Goodbye party for returnee children and their parents

                                         

                                     

Goodbye party for returnee children and their parents

On Saturday, 31st May, the reintegration center invited all returnee children and their parents to say goodbye. There were about 35 people. In the festively decorated room stood a nice set table with a lot of food and drinks: sparkling water and mineral water, pizzas, small pies filled with mushrooms, cabbage and potatoes. The coronation of the most beautiful hour was the grandiose cake “Intoxicating cherry”, which disappeared within a moment. 

The Armenian language teacher, Gayane Terzyan, told about how much the children had learned, which achievements they have made, by comparing the achieved language level of the children with the entry level. She emphasised that from now the children have to learn independently in order not to forget the acquired knowledge. Her slogan was “Don’t forget the home country”. The leader of the RECEA center, Melanya Astvatsatruyan,  did not only talk about the role of general education and progress in the performance of the students, about socialisation processes but also about the effective work of the language teachers Gayane Terzyan, Bella Ayunts, Shushanik Petrosyan, about their positive influence on the language learning of the children. 

Afterwards the parents had their say (Margarita Khandanyan, Alina Tumasyan, Armine Terzyan,

Araksya Martirosyan). They talked about the outstanding importance of the center for their children, about knowledge in Armenian, German, Russian, which they have acquired, about unforgettable excursions to Garni, Geghard, Echmiadzin, Sardarapat, about their impressions after the visit of the Matenadarns, the historical museum, the museum of the city Yerevan, about various visits to theaters. They were especially impressed by the Christmas and Easter events in the center.

Finally, Maria sang an Armenian folksong with her beautiful voice.

Gladly the children and their parents had their photograph taken. 

  

The significance of the international diaspora in the return process

The significance of the international diaspora in the return process

In order to understand which role the diaspora plays or could play within the return process, at first it has to be noticed in which context the term “diaspora” is used because for the word “diaspora” until now there is no strict or universal definition.

Sometimes this term is interpreted very diversely. For instance, the diaspora is meant to be a part of the people that is living outside it’s country of origin.

Sometimes, however, the diaspora simply becomes a synonym for migrants or minorities.

In this lecture we will use this term in its most spread interpretation among sociologists today: diaspora (greek:  διασπορά - distraction) as part of a nation (ethnos), which lives outside its country of origin, creating solid and cohering ethnic groups and social institutions for the support and the development of the own identity.

The diaspora plays an essential role in the upkeep of the national culture and in the development of the national conscious. The relationships with the diaspora are for many countries an important direction of foreign politics. For some countries like Israel, Armenia or India, the diaspora plays an important role with its huge political and economical support. Unlike to other countries for Indians, Jews and Armenians, the term ‘diaspora’ with all its complex questions is a part of the national mentality.

The Armenian diaspora (Spürk) exists since Armenia lost its independent state entity in year 1375 after the fall of the Armenian kingdom Kilikia. It contains at the moment about 7 million people. The Armenian diaspora tends towards a dissemination because of the emigration from the traditional residential areas (Armenia, Iran, Lebanon, Syria) to Europe - there: the Netherlands, Belgium, Bulgaria, Poland, Greece. Many emigrants from Armenia choose the nearby Russia and take it in consideration to return to their home country. Everything depends on the socio economic changes because the majority names as a reason for their migration unemployment, low salaries and social problems. The characteristics of the Armenian diasporas in different times and countries differ between each other in their own characteristic and their position within the community. Therefore, conclusions in this work are not generalized and are limited to diasporas in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands that have a lot in common.

The Armenian diaspora in Germany is one of the youngest in the history of Armenia. Apart from the rare exceptions, like for instance the founding of the Armenian community in Berlin in year 1923, the first social institutions and structures of the Armenian community in Germany were just established in the 70’s of the past century. Although, the Armenian students already came to Germany since 1830 and established their first student’s union in Leipzig in 1885, it is common to structure the history of the Armenian migration to Germany in the following waves and stages:

These are:

- Refugees of the genocide in the time 1915 - 1923

- prisoners of war from the former Soviet Union who stayed in Germany after World War II. (The last camp for prisoners of war was closed in year 1952)

- guest workers from Turkey in the 60’s

- refugees from the revolution in Iran (1978 - 1979) and from the civil war in Lebanon (1975-

1990)

- emigrants and refugees from the collapse of the Soviet Union and the war in Berg-Karabach (1988 - 1995)

- refugees from the civil war in Syria (from 2011)

Over the course of the implementation of our project “RECEA” and because of contacts with the representatives of Armenian communities and organisations of the Armenian diasporas in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, it has come out that different Armenian diasporas have different values in the focus which are often contradictory. In the following also their meanings and role within the returning process are absolutely different.

In order to understand which role these from each other differing diasporas play or could play, we will select and illustrate them on the base of some Armenian organisations.

- Representatives of the ‘old’ Armenian diaspora, emigrants from Turkey and Iran who speak the Persian, Turkish and Western Armenian languages. An organisation of this group, for instance, is the Armenian cultural association Abowjan (Abovian Armenian Cultural Association) in the Netherlands, that leads an active public and cultural life. Representatives of this group also create the heart of the Armenian church communities in Germany.

- Humanitarian, business and artistic intelligence, which unites mainly because of the opportunity of a fuller professional self realisation. This group consists also mainly of representatives of the ‘old’ diaspora. One example for the organisation of this group is the Union of Armenian doctors in Germany e.V. mainly consisting of Iranian emigrants.

- Emigrants from the Armenian Republic and from other countries of the GUS from Soviet and post Soviet times, representatives of the ‘new’ Armenian diaspora, who speak Russian and Eastern Armenian languages and have a citizenship or an unlimited permission of stay in the EU. The biggest part of this group originates from Armenia and has emigrated from GUS countries in times of Perestroika and the Berg-Karabach war. An example for organisations of this group is the Armenian association ARDIA in Belgium. Representatives of this group form the heart of the Armenian worldly communities in Germany.

- Armenian youth and students, who speak German and Western Armenian languages. An example for the organisations of this group is the German Armenian Student club. The biggest part of this club is represented by young people, mostly students from the German universities who came with their parents from the ‘new’ diaspora in the childhood to Germany as well as students who came recently from Armenia.

At the moment there are about 65 Armenian diaspora organisations registered in Germany.

Each of these can be considered among one of the four groups mentioned above. And though the doors of every organisation are open for every Armenian regardless of his origin and language there is a strict separation taking place between the two Armenian diaspora groups, between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ Armenian diaspora. Often there are coming parallel organisations coming into existence, that implement the same tasks. So Armenians visit the ‘old’ and others the ‘new’ diaspora.

To understand the difference between both these diaspora groups and their values and also with it the difference in the role that they play in the return process of the Armenians, we quote an article from the magazine HAYsociety | The Armenian magazin in Germany for the month April 2012, : Diaspora & Return - Saying Goodbye to an Illusion? http://www.hay-society.de

“I see the Armenian diaspora characterised in this way that a return in the lost home country is basically refused and this not as a single fate but as a collective one. Seen that way, however, Armenians from the Republic of Armenia, insofar they are or have been citizens of the Republic, are in the stricter sense not in the Diaspora. When they don’t live in Armenia, they are foreign Armenians. This is because a return is not refused in general…”, and further; “ Reconstructed that way only the Armenians of Western Armenia form the ‘Armenian Diaspora’, and this happens to be independent from it, whether they live in Europe, in America or in current Turkey. Why? Because on the one hand there exists no sovereign state for them, that represents the needed, through modern age just into conscious coming link between state and nation; because on the other hand a sovereign state would be the political appropriate answer to the lost home.”

We won’t analyse the dispute of the above mentioned statement of the editorial staff on the pages of the Armenian magazine concerning the discussion about the possibilities of a return of the Armenians to the home of their ancestors in Turkey. Above all, because not all emigrants from Western Armenia share this view and, for instance, the head of the German Armenian Society (DAG) Raffi Kantian says in an interview from the same magazine that the migration to the Republic of Armenia is seen as a serious alternative. However, this opinion is characteristic for the representative of the “old” diaspora. So they see the emigrants from the soviet and post soviet Armenia and from the GUS countries not as a part of the Armenian diaspora and consider the return or the move into the Republic of Armenia not as a real possibility. The role social institutions of the “old” diaspora play within the return process into the Republic of Armenia thereby is very small or is missing at all. Unlike to the “old” diaspora which thinks that it has no “own” state, the “new” diaspora is “ethno national”. A characteristic feature of such a diaspora is the feeling of having the invisible presence of the ”own” state. “New” Armenian diasporas and their social institutions play a bigger and more active role in the political and social life in the country of establishment. They keep a regular contact with Armenia and the question for the return to the Republic of Armenia always stays up-to-date for the members of these ethno social groups. In this aspect, special emphasis has to be put on the Armenian youth organisations which are most active. The members of these organisations have a European style of thinking, education and working habit. They are not bearing the negative burden of the past, which their parents often have, and think that the change of the politic, economic and social life of the Republic according to the European example is only a question of time. The question towards the return or the move into the republic of Armenia is a topic of permanent discussions among these young people. The role of the youth organisations in the return process of the Armenians to Armenia is exceedingly huge.

A special place in the row of the Armenian organisations in Germany is belonging to the Central Council of Armenians in Germany (ZAD). This council tries to coordinate and to unite the activity of all ethno social Armenian institutions in Germany, apart from their affiliation to the “old” or “new” diaspora and their church, worldly or professional direction. The council tries as well to serve as a link between these organisations and the foreign representation of the Republic of Armenia in Germany. Currently it reckons about 20 Armenian organisations its members. If the Central Council manages to fulfill these goals and to become a linking and coordinating organ for all ethno social groups of the Armenian diasporas in Germany indeed, it will be difficult to underestimate its role in the return process to Armenia.

From the 1st October 2008 in the Republic of Armenia there works a department of the government: the ministry for diaspora. Under the leadership of the president it has to support the relationship Armenia - diaspora in all directions. The return of the Armenians is one of the most important directions in the activity of this ministry. Therefore our analysis can be useful for the elaboration of the right directions in the activity of this ministry for the work with the Armenian diaspora in Germany, without raising claim of universality.

1. Социология: Энциклопедия / Сост. А. А. Грицанов, В. Л. Абушенко, Г. М. Евелькин,

Г. Н. Соколова, О. В. Терещенко. — Мн.: Книжный Дом, 2003

2. GTZ (editor) (2008). The Armenian diaspora in Germany. Its contribution to the development of

Armenia.

3. Тощенко Ж.Т., Чаптыкова Т.И. Диаспора как объект социологического исследования //

Социс. – М, 1996. – №12. – С. 33–42.  

4. Abovian Armenian Cultural Association, Netherlands

http://www.abovian.nl/

5. Union of Armenian doctors in Germany e.V.

http://www.verein-armenischer-mediziner.de

6. German Armenian Student’s club

http://www.haiknet.de/

7. HAYsociety | The Armenian magazine in Germany, April 2012, Diaspora & return –

Saying goodbye to an illusion ?

http://www.hay-society.de

8.German Armenian Society (DAG)

http://www.deutsch-armenische-gesellschaft.de/

9. Тамара Кондратьева Диаспоры в современном мире: эволюция явления и понятия.

http://www.perspektivy.info/print.php?ID=48886

10. Шеффер Г. Диаспоры в мировой политике // Диаспоры. – М., 2003. – №1. – С. 162–184.

11. Central Council of Armenians in Germany (ZAD)

http://www.zentralrat.org/

12. Сайт президента РА. Армянская Диаспора

http://www.president.am/ru/diaspora/

Psychologist's report

 

Psychologist Report

 

Psychologist Lilit Baghdasaryan, works at the centre since November 1st, 2013

In November, four children used the psychological consulting services at the centre. At first, a group meeting took place. The psychologist explained to the children what psychological work consists of, and for which issues they can ask for psychological support.

Then individual consulting took place, and the psychological problems of every child were found out. Each child made an appointment for the time and day of the next meeting. One child already started psychological treatment and two consulting took place with her. The next one is to take place next week.

The program for children is still going through various developmental adjustments, and will eventually include psychological seminars. During these seminars the participants will get information about different psychological behavior models, successful ways of communication and social adaptation. It will be easier for children to ask questions in such a  form of psychological communication and the reaction process will be quicker as well.

Activity Report Reintegration center RECEA AWO Heimatgarten

Activity Report

Reintegration center RECEA AWO HEIMATGARTEN

In December 2013 a reintegration center was established in Yerevan  based on the German educational and cultural centre.

Address: 0070, Yerevan, Alen Manukyan str. 13, ASPU building (Faculty of Philology), room 405, tel. 37410556030138.

Partners: Armenian State Pedagogical University after Khachatur Abovyan and German educational and cultural center.

The Center is active in the following areas:

• social adaptation of remigrants to their new environment;

• psychological help;

• language classes;

• awareness-raising for the Armenian culture;

• development of tolerance;

• cultural program of introducing students to the national culture, literature, history and historical monuments.

The knowledge of their native language (Armenian) and the resulting ability to communicate in that language is an integral part of social adaptation and integration for children and adolescents. Both the involvement of children in the educational activities, as well as the activities and excursions in the city and beyond the city borders like visits to museums and other cultural attractions help these beneficiaries to get acquainted with their own culture.

Psychological assistance is provided by the ASPU teacher Lilit Bagdasaryan. The main focus of these activities include stress relief, decrease of general anxiety as well as fighting with difficulties in adapting to the new environment and the language barrier as one of the main problems of remigrants.

The cultural approach aims to implement the principle of cultural adaptation as one of the most important principles of modern education to facilitate the integration of the returnees.

The involved remigrants in Armenia face the following problems:

• entering a new social environment;

• a new and unfamiliar school system;

• lack or insufficient knowledge of the Armenian language;

• new life conditions.

Solutions to these issues manifest themselves in the assistance of the center and facilitating adaptation of children and adolescents to a new school environment, stimulating the formation of language acquisition in Armenian, Russian and German.

Language courses

At the centre, the children have the option to learn the following languages: Armenian, Russian and German.

Teachers: Gayane Terzyan, Bella Ayunts, Shushanik Petrosyan.

Volunteers: Anait Sograbyan, Nara Asatryan.

Kolya Simonyan works in the reintegration center since December 1st, 2012. He is the assistant of RECEA director Prof. Dr. Melanya Astvatsatryan.

His responsibilities include:

• phone calls;

• organization of meetings with parents;

• training evenings, festivals, excursions;

• checking homework;

• preparation of test items;

• monitoring sessions;

• discussion sessions with teachers;

• translation of training materials from German into Armenian;

• translation of training materials from Armenian into German.

In the process of teaching languages, the following positions are especially significant:

• heterogeneous nature of linguistic knowledge and language acquisition on different skill levels

• multi-level communicative competence;

• language convergence, similarities and differences;

• social importance, the role and importance of the Armenian language as a cultural aspect

• activity-based approach to learning;

• multi-layer thinking;

• visualization;

• didactic tours like trips to museums and other cultural or historical facilities

• Use of various technologies for the language acquisition process.

The implemented activity-based approach promotes the development effective learning strategies, whereby the students themselves plan their actions and learning strategies, establishing their own individual route.

This active approach includes:

• learn by performing actions and using the language (practice-based learning)

• involvement of children in activities;

• establishment of individual reward mechanisms to learn with pleasure;

• learning through role-playing or game-based technologies, including songs, rhymes, puzzles;

• interconnected learning of various language skills (e.g. reading/writing, vocal communication, .listening comprehension)

Multichannel learning - input of all sorts of channels to maximize the training effect: visual, auditory, manual, light, sound, music.

The implemented visualization techniques do not only cover substantive but also pictorial visibility. For example, using graphical diagrams can model the structure of words, phrases or sentences. Significant importance belongs to the games that enhance motivation and the interest of the students, which has a positive effect on the process of language acquisition.

In the process of organizing language classes, the teachers have attempted to implement learning strategies within the program "Development of Critical Thinking through Reading and Writing" (DCTRW) by Charles Temple with certain adjustments on their part. The program is based on basic conceptual model presented in three categories: "Call, comprehension of the content, reflection". In brief, the interpretation of Charles Temple’s model begins with the teacher connecting the lesson with previous experiences of the students, as well as with their own requests. Then comes the stage at which the students are actively investigating, exploring new material and in this process gradually mastering it. At the final stage, the students can record what they have learned and use new material to perform certain tasks. This method of mutual learning and collective way of learning has proven to be effective and enjoys a high level of acceptance among the students. As the authors of the DCTRW program claim, students do better in school and can improve their own skills by explaining or teaching certain aspects. The mutual learning process is carried out in small groups, in which the teacher distributes social roles among the students. For example, the role of a supervisor, responsible for performing tasks in the group (the leader) or a stenographer who is writing down every step. The teacher first demonstrates the roles, and then the learners take on these roles.

In the process of collective learning activities, the whole group is involved in the work. The instructor demonstrates open questions using a computer or writing on the chalkboard. Children are given specific time to answer these questions individually, either orally or in writing. The children then turn to each other and share their answers with their partners.

Control Methods and Testing Procedures

For the successful organization of the learning process, the focus is set on the quality factor of language acquisition. Using monitoring methods, the teacher receives information about the success of the training. Written tests or control works are usually held after studying specific topics and specific material to test and evaluate the quality of each student's learning. For this purpose, the following methods are used:

• Conduct pre-test written surveys as long as the teacher is not satisfied with how well the students have understood the studied material;

• Informing students 1-2 weeks prior about the work and the organization of the relevant preparatory work;

• Preparatory tests, which have the purpose to determine the degree of preparedness of students in upcoming exams.

These methods also contribute to regular homework checking, which allows to identify gaps in the knowledge of the students. For this, traditional and nontraditional forms of checking homework are used alternatively. The most traditional and effective kind of work consists collecting notebooks for inspection work performed at home, which is generally a highly time-consuming work. Less time-consuming techniques include mutual homework authentication among the students. Of course, this mutual testing process is carried out under the supervision of the teachers. Another type of test consists of one the students writing his homework tasks on the board and then each student checks his homework in comparison to the verified example. However, the most common form of the validation of knowledge and skills of the students consists of standardized tests based on objective, close-typed testing principles.

Learning Difficulties

All teachers recognize and mark different level of language knowledge among their students, not only due to age-related features, but also as a result of individual characteristics and individual learning styles. Some students are more receptive to new material if they work together with a companion, while others are more receptive to the background music or with the help of modern songs. The language classes various teaching approaches help to identify and use these different learning strategies to accelerate and facilitate the language acquisition process.

The biggest obstacle for the classes is the constant inflow and outflow of students. On such conditions it is difficult to maintain a uniform language level. Incoming new children more need individual training, which makes the teachers' work more complicated. One way to solve this is to activate certain more experienced students as educational assistants and thus involve them in educational and didactic services new students need to fully integrate in the learning group. A side effect of this practice is that the chosen assistants among the students gain the opportunity to explain the contents of the classes and consequently  improve their own abilities through this process.

The Armenian language itself creates a few obstacles for the learning process of this particular language. For instance, as the language of teaching for all subjects (Language for Education), as an independent subject of learning (Language in Education and Language as Subject) and for mastering Armenian secondary school examination (through written tests). Each of these target systems requires special techniques and teaching strategies.

Certainly, in the course of studying languages, there are objective difficulties for typical Armenian students. Quite substantially the specificity of the Armenian language has to be taken into account. The Armenian language belongs to the Indo-European family, but is an agglutinative language, revealing at the same time an extensive system of inflections and analytical structures.

In the process of teaching, difficulties arise related to the laws of interference of the spoken language. One of the main problems is that interference signals are common mistakes among all students. All teachers note the difficulties arising due to lack of generic differentiation in the Armenian language, which negatively affects the introduction and consolidation of personal and possessive pronouns interfaced with the category of gender (like he/she/it and his/hers/its).

To overcome unwanted interference in different groups (beginners and advanced), teachers practice different strategies and techniques for advanced groups

Advanced groups have the advantage not only in terms of increasing the volume of knowledge, but also a wide use of the acquired language experience.

Later, in connection with the expansion of knowledge of other languages like Russian, interfering phenomena may be explained with support of the language.

In the latter case, the technology works well "extra explanation", namely return to the previously passed phenomena and their presentation and explanation on the new, higher bilingual level.