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Fostering global citizenship through language
By uclqjle, on 25 July 2017
Dr Eszter Tarsoly (UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies) is a course leader on UCL’s Global Citizenship Programme (GCP).
She leads The Danube module, which SSEES delivers as one of the GCP Grand Challenges strands, addressing Intercultural Interaction.
The module boasts an innovative and intensive language programme, which aims to provide students with a thorough insight into how Danubian societies work and the historical, cultural and social influences on the development of the language.
In this short introduction to the module, Dr Tarsoly highlights the ties between language learning through a cultural lens and global citizenship.
She also points out the basic skills that students felt they developed by participating in the bespoke language module during the GCP and how this equips them for global lives.
Filmed and edited by UCL graduate Jason Lewis
UCL students who participated in the GCP this year said they viewed language learning as central to cultivating a global outlook and to building new bonds with other students from across UCL.
Aditi Mathur (BSc Social Sciences), who completed this year’s module, said: “While learning a new language, I also found that this was one part of the programme where the entire group was at par. We were all completely new to Bulgarian. This brought us closer together as a unit. We found ourselves working better as a group over the span of ten days, and forged very important bonds with every member of the group”.
“When I think of global citizenship, three words come to mind: diversity, culture and respect. This programme has taught me to respect every culture I am exposed to. While making a judgement of every person and their background, we learnt how to not react extremely upon these judgements. This, in turn, is pivotal when it comes to developing a global perspective that involves respecting and accepting differences across different cultures.”