decided how to evaluate the exchange during and after the days of activity.
Various activities
The activity program itself contained different parts and kinds giving the youngsters good opportunities to learn more about each others everyday life and culture. A part of the planned activities also craved that the youngsters prepared themselves in groups during the exchange, for example should every group prepare some ice breakers and sports games so that the participants could get to know each other, they should prepare a song to perform in a Melody Grand Prix, a national dish for the international evening, and a presentation of themselves to perform for the others during the actual exchange. In addition to the mentioned activities there were also planned a visit to the community house and to local youth clubs, to let the youngsters from the other countries get an impression of the local community and the other way around. The youngsters could also listen to a local politician speaking about Danish youth policy. This gave opportunity to discuss differences and similarities between the countries. The Danish hosts worked as guides and showed the guests sights in Copenhagen. Also the Danish Viking era were experienced through a sailing tour in Viking ships.
Prejudices were tore down
During the visit in Lyngby the young people succeeded in becoming more open towards each other. They learned that prejudices limit the access to the world, while curiosity expands it.
Here are some of the youngsters comments after the exchange:
“The biggest experiences I got this summer were no doubt to be together with people from other countries and cultures. You get a totally different experience of how their everyday and life is.”
“Through the exploring and the experiences we had I learned, among other, how big influence the people’s background have on their personality. There were a big difference in the nationalities’ way of behavior – for example the Italians were very open and welcoming all from the start, while the Belgians were more closed and a little difficult to get into.”
“I learned that you can get to know people from other countries for real, even though they have another language and a different culture.”
“I have been to Italy three times, but only after hosting Italians in Denmark have I learned something about their everyday life and dreams.”
“I got to know a whole lot of new persons, and spoke to people who have other languages. I tried many things from their countries, some games and a lot of other things. In the end a real great experience which I would love to try again.”
