Højskolen Østersøen is a Danish folkhighschool located 30 km north from the German-Danish border that has as its main aim to stimulate cooperation amongst the Baltic Sea states and to propagate the German and Danish language and culture in the border region. Our house is a former first class hotel and is located directly on the bay. The view is on the water; sailing boats and ships pass by.
More important than the appearance however is the life in our school. It is a boarding school for adults of each age, who either follow a long course of 3 till 6 months, or stay one or two weeks with us.
There are about 80 folkhighschools, which is a typical Danish establishment with a history of more than 150 years, strongly anchored in the Danish culture and democracy. It is based on the values of accessible education to the people, as these were advocated by the philosopher, theologian, pedagogue and poet Grundtvig. Grundtvig’s contemporary Søren Kierkegaard said that love cannot be explained and he meant that one should just experience it. It is the same for the Danish højskole!
The schools are financed by state-funding and by a tuition fee. They are managed to a large extend based on own responsibility, much is possible and there is ample opportunity for living and learning together – without a curriculum, grades and exams.
Where other folkhighschools focus on topics like journalism, philosophy, design, IT, sports, music and many other things, Højskolen Østersøen was founded in 1993 after the fall of the Berlin wall. Germany and Denmark are neighbours with many cultural, historic and economic ties; the ability to communicate with each other should be improved and dialogue should be promoted. Therefore Germans and Danes learn here with and from each other, both during the classes in which targeted and efficiently is worked on communication skills, and also in social intercourse, in facultative classes like music, literature, debating, social studies, sports, during leisure time, during work and party, in fact 24 hours a day!
In this way the participants learn, expand their horizon, get new impulses and contacts and learn much at the Højskole that they can use in their further life.
The role of Højskolen Østersøen in the network RML2future
Specialist for the field of language learning in adult education
Højskolen Østersøen, which is a folkhighschool dedicated to the Scandinavian tradition of lifelong and continuous learning, is partner in the network to present good practices of attractive language learning within adult education in the selected European regions.
It is the aim of the network to show the proven practice of Højskolen Østersøen, including its methods and approach both of linguistic and of cultural nature, and to stimulate debate and give new impulses for language learning in adult education.
The selected languages will in particular be the minority languages and the languages of neighbouring countries, but also world-languages and other European languages will be taken into account.
A special emphasis is on creating awareness for the minority languages, aspects of multilingualism, methods and didactics in adult education, and how to motivate adults to learn languages.
Contact
Højskolen Østersøen
Flensborgvej 48-50
DK-6200 Aabenraa
Denmark
Telephone/Telefon: +45 74 62 4700
Fax: +45 74 62 4701
Email: pb@hojoster.dk
Internet: www.hojoster.dk