Berlin Wall | Berlin Wall

Can’t remember when was my first time hear about “Berlin Wall”, probably in High school, or even in University…I knew that Germany was divided into West & East after WW2, and I also knew that The Wall fell down eventually….However, all these sentences were simply words on textbook, didn’t mean much for me… Only about 8,9 years ago, I had a chance to visit Berlin on my business trip, then, of coz I must go as a “real tourist” to the “Checkpoint Charlie. Here you can see one side was American soldier and the other side is Soviet Union one. ( yes, they do look very different! ) But, where exactly was the Wall? Who knows? I thought, alright, maybe this is it. ( how silly was I back to old days…)

pic from https://www.berlin-welcomecard.de/en/poi/checkpoint-charlie

Until 3 years ago, it was my first time bringing kids to Germany. We were accompanied by our principle couple, listening to their family stories ( they were born in Berlin, and were part of this history ). We took the metro, walked along the street where you can see now only new ( but not charming at all ) buildings, the Wall was there but you can’t even find any clue out of it… until we reached the memorial stone, alas! that’s how the Wall looks like! So, “the Wall” became REAL for me, not was just a noun anymore….and with all the stories,

somehow, I felt it…

As “Germany” is always a popular topic country in my class, I’m wondering, what I can add more this time? So these kids can still understand and enjoy? What’s “interesting” parts about Berlin Wall? How I gonna teach, What and How? It’s always a brainstorm when I’m prep-ing my class. They all know about the WW2, they know that Germany-Japan-Italy were in one side, and the rests were opposite. ( but probably knew only Russian & USA ) I started from after Germany lost in WW2, it was “Partialized” ( probably not the correct word, in Chinese translation as “forced to be divided” ) by several countries. So before I introduced this part of history, I had to explain the meaning of the term “forced to be divided” first ^^

Somehow in my mind, there’s always something missing, I learnt a lot of terms or stuffs, which I never really knew. For example, I knew “Berlin Wall” for years but it never occurred to me, how does it look like! And frankly speaking, that’s not the way it should be. So now as I’m a teacher ( well, part time ) I try to avoid such things, I want kids to REALLY KNOW/FEEL/THINK！Even though they’re still in their early years ( kids from 4,5 to 7,8y.o ) but they can process! I found a video from 1989, when the Berlin Wall were tore apart. Let’s “See” the history!

When I played the video, everyone was so focused. So i think, ok, maybe they can’t understand everything, but at least they saw it, they saw how the Wall look like and this image will be in their mind. When they’ll learn sth more in the future, they had a start point. They got interested in, CURIOSITY makes everything possible! That’s the most important part and we as adult should protect it! With the next picture. So I asked kids, what do you think of this small building? It could be from where? They answered: Japan, China , Asia….. Correct! it’s asian style! And it was sponsored by South Korea. Why? That’s another topic we can talk about 😉 becoz as Germany were divided into West/East Germany, Korea has similar situation. Yet south Korean hope that the border will be vanish peacefully someday…

History is always the best story for everyone! With help of pictures, yes, we can teach kids about the world, they can process and handle it! But first, let’s be CURIOUS to everything first!

#children’s international outlook #international literacy #international outlook to children #berlin wall #Germany #world