Letter from Nelli Stoilova, Silistra, Bulgaria
Dear friends,
I would like to express my opinion and impressions from the European workshop in Bad Urach. It was a challenge for me to communicate in a foreign language environment, but it was a friendly one and I had the support from my Bulgarian colleagues.
I would like to congratulate and thank Carmen and the team for the excellent organization of the workshop. Themes, presentations and activities were very well selected and balanced. Congratulations also to all other colleagues for their interesting presentations, lectures and entertaining activities. It gave me ideas how to use some of them in the meetings of our NGO. For example, the first will be the game with the fishing rod – we will catch greetings in the deferent languages of the Danube countries.
There are many ways to translate lectures and presentations, but there is no way to translate the personal contact. The personal contact is not just verbal, but also non-verbal – with smiles, eyes, kind gestures – all of these offset language misunderstandings.
I met with understanding, support and goodwill from all participants. And of course, I felt well and had fun when I participated in the interactive games and activities.
The European soiree will be unforgettable for me – it was an icebreaker, I learned interesting facts about other countries and participants.
And, of course, I am sincerely grateful for having celebrated my birthday with you – you’ve made it exciting and unforgettable for me – not every birthday do I receive greetings in seven different languages. Perhaps you could include such occasional moments as a new activity in the workshop program.
My sincere thanks go to Annelise for welcoming me so kindly in Ulm.
And special thanks to Emily and all the friends from Ruse for their attention and continuous cooperation.
Dear friends,
I am glad I had the opportunity to participate in the workshop and to meet you all.
I look forward to future partnership and friendship!
Greetings!
Nelli
November, 2017, Silistra, Bulgaria