Glottodrama @Fermo, Italia

22.7.2017

Glottodrama course in Fermo, Italy

Our Erasmus + -project EUkot is the reason why I took off to Italy in the middle of our summer holidays. Weatherwise a wise choice this year, I could say :)

iSleep at the airport in Finland

First new experience: sleeping in an iSleep pod at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport before an early morning flight. Not the most comfortable, but cheaper than an airport hotel and in the morning it is really practical to be almost at the gate already.

Second new experience: Speding a few hours at the Tiburtina bus station on an unreasonably hot day - in a cooler weather I would have been walking around a bit, but in +35, no thanks. People-watching is always a nice way to spend time. And there were all kinds!

The coach was air-conditioned and comfortable and I slept most of the 4-hour-ride to Fermo. Upon arrival, I called the hotel Astoria, where the course organizer had booked rooms for participants, and they kindly picked me up from the bus stop. The hotel is right at the edge or the old town on a hill with beautiful views all around.

Fermo is in the Marche area on the Adriatic coast

View from Fermo

Breakfast room with a view

Monday morning I walked across the old Piazza and entered University Street passing through an arcade -and admiring my surroundings. Fermo is full of beautiful buildings, alleys, gates and narrow pebbled streets.

The old university building with the entrance to University Street

A music conservatory in the same building meant nice coffee breaks with students rehearsing their cello, violin, flute, singing...

The course

1st day materials, lots of info

Opening presentation by Professor Nofri

On the first day, there were around ten participants, most being local language teachers invited to get familiar with the method. Only three of us stayed on for the two-week course, and I was the only one from outside Italy. First Professor Carlo Nofri gave us a presentation about the theoretical background of the Glottodrama method, after which we moved into a classroom downstairs. Moreno, our teacher-to-be, introduced us to some warm-up activities and then we were given a sample lesson using the Glottodrama method, including acting a scene in small groups and then watching the performances on video. All while sweating in the hot classroom!

Sefora and boyfriend Roberto 

Our teacher Moreno

The rest of the week we were only three students: Sefora, a young language student graduating this autumn from the University of Ancona, and Giovanni, who teaches Italian as a second language in Rome, and me. In the first few days, we were students and went through the motions of the method through sample lessons given by Moreno: Input, first performance, language, acting, final performance. Our days were filled with warm-up exercises, acting, reflecting, drama exercices, more reflecting... all the time getting to know the method more in depth. And having quite a lot of fun with it, too.

Sefora and Giovanni acting out

In the second week, we switched from students to teachers, meaning that we had to actually write the input acts ourselves, and then act them out, discuss the outcome, the linguistic features, improvements, do more exercices and then a final performance. A fourth student, Pina, an English teacher at the University of Ancona, joined us so we were now four. All along the course, days went by really quickly as we became more familiar with the method, the structure of a Glottodrama course and lessons.

Moreno, Giovanni, Sefora and Pina in the classroom

We all agreed that one of the most difficult things was to watch our own performances on video. But I guess we got a bit used to it in the end, it's all like a fun game for a purpose and this is how I would like to introduce it to our students in Finland, too. I think it would fit perfectly in the language courses at our adult education centre.

"Ashley" feeling worried

"Emily" trying to explain her envy

 At the end of the course, we gave our test performance in front of Professor Nofri and got our certificates as well. Broadway here we come ;D

 

  

I hope to get hold of the video of our final performance to share it with you, too! This was an interesting course and I intend to use what I learned. My only regret is that there were no other participants from other countries, but on the other hand, working with a small group was also an advantage.

 Extracurricular activities

Underneath the old town there are these ancient Roman cisterns, they are huge. They were a water reservoir first, and later also used as wine cellars for example.

At the weekend there was an international volleyball tournament in Fermo, teams of young players came from several countries and stayed in our hotel. At the opening ceremony on the Piazza del Popolo, important venue for many happenings, we saw this flag dance, a local tradition. Requires a lot of skill!




A charming story on the wall of the entrance to the lift below: This man Vince used to live in Fermo and was known for his kindness. He always offered to carry travellers' bags for them - if I understood this correctly from the Italian text. And now he has his own monument here.

From the hotel, it was possible to take a lift to access the street below, and then another one to the next level. Going up and down on foot was a heavy exercise in the heat of the summer, so this made it a bit easier.

Giovanni and an Italian couple listening to the guide on a short tour, here she is showing us one of the magnificent old "palazzos" of Fermo. They used to be private houses of rich families, nowadays often used for offices.








The most powerful families used to build towers, too. This is the only one left in Fermo, now owned by the bank next door.

On Thursdays in July there is an antique and craft market on the Piazza, luxury for the eyes!

View from the library to the piazza on market night

Old library, known as "the library with a view". Beautiful!

The old theatre of Fermo, Teatro l'Aquila, is breathtaking. It's a pity there were no shows now, in the summertime everything happens outdoors.

There is a weekend in the middle of a two-week course, I spent it at the beach - too hot to even think about anything else.

Italy = good food. I was not disappointed, even the simplest, cheapest meal or snack was always tasty.

Italian ice creams have noses.

Pasta canoncini with mushroom stuffing

Vegetable tasters

At the beach I saw that many locals had their "own spots" where they returned every day. Some tourists were around, too, mainly from Germany I think, and the odd Swedish family, but not nearly as many as in Rimini or Venice, for example. At the Piazza I once encountered two young Finnish women. The mother of one of them lives in Fermo, and there are apparently quite many Finns around here. I had no idea!

I didn't talk to many Italians besides the course participants, partly because my Italian is as bad as their English :) I did get a good brush-up on basic Italian, and now I know that a sunbed is "uno lettino" and costs around 5 euros for a day, and that tickets for the bus between Fermo and Porto San Giorgio are no longer sold at the "stazione", at the "giornali" or at the "tabacchi" where they used to be sold. So I learned to buy mine at the "giornali" at the Piazza in Fermo. I listened to a young girl on the bus shouting at her parents on her mobile phone, and understood that there was a problem with her not cleaning the house :) I can also ask for a "bicchiere di vino" and found the bus stop with the help of an older lady who only spoke Italian. On the bus to Rome, I was forced to join a conversation when a man opposite me wanted to know where I was from, and it turned out he had visited Finland in the past. For the rest of the journey and for the joy of our fellow passengers, he was telling the young man next to him how roads were full of reindeers in Finland so that it was impossible to drive, and how you got stung by millions of mosquitoes at once and it hurt terribly, and how Finns lived in tiny cabins and offered you fish and cheese with very bad coffee. I of course smiled and said it was all absolutely true - isn't it?

Ciao Italia, but lucky me: I have another course to attend and will now start looking for one!

Tiina -eukko

links:
Glottodrama project website:
http://www.glottodrama.eu/index.php?lang=en

The course organiser's website:
http://www.novacultur.it/en/home-2/

Fermo at Discover Italy:
http://www.italia.it/en/discover-italy/the-marches/fermo.html