IB REVIEWGLIWICE

12016

Michał Gala

An interview with a talented IB

student

Studying Abroad

The adventure of a l i fet ime at

Bocconi University in Italy

Call of Fame

The Adams Family play in the

eyes of one of the main actors

Yemeni Girls

An interview with two gir ls from

Western Asia

Prof. Jan Miodek

An interview with a renowned

l inguist ic expert

ZESPÓŁ SZKÓŁ OGÓLNOKSZTAŁCĄCYCH NR 10IB SCHOOL NO. 006264 SINCE 2010ISSN 2353-0642

IB REVIEW

IB REVIEW

Design:Seweryn ChlewickiKatarzyna Łakomska

GLIWICE2016

Images:Maciej ZiajaTomek Węgrzyn

Edition and supervision:Sonia Świtońska

Proofread:Beata KrupiczkaSonia Świtońska

CONTENTSPIOTR WASILEWSKI 4CALL OF FAME 6EDUCATION FAIR OF BRITISH SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES 8OUR SCHOOL, OUR TRIPS, OUR MEMORIES 9ŁUKASZ WAŻNY 10ENGLISH A - FOR THE FIRST TIME IN GLIWICE! 12SCHOOL CAFETERIAS’ DRAMA 14MICHAŁ GALA 15STUDYING ABROAD 16VOLUNTEERING – THAT’S IT! 18MACEDONIAN EXCHANGE 19YEMENI GIRLS 20PROF. JAN MIODEK 22

Articles:Agata KorekAgata ŁabiakAl ic ja PolańskaAngel ika BurzyBeata KrupiczkaDorota KrysińskaJoanna WiaterekKarol ina BłaszkówKarol ina DobrzyńKatarzyna ŁakomskaMikołaj OpiełkaSebastian GarbaczZofia Biegun

ZSO10.GLIWICE.PL

IB REVIEW

I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Mr. Kołtun, the Principal , for his guidance, keen interest and endless support in our work and to Mrs. Malec-Pytel , for her valuable advice before this issue was published. I also appreciate Mrs. Krupiczka’s di l igence, rel ial ibi l i ty and al l her input in edit ing and proofreading the gazette. I am also very thankful to Kasia Łakomska and Seweryn Chlewicki for their involvement, cooperation and coordination while working on this year ’s IB Review!

–The Editor

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PIOTR WASILEWSKINot only is he the second year IB Student, but he is also a male model in Hysteria Models and AS Management, which are actual ly one of the best modell ing agencies in Poland. They cooperate with agencies in Paris , Milan, New York, London, Tokyo and Bei j ing. I f you fancy to know what he found most interesting during his four-month stay in Asia - fol low the interview!

InterviewKasia Łakomska: Piotrek, as far as I know during the last four months you visited Seul (South Korea) and Tokyo (Japan). It sounds crazy for an average student. Was it difficult for you to cope with school duties be -fore and after your journey?Piotrek Wasi lewski : Well , obviously i t was! I think it would be diff icult for everyone to f inish the school year two months before it ’s off ic ial ly over. I wanted to do my best, so I passed some exams before going to Asia, wrote a cou-ple of important assignments during my stay there, and took care of other things when I came back.

K: 4 months away from home is a very long time. Did you get used to that kind of l ifestyle?P: Actual ly i t was real ly easy at the beginning. Later on I had to face some diff icult ies. I missed my family and fr iends. Surprisingly I didn’t have the typical cultural shock. I think I was kind of prepared for other food, different behavior and rules which I was supposed to obey. When it comes to the specif ic l i festyle, definitely YES! Now it ’s hard for me to get used to my ordinary l i festyle.

K: What exactly were you doing there?P: Almost every day I went to castings! And if you get the job, you work on a part icular day – basical ly that ’s al l . There were miscel laneous jobs! Models in Asia do l i teral ly everything: onl ine shops, lookbooks, catalogues, fashion shows, campaigns or even some kind of special events and clothes presentations.

K: Did you also have some time for yourself?P: Not as much as I would l ike to have had. Even when I had a day-off I couldn’t forget that I ’m at work al l the t ime, so every minute my boss could cal l me and say “Piotrek, you must be in the agency in 30 minutes because there is an unplanned casting!” How-ever, evenings and weekends were usual ly off , so we were able to vis it some historic places, go to a party or just relax.

K: Do you feel more responsible or confident now?P: Definitely yes. Come on, I survived 4 months in two huge megacit ies!

instagram: @wasi lewsky_

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K: What was the most surprising thing for you in Asia?P: In Japan – fake pol iteness. You can l i teral ly bump into someone and he or she wil l apologize to you. I t seems to be nice but in the long run it ’s t ir ing. In Korea – prices of fruit and vegetables! Imagine paying $30 for one watermelon ! I t ’s total ly insane! Also I tr ied to f ind out more about the situation with North Korea, and I was shocked when my manager told me that they do not real ly care about i t ! Especial ly that Seoul is only 60km away from the border!

K: Do you have any further plans connected with modelling?P: Of course! I wi l l continue it as far as i t ’s s imply possible. I hope to have more jobs in Europe; however, Asia satisf ies me as wel l . As i t comes to the university choice, my courses are str ict ly con-nected with the fashion and media industry.

K: Piotrek, I wish you good luck and thanks for the interview!P: Thank you so much!

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A few years ago our school establ ished cooper-ation with the Musical Theatre in Gl iwice. Last year our students got a chance to prepare a spectacle with the help of the theatre staff and we al l could watch a wonderful performance of now graduated previous year ’s senior class in a show t it led “Grease,” based on a famous musi-cal about the adventures of two lovers with John Travolta and Olivia Newton - John as the lead

character.

This year I myself had an op -portunity to feel what i t is l ike to be an actor and play a member of “The Addams Family” , which is known and loved worldwide. I t ’s ful l of dark humour, but at the end

of the day it can be the source of many ref lec-t ions about people ’s act ions (and I don’t mean young gir ls torturing their l i t t le brothers) and l i fe i tself . Well death also. And pain. Or misery. Anyway I adore it and if you have not encoun-tered them personal ly I bet you wil l .

When I heard that our class was to prepare a show about i t I was real ly excited. The f irst thing we had to do was of course to f ind the cast. I t is not diff icult i f the class of more than forty stu -dents is taken into consideration. On the f irst meeting we divided every role among the vol -unteers. I got a role of Lucas, Wednesday’s boy-fr iend; however, a few weeks later some major changes occurred and I was left with one of the main characters to play. Gomez Addams. I f there was one character I knew perfectly wel l how to impersonate, that was exactly him.Even though the rehearsals started in January 2015, we hadn’t done much unti l May, apart

from learning the l ines of most scenes and set-t ing a few of them. It was due to poor condit ions we had, as the only stage we had was the class-room number 120 - not a very spacious one and the only experience we had was that of what we gained in previous school performances or some acting workshops some of us attended. We had no idea how to set the scene properly. Conse-quently, each t ime any part of i t was repeated, we al l stood at different posit ions, almost al-ways covering one another.

Everything changed when Katarzyna Wysłucha, who had acted plenty of roles in The Musical Theatre, among which is that of Granny in the original show, stepped in and decided to help us direct i t . Thanks to her huge experience and devotion we managed to make the best out of every single part of the spectacle. Her pieces of advice about how to act and the way she direct-ed the show was not only extremely helpful , but I think necessary to achieve such a wonderful outcome. It was then when the f irst rehearsals in the theatre began. Final ly the space l imita-t ion was over. The pressure was huge due to the short t ime we were left with to the premiere dated at the end of June. However, i t was rather unbel ievable that we would make it . There was too l i tt le t ime. We hadn’t even set al l the scenes and it was already June. There were three weeks left . Eventual ly i t was postponed unti l after the hol idays. In September we met again and when we f inal ly f inished struggl ing with our part ial memory loss and recal led what we had already prepared we started rehearsing again.

On November 25th when the enormous door to the Addams Manor opened, with heart beat-ing faster and stronger than ever I mouthed the

We were rewarded with a standing ovation.

CALL OF FAMESebastian Garbacz

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opening l ines. A few seconds later I real ised I was chew-ing a gum. I prayed that no one would notice that and I would not faint. As soon as I went backstage and threw the chewing gum away, the stress was gone. I was gone too.

We were rewarded with a standing ovation. The success the performance achieved wouldn’t have been possible without our director, Mrs. Wysłucha and a few other people from the theatre who helped us with the acous -t ics and l ights. Maciej Musioł , Mrs. Wysłucha’s col league was also present at the dress rehearsals and put a bit of his own experience into the show adding a few minor im -provements and giving advice to every part ic ipant. Our form tutor, Anita Kwiatkowska-Plewik put her heart and soul into helping us, correcting our pronunciation every second phrase. And I wi l l remember that the stress in the word “epidemic” is on the second, not the third syl-lable long after my grave is nai led. Above al l , none of i t would have happened if i t wasn’t for my dear fr iends,

whose talent as wel l as progress they made dur -ing the year of rehearsals turned out to be far greater that I could have imagined. Each of them did their best - i t didn’t matter whether i t was the leading or supporting role. I t was a pleasure and honour to work with such an amazing group of people on a real theatre stage.

A short review and the whole cast are presented on the off ic ial website of the school: ht tp : / /www.zso10.g l iwice .p l /d la -uczniow/aktual -nosc i /uczn iowie-aktorzy - i - lo -na-deskach- teatru-muzycznego-w-gl iwicach/

You can also f ind there the l ink to a coverage from the premiere day prepared by TV Imperium. I f you wish to watch the spectacle, we wil l be perform-ing it once again on March 2nd on the Musical Theatre stage. Fol low the school ’s web page for more information.

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OUR SCHOOL, OUR TRIPS, OUR MEMORIES

Being at school is mostly associated with boring lessons and one-day tr ips to a museum or a theatre. But not here! Not in this school! We al l know that the most important and valuable things that stay in our minds after school years are memories, especial ly those referring to the t imes when we were young and beautiful . And here we have an opportunity to gather them.

And what did the tr ip to London look l ike last year? After a long journey we f inal ly reached our destination. Our it iner-ary was ful l of the most known sights of London and a few less known ones but great as wel l . The students vis ited the most interesting and prestigious museums, they had the opportunity to sit in the auditorium of The Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and to have a walk through the typical ly Engl ish streets.

The group visited the Hampton Court and the Oxford Street, where many of us did shopping and others came

Joanna Wiaterek

back to the museums because they had enjoyed them so much. We took lots of photos in Ma-dame Tussauds’ and were able to be in the two parts of the world at the same t ime, when we stood on the prime meridian in Greenwich. In Windsor we had a chance to see the Changing the Guard and to vis it the entire castle and the vi l lage.

Above al l , the main aim of such kinds of tr ips is to practise the language and thanks to l iv ing with Engl ish famil ies for a week, we could pol ish it up and see some of the customs. We had op-portunit ies to eat the famous food l ike ‘F ish and chips ’ or the ful l Engl ish breakfast.

Al l in al l , i t was an unforgettable adventure and we spent the t ime in a great atmosphere with amazing people and in a lovely place !

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EDUCATION FAIR OF BRITISH SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES

Katarzyna Łakomska

On 14th November my fr iends and I went to Cracow. Our aim was to join the absolutely beneficial event: Brit ish Counci l Education Fair . Maybe it doesn’t sound encouraging but wel l . . . I t was truly interesting and we learned a lot!

To start off : the event took place in the four-star Andel ’s Hotel located r ight in the heart of the city. What Brit ish Counci l actual ly offered was many exhibit ion stands of Brit ish schools and universi-t ies with various presentations/lectures. The opportunity to talk with the representatives of such universit ies as the University of Oxford or Cardiff is i tself definitely an outstanding experience for al l the students who think about studying abroad. Advice on choosing the r ight course, given by these amiable people seems to be very inspirational and motivating to study even more. Honestly!

The essential lecture was about the importance of our personal statement. They showed us some tr icks on how to make ourselves unique and how to make our PS pleasant to read. For example, i f we want to describe our act ivity we need to fol low “ABC rule” described below:

Not only did we learn al l of these useful things, but we were also given a number of branded gad-gets: penci ls , pens and eco-bags! Wasn’t i t cool enough? To sum up, i t was definitely worth gett ing up early to take part in this Brit ish Counci l ’s event. I real ized that i f we truly want to achieve some-thing everything is possible. The only way to fulf i l l future career dreams is to work hard, start ing from NOW.

AActivity

WHAT YOU DID?WHAT YOU LEARNT?

WHAT THE BENEFITS OF DOING IT ARE?

BBenefit

CCourse

HOW RELEVANT IT IS TO THE COURSE?

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ŁUKASZ WAŻNY

Mikołaj Opiełka: Brazil ian Jiu J istu is stil l l ittle-known sport in Poland. Could you tell us briefly what BJJ is all about and when you started training it?Łukasz Ważny: I started my adventure with BJ J when I was about seven. BJ J is something l ike judo, but the f ight isn’t stopped so many t imes and you have more “freedom”, I mean that you can perform more techniques, which are not al lowed in judo. General ly , the goal is to force your opponent to surrender and you have l i ter-al ly hundreds of possibi l i t ies to achieve that. There are of course a few things that are forbid-den, for instance punches and kicks.

M: You are the world champion! How much did you have to sacrifice to become so successful?Ł: You must focus just on training, other things are less important, so they are neglected a l i tt le bit . The worst part before competit ion is losing your weight. I ate almost nothing a few days be-fore weighing to achieve that.

M: What did you feel after winning the World Championships in Athens?Ł: I won that Championships a few months ago, so I “have l ived normally” for a longer t ime. But just after the competit ion I remember that everything was perfect. The weather was per-fect , the food I ate was perfect , even my bed was more comfortable than it had been before. The day after my f ights we went to Acropolis and I think it was one of my best moments in my l i fe.

M: How is BJJ supported in Poland?Ł: I t isn ’t supported by many organisations. May-be a few companies are involved in some kind of support. I t is real ly hard to f ind any sponsor. I have that luck that I ’ve recently got one - F.H. Tytan, but I am in minority.

M: What is your biggest motivation in your l ife which enables you to push beyond your l imits?Ł: I ’ve been training since I was a chi ld, so I am real ly used to it and I think I don’t need any spe-cial motivation. But of course there are people that motivate me. First of al l , i t is my dad, Mari-usz. He is the one who taught me the principles of martial arts and he is with me in al l the mo -ments of my l i fe.

M: You won a lot of victories but what was your most remarkable loss?Ł: I ’ve had many losses, I think even more than victories. Only this 2015 was so lucky. I won the World Championships in Athens, Germany Open and I was second in the Pol ish Championships. You think I have had so many victories, cause in high school I was winning almost everything, but before it was just the opposite.

Łukasz is one of the most caring and modest people I ’ve ever met with an exceptional sense of humour. On everyday basis he is a brother to f ive younger sisters and a f i lm making enthusiast. But when he enters the f ighting arena there is no place for emotions. He defeats his opponents with merci less precision as i f each of his moves was a part of chess strategy. Despite his young age he holds the Brazi l ian J iu J istsu World Champion t it le and is one of the best junior BJ J f ighters in Europe. However, his great success didn’t come out of the blue and there is a great sacrif ice and years of hard work behind it .

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M: How do you manage to bring your passion, school duties, your other interests and social l ife together?Ł: Sometimes I focus more on training, sometimes on edu-cation, but usual ly I am able to reconci le al l important as-pects of my l i fe. And I normally meet my fr iends, I am not that busy.

M: How does your passion affect relations with other people?Ł: In my club, Kodokan, I ’ve met mostly al l k inds of people and I think it is a huge advantage of training in such a club that has so many different martial arts to choose from. As regards fr iends whom I didn’t meet in the club, I think my passion doesn’t affect my relat ionships with them in any way.

M: What are your most important values?Ł: Al l conservative values. Just l ike Grzegorz Braun.

M: What is your biggest dream? The thing that you al -ways feel an irresistible desire to do?Ł: I would l ike BJ J to be in the Olympic Games, so that I could part ic ipate in them. But I am also interested in f i lm making, so I ’d be glad i f I could do something with it in the future.

M: How would you encourage young people to take up some sport?Ł: Start your adventure with sport! Or you wil l become overweight. . .

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The aim of the art ic le is to provide a general overview of the Engl ish A language and l i tera-ture course as i t has just been incorporated into the school curriculum. Right now we have been running the course for three months and it is also about t ime to come up with the init ial rough analysis of the course proceedings.

The course offers a comprehensive approach to a wide variety of either l i terary or non-l i terary

texts ranging from newspaper artic les, speeches, commercials , advert isements to poems, short stories and novels. The hol ist ic approach to a mult itude of lan -guage aspects combines the f ields of l i terary studies, journal ism, ad-vert is ing and l inguist ics. We also learn how culture and context

help shape the textual meaning and what impact i t might have upon the addressee. Al l carriers of cultural information are the object of our inter-est and analysis.As the course consists of four indispensable parts, let me brief ly present each of them in more detai l .

Part one – Language in cultural context – covers the most outstanding l inguist ic aspects of the Engl ish language in the Anglophone world – evo-lution of language, regional dialects, jargons, bi-l ingual ism, the language of propaganda, pol it ical discourse and pol it ical correctness. The thor-ough analysis of sundry styl ist ic devices, tone, themes and content helps us understand the in -tr icacies of language and the numerous factors shaping the f inal message. Part two – Language and mass communication – takes a closer look on what constitutes good or bad journal ism, the role of persuasive language in advert is ing

and speeches, textual bias in different types of media, stereotypes and the language of the ra-dio and TV drama. Course part ic ipants wi l l be well prepared to understand how language and rhetorical devices are used to affect public re-sponse and shape our opinions.

Part three – Literature. Texts and contexts – fo-cuses, as i ts very name suggests, on diverse con-texts of text composit ion with a strong emphasis on the l i terary crit ic ism, genres and the under-lying relat ionship between the writer, reader and the text i tself . The texts are predominantly selected from the IB prescribed l ist of authors and what must be stressed here – the choice comprises the f inest examples of l i terary texts written in Engl ish or translated into Engl ish. Our selection this year includes such authors as Wil -l iam Shakespeare, Sylvia Plath, Arundhati Roy, Marjane Satrapi , Knut Hamsun and George Ber-nard Shaw. Part three offers a unique perspec-t ive on the amazing wealth of l i terature.

Part four – Literature – cr it ical study – offers a comprehensive study of various l i terary de -v ices such as irony, sarcasm, metaphors, imag-ery, narrative points of view, rhyming patterns and so on. There is also a select ion of l i terary works which should include examples of diverse genres, periods and places for a better apprecia-t ion of l i terature.

Al l in al l , the course offers a highly comprehen-sive approach to l i terary and non-l i terary texts. The parts complement each other and the text addressee suddenly real izes that he is now well -equipped and ready to understand, appreciate and interpret a wide variety of texts. You tend to extract from the text far more than you used to, hence your enjoyment of l i terature becomes

We have just embarked on a l i terary voyage

ENGLISH A - FOR THE FIRST TIME IN GLIWICE!Introductory Notes on the Language and Literature Course.Beata Krupiczka

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complete. On one hand, you begin to enjoy l i terature more, and on the other hand, you become ful ly aware of al l the hidden tr icks and techniques so that nothing wil l blur the ingenuity of the message.

We have just embarked on a l i terary voyage with the f inal destination looming in the distance. Our classes combine various act ivit ies such as the typical analysis of a l i ter -ary text, watching ads and commercials with the fol low-up commentary on their composit ion and strength of the message. We have also been into journal ism, searching for any traces of bias and trying to recognize different types of newspaper art ic les.

When it comes to class discussions, you can never pre-dict what the f inal outcome wil l be and that is the beauty

I think that Engl ish A is a great alternative for Engl ish B. I t ’s much more interesting, especial ly to students who en-joy l i terature. I also f ind it very practical , because it cov-ers subjects l ike media manipulation, information bias and other things that everybody should be aware of. I ’m con-vinced that i t wi l l prove useful at my l inguist ics university course, as wel l as at courses l ike journal ism, advert is ing, al l k inds of Art studies, and many more (…)

–Ewelina Grychtoł

Engl ish A as a subject is the perfect mixture of language and l i terature. Not only does it al low to perfect our lan-guage ski l ls in a highly practical way, but i t also lets us ex-plore the Engl ish language l i terature. A huge advantage of our classes is that our group is quite small and lessons are led in a cosy atmosphere. We are taught things, tr icks and information we haven’t even thought of and the best thing is that we are taught these in such an interesting way.

–Jul ia Kos

Even though Engl ish A is a total ly new subject in our school , I don’t regret taking it . During the f irst two months I was pretty scared of the perspective of writ ing my f inal exams in this subject. I have even reached a point of weakness when I wanted to simply give up but something has made me stay and continue the course, which was one of the best decisions I have made during this school year. Since then I ’ve become more confident in taking part in the les-son, we had more assignments, which gave me the feel ing that I wi l l be properly prepared for my exams. I love the part of the course where we are talking about the media, as this is something that surrounds us dai ly. What is more, I definitely love the atmosphere of the course – our small and fr iendly group and teacher who supports us during the good and bad t imes. (…)

–Jul ia Gdowka

The Engl ish A course has given me the opportu -nity to discover the world of Engl ish l i terature and language used in media, especial ly press and television. Although we had struggled with language sometime, for example while reading Shakespeare or Jane Austen, I think it is valuable to get to know some classical and contemporary works as they are, without translat ion. That way we can improve language and grammar without having to study it l ike before at “regular” Engl ish classes. When it comes to the l i terature part , I was also able to compare a few things to the Pol ish course but i t is not exactly the same. The main difference is what so far I l iked the most – having to be able to analyse and deconstruct the language of media. So far we had TV adver-t isements, newspapers, posters, news broad-casts, speeches or even a candy packaging and we have even more to deal with in the future. (…)

–Agnieszka Miszewska

When I attended the f irst lesson of Engl ish A, I was not sure what to expect from it . However, after several months at school , I must say that I f ind lessons of Engl ish A more interesting and engaging than lessons of Engl ish Literature back in Austral ia (Engl ish Literature is compulsory in New South Wales) . The texts and discussions in this c lass are, in my opinion, much better than the texts and discussions in Austral ia. (…)

–David Kuziak

of surprise and unexpectedness, the same ap-pl ies to the amazing repertoire of ideas and con-clusions. So far i t has been a real pleasure for me as a teacher to teach the course to such a wonderful group of intel l igent, thoughtful and creative students. As we are the pioneers of the course in our school , let me present each course part ic ipant ( in alphabetical order) : Jul ia Gdowka, Ewelina Grychtoł , Jul ia Kos, David Kuziak, Ag-nieszka Miszewska. I would l ike to f inish my art ic le with the stu-dents ’ opinions on the course. Here is what they wrote about their own impressions and insights into the language and l i terature course:

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I bet that al l of you know that feel ing when in the middle of the school day you get a l i tt le t ired and sleepy. You think “Oh, my day was tough enough - why not indulge myself a l i tt le? What about a chocolate bar?” What do you do? You go to the school cafeteria. A few months ago you would probably end up with a chocolate bar or something similar. However, lately i t has not been that easy to get this kind of “pleasure” in our schools. New regulations were brought in by the Ministry of Health.

Why were the new regulations introduced? Ac-cording to the World Health Organization report

the number of obese chi ldren in Poland has tr i -pled over the past twenty years ( Jarosz, A. 2012 Zdrowie magazine). That is the reason why the Ministry of Health has decided to make changes.The truth is they are r ight. Youth is an important stage. We develop our body and prepare it for the rest of our l i fe.

Not only do we tend to look attractive by exer-cis ing and eating properly, but we also want to feel good and l ive l i fe to the ful lest. There is no point in ruining one’s health that early. Are such health problems real ly caused by the food in school cafeterias? In my opinion, to f igure out the root of the problem, we have to look deeper. The t ime spent at school is only a part of our day. We develop eating habits at home rather than at school. The adults are supposed to show us how to take care of our health when we are kids.

What I want to say is that these regulations came into effect too rapidly. I am especial ly talking about kids in primary schools. They see empty shelves and end up with no food for the whole day. Kids probably do not real ize that these regulations have mostly introduced better alternatives for meals at school , which are more beneficial to our organisms and they wil l not buy

SCHOOL CAFETERIAS’ DRAMA

healthy snacks instead. They are neither happy nor healthy then. These kids do not understand the point of such regulations. The Government should f irst think about raising chi ldren’s aware-ness about healthy l i festyle and show the ben-eficial part of i t rather than throw them in at the deep end. I f k ids want to eat unhealthi ly , they wil l do it anyway. When I write “we”, “our” , etc. I mean junior high school and high school students because usual ly we are aware of the short-term, as wel l as long-term, consequences of junk food and excess of sugar. The older we get the more responsible we are for our health. That is why, I think we should be al lowed to

have a choice whether to buy white bread with ham and mayonnaise or whole-grain bread with cheese and some vegetables, a chocolate bar or a banana, sweetened juice or just water.

What about the economic consequences? The in-come of school shops owners also suffers. Many businesses in Pol ish schools have been closed down because of the regulations. In spite of al l the changes many of them have survived. For example, in our school many new options have been introduced. Now we are able to eat warm, supposedly healthy meals at school (many of us are st i l l at school at 5 PM, so it ’s quite impor-tant) . Nevertheless, the future of the school caf-eterias is now in question.

Al l in al l , i f I were to choose, I would prob-ably modify those regulations. Eating healthi ly should not be compulsory. Everyone has their own possibi l i ty to make a choice. However, i t ’s the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Edu-cation’s duty to raise chi ldren’s understanding about eating properly and taking care of our health. The Government ought to present such l i festyle as highly advantageous to our bodies and minds. We al l know that we have only one l i fe and one body, so when it ’s too late – nothing wil l help!

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Agata Labiak: How much do you study at home?Michał Gala: I f you mean studying for school then the answer would be – not much. Though studying for school only takes me about an hour or two per week, I spend at least twice that t ime learning on my own and for classes at the Si le-s ian University. When you add writ ing al l the pa-pers required in the IB this would be about 4 – 6 hours a week. Last year, when I studied for the SAT this would probably be closer to 10 hours per week.

AL: Did you have to sacrifice a lot of things, such as your social l ife or sleep, to achieve so much, or do you manage to balance it all?MG: I don’t think I had to sacrif ice either one of these things in the long run. Sleeping 2 hours a night before the deadlines for Internal Assess-ments is something I can l ive with.

AL: What are your plans for future, l ife goals, ambitions?MG: As for now I am thinking about pursuing a career in science. Doing innovative research and gaining renown in the world of science is cur -rently my main goal . I also consider using my knowledge in start ing a business in STEM. Com-bining these two things would be my main ambi-t ion.

AL: What things do you not enjoy learning?MG: As I ’ve said I am very interested in history and while I do enjoy reading about i t on my own, I do not real ly l ike learning it as a school sub-ject. This is the case with numerous other f ields – l imit ing them to a school curriculum makes them utterly bland. But I don’t think there are any discipl ines that I part icularly disl ike learning in general .

Michał Gala has become a laureate of a record number of 10 Regional Scientif ic Competit ions, one of the youngest f inal ists of the Pol ish Chemistry Olympiad and a Si lver Medalist of 47th International Chemistry Olympiad. For the last three years he has been attending classes with chemistry students at the Si lesian University.

MICHAŁ GALA

AL: Your bedroom is fi l led with science and history books… do you enjoy reading anything else?MG: I do enjoy reading other books, for example classical l i terature or… not-so-classical l i tera-ture. Tit les of the books that belong to the lat-ter category are not worth mentioning here, but I think Dante’s “Divine Comedy” is my favorite book.

AL: What is the subject you are mostly unsure of when it comes to marks? Or you are con -vinced you are going to get only 7s?MG: I am pretty sure I won’t get al l sevens. Though it seems to me that I wi l l achieve high marks in al l my subjects, the combination of high grade boundaries and subjective nature of examination questions in some of them, makes me doubt that I wi l l reach the magical score of 45 points.

AL: Do you remember your first science com -petition? How was it?MG: This would be the Regional Scientif ic Com-petit ion in chemistry that I took in the f irst c lass of junior high school. I was wel l prepared so the competit ion itself wasn’t very hard for me. Be-coming its laureate prompted me to compete in other subjects and the Chemistry Olympiad.

AL: Do you have other passions outside of school?MG: I largely pursue chemistry outside school and my interests in this f ield focus on organic synthesis, an extremely important discipl ine, that is somewhat neglected in high school. Also I am very interested in history and opera. On the other hand, I also have my gui lty pleasures, such as Desperate Housewives or Devious Maids.

Interview

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I have always wanted to study abroad, the idea was fuel led by my dad’s stories about his uni-versity exchange which made choosing IB a no-brainer. However, I changed my mind about the course many, many t imes, just l ike my prefer-ences regarding the destination country, but ul-t imately I ’m very glad about my decisions and I ’m very grateful about the experiences I ’ve been through while studying abroad.

Upon making the decision to enrol l in IB as opposed to regular Pol ish high school , I was only aware of easier grade conver -sion and I hoped for a l i tt le more advantage re -lated to some experience

in studying in Engl ish. Now three years after my f inal exams, my appreciat ion of IB has grown a lot. The most noticeable difference between graduates from regular national programmes and ‘us ’ was the ease at which we were with writ ing longer texts, especial ly reports (we were quite popular team members during group proj-ects) . And huge, 700 page textbooks were not scarce. Of course, my f irst exam session was a shock, l ike almost everything during those f irst months away. Most probably, every new student faces surprises and the unknown, but I dare say there are fewer question marks for those who stay in their countries. I chose to study in Italy, at Boc-coni University. The choice of country was dictated by my lack of wi l l ingness to study in Great Britain. For me, one of the best aspects of l iv ing abroad are vir-tual ly free language lessons and conversations with native speakers, which made going to an Engl ish-speaking country a waste of t ime, given

that I felt pretty confident about my command of the language, and I was st i l l going to study in i t . I con-sidered schools in Spain, France and Scandinavia, but then I was told by my high school about a ‘dis-covery week’ at Bocconi aimed at f irst-year IB stu-dents (the second year of high school) . I t was there that I decided to enrol l in a business course, in com-plete awe of the subjects of which I had never had a taste before. Another benefit of having attend-ed “the discovery week” was being al lowed to take part in earl ier recruit -ment, which meant that I was uncondit ional ly ac -cepted before Christmas of my last year. This was the source of great com -fort in the face of exams. I strongly recommend tak-ing part in such discovery weeks or open days.

Having spoken to many people who consider studying abroad, I ’ve real ised that Great Britain seems the only choice to some. Loans in Eng-land and free education in Scotland are surely a factor just l ike the language, but many univer-sit ies, especial ly in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, also offer courses in Engl ish and are either free of charge for EEA members, or the fees are relat ively less scary. My university was very international , with students from over 25 countries. We had a few compulsory classes,

I f you want to f ind Poles at a party, head to the kitchen!

STUDYING ABROADDorota Krysińska

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al l the material was uploaded onl ine, and the ratio of students per professor was quite high (ranging from 40 in elect ive classes to 150 in those compul-sory) . Clearly, this al lows for f lexible attendance, giving plenty of t ime for other endeavours. For some students, i t led to boredom and lack of disci-pl ine, but for me, i t was a huge advantage. On the other hand, our university year was longer than in England, stretching from late August unti l mid-July, making it very diff icult to get summer internships (for students of f inance and management, London offers the best placements, and here again lan-guage plays a pivotal role) . Many exams were oral , but cr it ical thinking was never a necessity, which often caused me to feel frustrated ( I ’ve always de-spised learning by heart) . Lucki ly , from the sec-ond year, up to half of our grade was determined by group project grades. Many of my classmates dreaded those projects and did al l in their power to avoid them, but I ’ve always found them pure fun. Having real ised how diverse schools can be, and how those differences can be evaluated by stu-dents, now I f ind it hugely important to make a l ist of priorit ies and preferences, and choose a univer-sity accordingly. I t is easy to fal l v ict im of rankings without looking into what the scores comprise. I ’ve also real ised that the choice of a course is not as important as i t ’d seemed when I ’d had to make it . When I appl ied for jobs or master courses, I was asked more often about the ski l ls that I had been taught rather than, for example, part icular ac-counting methods. Of course, this wi l l vary from f ield to f ield, but for management, the content of courses was more to feed my curiosity, while the re-ports, exercises in stat ist ics and comparative reading assignments were to teach tools for the la -bour market, and they were taught regardless of my choice of c lasses.

As mentioned before, one of the highl ights of my university was that my schedule usual ly al lowed for work. While many of my fr iends worried that tak-ing part-t ime jobs would be harmful to their school performance, I ’ve actual ly found the opposite to be true. Having less disposable t ime helped me orga-nise my days and priorit ise studying.

Moreover, i t ’s real ly broadened my circle of fr iends as wel l as my knowledge of Milanese customs and the dialect. I t was the chatt ing with my col leagues that made learning the language easier, not talking to customers. I ’ve worked as a waitress for most of my studies, although I surely could have found oth-er posit ions. I ’ve just become obsessed with hos-pital i ty and food industry after my f irst shift , and I ’ve become determined to learn as much as I can before opening my own restaurant ; ) I a lso had the t ime to start and regularly write a blog that ’s later

helped me get publishing jobs. I know many students don’t have the t ime to develop their hobbies, and the fact that I ’ve had the possi-bi l i ty is something I am very grateful for. To-day, I regularly write for a vegan magazine as wel l as do smaller writ ing jobs, and I ’m glad to have a portfol io bui lding up, who knows when it comes in handy?

Another wonderful consequence of having studied in an international sett ing is that I now have an extensive network of fr iends in many corners of the world. Considering different master ’s programmes, I could get f irst-hand information about such things as cost of l iv ing, att i tudes towards employing foreigners, or t ips on f inding a house. I ’ve been trusted with many tradit ional recipes from different countries, taught many funny expressions, celebrated the Milanese hol i -day of St . Ambrogio and the Swedish Mid-summer. Many t imes . I was surprised by cul-tural differences and given new perspectives on everyday l i fe, which sounds tr iv ial but is very true, and makes for one of my favourite takeaways from Bocconi. I t has also made me appreciate Poland more, notice our pecul iari -t ies and become very proud of our ways. Also, i f you want to f ind Poles at a party, head to the kitchen!

Those three years were a mix of bri l l iant and very diff icult moments, many of which I no longer remember, and while i t would prob-ably have been easier to stay home, I would have never opted to do so with hindsight. Many of the things that caused worry proved to be not worthy of i t at al l - I ’ve learnt enough Ital ian to do groceries during the week, i t didn’t take me much longer to learn how to get around the city, I ’ve made fr iends. I obviously spent many evenings crying, but just as many being proud of myself . I t ’s al l been worth the chal lenge.

I want to continue studying, and I ’ve chosen to do so in a different phi losophy than the I tal ian one - I am going to apply for the uni-versit ies in Copenhagen and Stockholm. Instead of doing internships during my gap year, I ’ve decided to join my family and work on developing a new business with them we’ve opened a restaurant, Mihiderka, in No-vember. The concepts I studied at school are applicable on a dai ly basis, just l ike the ideas I picked up working in my free t ime. I f you’d l ike to ask me anything more specif ic , feel free to pop by!

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Helping people in need isn’t anything new in our school thanks to the School Voluntary Organiza-t ion, coordinated by Mrs. Olesińska, Mrs. Konic-zek and Mrs. Lipka. Year by year, our organiza-t ion is everywhere where we can help. As every year, last year as wel l pupi ls of our school took part in the col lect ion of money for the Hospice of God’s Mercy in Gl iwice on November 1st – that year we made up 20% of al l the volunteers in our town! Other events which we part ic ipate in are for example: “The Noble Package”, “The Calendar in Each Class” , “A Gir l with Matches” and “Daf-fodi l” for Hospice.

Being a volunteer gives us a lot of benefits. Thanks to many actions we can meet new peo-ple, learn and gain valuable experience which we wil l be able to use in the future. A very good example of our useful work is the project orga-nized by the Gl iwice Center of Nongovernmental Organization “The Leaders of Volunteering”, in which part ic ipants learn how to work in a group and how to earn money for their own projects. A lot of interesting topics and a very fr iendly at -mosphere encourage volunteers to take part in the meetings.

Volunteering teaches us responsibi l i ty not only for us but also for another man, the value which

VOLUNTEERING – THAT’S IT!

is not appreciated in the present world. Thanks to the actions organized by the School Volun-tary Organization we become more aware of the problems and the needs of other people. Our work gives us a lot of satisfact ion, and we begin to be grateful for what we have.

Each action needs to be prepared earl ier and tasks must be assigned to the volunteers to make the action successful , so we meet once a week during the long break. We are thinking about our future tasks and we summarize what we have done. Al l the act ions make us very hap-py, part icularly when they are appreciated. In the previous school year our School Volunteer Organization won 3rd place in 6th Competit ion on the occasion of The Day of Good Actions. We were given an opportunity to take part in the meeting “Memory On a Cal l” as an award.

The t ime we spend on voluntary work is never wasted - i t gives us a lot of happiness, we learn about new things and do something for oth-ers. Volunteering is just a great t ime being sur-rounded by good-hearted people. I would l ike to quote the words of Ronald Regan who once said: “We can’t help everyone, but everybody can help someone”. Your help is priceless, so join us and give it to another man!

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Karol ina Dobrzyń and Zofia Biegun

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The Pol ish-Macedonian students ’ exchange is a project organized exclusively by our school and Kuzman Josifoskis ’ high school in Pri lep, Mace-donia. In spring, a group of us spent f ive days in Pri lep, where we stayed at our hosts ’ houses, and in autumn they came to vis it us on the same terms. In Poland we saw monuments and visited important places, such as Cracow or the Gl iwice Radio Tower, and Orchid or the Pri lep Clocktow-er in Macedonia. Apart from that we had a great t ime in the evenings, as Macedonians love going out. For us i t was rather exhausting, but also an enriching experience.

Personal ly , I am sure this t ime wil l be one of the most memorable ones in my l i fe, and I am truly glad I went for i t . I t was an unmatched oppor-tunity to discover a culture that is both exotic and famil iar at the same t ime. Even though we did not manage to accomplish our main goal - to create a Pol ish-Macedonian guidebook, this project was a huge success. Thank you Ms. Zosia Dembowska (our coordinator and supervisor) !

Let me quote three of the numerous f lattering Macedonian students ’ opinions about the ex-change program:

This exchange was a great idea. First , I have learnt a lot about Pol ish culture, tradit ion, food, school system. Also we have met a lot of fr iends and hung out with them. Gl i -wice is real ly beautiful . I love Poland real ly much!

–Simona Višinoska

When they told me I was going to Poland I was very excited. We had a big, 26 hour journey from Macedonia to Poland so when we arrived it was a bit strange. When I saw Pol ish students I was very posit ive because al l of them looked very nice and fr iendly. Cracow was one of the best things I saw during our stay, but also a si lver mine was very inter-esting. I was surprised with the kindness and fr iendl iness of Pol ish people: al l the students, teachers and the head-master were perfect. I learnt a lot about Pol ish history, Pol ish tradit ion, the way of l i fe, the cuisine and I ’ve learnt that Pol ish people are very fr iendly. I am very happy and satisf ied that I v is ited Poland and met Pol ish students.

–Hrist i jan Jankoski

I think that this exchange was real ly great and everything was planned well and the places we’ve vis ited in Gl iwice, Katowice and Cracow were very beautiful , each with special and different history. I didn’t feel bored at al l . Exchanges l ike this should take place more often. I am glad that al-though I am only 17, I had the opportunity to vis it Poland.

–Mihai l Divjakoski

MACEDONIAN EXCHANGEDawid Jakubik

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YEMENI GIRLS

This year our school welcomed two new guests – Nora and Sadia. They are now pre-IB students. The gir ls come from Aden, a seaport c ity located in Yemen by the Red Sea. “Although Yemen’s con-st itutional ly stated capital is the city of Sana’a, the city has been under rebel control s ince February 2015. Because of this, Yemen’s capital has been temporari ly relocated to the port c ity of Aden, on the southern coast.

As we al l know the gir ls came to Poland due to the problems in their country. Currently in Yemen the civi l war is st i l l taking place and according to Rima Kamal, the Head of Communication for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Yemen “More than seven months into the cris is in Ye-men, the situation across the country is catastrophic. Al l aspects of l i fe have been affected and no family has remained untouched.”

Some t ime ago students of our school were able to see a presentation about Yemen prepared by Nora and Sadia. However, not everyone was able to take part in i t , so we thought i t would be good to extend this topic a bit in order to get you al l famil iar with what they think about the whole situ-ation in their homeland, but also about themselves: what they are l ike, how they feel about being in such a different country and how the Pol ish environment appears to them.

Interview

K: Have you found any traditions or people’s behavior that would be considered weird in Yemen?S: Yes, some schools ’ tradit ions, the chi ldren’s behavior. . .N: And if I told people from Yemen that chi ldren in Poland get sweets in a cone package (Pol ish “tyta” , which is a cornucopia) when they go to the f irst c lass of primary school they would rath-er say that i t is not necessary and consider i t as unhealthy for chi ldren to eat so much candy. I personal ly think that this is too much for a small chi ld. I know that they do it so chi ldren would love school and study but there are many other ways to make them love school . . . not by buying them a lot of chocolate. And also Christmas gifts exchange among students. I think it ’s real ly nice that everyone wil l have a gift .

Karol ina Błaszków and Al ic ja Polańska

Karolina: What are the main differences be -tween the Polish school and the one you at -tended back in Yemen?Nora: Physical Education.Sadia: We didn’t have any PE. N: Everything is different. In the previous school we had only two breaks, each one last ing 15 min-utes.S: The f irst one must be spent in the classroom and the second one outside.N: We had school uniforms: a pink shirt , red t ie and grey dress for gir ls , and the same thing for boys except that they wear grey trousers.Another thing is most of the teachers were wom -en.

K: And do all the girls wear hijab?N: White hi jab. There are some gir ls who don’t want to wear i t and it ’s f ine not to do so.

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K: What is your favorite food in Yemen?S: I f we told you, you wouldn’t know it or un-derstand what i t is just by the name. It has no equivalent in Engl ish I think.N: I l ike a dish that ’s cal led zurbian. I t ’s r ice mixed with potatoes and meat. In contrast to Pol ish cuisine, our local cuisine is based on rath-er spicy f lavours l ike turmeric, chi l l i and so on.

K: Have you tried any Polish dishes that you liked?S: Pierogi !N: Yeah, pierogi are real ly good.

K: So how do you generally feel about being in Poland?Both: I t ’s good… nevertheless we feel uncom-fortable about the whole situation.

K: What does the situation in Yemen look like from your own point of view?S: I t ’s bad actual ly.N: I t wasn’t l ike that. I t was a peaceful place but because of the war and so on, i t ’s bad now.S: The war stopped in Aden but is st i l l going on in some cit ies l ike Taiz. . . The situation in Taiz is very bad. People die there every day and Taiz is actual ly very close to Aden - i t ’s just two or three hours by car.

K: Do people have any shelters or places to go in these cities?N: They do now because people started to f ix the houses even though some of the houses were terribly destroyed. Some of the people l ive with their famil ies or fr iends while they are making up for losses.

K: What do you miss the most about Yemen?S: My family and my house.N: Yes, and fr iends.S: Even my bad school. ( laughs)

K: And do you stil l keep in touch with your friends and relatives from Yemen?S: With family, yes.N: Family yes, but fr iends… well , not real ly be-cause of the war there is no t ime to do so, they study al l day long but I know that they are f ine and this is al l that matters for now. K: Which differences between Poland and Ye -men do you like and which you don’t?S: The way people l ive, i t ’s very different in Ye-men.N: Well , for instance the difference is the way people look at us in Poland. In Yemen we were not seen as any form of sensation.

K: What do you mean by that?N: Sometimes people react by making fun of us, laughing and saying “Al lah Akbar” but in a bad manner… But there are good people, too. For instance, once one man recognized that we are Arabic and greeted us with “Alsalam Al ikm” which means “Peace be upon you”. I t was very nice to hear that!

K: I ’m also happy that you have been given a warm welcome at least from some of the Polish people. Together with Ala we want to thank you for the interview and wish you all the best!Both: Thank you.

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Piotr Białas: Would you agree with the statement that ‘żółć’ (bile) is the most Polish word?Jan Miodek: Yes, i t was Jurek Bralczyk, my dear fr iend, who pointed this word out to me, where al l graphemes are specif ical ly Pol ish. However, he once told me that his favou-rite word is ‘źdźbło’ (stalk) - a barrier virtual ly not to overcome for a foreigner. On the other hand, I , a jester, a person who l ikes to laugh, consider ‘responsibi l i ty ’ , the essence of mankind, as the most important word in the world. This is what sets us apart from animals. Having the same instincts, ref lexes, behaviour, we men are responsible - par-ents are responsible for chi ldren, spouses for each other, and public off ic ials should be responsible for their words. And now I say that to al l haters, i f they so l ightheartedly, sometimes for money, ki l l another human being with a word. Because a man using a bad word, false accusation, calumny, insinuation can ki l l another human being. Let me just ask them this question: are you responsible people i f you behave so?

PB: Do you think that the ongoing vulgarization of the Polish language, especially in the public sphere, has come from the availability of technologies or it is rather something inherent in people?JM: Of course, I think that there is something negative in people. These verbal acts of ha-tred are expressed with a vulgar word. You know, i t affects our everyday l i fe. In August in Rewal, I saw something – imagine that behind the wipers of two cars, which according to the owner of the premises were parked in a si l ly , inappropriate way, there were two big sheets of paper stuck with a beautiful ly printed text “Move this car, you dick” („Przestaw, ch*ju, ten samochód”) . I f we just turn to someone with a request or even a warning, does such a word have to be used? Apparently, such we are.

PB: At the beginning of the lecture you drew our attention to the importance of regional dialects in our language. Do you think that the Silesian dialect should receive the status of the language and how it should be promoted?JM: One should know that the knowledge of dialects helps in understanding the history of the Pol ish language. By speaking the Si lesian dialect , you show the origin of words and constructions in the Pol ish language which we do not notice today. That should be ex-ploited, but i t is , however, a regional variety of the native language and there is no need to codify this dialect because it counts for dozens of different subdialects. And as I said to your predecessor, let every poet and writer write in the Si lesian dialect of their town, and whether i t is Radzionków, Bojszowy, Tychy, Tarnowskie Góry, Lubl iniec – i t does not matter - let him write. Central codif ication is impossible because the Si lesian dialect is too diverse.

On 23rd November our school hosted the eminent l inguist Prof. Jan Miodek. He del ivered a lecture “Pol ish language after 1989”. Not only did he speak about his experiences with Pol ish but also about his Si lesian roots. After the lecture, Professor agreed to a short interview, during which I asked him a few questions.

PROF. JAN MIODEK

Interview

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PROF. JAN MIODEKPB: The words of Ludwig Wittgenstein are very close to me – ‘The l imits of my language are the l imits of my world’ . Doesn’t this sen -tence bear even an additional meaning in the modern world?JM: Of course it does. Today, a contemporary woman in her twenties has trouble dist inguish-ing a spruce from a pine, wheat from rye be-cause that ’s the way it is , we have moved away from the nature. I do laugh, but I cannot be surprised that she cannot get the comparison “strong as an oak” or “strong as an aurochs”, al -though I prompted her very much. I showed her an aurochs imitating horns and when it comes to oak I told her that there is the oldest one cal led Bartek, but she did not get i t . But she said to me with candour: ‘You know, I only have one associat ion: »Strong as Pudzian«’ , because the l imit of her world is determined primari ly by the computer – i t ’s the Internet where she saw that strongman. Her imagination works metaphori-cal ly when she wants to say that someone is strong, not as an oak or an aurochs, which died out hundreds of years ago, but as a man cal led Pudzianowski. And it is so - I ask students about the popular comparison “as tal l as . . . ” , then your peers reply “as a TV antenna”, “as a mast,” be-cause the meaning of “as tal l as a poplar” has already disappeared. And as I told them that a hundred years ago, the most popular com-parison was “as tal l as a hop pole” , they simply asked me: “And what does a hop pole look l ike?” You see?

PB: I was thinking about the Internet as a medium creating a language - whether this refers only to the social groups directly con -nected to the Internet or rather the whole so -ciety, especially in the political context.JM: Inevitably, i t refers to the overal l context. I t is said that the national isation of Suez Canal and f inal ly the l iberation of Egypt was only possible thanks to the radio, specif ical ly to the speech of Naser, later i ts President. When the Soviet Union with the fraternal countries “came to the aid” of Czechoslovakia in 1968, i t al l started with the subjugation of television. I t is said that the Arab revolutions and somewhat recent presidential and parl iamentary elect ions in Poland were shaped by the Internet.

PB: Thank you for the interview.JM: Thank you very much.

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