Culture Days

 

 

Monday and Tuesday of this week were very special days, Culture Days. Everybody who studies English at my university had to choose a culture related topic covering Ireland’s culture or the culture of the US, depending on what teacher you have. Since my teacher is from Ireland I decided to write an essay about the Vikings in Ireland. When I was a kid I always LOVED to watch the cartoon Vicky the Viking and this is probably why the Vikings have always fascinated me. Anyway, during the Culture Days on Monday and Tuesday everyone had to present their essays and we all had to watch at least 10 presentations, 7 about Irish culture and 3 about US culture in my case. I ended up watching 4 presentations about American topics and almost all the Irish presentations, except for a few where I had exams or class.

One presentation about an American topic that I found really interesting was about America’s gun culture and why Americans are so obsessed with guns, by Samara Farag. When I was in Oklahoma and Texas in February I was for the first time confronted with guns and this is why I could relate to that topic so much. It is crazy how Americans, especially people in the Southern states of the US, are obsessed with their guns. It is said that there are more guns in Texas than people, which is kind of a scary thought. But anyway, for my KGP I can only choose Irish topics and of course I have also seen a few presentations about Ireland that I thought were very interesting. Since I watched so many presentations about Irish culture, I had a wide range of topics to choose from and it was a bit hard to figure which ones I liked best. There were so many interesting topics and at this point I want to say that everybody did a great job presenting. Allright, so here are the five topics that I chose to be tested on during the KGP:

1.       Is Irish a dying language? – by Nina Mikusch. I am very interested in languages (who would have thought that, being a language student…..;-) ) and this is why I chose that topic. It always fascinated me that most people in Ireland are not able to speak and understand the official language of their own country. Irish is a really cool language in my opinion and Nina told us some really interesting facts about the Irish language.

2.       The role of Oliver Cromwell in Great Britain and Ireland – by Verena Eisenköck. From last semester I knew that Oliver Cromwell is hated by the Irish for having done terrible things to them but to be honest I didn’t exactly remember what he had done to the country that the Irish hate him so much nowadays. I also didn’t know that many people from England think completely differently about him. Verena compared the two different sides and opinions in her essay which I really liked.

3.       Irish Women: from Household to Gender Equality – by Margarita Misihaev. The role of women in different societies is always something that I find very exciting. This is why I had to choose that topic, to find out how the role of women changed in Ireland from century to century.

4.       The Conspiracies about the Murder of Jean McConville – by Alexandra Pasca. To be totally honest, I have never heard about this woman before and therefore had no idea what happened to her. Alexandra’s presentation was so thrilling that I just had to find out more about Jean McConville and the circumstances of her death.

 

5.       David Norris’ contribution to LGBT rights in the Republic of Ireland – by Katharina Luttenberger. In my opinion it’s a shame that gays don’t have the same rights as heterosexual people in every society. This is a topic that needs to be talked about and I was very excited to find out how David Norris contributed to gay rights in Ireland. ;-)