Postcards from Home

Step 1 – Pecha Kucha Presentation + Photo Related to “Home”

• Invite the learners to prepare a short Pecha Kucha presentation. Each presentation should include 5 slides, with each slide shown for 30 seconds, making the total presentation approximately 2.5–3 minutes long. The aim is to introduce themselves creatively and share something meaningful about who they are, their interests, or their connection to the project’s themes. For reference on the format, visit: PechaKucha on Wikipedia
• Invite the learners to bring one picture that represents “home” to them. This image may depict:
  • A place (e.g., a room, a landscape, a neighborhood)
  • A photo from a family album, a person
  • A moment or a memory; a situation that evokes a sense of belonging or familiarity
• During the activity, each learner will use their chosen image to create a postcard and compose a short text or message inspired by it. The postcard will serve as a personal reflection on what “home” means — a bridge between memory, image, and storytelling.

Step 2 – resentation of Pecha Kucha and “Home” Photo

• Invite each learner to present their Pecha Kucha presentation prepared beforehand,introducing themselves and sharing key aspects of their life, interests and the “Home” photo. Even the ones that haven’t prepared may present themselves and the photo.
• Introduce nouns, adjectives, and verbs related to home (e.g., kitchen, warm, to cook, to return).

Step 3 – Creating the Postcard

• In-person workshops: Arrange and/or decorate your postcard using your image, collage materials, and text in the target language. Write short captions, phrases, or sentences that explain why this image represents home.
• Online workshops: Use digital tools to combine your image with text and digital design elements. Add short descriptions or sentences in the target language.

Step 4 – Share your work

• When completed, each learner presents their postcard to the group, describing the image and using the new vocabulary and phrases learned. Encourage questions, comments, and discussion to practice listening and speaking skills.

Step 5 – Follow up (Blended part ) : Home Dictionary — What Does Home Mean to You?

This step is both a preparatory and ongoing activity leading up to and/or following the workshop.

• Inspired by artist Zarina Hashmi’s Home Is a Foreign Place, where the artist created a visual vocabulary of home through abstract images of words such as “afternoon,” “hot-breeze,” and “threshold,” learners begin creating their own Home Dictionary.
• Learners are invited to make a list of words that remind them of their home (or homes). These words can be nouns, adjectives, or verbs, and may represent tangible objects or abstract ideas.
• In a notebook, each learner writes one word from their list at the bottom of a page, creating what will become their Home Dictionary. They may add one word per day—or more, as they wish.
• Over the course of the month and until the group meets again, learners continue to fill in the pages of their notebooks with images and materials that illustrate these words. They are encouraged to collect photographs, ticket stubs, ribbons, magazine cutouts, words, drawings, and other objects that represent their chosen words and personal worlds, and to collage them into their notebooks.

Through this ongoing process, each learner creates a visual and emotional dictionary of home, reflecting their individual memories, associations, and interpretations of belonging.