ERASMUS+ = a looot of bureaucracy! vs. INTERNATIONAL VILLAGE Project = zeeero bureaucracy!
Datum objave: 17.11.2023 | Datum poteka: 30.09.2024
We are looking for students aged 19-25 years old willing to take part in our unique project called INTERNATIONAL VILLAGE ( www.internationalvillage.eu ). There is no bureaucracy in our project, only 2 x A4 documents are required to register a group…When you compare it to ERASMUS+ or other EU projects this is a great difference...
We started the Project in 2011 with 150 students from 6 countries.
So far we’ve hosted 7000 students from 29 countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech, Denmark, France, Greece, Guadeloupe, Estonia, Finland, Netherlands, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, North Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Vietnam and Ukraine.
The main idea of the Project:
Students from different countries aged 19-25 y.o. will meet in the hotel located in Croatia (20 km from Pula) and stay there for 7 days. During that time they take part in different integrating activities like: English workshops, workshops about European Union and the environment, sport activities (American football, baseball, dodgeball, volleyball, basketball etc.), art activities, music activities, dance lessons, trips to nearby attractions (Pula, Rovinji, or Porec in Croatia, Venice in Italy) and many other intercultural activities. All the activities are led by native speakers from UK, Canada, Australia and USA.
Students will be allocated in the rooms in a mixed manner, i.e. there will be a representative of one nation in each room, no students from the same country in the same room e.g. there may be a Latvian, Polish, Greek and Italian student in one room. This will “force” the participants to speak English almost 24/7 and will make it much easier to get to know the cultures of other nations and make international friendships.
The official language of the project is English, so the participants will have no choice but to use this language almost 24 hours a day. Thanks to that they will break the shyness in speaking a foreign language which is a serious problem for many of those learning English.
We believe that participation in this project will make the students more tolerant, and help them overcome all prejudices against other races and nations, that they will respect other nations’ cultures and other people’s opinions.
Another thing worth to mention is that participation in the project doesn’t involve any bureaucracy. To register a group it is enough to send only 2 documents, which is a big difference when compared to Erasmus Projects.
-Date of the INTERNATIONAL VILLAGE Adults: 14-20 April 2024
-Deadline for sending registration documents i.e. List of Participants and Application Form Croatia Adults: 12.01.2024 (Both documents can be downloaded from project’s website: www.internationalvillage.eu from page REGISTRATION)
-Since our project is not sponsored by any organization, all the costs of participating need to covered by participants.
Cost of the participation fee: 340 Euro/student
(240 Euro/student as an advance payment until 26.02.2024 + 100 Euro in cash on the first day of the project in Croatia)
-The participation fee for CROATIA includes:
- 6 nights in the Hotel Duga Uvala*** in CROATIA (20 km from Pula)
- 6 breakfasts (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday)
- 6 dinners (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday)
- use of hotel facilities like the sports grounds, indoor swimming pool, fitness, sauna, Jacuzzi.
- language workshops with native speakers
- participation in the sports, arts, and other activities from the project's itinerary
- board and lodging for 1 supervisor with a group of 10-20 students
- board and lodging for 2 supervisor with a group of 20-35 students
-The participation fee for CROATIA excludes:
- entrance tickets and local guides during trips
- transport to and from the hotel.
- transport during trips.
- insurance for participants and teachers.
- board and lodging for driver(s) - in case you come with your own bus. The cost for 1 driver for the whole stay is 280 Euro/driver if in a double room and 340 Euro if driver stays in a single room.
Rough schedule of the project:
Sunday:
15:00 -19:00 Arrival to the hotel and accommodating in rooms
20:00 -21:00 Orientation meeting
21:00 – free time = socializing with the others, chilling, relaxing, board games, playing billiard, table tennis etc.
Monday:
8:30 – 9:00 Breakfast
9:00-13:00 – 2xworkshops with native speakers (participants divided into language groups) + 1xworkshop with Roman = Guess What: this activity is played in teams formed by roommates
14:00 – 15:30 – Activities with native speakers. There are always few to choose from, so that every student could find something suitable for him/her. Sports activities (football, volleyball, basketball, swimming), arts activities, acting, musical activities, handcrafting, hiking and more …
16:00 -16:30 Dinner
18:00 – 20:00 Evening activities - MUSIC QUIZ: Students in their teams will be guessing songs and artists in 5 different categories: Guess the artist, Guess the song, Guess the movie/series/show by the song, Karaoke songs, Fast Forward songs, Slowed down songs, Guess the lyrics.
20:00 – free time = socializing with the others, chilling, relaxing, board games, playing billiard, table tennis etc.
Tuesday:
8:30 – 9:00 Breakfast
9:00-13:00 – 2xWorkshops with native speakers (participants divided into language groups)+ 1xworkshop with Roman = Speed Dating: This activity makes it much easier to get to know students from other countries better. The students speak English with the others all the time during this activity
14:00 – 15:30 – Activities with native speakers. There are always few to choose from, so that every student could find something suitable for him/her. Sports activities (football, volleyball, basketball, swimming), arts activities, acting, musical activities, handcrafting, hiking and more …
16:00 -16:30 Dinner
17:00 – 21:00 Trip to Rovinji/Porec
Wednesday:
8:30 – 9:00 Breakfast
9:00-13:00 – 2xWorkshops with native speakers (participants divided into language groups) + 1xworkshop with Roman: EU Languages
14:00 – 15:30 – Activities with native speakers. There are always few to choose from, so that every student could find something suitable for him/her. Sports activities (football, volleyball, basketball, swimming), arts activities, acting, musical activities, handcrafting, hiking and more …
16:00 -16:30 Dinner
18:00 – 20:00 Evening activities - COUNTRY QUIZ: Participants will be divided into country groups and they will answer questions about other participating countries + EUROPEAN QUIZ: participants will answer questions about EU. /MOVIE NIGHT
20:00 – free time = socializing with the others, chiiling, relaxing, board games, playing billiard, table tennis etc.
Thursday:
8:30 – 9:00 Breakfast
9:00-13:00 – 2xWorkshops with native speakers (participants divided into language groups) + 1xworkshop with Roman - EU Lesson: During this workshop students will be told the most important info about EU like what is European Parliament, European commission, Euro Zone, Schengen zone etc.
14:00 – 15:30 – Activities with native speakers. There are always few to choose from, so that every student could find something suitable for him/her. Sports activities (football, volleyball, basketball, swimming), arts activities, acting, musical activities, handcrafting, hiking and more …
16:00 -16:30 -Dinner
17:00 – 20:00 -Trip to a nearby beautiful town of Pula
20:30 – 23:00 -DISCO
Friday:
8:30 – 9:00 Breakfast
9:00-13:00 – The Challenge: it’s a series of tasks and challenges performed in teams.
14:00 – 15:30 – Free time on the beach
16:00 -16:30 Dinner
18:00 – 20:00 Evening activities – KARAOKE Evening
20:00 – free time = socializing with the others, chilling, relaxing, board games, playing billiard, table tennis etc.
Saturday:
8:30 – 9:00 Breakfast
All groups need to leave the hotel until 10 am.
- Students will be allocated with the students from other countries. In some rooms there will be 3 and in some 4 students. That is one of the biggest benefits of the project and it serves few purposes: it “forces” students to speak English in their rooms, it also teaches the students very useful life lessons, like the art of a compromise, respect for other cultures and traditions, it makes them more tolerant for others. At the beginning there are some students that don’t like that idea but at the end of the project almost 90% says it was nice, very beneficial and valuable experience that they would like to repeat it.
-Students will be divided into language teams which they will be in for the morning language workshops with native speakers. There will be max. 15 students in each team. Teams will be gathering point throughout the whole week. The team gathers points for attendance in morning workshops, and winning activities like Music Quiz on Tuesday and The Challenge on Friday. The team with the most points will get a prize which is pizza party for all the members of the team.
- There will be two afternoon trips during the project. On Tuesday all the students will go to a town of Rovinji. This trip will last about 4-5 hours. On Thursday all the students will go to the town of Pula. This trip will last 3-4 hours. The groups will use their own bus for these trips. We can arrange guides for these trips. The cost of the guide is about 3-5 Euro/student
OTHER info:
- Minimum number of students in a group = 10
- Maximum number of students in a group = 35
- Students in a group must be between 19 and 25 years old.
- Students’ level of English must be at least A2.
- We don’t accept individual students. We only accept students in organized groups with supervisors.
-There must be at least 1 adult supervisor with the group. That person will be a contact person for us with whom we will do all the arrangements for the trip for the whole group. With a group of 10-20 students we will cover the cost of board and lodging in the hotel in Croatia for 1 supervisor. With a group of 20-35 students we will cover the cost of board and lodging for 2 supervisors.
- Groups will use their own bus for trips during the project. Alternatively if a group comes without their own bus but by plane or train to one of these: Zagreb in Croatia or Venice in Italy we can arrange the bus to pick them up and take them back after the end of the project. We will also arrange a bus for these groups for the trips. The cost of transport for the airport transfers and trips during the project is not included in the participation fee, it needs to be paid extra.
-There is an indoor swimming pool in the hotel.
-Hotel has its own private beach which is 1 min walk from the hotel.
-All rooms have a balcony with a sea view.
BENEFITS of participating in the INTERNATIONAL VILLAGE Project:
-Participating in our project is easy. Not everybody wants to participate in ERASMUS projects which mean going away for 3 or even 6 months … for some people it may be too long. Our project is short and lasts only 7 days.
-Students can practice their English speaking skills with their peers from other countries and with native speakers in a friendly and fun environment, moreover all the activities put an emphasis on the ability of speaking English. It all helps them break the barrier of shyness when speaking English. Thanks to that they will be able to speak the language freely, without being ashamed or afraid.
- Students can make new international friendships. From our experience we know that many still keep in touch long after the project’s finish. Moreover some of them visit each other in their countries …
- Students become more open minded and tolerant for other cultures thanks to being so close (sharing a room) and so intensely (they spend almost 24 hours with each other). All the activities are designed to make students cooperate and socialize, they also break their stereotypes about other cultures. They learn to respect other nations’ cultures and other people’s opinions, through the activities they learn to cooperate with other people.
- Students learn some important life lessons. By sharing a room with a person from other countries they need to learn to cooperate together and compromise on many things and in many situations (like for example using a toilet, bathroom or a time to put the lights off for sleep etc.).
- Through being together, sharing and cooperating in different activities, students overcome all prejudices against other nations or races. and break their stereotypes about other cultures which they might have.
- Participation in the project makes the students realize that although they speak different languages and come from different cultural backgrounds they are very much alike.
If you are interested in our project and want to get some more information don’t hesitate to contact us on: office@internationalvillage.eu
We encourage you to visit project’s website: www.internationalvillage.eu where you will find a lot of useful information, pictures and videos. Many of your questions will be answered after visiting project’s website.
