The last two presentation for the Ti Presento il Mio Paese project were about Germany and Armenia. We’ve been really curious to listen something about our neighbour Germany and so far unknown and distant Armenia. To get to know how the presentation was for our volunteers we decided to make a double-interview. For more information keep reading!
Question 1: How were your feelings to present your country to the Italian audience?
Khacho: First of all it was a challenge for me because it’s just four months that I’m learning Italian and it was hard for me to present Armenia in Italian. By the way at the end I felt myself accomplished. Also I was happy that my friends and in general Pesaresi got to know more about the history, culture and traditions of Armenians.
Milli: Before starting to present I was a little nervous furthermore it was not so easy for me because I was supposed to decide everything about in what way I want to present Germany and what I want to talk about on my own. Normally I can work better when I have a concrete question. Maybe this is typical for German people.
Q2: Can you mention one important point from your presentation that you would like our blog readers who didn’t attend to the presentation at library Biblioteca San Giovani to know about your country?
Khacho: I’d like to restate the outcome of my presentation that we – Armenians having a history with many sad moments we still exists and we are looking forward for a bright future being sure that only facing the dark parts of our past we can prevent the same to be happen again.
Milli: Germany is not a small country for which reason it offers a large diversity. If you want to discover Germany do not only go to the big cities and well known places, you will have a way better experience if you are visiting some more hidden places. Anyways no matter who visited my presentation or who didn’t, to really get to know Germany you should visit it.
Q3: How was the reflection of the audience?
Khacho: Many of the people congratulate me for being able to do my presentation in Italian for which I am really thankful and no I feel that these was also a big step of improvement of my Italian language skills. There were also some questions about current geo-political situation of Armenia.
Milli: Everybody was behaving very kind with me. I am thankful for all the people who came to listen to my TPMP and forgave me my small mistakes and nervousness. I felt comfortable after a while and it was nice to interact with the people by answering some of their questions.
Q4: We know that besides of Library you presented your country in the G. Gaudiano Secondary school in Pesaro. What was the difference between presenting your country to youngsters and adults?
Khacho: Actually my presentations were planned to be different in School and Biblioteca, because there was a topic in my presentation about The Armenian Genocide of 1915 that I wanted to cut from the presentation in school taking into consideration the age of students but I was surprised that some of them already knew about that and they were the ones who started to speak about it. In Biblioteca people were more interested in a present situation and politics of Armenia rather than the history.
Milli: Without any doubt it was a big difference, the youngsters were noisy especially in comparison to the audience in the library. This might have been cause by there small knowledge of English since they are very young, still I absolutely enjoyed to answer their general questions in the beginning of the presentation.
Q5: This presentation was generally the last activity that you did, because soon your project finishes and you will go back home. Do you feel satisfied with it, or you would like to stay and do some more projects?
Khacho: Firstly I want to wish to everybody Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. What about the ending of my project it’s hard to feel that it’s going to end soon. I have very controversy emotions. From one side I feel like I lived here one big life because these four-five months were full of new people, new culture, new experience, new skills, new feelings and this list of “new” can be continued more and more. On the other hand I feel that I just came and would like to stay more. By the way I understand that it will finish, but I’m very optimistic for the next page of my life after EVS. After EVS I feel more strong more experienced and I’m ready to face more and more challenges of life. I’d advice everybody to do an EVS keeping in their mind that “EVS is more than just an experience”.
Milli: This experience was truly amazing and went by way to fast! I am glad about every moment even the bad or difficult ones made me grow a lot. Aware that it may sound a bit exaggerated I want to tell to everybody if you have the chance to go abroad specifically to do EVS grab the opportunity!
Vicolocortini 