Life on board - Introducing about the UK/ROI

seminar on inter-cultural communication
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Life on board never gets boring!

There are many things going on every day - organised lectures, seminars, sports activities, dance lessons, music, drawing, films, discussions, totally random events etc... I try to attend as many lectures as I can since I major peace & conflict studies and most of the guest lecturers speak about something to do with peace (Issues in the Middle East, East Asian issues, L. American issues, American politics, globalization, food security, global warming, human rights abuses, gender issues, NGO activities, histories...).

maybe I talked too much about Derry :)

my lecture
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Since I am one of CCs, I normally interpret one lecture a day. But one day, I was a lecturer! I talked about the issues in Northern Ireland in front of over 200 passengers for 90 minutes. I made a handout so that people could easily follow my lecture. To be honest, not many Japanese people know a lot about the issues in Northern Ireland. It is probably because we were far away from each other, and world history classes at school do not really cover recent issues.

I put my favourite Celtic music on before the lecture so that the participants could enjoy the music and would have more interest. I started my lecture with a little activity which participants could talk to each other. I have already put a base map of Great Britain and Ireland on the hand out, and asked participants to be a pair and draw a border of the UK and Republic of Ireland. A few got the current border line, while most others draw a line between Great Britain and Ireland, some cut off Scotland or some did not even draw a line.

UK/ROI booth at the festival
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When I gave them an answer, some people were very surprised or shocked and at the same time it attracted their attention. People looked very curious about the Issues in Northern Ireland. I talked about the history from 1900s, recent history, major cities in N.Ireland, showed photos of Murals from both communities as well as introduced my personal experiences in Derry/Londonderry.

In terms of the conflict in N.Ireland, I have no right to say anything about the conflict and have nothing particularly to say. Basically I consider myself as an 'outsider' who has been living and studying in Derry to have living experience and learn more about it from local perspective. I have many friends from both communities in N.Ireland, England and ROI, and all of them are just lovely. Apart from the amount of alcohol my friends can handle lol, they (regardless of sex) are all kind, very sweet and have very warm hearted -- they are willing to offer help when someone get problems or feel upset.

a map of where we came from by Stuart
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I left 25 minutes for Q&A which I got many interesting questions such as; the reason why I decided to go to N.Ireland, Stormount government, Gaelic (Irish language) education, Irish literature (Yeats), Football and politics, nationalism in Wales and Scotland, Northern Irish issues and Israeli-Palestina issues, regions. Even after I finished my lecture, some people still came to me and asked more question or left me comments.

3 days later, one of GET teachers from England told me that he got asked by a couple of passengers about what he thought about the issues in N.Ireland as an English. It seemed like my lecture expanded people's interest on the issues... hopefully.

Another day, we had an 'International Cultural Festival - around the world in 3 hours'. We set up 12 different booths which introduced about each country. I was in charge of the UK/ROI booth with Stu, Angela, Phil (from England) and Bethan (from Wales). Participants were advised to collect stamps from each booths.

At our booth, we gave stamps when they answered the question regarding UK/ROI (ex. Where is the capital of England, Wales, Scotland, N.Ireland, Ireland?). When I asked about the capital of N.Ireland, one said 'Derry/Londonderry'... well maybe I talked too much about Derry lol. Pub Quiz was taken place as well, it could have been better with a pint of Guinness!