We had videoconference on 14th May with the Swedish and Italian friends. We were talking about aspects concerning the movie ‘Bend it like Beckham’ because this film shows cultural differences and that we should tolerance one another.

THE QUESTIONS WE DISCUSSED

1. Which sports or activities are typically carried out by woman?

2. How important is it to keep your own traditions up whilst living in a different country?

3. What do you think of the relationship between each member of the family in:
- the British family
- the Indian family

4. Why does the Indian family find football not agreeable with their daughter?

5. Is the British family comfortable with the idea that their daughter is a football champion?

6. hat do you think is NOT acceptable in your country for the other gender to do?

7. What ideas do you NOT share with your parents? In other words where is there a generation clash?

8. Would you like to try out being the “other” sex for a week?

We found this project very interesting because we had an opportunity to change our opinions about other nations.

Dominika Ryba
Patrycja Jezierska
Dobrawa Kisielewicz

'Bend it like Beckham' – before/after watching students' opinions

Krzysztof Bąk ILD
I think that in Poland there is a way of stereotypical thinking about tasks which are most frequently done by women such as cooking, doing the housework or shopping.

In my opinion females are not treated in the same way as males, because in our country employers are concerned about for example their pregnancy. Also employers could be afraid of stubbornness of women. There are jobs which are only for men, seldom for women.

In Poland the feminist movement exists and is growing bigger and bigger. Women want the law to be equal to the law for men. In my country there is that strange law in many matters. However, I think that feminists sometimes abuse the law. One of the problems in our country is that Polish people are very conservative, especially old-aged people, when it comes to division of tasks between men and women.

Typical male sports are football, speedway, cow racing, rugby and ice-hockey. Women rather like dancing, basketball, volleyball, handball. Men like sports which pump up adrenaline in their veins.


Joasia Parzonko 1ld
In my opinion people from my country think that women should stay at home and their husbands should go to work. This kind of thinking has existed in Poland for a very long time.

People from my country say that there are a lot of women who like to stay at home, cook, and look after babies. They think that this is their duty , but they do this with pleasure. The reason of that is probably the myth of a traditional family home where women were growing.

Poles think that women are better at housework. They do it faster and more accurately. Moreover, they have experience from their family home. It is the fact that girls do housework more often than their brothers.

Moreover, almost always men have bigger salaries than women, even if these the women who are better educated. It happens so because that is a man who secures a better financial status of his family than working women.

Finally, I believe when women and men try hard, a working woman and her working husband soon will not be surprising for society.

Modern societies accept changes in the way of thinking. People are more tolerant and open in their approach to a woman and her participation in politics, army, and sport. Recently, a lot of women join football teams, wrestling teams, boxing and other sports teams. Most of the the people think that generally women deserve equality as men do. Some people think that a man and a woman should play in the same team, because this is more interesting and more innovative than a traditional team. Finally, in my opinion sex should not have any meaning here.

In my opinion a lot of people think that in a typical family a woman should look after babies, cooking and doing housework, her husband should go to work, support his family and repair damaged equipment at home, whereas kids must go to school, learn, do homework and help their mum in housework.

Some people say that the stereotypical way of thinking is stupid and old-fashioned. They think that today's family has their own rules and the division of duties; the “head of family” can be both a man and a woman.

I think that this change is very good, because I support the idea of the equality of rights.


Agnieszka Ryniec Ild
Women in my country are discriminated against. People think that women should stay at home and take care of the children, but men should work and earn money. A perfect woman should stay at home, clean, cook and wait for her husband.

Luckily, the situation is changing. However, many women are still discriminated against in work. Men earn more money than women in the same position. It is unfair, because men are not better than women because females have the same knowledge. Men can work in any kind of work.

People in my country think that women are too weak to do physical jobs. I understand it, but nobody says about women working hard in factories for a very small salary. Men do not have such problems with finding a job, because they are promoted faster and get better money. In my opinion we should definitely change it.


Kornel Pleskot ild
In our country if the woman is the bread-winner and husband stay at home with children or do the shopping it is strange and unusual. In the Polish culture the man is the head of family and he works for the whole family. Most wives work at home – they cook, clean the house, bring children up. Another reason why women are housewives and men earn money is that men have better jobs than their wives. This situation is called gender discrimination, but it slowly changes. In my opinion females should stay at home because they are better in some activities than men, and are better for instance, in physical tasks than women.

Males and females are not treated in the same way in my country. For example, when a man and a woman work in the same position, he earns more money than she. Secondly, men have more jobs to choose, because most of them are stronger than females and they can have physical jobs.