The European Mobility Folktales Project aims to support European teachers in helping their students to learn about intercultural topics. At the core of the project are the Mobility Folk Tales. Mobility Folk Tales are stories about travelling experiences, and about meeting people from different cultures. They can be listened to online or downloaded, and you can use them to conduct educational activities for building intercultural competence and awareness. There is a whole set of activities that can be downloaded from the Mobility Folktales Project webpage for free!

Europe

The activities are tailored to students from ages 8-14, but a number of them can also be adapted to audiences above this age. They address three categories: culture, difference, and language. For each category, activities are provided that can help you to facilitate intercultural learning. All of them include a folk tale from different parts of Europe: Portugal, Austria, Greece, Poland and Cyprus. The activities are in English. However, many of them are translated into Greek, German, Polish and Portuguese. You can also find an English presentation on how folk tales can be used to promote intercultural education.

The aim of these activities is to help build knowledge and positive attitudes towards differences. They can raise interest and excitement about other cultures and languages, and can help people find out more about the history and traditions of the cultures through their stories. In some of the activities, learners are also engaged in a process of self-reflection regarding their differences from and similarities with others, and develop the ability to “learn seeing the world through someone else’s eyes”. This is very important when intercultural relationships are built, and central for being able to resolve conflicts, especially intercultural ones, in a constructive way.

Some of the activities that fall under the category “language” also raise interest in other languages, and help participants to identify lesser known languages. The activities are designed to be fun for the participants, and to help them to see the power and fascination that lies in cultural and linguistic differences. We can use or adapt these activities when sharing our enthusiasm with fellow AFSers about the cultural richness of the world, and excite others about getting involved in our work.