Roma Language and Culture

Roma language is nowadays studied by 11 000 Roma children in Romania. Roma language teaching in schools represents one of the most effective strategies to get Roma pupils in touch with Roma culture, to make them aware of their own identity and to help them become more self-confident.

A curriculum component focusing on Roma language and culture becomes, thus, a necessary requirement of the school intervention projects. The Equal Opportunities project's design is based on the principle according to which Roma pupils' cultural identity awareness represents one key-aspect of their educational accomplishments. A permanent emphasis was put on intercultural activities performed in school or community and a wide range of materials were published in Roma language.

As part of the Educational Development in communities including Romanies project (1998-2000), a guide was published - ABC-AnglutnoLil -, and it was approved by the Ministry of Education and Research as auxiliary didactic material for teaching Roma language in schools. The author Mihaela Zatreanu said: "The lack of information about Roma from the school manuals was a main cause that made more and more pupils to lose their cultural identity and feel ashamed of their Roma affiliation regardless of their educational ratings; it even forced some of them to abandon school. The recognizing of Roma language as mother tongue lead to a deeper involvement in the school's activities on behalf of the pupils, and the distance between the familial medium and school was significantly diminished."

The volume answers both the Roma culture's complexities and the methodical exigencies of language learning and vocabulary improvement as it was confirmed by the experts Vasile Molan and Gheorghe Sarau. ABC-AnglutnoLil is a good example of equilibrate integration of the traditional cultural elements specific to various Roma communities with the contemporary society aspects. It equally addresses Roma and mixed communities, children in the urban and rural areas, girls and boys. An intercultural approach, exemplified in a wide range of practical exercises and applications that stimulate reader interaction, is one of its strong points.

The problems it deals with offer a good representation of the childhood universe, and the illustrations designed by Ana Maria Cristina Costef are very attractive. The manual is a very usefull educational tool and a modern methodological teaching support for professors teaching Roma language. And one more aspect of great significance: Roma pupils and parents find their portrayal in the images depicted here, in the common language and in the texts' content.

A continuation of ABC-AnglutnoLil, Dujto Lil Romano is designed for pupils in the third grade. According to the Roma editor, univ. lectr. Gheorghe Sarau, Ph.D., and expert, prof. Vasile Molan, Ph.D., the volume:

• satisfies the requirements of the Roma syllabus for the third grade;
• the texts included here address the standard Roma language with no biased preference for a particular dialect;
• the texts represent an equilibrated selection from the universal patrimony (fables, parables, etc.) of the Roma folk art, Roma learned creations, and Roma diaspora;
• the selected texts satisfy the accessibility criterion and help accomplishing the didactic obligations and acquiring standard expression skills.

Both manuals are freely distributed in the pilot schools included in the program, but also in other schools where Roma language is taught.

Another volume that was published under the aegis of the Educational development in communities including Romanies program is Autobiographical Episodes (Întâmplari din viata mea) by Isabela Banica. The author shares the reader the experiences she gained taking a summer course on Roma language history organized by the Roma Union from Berlin. The volume is a bilingual journal, an open invitation addressed to Roma children and youngsters to a thorough study of Roma language and culture. An exciting story line brings author and readers in close communion, making them share the experience of direct contact with people and special events. The Roma version of Autobiographical Episodes is at the same time a very effective didactic tool for the Roma language teachers, pupils benefiting of the opportunity to enrich their vocabulary with words of the standard language.

Ana Maria Cristina Costef, the graphic designer of all these books, describes her experience of participating to this program: "This project gave me, beyond the professional satisfaction of the graphic designer novice, the opportunity to maneuver a small wheel in a mechanism that is operating real changes. When leaving the spectator's place to enter the stage, I didn't expect to play one major role. I met a new world and now I have a more firm and clear perspective on things. Any problem is disclosing its solution in its hypothesis. Conciliating the problems aroused in human relationships is already inscribed in the definition of the human being as rational being. 'Education 2000+' found the correct answer in the notion of education and offered us a remarkable exposition on how can we convert a tragedy into a documentary of success."

In the broad context of the project Education 2000+, an important pack of programs addresses the issue of abilities improvement of Roma representatives in order to make them involve in the educational process. Here are some examples of such sub-projects (for detailed information search on www.cedu.ro - programe):

KHETANES - support for the Roma teachers - aid grant for KETHANES Association

Period: January 2000 - February 2002

Objectives:

• to aid the professional training of both professors belonging to the Roma community and the teachers from schools that have Roma children;
• to found the Association for Romanies' Education (2000);
• to assist the associations in contracting financial aid agreements in order to accomplish the planned activities (using the grant conditional system).

KHETANES Association's (50 members and numerous supporters in the whole country) tasks are to protect Romanies' cultural identity and to promote an active civic cooperation between Romanies and non-Romanies through:

• promoting the educational system in Roma language;
• encouraging intercultural education;
• granting financial aid to Roma children and youngsters with high potential.

Activities:

• the informing the public opinion (using ISJ network and the local press);
• the offering of formation courses for teachers and other experts that activate in comunities including Romanies (issues: Differential Curriculum, Intercultural Education against Discrimination, Intercultural Issues in Education);
• the participation to conferences, formation courses organized by Center Education 2000+ (Intercultural Education - patterns, strategies, policy, the evaluation conference Educational Development in Communities Including Romanies, Equal Opportunities for Roma Children, A Second Chance);
• the promoting of experience exchange between teachers and inspectors from various counties;
• the elaboration of projects (MEDE - Partnership Fond, OSI Roma Culture Initiative, Link Diversity, etc.)

CREDIS Scholarships
Three years long courses for schoolmasters - Roma language (double specialization) in E-learning Department - CREDIS University of Bucharest

Period: September 2000 - September 2002

Objectives:

• to train 30 schoolmasters - Roma language, three years long e-learning courses;
• to assist in shaping the Roma young intellectual elite;
• to encourage the Roma community in shaping its cultural identity by offering training and counseling expertise to the Roma teachers.

Activities:

• offering scholarships (half-yearly or on individual contract basis);
• elaborating support curricular materials necessary for Roma language specialization.
  1. Roma language history (Ancient Indic civilization, 1st part and 2nd part)
  2. Roma vulgate language (practical course)
  3. Roma contemporary language. Lexicology
  4. Roma literature history: The Romanies in the historic, linguistic and literary context from the exodus to the Balkan period
  5. Roma anthropology and folk lore
  6. Roma language: Texts (practical course)
  7. Roma contemporary language. Morphology and syntax
  8. Roma vulgate language: Conversations (practical course)
  9. Roma contemporary language
  10. Phonetics. Applied Roma linguistics (translations and retroversions)

Intercultural education - Characteristics, patterns, methods

Date: 17-21 May, 2000

General overview: training seminars for the professorial staff; 80 participants (teachers, professors from the pilot schools, inspectors in Roma educational system, representatives of the Roma community).

Summer schools - Roma language

Date: August 2000

General overview: training session for Roma language teachers; 25 participants. The trainees were either Romanies or experts in Roma culture and civilization, proving thorough experience in teaching Roma language and organizing educational activities in multi-ethnic communities.

Publications: My Summer School