Until July 21, the 66 representatives of Bulgarian Sunday schools from 13 countries will ‎present their experience, discuss language culture and teaching in a foreign language ‎environment, and share good practices from teaching the history and geography of Bulgaria.‎

‎"We feel like a bit like national awakeners, that why I call the school “Dawn” because it is a ‎dawn for our people in Albania. Sometimes more children come, sometimes fewer, ‎but quite a ‎number of children come to learn Bulgarian with us. They are from the villages in Albania, ‎where there is a population of Bulgarian origin. .” ‎

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Greece is one of the countries where there are many Bulgarian Sunday schools. For 7 years, ‎Bulgarian children have been studying  the native A and B at the Tsar Simeon school directed ‎by Diana Kimparis. This year, 55 students graduated, as two of them have been admitted as ‎students at Bulgarian universities:‎

‎"One of our achievements is that every year students who graduate or are in their last year of ‎study take exams at Sofia University and receive a certificate of proficiency in the Bulgarian ‎language. One of our biggest difficulties is that Greek is spoken mostly in families and so ‎Greek is the first language. From the new academic year, we will take advantage of the digital ‎backpack of Veliko Tarnovo University, and I think it will be very useful for our students," ‎the school principal.‎

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‎"Most of it is in game form, we use different stories, pictures, things that are most interesting and ‎motivating for children. But the most important thing is to love, to have a heart and to work with ‎love, because children love to be loved. When they see you sunny, smiling, they can't help but be ‎happy and talk to you and want to learn. They are so genuine, well-intentioned, glowing. I love my ‎job, it's not work, it's pleasure."‎

Teaching in a Bulgarian Sunday school is a mission, says Bulgarian language and literature teacher ‎Simeonka Veleva from the Dora Gabe school in the Polish capital Warsaw:‎

‎"Young Bulgarians need this and they don't know about Bulgarian traditions. There is much to teach ‎them. In our school we have thematic workshops for folk songs and dances and dedicated ‎to the various holidays. There is a tendency for children to attend a Bulgarian school until the 8th ‎grade, after which it becomes very difficult for them in local schools. There is definitely interest, ‎parents are very actively involved and this is important, because one teacher for ‎two or four hours a week cannot do miracles, which is especially visible with children who do not ‎speak Bulgarian like Bulgarians, because they are from mixed marriages."‎

The Bulgarian Sunday school "We, the little sparrows" in Stuttgart, Germany, functions in a ‎different way, says its principal Stefanka Vasileva. The school is not subsidized by the ‎Bulgarian Ministry of Education, it is supported by fees paid by the parents. During the past ‎school year, 50 children from first to sixth grade studied there. There is motivation, says ‎Stefanka Vasileva: ‎

‎ "Motivation is a very interesting process. It must come from both inside and outside. ‎Motivating is a long process that must go through parents and families. My personal approach ‎to children is to awaken their interest in something that they can more easily identify with and ‎is, so to speak, at their fingertips - they just have to reach out to take it and embrace it in their ‎lives. I try to arouse their interest in Bulgaria, in the language and in the culture as something ‎that is very close to them. For example, in our geography and history lessons, I simply show ‎them places that some of them have even visited. Lately I have been using it a lot - and I see ‎that it has good results - to compare the history of Bulgaria and Germany in different periods. ‎So we connect what they already know from their general education subjects, because all ‎subjects are connected, countries are historically connected in some way, and when one gets ‎an idea of the big picture, then the appetite for more knowledge comes.”‎‎ ‎

The Dora Gabe Bulgarian Sunday school in Toulouse (France) is an island of the Bulgarian ‎language, says the young teacher Edelina Kircheva: ‎

‎"Our school is small because Toulouse is not a big city like Paris or Rome. We have 40 ‎children and I have been teaching first and second grade Bulgarian for three years. ‎That's why ‎I come here to enrich my knowledge. We only have primary stage up to 5th grade. Children ‎are very inquisitive. Of the generation we teach, 80 percent were born in France. They are ‎brought up to be curious about everything. It's easy for us, children are inquisitive. Parents are ‎very important, they get involved in everything. They initiated the school to start, even when ‎we had to look for a new building for the school, the parents got active and found it. We have ‎a small but supportive community of ‎parents.” ‎

There is also a Bulgarian Sunday school in the United Arab Emirates. In Abu Dhabi,  the Kambana Bulgarian Sunday School has existed since 2017 and Valentina Mircheva teaches Bulgarian language and literature there:‎

‎"For the upcoming school year, there will be about 30 pupils distributed from the preschool ‎group to the 10th grade. For me, the key is the love that we, the teachers, have for the ‎Bulgarian language, the pride that we carry in our hearts and thus, through love, we teach. ‎Each school has its own specifics in teaching depending on the region in which it is located. ‎We use textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education and Culture from the first to the ‎seventh grade. It helps us a lot that there are already developed programs tailored to language ‎level of the children."‎

They say that Bulgaria is where there is at least one Bulgarian. Bulgaria is everywhere also ‎thanks to the enthusiastic and dedicated teachers in the Bulgarian Sunday schools abroad.‎

Edited by Elena Karkalanova