Last week we enjoyed the third edition of our Breakwater Talks series at School in which we bring interesting topics and lecturers to young people in the cultural studies and philosophy class of their school curriculum. The linguistic focus last Friday, 13 April, was Svenska, or Swedish, and Bulgarian. Our guest-speaker was Ms Pavlina Nikolova, a Scandinavian Studies professional and Suggestopedia tutor for the Swedish language, with whom on previous occasions at public events we had discussed Swedish literature and the Scandinavian mentality and lifestyle.

During our visit at the High School of Humanities and the Arts in Varna, we organised the discussion around two different aspects of the main topic ‘Scandinavian cultures’. Year 11 students participated in a ‘Suggestopedia Lesson in Swedish Language’, an introductory demonstration and talk about learning habits, cognitive processes and motivation for personal development. With our friends in year 10 we talked about ‘Scandinavians: The Almost Nearly Perfect People’, sharing facts, analysing behaviours, exploring personal opinion on cultural pros and cons.

The discussions were hosted by the Cultural Studies classes of philosopy teacher Ms Rositsa Todorova. The photos were kindly taken by Ms Kaoru Yoshimoto.

Breakwater Talks at School is a series of interactions between selected guest-speakers and young people at high schools in Varna, Bulgaria. The talks focus on a particular language and its associated culture(s) and aim to broaden understanding, cultural competence, language skills, in-depth analysis, and discussion culture. The topics and speakers are selected from the portfolio of the weekly public duscussion format Breakwater Talks organised by Amorpha Youth Foundation and partners at various venues in the community.