By Alessandra Ivaldi / 27.12.2020

In 2020, our contributors devoted themselves heart and soul to the activity of Meeting Halfway. The Covid-19 pandemic was of course often in the forefront of our minds, as Milena Parotti, Ramona Di Bella and Ana Alvarez Calleja demonstrated with their articles focusing on different aspects of everyday life in the time of the Coronavirus.

And to “sweeten” our days spent at home, our contributor Monica Nicol gave us some of her delicious recipes: torrijas al latte and chocolate salami. 

Meeting Halfway also featured two articles on famous traditional Italian products such as pasta and coffee.

Our indefatigable Julia Mayer then shared with us her experiences during her internship in Brussels, in the very heart of the European Union. It is an interesting series of articles combining personal impressions, the wonder of discovering new places and a deeper understanding of European institutions. 

After dedicating herself to Brussels, Julia joined Milena and Elena Noventa in creating another series: You and the EU, focusing on how the European Union works and how it can influence the lives of us all.

The collaboration with the team of the magazine Treffpunkt Europa was also very interesting, thanks to which we contributed to the dissemination of an important testimony about the living conditions of asylum seekers on the island of Mayotte, a French overseas department, during the Covid-19 period.

Working with Europe on Track, we promoted a very interesting opportunity among our readers: to become an EU ambassador with the task of travelling through 21 European cities for a month on Interrail, interviewing other young people about their vision of Europe.

And, in this regard, there was no shortage of articles focusing on the topic of travel, something that was all certainly missed a lot in these troubled times of the Covid-19 pandemic. Meeting Halfway has thus “travelled” with the power of imagination through the series of articles dedicated to Alsace and Switzerland.

We also celebrated Carnival by discovering together one of the strangest traditions in Italy, the battle of the oranges of the Ivrea Carnival! And all together we gathered testimonies from different European countries to discover how Easter is celebrated in the EU.

Determined not to limit ourselves to traditional festivities, we also celebrated European Day on 9 May and the European Day of Languages on 26 September with an article by our contributor Giulia Barjona. Giulia also covered current affairs such as the “conquest of space” by Elon Musk, the effects of globalisation on the world of fashion and the tragic murder of a French teacher on 16 October. To conclude with current affairs, we also recommend our article on “The freedom to love: yesterday, today and tomorrow”: homosexuality from antiquity to the present day.

At this point we must thank all our tireless translators and proofreaders, without whom Meeting Halfway could not exist.

They worked on the translations of the articles above:

Fern Dinsdale, Danielle Kramer, Jason Chern, Nazzareno Lacidogna, Monica Nicol, Arina Agafonova, Julia Mayer, Ramona Di Bella, Eleonora Di Gaetano, Irina Dubovko, Eszter Szabò, Lorena Diana, Anastasia Ushakova, Birger Niehaus, Milena Parotti, Lucy Gannon, Jenneke van der Velden, Elena Bzania, Maria Porenkova, Daria Samokhina, Ricard Lluc, Francesca Barmaz, Alexandra Wood, Ivo Ivanov, Susanna Polakov, Martine Wilmes, Helen Gerasimova, Lise Moncey, Albina Pavlova, Arianna Bordi, Roza Evangelia Ladopoulou, Veronika Zhiliakova, Alex Jedwab, Lobke Maene, Camille Defix, Sara Pitardi, Alejandro Manjón Aspe.

And finally, we would like to thank the illustrator Daria Subkhangulova.

Thank you all, and may the New Year bring you joy and success!

Author

Alessandra Ivaldi (Italy)

Speaks: Italian, English, German, French

Europe is... a cultural heritage.

Website: https://iva1794.wixsite.com/home

Translator

Alex Jedwab (binational Swiss/British)

 

Studies: MA in English

 

Languages: English, French, German and Italian

 

Europe is... my home!

 

My website as freelance translator

Der Beitrag A big thank you to all our staff erschien zuerst auf MH English.

By Julia Mayer / 10.09.2019

The Eurobarometer proves to be an excellent tool as shown by a public opinion poll commissioned by the European Commission in order to monitor the public’s opinion-forming. However, its active role in the very process of opinion-forming is often criticised. In fact, because of its growing significance, the Eurobarometer might turn from a simple aid for politics into a device for political players to pursue their own goals.

The term Eurobarometer should emphasize the monitoring and forecasting aim, but this instrument is actually seldom used for monitoring the acceptability of future decisions. Surveys and reports focus more frequently on the retrospective illustration of attitudes for tracking the opinion-forming processes.

How does it done in practice?

The European Commission asks periodically particular questions always using a similar formula, the same method and with all Member States. There are three procedures for the evaluation of the results. Historical comparison values can be considered for the interpretation of the results. Additionally, it is also possible to make a comparison between the values of the Member States or to combine the two methods. A standard text of the questions and possible answers guarantee the geographical and historical comparability of the data. However, this original text is then translated into the different official languages and their variations. Obviously, the translations are controlled, so that in the end the answers will have the same meaning in the different languages.

The results of the surveys are then collected in thematic chapters in the so-called Eurobarometer-publication and illustrated through graphics. Critics have observed that the analysis of the results is always carried out in a pro-European way, thus giving exclusively a positive image of the development of Europe. However, that should not be the case when considering the effort pursued twice a year in every Member State. Here, the political importance for the European Commission outshines the scientific aim. As a donor and an employer, the Commission determines the content and the interpretation of the results, possibly at the expense of the scientific point of view.

In the end you could say that the instrument of the Eurobarometer has turned away from its original intention, namely the investigation of the attitudes of the European citizens, and has instead been politically exploited, thus compromising its informative value. This trend is certainly connected with the monopolistic position of the European Commission that decides on the development, the financing, the implementation, the interpretation and the publication of the Eurobarometer study. As a consequence, the question arises of whether political actors should carry out surveys to confirm their political action.

For more information:

Nissen, Sylke: Eurobarometer in Bach, M./ Hönig, B. (Hrsg.): Europasoziologie – Handbuch für Wissenschaft und Studium, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, 1. Auflage 2018

Author

Julia Mayer (Germany)

Studies: Public Management

Languages : German, English, and French

Europe is… a community that unites, founded on peace and common values, unique in this way, essential for our coexistence.

Translator

Alessandra Ivaldi (Italy)

Speaks: Italian, English, German, French

Europe is... a cultural heritage.

Website: https://iva1794.wixsite.com/home

Proofreader

Stephanie Whitehead (United Kingdom)

Studies: French and Politics 

Languages: English, French

Europe is… inspiring and mind-opening.

Illustrator

Daria Subkhangulova (Russia)

Languages: Russian and English.

Job: illustrator.

Europe is...diversity and friendship.

Der Beitrag Eurobarometer – Is the instrument introduced for monitoring turning into an intervention tool? erschien zuerst auf MH English.

By Alessandra Ivaldi / 26.08.2019

The Fête des Vignerons. 2019 has been a special year for Switzerland, in particular for the canton of Vaud, located in the south-western part of the country. The reason for this is the so-called Fête des Vignerons, the Winegrowers’ Festival, a very important celebration for the community of Vaud, characterised by a particular peculiarity: unlike other traditional festivals, the Fête des Vignerons is celebrated a maximum of five times in a century. It means that 14 to 28 years might pass before the festival is celebrated again – the last celebration dates back to 1999. Therefore, participating in the great Fête is a real must for the Swiss.

The festival takes place in Vevey, a picturesque town surrounded by vineyards. This year it is being celebrated from the 18 July to the 11 August. Vevey becomes filled with colours and every day it is possible to witness a rich variety of exhibitions and shows, which pay homage to the viticultural world and to the ancient traditions of the country.
We are not sure about the origins of this tradition, which was included in the Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 2016. However, we are not here to talk about the story of this fascinating tradition or about this year’s celebration. Our goal is to focus on a particular aspect characterising the Fête des Vignerons and the Swiss culture in general: music.

Yodel. When we think about Swiss music, we probably visualize yodelling, a particular form of singing, typical of the alpine German-speaking area. It is a technique historically connected to the hard life of the shepherds who lived in the mountains. In fact, it seems that this form of singing was originally developed as a method to call the cattle or to draw the attention of other shepherds in case of emergency. Powered by the yodelling technique, the singer’s voice can also cover long distances between the valleys.
Today the yodel has become an indispensable element of the Swiss culture and can be performed by a soloist or by a choir during performances.

Alphorn players

Alphorn. The singing is almost always accompanied by musical instruments and the Swiss tradition presents a great variety of instruments! Let us start from the most known of these: the alphorn or alpine horn. It is a long conical horn, usually made from larch or fir wood. It has no holes and its tonality depends on the length of the instrument, which can vary from 2 to slightly more than 4 meters. Just like the yodel, the sound of the horn can be heard from miles away and it was originally used for communication among the shepherds who were in different valleys.

However, the alphorn is not the only element in this class of instruments. It has a lesser known cousin, which is the Büchel, characteristic of central Switzerland. It is also made of wood, but it is shorter than the alphorn. The most obvious difference is its structure since this instrument is not as straight as the alphorn, but it is folded twice on itself. Moreover, the sound results clearer and more acute.
Both these instruments are quite difficult to play. Since they have no holes or keys, the sound quality depends mostly on the skill of the musician to position their lips on the mouthpiece of the instrument in the correct way.

Example of zither. Picture of @Thomas Quine.

Different types of zithers. Zithers represent a class of stringed instruments characterized only by the presence of a support for the strings, sometimes accompanied by a sound box. There are many types of zithers. In the canton of Bern, in Switzerland, we find the Hexenscheit, which means “board of the witch”. It is a very ancient type of zither formed of a trapezoidal shape. The musician usually holds it on their knees or on a table when playing.

However, Swiss musical tradition presents many other types of zithers. Some of them are particularly appreciated not only because of their sound, but also because of the wonderful ornaments decorating them. Also form and dimension can be very different. In fact, players do not hold them on a support like the Hexenscheit. They wield them like guitars, as is the case of the zither from Toggenburg, a constituency of the canton of St. Gallen, in north-eastern Switzerland.

Example of Hackbrett. Picture of @nadja robot.

Another kind of zither is the so-called Hackbrett, in English “hammered dulcimer”. Its strings are not plucked with the fingers, but beaten with hammers. It can also be played four-handed and in this case the two players face one another during the performance. The Hackbrett has a trapezium shaped sound box. Frets divide the strings in segments, thus allowing the production of different notes. The pitch depends on the length of the strings. This instrument is widespread in Appenzell, in north-eastern Switzerland, and in Valais, in the southwestern part of the country, where we find a smaller type of Hackbrett with a limited number of strings.

Swiss five-franc coin.

Percussion. The origins of some of the musical instruments from the Swiss tradition are to be found even in everyday objects, which have been imaginatively transformed. The first example is the wooden spoon (sometimes made of metal) that the swiss musicians use as percussion to accompany songs played with other instruments. Spoon players hold their instrument by the handle and use it to beat their thigh and forearm to rhythm of the music. Using wooden spoons as musical instrument is an ancient tradition. In more recent times they have been substituted by spoons made of metal, but today the interest in Swiss folklore has made wooden spoons, possibly carved and finely decorated, fashionable again.
Another unusual instrument is the Talerschwingen, consisting of two really simple parts: a five-franc coin and a bowl! The players roll the coin into a ceramic bowl by turning it slowly. Bowls with different diameter are used in order to vary the pitch of sound.

Author

Alessandra Ivaldi (Italy)

Speaks: Italian, English, German, French

Europe is... a cultural heritage.

Website: https://iva1794.wixsite.com/home

Proofreader

Stephanie Whitehead (United Kingdom)

Studies: French and Politics 

Languages: English, French

Europe is… inspiring and mind-opening.

Der Beitrag Musicians in Switzerland erschien zuerst auf MH English.

By Anja Meunier / 30.8.2018

Find more quizzes here.

Find more quizzes here.

Author

Anja Meunier (Germany)

Studies: Mathematics and Economics

Languages: German, English, Spanish

Europe has… beautiful countries, interesting people, a great lifestyle. And needs to stay together.

500px: Anja Meunier

Illustrations

Luzie Gerb (Germany)

Studies: Art History, Fine Arts and Comparative Cultural Studies

Speaks: German, English, Swedish, French

Europe is… full of magical places, interesting people and their stories.

Website: luzie-gerb.de

Der Beitrag Quiz: European Union erschien zuerst auf MH English.