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A podcast about international social work. Made by SocNet98, an European network of 18 universities that graduates students in social work. In this podcast you can listen to a broad specter of topics that is all connected to social work in an international perspective.
[SPEAKER_00]: [Automatic captions by Autotekst using OpenAI Whisper V3. May contain recognition errors.]
Welcome
to The Social Pod, a podcast brought to you by SockNet98. a network of
[SPEAKER_00]: universities sharing the common interest for social work in an
international perspective. In our episodes, you will hear from
[SPEAKER_00]: students around the world studying social work and interviews and
lectures from our international universities. Let it come up to me. Let
[SPEAKER_03]: it come up to me. We'll see. We'll see what the week brings. I have no idea
what you talked about. You're talking a different language. That's
[SPEAKER_03]: great.
[SPEAKER_05]: We are trying to translate something, but it's hard. When you let
something come up, you don't have any expectations. You just are
[SPEAKER_05]: chilling. Go with the flow. Let it come at me. Let it come at me. Just go
with the flow. Just going with the flow, yeah. Yeah, we'll see what the
[SPEAKER_03]: week brings. Yeah. No expectations. Yeah, so for the listeners now
listening in, we're trying to figure out different kind of words.
[SPEAKER_02]: Suddenly I'm sitting here trying to be the host of this, but suddenly
everybody is speaking a different language than me. But this is one of
[SPEAKER_02]: the things that we're actually going to talk about. Being a student at
the International University Week, and maybe language is one of those
[SPEAKER_02]: things, we're still with the same group of students from Belgium as in
the last episode. So if you're just dropping in for this episode, please
[SPEAKER_02]: listen to the last one, the one before. Then you get an introduction of
everyone. We're going to have even more focus on student life on
[SPEAKER_02]: International University Week and we kind of thought about breaking
into three parts before going on International University Week. How
[SPEAKER_02]: your experience are as students meeting other students right now and
then maybe some thoughts about the future. What do you take from being
[SPEAKER_02]: here as students? So just to say that first, this International
University Week is made by SockNet98 and the slogan of SockNet98 is
[SPEAKER_02]: student meeting students and teachers meeting teachers. So trying to
connect people, social work students and social work teachers to
[SPEAKER_02]: connect them. And it's a thought that students meeting students is
first in that slogan, because that is what is most important. So with
[SPEAKER_02]: that being said, what were your thoughts about going here or before
coming here? What were your expectations? What were you anxious about?
[SPEAKER_02]: Who wanna start? I always think like, oh, if I don't have any too much
expectations, then I cannot be disappointed. So that's how I went into
[SPEAKER_05]: this. I wasn't even thinking about it too much until like I had to go, like
when I had to pack my bags. And then too, I had a positive mindset. And
[SPEAKER_05]: then, yeah. That's fine. I only was scared because I didn't know in what
room I was going to sleep. Because I forgot what I clicked on the thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: But can you just describe for the people listening? Where are you
sleeping? Is it luxury hotels? No, no, no. We're sleeping in a hostel. So
[SPEAKER_04]: you can sleep alone or sleep with people you don't know. Or people you
know. It's like you don't know. yeah share a room with yeah share room
[SPEAKER_04]: with so yeah and you need to before before this week you needed to uh we got
a mail and then you need to tick off something take some boxes yes um with a
[SPEAKER_04]: single room shared room or double room okay and i forgot which one i had so
i was stressing oh you forgot where do i sleep yeah so that was the only
[SPEAKER_04]: thing i was stressing about but yeah Were you also just going with the
flow or a little bit more stressed? No, I was fine. I was going with the
[SPEAKER_03]: flow. I couldn't really think about it like the week before, the two
weeks before coming here because I was on vacation and on camp. So I just
[SPEAKER_03]: came home Friday, packed my bags on Saturday and left Sunday. So it was
actually fine. I was just going with the flow. Didn't have any
[SPEAKER_03]: expectations. Maybe just... I was a bit anxious about how the
interaction with other students was going to be, because you don't know
[SPEAKER_03]: them. I know my four other people that are with me. But then for the room, I
had a single room and Myrthe was really anxious about it. So I said, I know
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm just going to give up my single room and I'm just going to sleep with
you in the room with the other person. Turns out the other person was also
[SPEAKER_03]: Belgian. So that was really fun. We didn't know that the students from
Leuven also came to here. I think that you must be the most laid-back
[SPEAKER_02]: students I ever met. Because if I would ask my Norwegian students, I
would bet they had so much anxiety about going abroad. Who am I going to
[SPEAKER_02]: share the room with? How is this going to be? But yeah, just to say as a
social worker teacher, that is a great attitude to have. Just go with the
[SPEAKER_02]: flow. Come on. I always tell my students, you need to relax and just go
with the flow more because when you're going to work as a social worker,
[SPEAKER_02]: you have no idea how your day is going to be. But to be fair, I wasn't always
like this. It's two years. You just realize that if you give too much
[SPEAKER_05]: fucks, you're ruining it for yourself. Yes. Yeah. That's true. Yeah.
And I'm also in a room with nobody I know. They're all Austrians. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: And yeah. They talk a lot of German. I don't understand that because not
everybody is comfortable speaking English all the time. But it's fine.
[SPEAKER_05]: They're nice girls and I got to know them.
[SPEAKER_02]: Did you have any thoughts about language before coming here? That that
would be a challenge? No, not really. I just assumed everybody can speak
[SPEAKER_05]: English, but the French cannot. The French cannot speak English. No.
But we knew that all the workshops
[SPEAKER_04]: were going to be in English.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I can speak a bit English. I can understand English. Yeah. Yeah. Do
you feel that it's hard sometimes to... Yeah, you said maybe like some of
[SPEAKER_02]: the French people doesn't have the same level. No. But there is a
difference from country to country about how much the English level is,
[SPEAKER_02]: but it's also individual. Yeah. Like how much English have you actually
spoken? It's not only about learning English, but also having the
[SPEAKER_02]: experience of speaking English. Yes. Yes. But I guess it helps with just
going with the flow. Big smiles and trying to find those words. Yes. But
[SPEAKER_03]: for the French, I think it may be easier because in Belgium we also learn
French. So I can understand and sometimes try to translate for them. So I
[SPEAKER_03]: tried that a couple of times this week. So it really is about connecting
in different languages. Yeah. But I think that is also something that is
[SPEAKER_02]: a trait that is good to have, an experience that is good to have, to just
being outside of your language comfort. Because you're going to meet
[SPEAKER_02]: people that don't really speak your own language perfectly. And also
just trying to communicate in whatever means you have. But now we are on
[SPEAKER_02]: day four of International Universe of the Week. So now you had some
experiences. Now we talk first about your expectancy, what you
[SPEAKER_02]: expected from the week. How has it been? Have you been interacting a lot
with other students? Yeah, I have tried to interact with as many
[SPEAKER_05]: students as possible. I don't think I have with everybody yet. Like, for
example, your students I haven't really... The Norwegian students?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, the Norwegian students are introverts, are they? Yeah, but
tonight I will be drinking with them, so maybe that will help. how to get
[SPEAKER_02]: the regions to be extroverts and just give them something to drink. It's
a challenge and we will find out. But you guys have talked with them more.
[SPEAKER_03]: The second night. The first night on Monday we went to the Irish pub with
them. Yeah. First night or second night? Yeah, on Monday. So basically
[SPEAKER_03]: second night. We went to the Irish pub with them and it was really fun.
Yeah. Is it like everybody is joining for everything or do you just try to
[SPEAKER_02]: organize yourself? How do you organize yourself? You're at the same
hostel. Most of you is in the same hostel. So then you just meet each
[SPEAKER_02]: other. Yeah. We, we just talk throughout the day and then we're like, Oh,
what are you going to do in the evening? And how can we join? Or are we going
[SPEAKER_03]: to eat together? It's just normally just we go with the flow. Yeah. Yeah.
What has been one of the coolest things that you experienced outside of
[SPEAKER_02]: the program with other students? um i guess just evening like going to
the bar and stuff like that i arrived the first day i was here like i think
[SPEAKER_05]: one of the first one to arrive i was here at one in the uh noon or whatever
and i was so lonely like the city was dead because it was sunday too and
[SPEAKER_05]: then i saw other students and i was like okay we're going somewhere and so
we went somewhere and then we got to know each other now Till this day, we
[SPEAKER_05]: are very close, always together. Like this guy named, I'm not gonna
name, whatever, a Danish guy. Yeah, he's also here alone. And yeah, we
[SPEAKER_05]: are vibing. It's fun. Yeah. Yeah. I think that when you just identify
yourself as being a student that is going to international worst week
[SPEAKER_02]: then you're not that alone because you're here for the same thing. Yes.
But that I think also from experience meaning that you need to overcome
[SPEAKER_02]: the language barrier. Yeah. That's good. Anything else that is your
experiences here? Yeah, I think two nights ago we cooked at the hostel
[SPEAKER_03]: for the four students of PXL. And they were playing a game and out of
nowhere two Norwegian girls came and then we had a whole conversation. I
[SPEAKER_03]: think it was like almost an hour long. An hour or more, I guess. And we just
had a conversation about Belgium and Norway and how social work is and
[SPEAKER_03]: how the people are. The country. The country. It was really nice. What
did you learn from that? Because that was something that was not a
[SPEAKER_02]: workshop. That Norway is a really expensive country. Yeah. And that the
people are rich. The people are rich. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And also that you
[SPEAKER_03]: get paid to study and you get a house or apartment when you study. And
they're going to live alone really early. On the age of 18, I guess. They
[SPEAKER_05]: move out at 18, 19. Not like student house. Yeah, an apartment. Yeah,
they get an apartment. Yes. To study. Is that the tattoo or...? Me? I
[SPEAKER_02]: didn't do that personally. I took higher education when I was old. I was
30 years old, so I had my own apartment from before. But yeah, this is the
[SPEAKER_02]: thing that you're actually just interacting with other students and
learning a ton about different countries. And it's not a part of the
[SPEAKER_02]: curriculum or the time schedule or anything like that. It's simply
student meeting students and you just start talking. Yes. And then
[SPEAKER_04]: you're like, they have things that we were like, oh, we want that. But
they also said like, oh, we want that in Norway. And yes. Yeah. I think the
[SPEAKER_05]: informal moments, like going to the bars and stuff, are very important.
That's how you connect with each other. That's where you really get to
[SPEAKER_03]: know each other. You talk about different things and not only about the
topic of this week. Just normal things. Do you identify with other
[SPEAKER_02]: students coming from other countries? you have the similar challenges
or lives or it's easy to talk about the differences but do you yeah mostly
[SPEAKER_03]: the challenges we talk about are in social work yeah like the waiting
lists you hear that it's it's there's a long waiting list in a lot of
[SPEAKER_03]: countries it's not only in belgium so it's also in the netherlands and I
think Germany too. But then you also learn that in Norway people get
[SPEAKER_03]: helped really fast. Yeah, sometimes. It's urgent. Other times you can
wait for two or three months. But this is the thing that like me as a
[SPEAKER_02]: teacher meeting other teachers, it's so cool to hear and discuss
challenges that I have as a teacher in Norway with teachers in other
[SPEAKER_02]: countries and they have the same challenges. Yeah. So then we have the
kind of the same identity. We are teacher in higher educations and we
[SPEAKER_02]: share challenges. And we might also share solutions to those
challenges. So that is kind of this getting this identity that is across
[SPEAKER_02]: borders. What do you think about the future then? Are you going to
reconnect? We talked a lot about the Norwegians. Are you going to go to
[SPEAKER_02]: Norway and visit some of the Norwegian students? I really want to go to
Norway. I think it's a really beautiful country. So I hope so.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because this is the cool thing about after a week like that, now it's even
easier now with social media, with Signal, with WhatsApp, with
[SPEAKER_02]: everything, that it's easier for you now to connect and keep in touch in
the future. And I know from experience that a lot of times I've heard like
[SPEAKER_02]: half a year later or after the summer, some of my Norwegian students have
told me, like, by the way, we went to Leuven, for example, in the vacation
[SPEAKER_02]: and visited some of the students that we met there. And then that's
simply because you do get an international network of people that you
[SPEAKER_02]: know. It's cute. yeah it's very nice because going going to a country and
visiting the people that lives there that is a whole different
[SPEAKER_05]: experience rather than just going and being a tourist yes yes yes i also
talked about it with a danish guy and we invited him to come to loewe and he
[SPEAKER_05]: also invited us to come to denmark but i don't know if it's actually gonna
happen but we talked about it you know yeah so yeah From my experience,
[SPEAKER_02]: that do actually also happen. Really? Oh, yeah. And also, if you, like a
couple of you have talked about studying abroad afterwards, we do see
[SPEAKER_02]: that students are using and choosing maybe the places that they know
other students. Because it's so nice to start then studying, then you
[SPEAKER_02]: know one student from there or maybe five students from there. Then
you're coming to a place and you have a small network. And also the nice
[SPEAKER_05]: thing about this is now when you go travel to any of these countries, you
know someone from there. Yes. And maybe, yeah, you connect with them.
[SPEAKER_05]: Like, yeah. Yeah. Or maybe you go on like a vacation to that country and
just randomly text them like, hey, I'm in your country or I'm around
[SPEAKER_03]: where you live. Can we meet up? Yep. So, yeah, I hope that we could do that.
Yeah. Yeah, that is one of the things afterwards. And also I know that
[SPEAKER_02]: because it's not that many years until all of you is going to be social
workers and knowing social workers in other countries, that is
[SPEAKER_02]: valuable for the future, for your professional life also. Like maybe
sometime in the future, you're sitting there writing an application
[SPEAKER_02]: for funding and you see that you need to have an international part in
that. that funding or that project that you're proposing then you know
[SPEAKER_02]: hey i know some people and that is very valuable well thank you so much all
for you for being in this episode these two episodes that we made now yes
[SPEAKER_02]: what is the next thing that we're going to do today Party. The party.
Drinking. There's a farewell party. That's going to be great. Thank you
[SPEAKER_02]: so much for being again on the podcast. You've been very nice being here.
Thank you for inviting us. And have a nice weekend. You too.