Sarah is an English teacher at Al-Hawash University in Syria. She participated in “Newcomers and Nationalism,” a 10 week Interactive Open Online Course during which she explored the sense of social belonging from the perspective of a newcomer in Europe.
Sarah discussed with other young people from the Southern Mediterranean region and Europe, issues related to newcomers in Europe and what makes others want to move away.
“The topics of the course were really challenging; cultural identity and diaspora are issues I am studying for my master thesis.
There were a lot of moments during the discussions when stereotypes were broken. It was amazing how we could understand the different views in the group. Everybody should have the right to tell their story in a personal way, without being filtered by the media. This taught us that a single story is always dangerous. We should listen to all the stories out there to get a more accurate idea of the truth.
My favourite moment was when we faced a cultural clash in one of our sessions, but we dealt with it in a civilised way. It was one of the times when we understood and learned to accept differences rather than to deny or reject it.
It was also of high importance to learn how to express myself in the right moment and in the right way, taking into consideration the different views highlighted in the discussion. In other words, I learned that the "other" is always important in our contexts of life and speech.
This experience offers an extraordinary intercultural atmosphere, which is almost impossible to have here in Syria nowadays; not to mention its online platform, which breaks through the material distance and makes it possible to bring people from all over the world together. The course puts much more focus on the aspect of diversity that schools and universities do, since it is accessible to a larger group of young people around the globe".
