After the first round of the Dutch-Hungarian Exchange Program in 2019, this year Bilingual partnered up with KSG Apeldoorn again, that runs a Dutch-English bilingual high school program in the Netherlands, in order to enable both Dutch and Hungarian students to experience different cultures through travel, relationship building and collective problem solving.
From April 16th to April 21st, 2023, 16 Bilingual Program students from ÓNL-Váradi, SZIA Budakeszi, and Krúdy schools travelled together to Apeldoorn to experience a week living with a Dutch family, going to a Dutch school, and participating in Dutch cultural programs.
The first day alongside playing "getting to know you" games and fun, the Hungarian students prepared for a 30km cycling trip the next day to the nearby town of Deventer. On Wednesday, students spent the day working on their "Lonely Planet" projects, highlighting the best parts of Apeldoorn and Budapest, as if they were creating a website for tourists.
On Thursday, students spent the whole day exploring Amsterdam, seeing amazing buildings, admiring the canals, and buying souvenirs, of course!
Overall, the Hungarian students were pushed out of their comfort zone by travelling to another country, staying with a new family, participating in an entirely new culture, and they did it with excitement and interest.
Following the Hungarian students’ April visit in the Netherlands it was time for their Dutch counterparts to come to Budapest for a week. The Hungarian week of the Exchange Program in May started off with a János-hegy hike and was filled with various scavenger hunts across multiple Budapest locations including the Óbuda Cemetery, Buda Hills, the Castle and the Museum of Fine Arts. The students even created clay dreamcatchers and played capture the flag in Budakeszi. Krúdy, ÓNL-Váradi, and Budakeszi schools provided space for the group of 32 students for in-school time. Alongside the daily culture, sports, art and history-related activities the students worked on their “Lonely Planet” project: they presented these to each other at the end of the exchange program.
What a fun week packed with school activities and active Budapest sightseeing!
According to the feedback received from students after the 2nd week this experience will
contribute to building their skill-set and will be beneficial for their future lives.
Soon-to-be 8th graders get ready! We’ll continue next year!
For pictures, please click on the links below: