At Skool, as providers of language courses and cultural experiences, we are fortunate enough to benefit from the mutually enriching exchange of ideas and experiences across cultures. This is why we exist as a business, and because learning is never a one-sided process, we gain just as much from the relationships we make in the act of teaching as the language skills our tutees develop with us. Thanks to our German-speaking students for instance, we are made aware that the signs of a long history of cultural integration are right under our English-speaking noses, quite literally on our tongues; words like kindergarten, zeitgeist, wunderkind, poltergeist, doppleganger and uber (now an uber-commercial signifier), are in common usage in English. And because we like to talk about books and big ideas, we are also reminded of the vast influence of German literature on our worldview (weltanschauung), through writers and thinkers like Thomas Mann, Thomas Bernhard (my personal favourite), Herman Hesse, Nietzsche, Freud, Hegel, Schopenhauer, etc (the list of heavyweights goes on and on).
Naturally then, we are huge fans of any measures that enhance the potential for cultural exchange. Bildungsurlaub, another great German-speaking contribution to the spread of culture, does just this. The word in English means ‘educational vacation’ or ‘educational leave’. We all know how difficult it can be to balance the pressures of a working life with the desire to have enriching cultural experiences. Time and economic limitations often mean sacrificing that part of ourselves which yearns to learn and grow. Bildungsurlaub is a government-funded program that grants employees an extra 5 to 10 days of annual holiday as part of a general adult-learning initiative. It’s hard to imagine such a thing in the UK, and we can only envy and admire more progressive societies where continuing education, alongside social welfare, is raised to the level of a political principle (as opposed to the cult of obsessive capital accumulation at the expense of everything else) through initiatives like Bildungsurlaub. The problem is that many German workers don’t know about this unique opportunity, and even when they do they are afraid to take advantage of it because of the stigma attached to the idea of extended holidays. But when holiday is a synonym for freedom to stimulate mind and body through cultural experiences and become a richer and more linguistically capable person, that fear and that stigma should be recognised for what they really are, just another way for the corporate world to impose limits on natural freedoms.
But Bildungsurlaub isn’t only a vindication of the right to learn and experience other cultures, it provides German workers with the perfect chance to explore a beautiful and unique location like Cornwall, engage their imagination, and not have to sacrifice their hard-earned salaries. For this reason Skool is proud to be an accredited Bildungsurlaub institute. For anyone looking for a legitimate reason to substitute work with one of our courses combining language study with walking, watersports and/or arts and culture, Bildungsurlaub is an ideal opportunity to overcome the limitations of the system, culturally integrate, and extend their holidays at the same time. For more information about Bildungsurlaub click on this link: https://www.bildungsurlaub.de/
#sprachresien #sprachresiennachcornwall #sprachreisecornwall #stagnes #Wandern #consciouschange #ethicalbusiness #englischsprachschule #visitcornwall #englishcourseuk #skoolcornwall #walkingcornwall #englishwithwalking #cornwalllife #cornwallliving #cornwallcoast #rosamundepilcher #englishwithartsandculture #learnenglish #englishteacher #hiking #nature #learnliveexplore #poldark #cornwallcouncil #studyenglish #learningenglish #english #notlikeotherlanguageschools #studyabroad #instaenglish #Englischmitwandern #Wandern #consciouschange #ethicalbusiness #englischsprachschule #bildungsurlaub