Dancing bears, sweet, bread-like cozonac cake and homemade sarmale, cabbage rolls stuffed with minced meat and rice.
This is what a Romanian Christmas means to a class of lively young Romanians at the Mayflower language Centre who are teaching their British teachers how they celebrate the most exciting holiday of the year.
They show their teachers, Ross and Jake, a film and images of Christmas Romanian-style and ask them to spell the words: sorcova (Romanian caroling ritual) , plugusor (traditional Christmas dance), carnati (sausages), sorici (pork crackling) and salata de boeuf (creamy vegetable and boiled beef salad).
Thirty-five years ago when Romania threw off the shackles of communism in a bloody revolution, this would not have been possible. Europe was divided by the Berlin Wall and interaction was severely limited between people in Eastern and Western Europe.
But this has all changed. Romanian youngsters are keen to learn English and critical thinking skills, while British teachers enjoy living in Romania and learning the language and local culture.
If learning can be fun, then this pre-Christmas class at the Mayflower Centre is learning in action. Universul.net joined the class where the kids enjoyed testing their teachers, correcting their pronounciation, and speaking out loud in front of the class.
One exercise involved the two teachers being blindfolded and then fed sweet morsels, and asked to guess what they were eating, Romanian hard pastries (cornulețe), cozonac and turta dulce (gingerbread). The exercise went remarkably well and the children were enthusiastic and lively; their teachers good-natured and involved.
Next came the turn for the Romanian youngsters to learn about a British Christmas.
“People are normally stressed about buying presents,” said Ross wryly. The pair go on to talk about Advent calendars, sending Christmas cards (less of a tradition in Romania), pigs in blankets, and the annual King’s speech broadcast after Christmas lunch and watched in homes around the UK.
Christmas pudding sparks the youngsters’ interest, but they don’t seem convinced by Brussel sprouts, just like British children.
Boxing Day is a novelty for the audience: football matches, sales in big department stores and having friends over you didn’t see on Christmas Day.
The Mayflower Centre in Bucharest is a private language school, set up in 2018 and started with 40 students and one teacher. It now has about 250 students and five teachers. It offers general English classes and Cambridge exam classes to students between 4 and 18 years of age. We focus on communication and critical thinking.
It focuses mainly on British culture and British teachers teach youngsters not only language but also about British culture.
In line with the British curriculum, students are taught cultural aspects, critical thinking skills and at certain levels English is taught through STEM.
Students are also encouraged to learn about and appreciate their own country and their own traditions.
The centre takes part in the annual Economist Festival, in which children from across the globe discuss and debate contemporary issues. This develops the students’ language skills, but it also gives them a global perspective – that while Romania has its problems, so do other countries, even those that are considered to be more developed.
