Culture Day

Hey guys,

After many weeks of preparation and hard work, we, the SUK2 students finally gave our culture presentations. We were all not only supposed to present our own ones, but to listen to at least ten of other students too. All in all, it took our teachers, Fiona and Frank, almost two complete days to listen to all of us which might not always have been that much pleasant due to the high number of students.

The three American topics I have listened to ("America as a nation of narcissism", "Does Race Still Matter in the US?", "Ellen DeGeneres-a modern woman and her influence on America" ) were all extremely good topics and all very well prepared. I listened to them before my own presentation and I really found them very impressive.

As we were supposed to choose five out of the ten Ireland related presentations we had listened to, it didn't take me much time to decide for the ones which I liked best.

The first one is Diana Skof’s topic which is called “Psychiatry in Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s with the case of Hanna Greally”. It was the first presentation that I went to see. I already knew approximately what it was about because Diana is a very good friend of mine and she had already told me a little bit about it. Still, I first listened to her presentation and then I decided to choose it for our final exam, the “Kommissionelle Gesamtprüfung”. Not only did I like Diana’s PowerPoint which concluded appropriate pictures, but also the content of her presentation and the way she spoke in a calm and fluent way.

The second presentation that I also liked very much was Teresa Brenner’s “Ireland’s St. Magdalene Asylum and its survivors”. I was not only captured by her fluent language and her confident appearance, but also by the topic which I found extremely interesting. Teresa told us how badly girls were treated in that asylum and other factors, like the bad working conditions, which was both sad but captivating too.

The third topic I have chosen for the “Kommissionelle Gesamtprüfung” is Shirin Mahrouzadeh’s one called “Homophobic Bullying in Irish schools”. This was a current topic related to nowadays and that is one reason why I've chosen it. Most of the other presentations were history related and that’s the reason, apart from the good content and prezi presentation, why “Homophobic Bullying in Irish schools” is my third culture presentation for our final exam.

Sabrina Krassnig’s special and also humorous presentation with the title “Ireland-a birthplace of witchcraft” is also contained in my five favorite culture presentations. I loved the way Sabrina tried to explain the whole topic, that was already very interesting, with a great sense of humor.  

Irina Unger’s presentation about “The Irish Claddah Ring” completes my list of five Irish culture topics. What I liked about her presentation was first of all the fact that she spoke absolutely freely without any sheets with notes. The second thing was again the fascinating topic and its content.

All in all, the Culture Days were a very good idea and I think that we all learned a lot. The only thing that is missing now is the “Kommissionelle Gesamtprüfung”. I really hope that all students of the SUK2 class will pass it!