In my opinion, this Comenius project has been much, much more than a simple exchange programme. With the help of the EU, both the French and the Turkish students involved have got to know each other and their cultures in far deeper ways. In other words, this project is helping to prove that having different nationalities, belonging to different cultures or even speaking different languages are not insurmountable obstacles, blocking successful interpersonal relations between youngsters.
Throughout the ten days we Turkish students have so far passed in France, we witnessed different examples of my proposition. First of all and in passing, I would like to mention that our French speaking skills, which we then thought inadequate to the point of fear in expressing ourselves, turned out not to be a major concern at all. There was no language block preventing communication. We all managed to cope in our own ways, anyhow. Even though we thought that our French was too weak, we turned up and instantaneously had to practise whatever we could say. It is again an obvious truth that I personally have shown recognizable progress in the fluency of my expression. Yet having to communicate with our new French friends is much more useful than attending regular, but endless grammar classes ! We get to learn the real daily language in daily use. I think that another important fact that gave encouragement was the very positive attitude of all the French students towards us. This enabled me at least, to express myself happily with my inadequate, broken French.
In my opinion, all the students involved in this project have gained something real, shared with the culture of our partners. This is important and well worth pondering. I believe that through technology, globalization and such phenomena, the world gets smaller and smaller every day. This means that the significance of co-operative, successful, friendly international relations increases day-by-day. I would also like to stress the inevitable truth that in the current situation of our world, real opportunities to share culture together with others is a beneficial investment for the future of us all.
I would also like to bear in mind the fact that such programmes also function to improve the reputation of the countries we students represent. As youngsters of different nationalities, we get to know each other directly, without other people's views and feelings getting in the way. In forming strong relations between us, many negative impressions and malicious information such as we all inevitably hear about each others' country, suddenly disappears. If we combine this view with the fact that information, or experiences, can easily be diffused amongst young people via modern-day communication technology and can address greater communities, when compared with what was available less than a generation ago, the generation of our parents, then we can easily conclude that future generations of politicians, diplomats, all kinds of leaders, presidents even, will have more harmonious relationships in bridging between different cultures. For one small example, just by working through our bilateral Comenius project, the relations we represent between France and Turkey, at our own level, have been successful and happy.
I also would like to mention that without the facilitation and support of the EU, this project would have only been a dream. It requires a lot of bureaucratic form-filling, with financial implications that can be, and are difficult for some of us. Without the structuring and guidance of an international organization, a lot of our work just couldn't happen.
To add it all up, I think that this project has been a great chance for students to get to know each others' cultures better and have some fun, but it has also definitely been a great investment for the future of both our societies.

ILHAN POSTACIOGLU