Come closer, neighbour! - Good examples of eTwinning exchanges between neighbouring countries

eTwinning between Italy and Germany

Sabina Vecchione Gruener is an Italian teacher. As a teacher of German based in Trieste, who also studied Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian at university, she has a true appreciation for the languages of her neighbours and is in many ways a pioneer in this field.
Crossing over the border, Sabina’s eTwinning partner, Cornelia Esterl is an Austrian teacher of Italian in Klagenfurt. For Cornelia, learning the language of a neighbouring country is important on many levels. “It is not only for economic reasons but of course also cultural reasons that explain why you should learn the language of your neighbour.” In terms of her pupils’ experience “The pupils experience the language not only as a language being taught at school, but in fact as a language belonging to a culture, in which they can also participate if they want to.” A common border also meant that Cornelia and Sabina’s pupils could meet each other face to face. In this way, the learning of both German and Italian has a true aim for the pupils – they are then able to be international travelers, international communicators.