Bildung
Field-trip, Museum, Nijmegen.
The first stop is, the field-trip to the Blind Museum in Nijmegen, it was during the first week, this was my first experience related with blind people and it was really helpful to be able to generate my firsts perception of what is the meaning of “Bildung”. This was a really interactive and useful activity that we realized in Nijmegen. It was a very spiritual moment, whit spiritual moment I mean that It was completely different experience from what you can experience during a class in a normal classroom in the university. On this Museum we experiment divided in two group with a blind guide how is the normal daily life for the blind people, we participate in some daily activities such as go shopping in a supermarket, crossing a road, take some drinks on a bar and the simple fact of go to the living room in your house, everything is completely different, the daily things that we never paid attention such as the touch, the smell, the weight become real important for everything in your life. The experience was also sometimes a bit stressful when you see how much this people have to trust in completely unknown people from different business or in the street. In my opinion this experience is going to be very useful when we trip to China, because there we are going to find a world in other language and other characters even the signals in the street will be difficult to recognize for us and this activity help us in the way of experiment the same feeling before being there. In this museum I realized in the important paper who have the relation between the people and especially how vulnerable we can be on certain occasions when we are alone or for various reasons we feel different from the environment that surrounds us. During our stay in China we will also experience a sensation similar to being blind, due to the language mainly but also due to all the differences that we will see in the lifestyle and we will have to be able to survive in this estrange world, in the same way as the blind people have to do each day, so the conclusion that I learned from this trip is that you have to be openminded and you should not judge the people meeting them and try to be always responsible with the people and try to help the others in everything is possible because maybe one day you will need this help as well.
Religion and History.
The second activity that I would like to mention is the Religion and History where I was able to improve in a interactive and interesting way different facts and relevant events that the Chinese history had, such as the history of the emperors and how their laws shaped what is now China. Gijs Theunissen and Shira Godfriedall were the teachers who saw us how to understand the development of the Chinese culture until nowadays and why this nation still have a close relation between the present and history. A good example of this is the amount of traditions they have related for example with the tea, the status in the society… These classes about history make me think that the history is very relative, depends in where you were in that moment to see the consequences of these acts, it was a very necessary class to make a strong base for our Minor and our soon trip to China. Thank to this class we can appreciate the art and understand what the artist would like to express with his work. Besides, Mr. Ton Overtoom was the teacher with who we were learning more about the religion in China, the conflicts between the several religions that are present in China nowadays and their conflicts along the history and how the Chinese society was gaining knowledge from those religions. Firstly, we have to understand that China is a really huge country that can be also consider if you look the km2 as a continent where you can find several minorities with their own language, habits and their own way to understand the life. During these lessons I was able to understand the difference between those minorities besides the difference between the philosophy of each of then and why it is inspired from different stories or characters.
Ethics and technology.
Ethics & technology, in this class I was able to understand how fast is the develop of the world and how integrated is the technology in our lives, always with some knowledge of how affect this in the Chinese society to be able to understand their actual habits of life. I would like to remark the interactive aspect of the class, with some quiz for the students, making it more attractive for us with visual presentations and oral discussions during the lesson where we share our knowledge about the technology nowadays.
During this classes Joost Alleblas was the teacher who show us how is the develop of the technology ands how it can help to the people nowadays with some reflections about the past when the people didn't have any of this useful inventions besides I had the opportunity to see the thin line that links ethics with new technologies, to what extent it would be ethical to do certain things such as the access to the privacy information the the social media have in order to provide data to certain companies about the personal behaviors of the people. Furthermore, in my opinion about this class it will be better if the class have more interactive activities such as watching videos regarding the technology related to ethics. This will help the students to be able to see the issues of don't take in to consideration the ethic when it comes to creating a new technology.
Ethics and Integrity.
Art.
The other Art class is more related with the Chinese art and their artist. The teacher Xue Mu was teaching the difference between the Chinese way of art along the history compare with our art history in Europe. I saw the difference between the style of the artist from the same period of time and also the similarities that they have in some aspects of their work. It was really useful to see the different technology available in Europe and in China during the same period, the topics of the paints and sculptures, the technic used to create the work and the materials that the artist was using… With this lecture I also was able to define the behaviors of the people not just looking at the time, also looking the place where the artist made the work, in what the people from this place at this time was worried about, what was the most important things fro them at that moment.
To conclude I want to say that I would like to continue improving my personal skills related to the relationship with the other people even if they are not practicing the same religion. Even if they are from different countries. I am looking forward to implement what I have learned in this subject for these seven weeks for my trip to China. I personally think that the subject give me tips, stories and knowledge that I will take in to consideration drink my trip to China. In my opinion, what I have learned in Bildung´s lessons is a really useful material that help me to understand a little better the world around me and even myself and the people around me. It is very useful to prevent the racism or any problem related to cultural differences.
Miguel Llamazares Prada
