Today was the day we presented our
theatrical plays about the untranslatable words in our languages. Every
presentation was full of energy, and were all followed by a lot of laughter. Of
the words described, three were about male-female relations, two about general
social interactions and one about a Polish national tradition.
Here are the words from all six countries:
·
Spanish: “Pagafantas” – a guy
who buys drinks for a girl, but gets brushed off, because she only likes him as
a friend.
·
Bulgarian: “Mutra” is a dumb
man who is obsessed with cars, has gold chains around his neck and is generally
behaving in impolite ways. Often employed as a security guard or debt
collector. “Kifla” means croissant, but also a sort of stupid woman, who wears
a lot of make-up and is attracted by mutras.
·
Greek: “Charmolipi” – a rapid
changing between feelings of happiness and sadness, laughing and crying in the
face of emotionally charged life situations.
·
Estonian: “Äksi täis” – a state
of being full of “äks”, being very lively and enthusiastic about something. Is
often used as going full of “äks”,
meaning suddenly getting enthusiastic about some idea or action.
·
Polish: “Smigus-dyngus”. It’s a
Polish Easter tradition, when young people go around towns and throw water on
their friends and even just passes by. In the past, the most beautiful girls of
villages used to be singled out by the water throwers.
·
Italian: “te voglio bene assai” – a
phrase used to designate strong positive feelings towars friends and members of
the opposite sex, which is not quite as strong as saying you love someone.
All the words were representative of their
cultural backgrounds, and were presented with plenty of improvisation, humour
and irony.
There was a break in the presentations with
traditional Italian coffee and biscuits, which was a great relief after the
coffee we’ve been having until now. Yoncho says he very much regrets missing
the Italian coffee.
In conjunction with the words, we also
presented the unique or characteric gestures of our countries, making it easier
for us to communicate non-verbally and making us more aware of each other’s
cultures.
That was followed by an introduction into
our countries’ national cuisines. We basically learned what the Internet thinks
our cuisines are like (I mean, come on, what the hell is a potato piggie!), and
had fun explaining the foods and the differences in understanding to each
other.
After having an introduction, we are going
to have an intercultural night where all the countries will present examples of
their foods, and we will all get to try some. All of us are going to have to
prepare and we’re a bit worried if we’ll have enough time to prepare.
In general it looks like we’re going to
have a great time.
INTERCULTURAL NIGHT
The performances were hilarious.
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