Round Table for Peaceful Living
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Wednesday, June 11
The Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (TSU) held a Roundtable for Peaceful Living on June 6th. Masterpeace Georgia and Caynex organized the project. The slogan of the event was Dialogue Above Judgment.
The main topic of the roundtable was more integration and adaptation of foreign students and foreigners in Georgian society.
Students from other countries like: India, Pakistan, Japan, Africa, Middle East, Germany, Italy, Lithuania and others, together with Georgian participants, were invited to the event.
Foreign participants discussed the difficulties they face in Georgia.
The foreign students also claimed that Georgians lack communication skills in English.
“You know, I have a feeling that they are just shy or have certain complexes of inferiority owing to their accents, because when I speak to them, I see that they guess, but in most cases they never respond,” Brown Ellem, student from Nigeria said.
Ekene Kennedy, another student from Nigeria, said that sometimes he feels a negative attitude from people.
“In general, Georgians are very friendly and hospitable, but I had a few negative cases in my time residing here. For example, once my friend and I were sitting in a cafe with Georgian girls and one of the customers approached the girls and said something. Later, the girls translated it to us and we found out that that woman abused us and called “Black Monkeys”. Such things are very unpleasant,” Kennedy stressed.
Student Kenny Swaggs named unemployment as a main problem.
“Being at home after lectures is the most unpleasant thing for us. We have nothing to do and we are bored. Even in case of having communication skills in Georgian, we are refused jobs, even by McDonald’s. Also, there are many beautiful foreign student girls here, but none of them has possibility to work as a model. That is pity,” Swaggs said.
Nato Javakhishvili from McDonald’s denied the accusation, stressing that all the applicants are selected taking the current labor code into account.
“All candidates are taken equally,” she said.
Representative of Masterpeace Georgia, Levan Gorgadze, said that it is for the first time that such an event took place in Georgia.
“However, we have a plan to hold our next dialogue with foreign student within the next 10 days. Supposedly it will take place at Tbilisi State Medical University (TSMU),” Gorgadze stressed.
The project is supported by Caucasus Youth Nexus and Masterpeace global movement.
Masterpeace is a global movement that inspires everyone to use their talent and energy for peace-building and unity.
