Comenius 1-1: School Project

"Freedom and Limits - Conditions and contradictions for young people in Europe"

Hamburg Conference Annexes: April 21st – 25th 2009

Annex 1

How to deal with TIME at your disposal: A comparison between Hamburg, Tørring and Palencia

In 1997 the American sociologist Robert Levine published his book "A Geography of Time" (Basic Books, New York 1997) which received a lot of attention. He and his students had carried out a worldwide research on how the different peoples and cultures deal with the phenomenon of time.
One result was that the Dutch run more than twice as fast as the Germans through their daily lives – and that the Austrians walk almost five times as slowly as the Germans!

Unfortunately, the Spaniards and the Danes were not subjects of this research. Therefore we wanted to make amends for that by creating a mutual questionnaire dealing with our topic of "time". The results were very interesting indeed.

We found out that the German students spend only half of the time on their daily homework that the Danes and the Spaniards need. To make up for that they have twice as much leisure time at their disposal as the Danish and Spanish participants of the project! On the other hand, in Spain the students spend about 12 hours on the use of various media – which is twice as much as in Hamburg.

It is also interesting that the students from Hamburg spend almost one hour on the phone when they are talking to a close friend whereas this takes the Spaniards only 30 minutes. However, this might be due to the phone rates.
It is quite embarrassing for the Hamburgians that it takes them only half of the time that the students in Palencia and Tørring need for the apology for a missed appointment. Does that mean the Germans are impolite? Maybe it's just the case that the Germans don't miss so many appointments. All in all they are the most punctual ones.
This is something they also expect from their friends: When you are invited, you are not supposed to be more than 15 minutes late. In Spain and Denmark, however, half an hour is acceptable.

Patience is not necessarily one of the Hamburg students' virtues: They tend to jump queues much more often than their peers in Denmark and Spain. But, then again, the Germans are not particularly impolite.

The Danes seem to be the most persistent party people: They tend to party from eight o'clock in the evening until four or five in the morning. Now, isn't that reminiscent of the old Vikings?

The Spanish students are the ones with the "most modern thinking". Whereas in Germany and Denmark a building has to be 150 years old to be called "historic", 100 years will do in Palencia. On the other hand, in Spain a building may be called "modern" even if it is 20 years old; in Hamburg and Tørring, however, 10 years of age is the maximum for a modern building.

Young Europeans are really quite similar – apart from the little differences when it comes to waiting or wasting time.

By the way, according to Levine the Mexicans take their time more extensively than any other nation under scrutiny. Well, at least they speak Spanish, but apart from that it does not match our results at all.

List of Participants:

Participants: Spain : 4 teachers + 3 students     Denmark: 4 t + 4 students     Deutschland: 2- 5 teachers + 6 students

Spanish Teachers
Mª Concepción Casalduero y Gil
Juan Jose García Ruiz
Arturo Polanco Pérez
Silvia Traseira Santos 		Spanish Students
Ángela Bravo Nuñez
Javier Martín Zamora
Elena Martín Gil
Danish Teachers
Inger Lehmann
Birgit Lüken-Hansen
Dorthe Bjerglund
Niels Nybo Frandsen

Danish Students
Kathrine Silleborg
Amalie Friis
Anne Hye Kristensen
Mette Huber

German Teachers
Harry Wulff
Michael Bartsch
Nanny Stirl

German Students
Aylin Gül
Max Kasica
Svenja Reimer
Lena Sierts
Kibar Sezis
Sandra Kasprzyk
Thomas Roslak

 

Comenius Partners

IES Jorge Manrique                       
Avda. República Argentina s/n          34002 Palencia                     
Tel. +34/979 720384              Fax +34/979 712760              secretaria@iesjorgemanrique.com
            www.iesjorgemanrique.com             

Jesús Coria Colino (H)      
jesuscoria007@hotmail.com

Silvia Traseira Santos (C)
straseir@yahoo.es    

Juan José Garcia Ruiz       
juanjogarcia@iesjorgemanrique.com          

Sotero Garcá Ortiz (D)
soterogarcia@ono.com                    

Silvia Hernández    
silviaromajaro@hotline.com

Salvador Rigual Heridia    
Salvador23mayo@yahoo.es

Maria José Santo Tomás   
distanciajm@yahoo.es         
mjsantotomas@iesjorgemanrique.com

Teresa Hernández Fernández
valoria@telefonica.net                      

Virginia Rodrigo Calabía
savi145@yahoo.es                                                  

Conchita  Casalduero        
mccasalduero@hotmail.com

Arturo Polanco        
arturopol@yahoo.es

Mª Fe Liquete Pérez
marifeliqueteperez@hotmail.com    

Tørring Gymnasium            
Kirkevej 20                            
7160 Tørring
            Tel.  +45/7580 1844   Fax: +45/7580 1229               adm@tag-gym.dk
            www.tag-gym.dk

Ole Nørregard Hansen (H)
noe@tag-gym.dk                  

Inger Lehmann (C)  
il@tag-gym.dk                       

Dorthe Bjerglund
db@tag-gym.dk         

Bitten Skovborg (D)
bs@tag-gym.dk                    

Finn Agger               
fa@tag-gym.dk                     
                                                                                             
Birgit Lüken-Hansen          
bl@tag-gym.dk                      
           
Niels Nybo Frandsen         
nf@tag-gym.dk                     

Kurt-Tucholsky-Gymnasium         
Eckernförder Str. 70             
22769 Hamburg
Tel.  +49/40/4288858-01        Fax: +49/40/4288858-10       
www.kurt-tucholsky-gymnasium.de

Ulrich Becker (H)
bilbao@on-line.de
           
Michael Bartsch (C)
mi.ba.bartsch@web.de        

Nanny Stirl               
Nannystirl@t-online.de          

Günter Seifert                     
gs.hamburg@gmx.net          

Axel Schumann                   
dr.schumann.Ktg@gmx.de                                      

Ayse Hülya Kurumahmutoglu
h.kuru@gmx.de                    

Union of Comenius Pensioners

Harry Wulff  (H,D,C)
harry_ wulff@web-de