Chocolate... Dance... Work... Here Is Roxana Marinescu ^Featured

Felix: Tell us three things we don’t know about you from the presentation on the project website. For example, what you do in your spare time, what book annoyed you the most and what is your favourite food.

Roxana: Ha, ha, ha (big laugh). What spare time? Seriously now, I have very little spare time. When I do, I like walking around Bucharest, travelling around Europe or reading something. Which brings me to the second question – I was trained not to be annoyed by books. I read them and try to understand them and get the best out of them. Or put them in context and try to see why they were written in a certain way or what kind of statement their authors tried to make. That is why I never, never leave a book unfinished. Even if I don’t particularly like it. I’m a professional, in this respect. My favourite food: definitely sweets. Chocolate, to be more precise. In any shape or form, and combinations….Uhhhhmmmm. Love it!

Felix: How are you involved in Oportunidance?

Roxana: I read the project in its initial phases, when Roxana B. was writing it. And I gave her feedback – I remember that at some point I felt the project was a bit unbalanced towards the dance part and did not contain enough on language learning and intercultural communication. I discussed it with Roxana and she agreed, so she put a bit more meat, as they say, on that part. It is usually very helpful to have another pair of eyes and look at something in a more detached way. At the moment I am helping with managing it and I am also coordinating the English language materials writing team. And of course I am writing some lessons and giving feedback on other lessons written by my colleagues.

Felix: How is this project different from other projects you participated in?

Roxana: It is more playful and, therefore, more enjoyable. The others were very academically oriented. I’m not saying the others were not interesting or that this one is not serious. It is simply much more enjoyable.

Felix: What is the main strength of the Oportunidance project?

Roxana: I particularly like how it manages to combine dancing with languages and with intercultural communication. And all both face-to-face and on the net. I think it’s brilliant in this respect. And this is clear from the feedback we are getting from colleagues, students, even friends we describe the project to. The immediate response is “Where do I sign in?” I think it’s great for a project to have so many people who want to be the target audience, to be involved. We have so many that we need to think of criteria to select them!

Felix: What about a weakness of this project? How could the project be improved?

Roxana: Possibly the lack of time of the partners – maybe that’s not right. Not the lack of time. The changing interests. The fast pace of life. The fact we don’t have the time to actually enjoy the project. Instead we rush though it. Look, we started last December, it’s been four months already!

Felix: What do you think you will have gained (as a direct participant) by the end of the project?

Roxana: Friends. Some more experience in team management. Also, in materials writing. But mostly -  dancing. I want to go back to dancing (big smile). I love classical ballet, which I briefly did, as a child. I also like ballroom dancing (or social dance, as it is called in the project), which I also practiced for a while. I enjoyed every minute of it at the time. So I hope to find the time and dance with Oportunidance.