In Greek today, we learned the Greek birthday song:
Να ζήσεις (name) και χρόνια πολλά
μεγάλος να γίνεις με άσπρα μαλλιά
παντού να σκορπίζεις της γνώσης το φως
και όλοι να λένε να ένας σοφός
Translation:
May you live (name) and happy birthday
may you grow up and your hair turn white
may you spread everywhere the light of knowlwdge
so everyone will say : he (she) is a wise man (woman)
The American birthday song looks downright pathetic in comparison to that...I never really thought about it before, but our song couldn't possibly be any less creative.
A few other tidbits of what's going on right now:
For an ethnography assignment, we had to go to a university and interview students about their experiences/opinions. Along with everything else going on in Greece, there have been measures enacted for school reform--causing, unsurprisingly a great deal of upset. Because most people looking at my blog aren't looking for an essay about this, I'll just bullet a few interesting things I learned:
-Greek higher education has always been free for students--and now due to budget cuts, students are outraged by the fact that they now have to pay for their textbooks
-It has been criticized for lagging behind the universities elsewhere in the world, hence reform...
-An international committee to look into reformation was headed by the chancellor of UC Davis...opponents of this reform view this as "neocolonialism" and imposing a corporate, capitalistic agenda for higher education. The fear is that this will lead to the privatization universities, going against Greek values.
-Faculty strikes and student occupations from the past year were so extensive that the students I spoke with didn't finish their exams until July 29th and had to start back September 1st
And the one that really blows me away:
-Unemployment for people under the age of 30 is over 50%.
Να ζήσεις (name) και χρόνια πολλά
μεγάλος να γίνεις με άσπρα μαλλιά
παντού να σκορπίζεις της γνώσης το φως
και όλοι να λένε να ένας σοφός
Translation:
May you live (name) and happy birthday
may you grow up and your hair turn white
may you spread everywhere the light of knowlwdge
so everyone will say : he (she) is a wise man (woman)
The American birthday song looks downright pathetic in comparison to that...I never really thought about it before, but our song couldn't possibly be any less creative.
A few other tidbits of what's going on right now:
For an ethnography assignment, we had to go to a university and interview students about their experiences/opinions. Along with everything else going on in Greece, there have been measures enacted for school reform--causing, unsurprisingly a great deal of upset. Because most people looking at my blog aren't looking for an essay about this, I'll just bullet a few interesting things I learned:
-Greek higher education has always been free for students--and now due to budget cuts, students are outraged by the fact that they now have to pay for their textbooks
-It has been criticized for lagging behind the universities elsewhere in the world, hence reform...
-An international committee to look into reformation was headed by the chancellor of UC Davis...opponents of this reform view this as "neocolonialism" and imposing a corporate, capitalistic agenda for higher education. The fear is that this will lead to the privatization universities, going against Greek values.
-Faculty strikes and student occupations from the past year were so extensive that the students I spoke with didn't finish their exams until July 29th and had to start back September 1st
And the one that really blows me away:
-Unemployment for people under the age of 30 is over 50%.
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