Work hard: play a video game!

Who knew that you could consider playing a video game working and being productive? I certainly didn’t think that before last Monday! I found out then that I had less than a week to prepare a presentation on the new U.S. Department of State video game Trace Effects, to be presented to English teachers in Tartu. Tartu is two hours away from Tallinn. Road trip!

Greete Palksaar, head of the Tartu American Corner

Trace Effects is a new video game that invites users to play the role of Trace, a time traveler who makes his way through several museums and other places in the United States in an effort to get back home. Users have the chance to practice their English and also learn about current topics such as the environment, entrepreneurism and empowering women. I had a lot of fun learning to play the game and after several days of doing so I was ready to make my presentation in Tartu!

Talking about the English learning game Trace Effects

For those of you who don’t know, Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia and is often considered the intellectual capital of Estonia, housing Estonia’s oldest and largest university. We stopped first at the University of Tartu’s library where we visited our American Corner and Education USA Center there. We met with Greete Palksaar, head of the Corner. She showed us the corner, the new website, and all the different resources they have available for students and faculty. She also told us about the different types of outreach she does to help promote the American Corner as well as study in the United States. For example, she is having a pumpkin carving contest … entries are accepted up to October 31st!

Once we left the corner, we went to the Estonian Academic Teachers of English 22nd Annual Conference at Miina Härma High School where we would give our presentations to English teachers. While waiting to present, we were treated to the sweetest cake I have probably ever eaten. It literally tasted like pure sugar and was delicious!

The ride back to Tallinn

Finally we presented! The teachers really appreciated APAO Alison Davis’ intro which she did in Estonian. I feel like people respect you more for learning their native language and using it with them, and people are always so surprised! Alison talked about the American English website and the fun teaching and learning resources you can find there. And then it was my turn as I took the gathered teachers on a “tour” of the Trace Effects video game. I had a great time talking to the teachers and a lot of them are planning on telling their students about this fun new tool to practice their English.

On the drive back to Tallinn Cultural Assistant Tiiu Vitsut showed us the Snail building, this really unique suspension bridge, and Tartu’s Town Hall square. The sunset on the road back was beautiful, and the clouds that evening complemented it nicely. All-in-all, it was a productive and amazing road trip – and a great way to end the week!

Blog post by PAS Intern Ayesha Hamza.
Photos by PAS Cultural Assistant Tiiu Vitsut

What do a brain scientist, an MP and a standup comic have in common?

On September 25, 2013, I teamed up with a brain scientist, a member of parliament, an architect, a standup comic, a prison official and a few others to talk about “borders” in Estonian society and how we can bridge them. Despite the speakers’ varied backgrounds, they all had a fresh perspective to share that stemmed from their own discipline and life experience. And our standup comic host, Stewart Johnson, kept us laughing all the way through!

Member of Parliament Liisa Pakosta questions assumptions

The event was the first in a series of seminars that is being put on by Estonia’s U.S. government exchange alumni NGO with fresh perspectives on social, cross-cultural, and cross-disciplinary issues. These alumni have participated in U.S. State Department funded exchanges such as Fulbright and the International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) and are now teaming up to stimulate discussion in Estonian society on hot topics. The whole event felt like a TED Talk with short, intense presentations, lots of audience participation and cameras everywhere to capture the action.

Audience members kept the Q&A sessions lively 

The seminar kicked off with Jaan Aru (a neurosciences researcher at Tartu University) who proposed we cut open someone’s skull to examine where consciousness begins. Despite no volunteers from the audience he went on to talk about what is known and unknown about the human brain. He was followed by IVLP alumnus and Member of Parliament Liisa Pakosta who questioned our ideas of whether maternity leave and bans on youth labor are really the best thing for families and children. In the last talk of the morning, Fulbright Student alumnus and architect Ivan Sergejev discussed how buildings and built spaces create or bridge boundaries between people.

Neuroscientist Jaan Aru asks where consciousness begins 

The afternoon kicked off with IVLP alumnus and director of the Tartu Center for Creative Industries Raul Oreskin, who talked about the butterfly effect and how Estonian society can change as a result of small but impactful inputs. Mathematician Kristjan Korjus challenged the audience’s ideas about god, the brain and mathematics. And finally, Prison Department official and Humphrey Fellowship program alumnus Anne-Marika Maschorov talked about her work crossing borders and breaking stereotypes as a woman professional working in correction.

I was impressed with the range of topics and passion that our speakers brought to the dais, but the audience’s (mostly university students) enthusiasm was also contagious. By the end of the day, people were pretty exhausted, yet we’d all learned a whole lot more about our world, Estonia and the borders that we can overcome together. To learn more about the U.S. Embassy’s exchange programs and how you can apply, visit our website.


Blog post by Assistant Public Affairs Officer Alison Davis