Culture Days: America and Ireland

source: society6

Last week must have been quite exciting for most of us students. Not only was it ridiculously hot, this week was also filled with final exams and sudden attacks of unexpected studying. But the past week was also spent with preparations for our Culture Days, which would be a two-days event filled with English students happily talking about aspects of their teacher's culture. In our case, we had a really nice mixture of Irish and American culture presentations.

I was really nervous before I had my own presentation about Bobby Sands. Normally, I'm not scared of talking in front of an audience, but I hadn't held such a presentation for a long time. I didn't even had the heart to go to the first bunch of presentations on Wednesday afternoon, because I felt like I wasn't prepared enough. In the end, I was rehearsing my presentation in front of my cats for about two hours straight, in which process my voice almost went missing. Luckily, when I arrived at university to hold my presentation, I was still in rehearse-mode and so I could go fluently through my text without spending too much thoughts on how nervous I was.

After my presentation was done, I finally could let go and watch these of my fellow students. Unfortunately, I couldn't watch as many as I wanted because I had two exams the two following days, but I at least managed to watch a few more than required. These were:

Ireland: From Emigration to Immigration by Alexa L.
Abortion Law in Ireland by Andrina D.
Video Games in Ireland by Artur S.
The Irish Film Industry by Dunja D.

Hill of Tara by Nadine D.

This is Friz! by Sandra L.

Languages of Irish Travelers by Kristina T.

Poetry in Irish Schools by Cornelia K.

The Influence of James II on the Irish by Julia B.

The Integration of Islam in Ireland by Alexander H.

Witchcraft in Ireland by Sabrina K.

Comics Books and Superheroes by Lucie B.

Amelia Earhart and Bessie Coleman by Orsolya C.

Hurricane Preparedness by Claudia S.

For our final oral exam we have to pick five of these topics. The ones I chose are the following:

Video Games in Ireland (by Artur S.)

I knew I would pick this topic for my oral exam as soon as I saw the title because I like playing video games. However, my knowledge about the history of videos games is only based on the "big ones" (America and Japan) and so I was most surprised to hear that Ireland's contributions aren't that unimportant in this industry.

The Irish Film Industry (by Dunja D.)

I really liked Dunja's presentation about the Irish film industry because she managed to give us a brief overview without attacking us with too many year numbers and hundred of names. She really waked my interest.

This is Friz! (by Sandra L.)

I simply had not heard of Fritz before, and I really want to talk about art.

Poetry in Irish Schools (by Cornelia K.)

Cornelia's presentation was my most favorite. She provided perfect examples and explained everything in a very calm and direct matter. It also made me think about how Austria's schools deal with poetry at a young age.

Witchcraft in Ireland (by Sabrina K.)

I like the mysterious vibe that comes from this topic. I'm happy that Sabrina chose to focus on two particular examples rather than explaining witchcraft from a dry historical view.

I think our Culture Days were very exciting and great. It was just too bad that it took place in a week full of exams. This took our chance of relaxing and just watching the presentations. However, I really hope that we will do something like that soon again or that at least the next SUK2-class will organize it as well. The whole event was the perfect opportunity to get to know these countries' culture better.

Movie: Hunger (2008)

Sometimes, when I want to get into a certain topic that I am interested in (or at least should be for university), I like to start getting into it by watching a documentary or video adaption about/of the topic. This is also what I did when I had started researching about the Irishman Bobby Sands for my culture essay for English class. I felt that the political issues that surrounded his actions were a bit hard to understand. So I hoped that I would get the grasp of a basic image about these when I would be watching a movie or documentary about it.

The most recent and popular adaption of Bobby Sands' hunger strike in 1981 is the movie "Hunger" (2008), directed by Steve McQueen. It describes the hunger strikes in an unpolitical way, showing pain and fear on both sides (in this case: by both the guards and the hunger strikers) equally with using only a few words throughout the whole movie. McQueen rather focuses on delivering the right atmosphere by using strong images. A good example for such are the scenes in which fully-armed guards and naked prisoners fight each other brutally, both trying to gain control over the other. In contrast, a dialogue of 20 minutes between Bobby Sands (portrayed by Michael Fassbender) and a priest is shown in the middle of the movie, which, by the way, was filmed in one single take without changing the perspective of the camera. It is the exact opposite of the first third of the movie and mostly consists of skirmish between these two. The last third of the movie is showing the process of Sands' turning more and more into skin and bones, by using again strong and depressing images, this time ones of a broken man. The movie ends with Sands' death, not showing the aftermath and political consequences.


In my opinion, "Hunger" is not only the best adaption of the Irish hunger strikes, it is also an outstanding movie in general. The movie does not go for the heartstrings, but sticks to simply showing strong and disturbing images. Every further spoken word would be one too much, because the uncommented pictures speak for themselves. Even the dialogue between Sands and the priest requires to look at the picture itself and not focusing what they actually say, rather focusing on what they do not say. Creating an atmosphere and emotions in this quite theatrical way is what really astonished and touched me about this movie. It might not have cleared the fog about the political background in my head, but it left me incredibly impressed.