4 ELEMENTS

Project logo
Improve the foreign language learning and intercultural competences of adults through e-learning

The project

FOUR ELEMENTS is an initiative called to raise awareness and appreciation of the importance of culture and heritage as well as to train educators working with adult learners who want to improve their skills and competences necessary in today’s EU labour market.

The project will take advantage of the potential of the common European cultural values associated to the 4 elements earth, water, air and fire) to empower adults to improve their digital, foreign language and intercultural competences.

The partnership expects to develop and deliver innovative teaching materials presented in a culturally accessible E-book consisting of European legends and stories – giving visibility to the underlying common EU values and principles, especially adapted to learners with special needs.

To achieved such objectives, partners will develop:

An interactive map: a collection of legends and stories related to earth, water, air and fire, in different EU countries.

Digital Books with national legends and stories related to the four elements.

Methodological recommendations for adult educators.

To find more information, access the Four Elements platform here.

Digital books

The nations of Europe all have rich cultures of myth and folklore which give the different regions their particular individual flavour. Here we have grouped traditional stories from Belgium, Estonia, France, Greece, Italy, Slovenia and Spain according to the four elements: earth, air, wind and fire.

They are specially adapted to adult learners and can be used to develop language or ICT skills among your students while enhancing intercultural understanding.

Alongside the stories, this digital book contains interactive exercises and is in Easy Read format. All the material in it can be downloaded and printed. Teachers and trainers will find tips and suggestions for how to use it on the Recommendations section of this site.

European partnership

Four Elements is an Erasmus+ KA204 project designed to highlight the importance of culture and heritage at European Union level. It aims to train educators working with adult learners to enable them to acquire the skills and competences, including linguistic and digital skills and competences, required in the European labour market.

The project is coordinated by : CVO EduKempen (Belgium). The partnership also includes DomSpain Consulting (Spain), The Central Library of Võru County (Estonia), Les Apprimeurs (France), Istituto dei Sordi di Torino (Italy), Slovenian Third Age University (Slovenia), MyArtist (Greece).

Erasmus+ project

Erasmus logo The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Why Tallinn Must Never be Completed

LEGEND

Main element: Water

Language of the original: Estonian

Date of origin: 1866

Author: Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald

To find more information about the legend, access the Four Elements platform here.

The legend of Estonian capital Tallinn’s flooding by a grey old man living in Lake Ülemiste has obvious connections with relative positions of the town and the lake: the lake on a hill over 36 meters above sea level, so-called Lower Town, on the coastal lowland between the lake and the sea. If lake waters broke through they could easily destroy the town. Records from the 18th and 19th centuries indeed tell us of repeated floods. The first big flood is dated 1867. Modernization of the town’s water supply system was in progress: a channel was being dug from Lake Ülemiste to the slope Lasnamägi. The water level in the lake was very high that year. With stormy weather the waves broke through the earthen barrier separating the lake from the channel. The water rushed down the channel cut in the limestone base rock and eroded a deep, wide bed in the sandy surface of Tartu Road. Before long the road was flooded up.

On a dark night every autumn a little grey man comes out from Lake Ülemiste, goes down the hill to the gates of the town and asks the gatekeeper, “Has the town already been completed or is there still something to be built?"

Now, as in most bigger towns, there is never a break in building work, and even if no new houses are in progress there are at least repairs or alterations going on at old ones; so there is never a time when all builders would be idle. And if it should once happen that all building work really stands still this must in no case be disclosed to the man from the lake. Therefore the guards at the gates have been given strict orders always to give the same reply to the old man: “The town is far from being completed, there are many houses to be built yet, and it will take a good many years before all work is finished."

To this the stranger shakes his head angrily, mumbles some words the gatekeeper doesn’t understand, faces about and heads back for Lake Ülemiste, his permanent abode.

But if someone should accidentally say in reply to the old man’s question that there is no more building to be done in the down, this would mean an end to Tallinn in that very same hour, for Lake Ülemiste would fall with all its waters from the hill of Lasnamägi upon the town and flood it with everything inside.

Miks Tallinn iial valmis ei tohi saada

LEGEND

Element: Vesi

Originaalkeel: Eesti

Pärinemise aeg: 1866

Autor: Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald

Rohkem infot legendi kohta leiad 4 elemendi veebilehelt siit.

Igal sügisel tõuseb kord pimedal keskööl üks väike hall mehike Ülemiste järvest, läheb mäge pidi alla linna väravasse ja küsib väravavahilt: „Kas linn juba valmis või on seal midagi veel ehitada?”

Nagu suuremates linnades ikka, ehitamine iial ei lakka, kui uusi hooneid ei ehitata, tuleb vanu leppida ja kohendada, nõnda et tööl vahet pole, kus kõik ametimehed puhkaksid. Aga peaks ka ehitustöö seisma, ei tohiks seda järvemehikesele kuulutada. Sellepärast on kohtu poolt linna väravavahtidele antud käsk vanamehikese küsimise peale iga kord vastuseks anda: „Linn ei ole kaugeltki valmis, seal on palju ehitamist pooleli, mille peale ehk mõni hea aasta kulub, enne kui kõik tööd korrale saavad.”

Võõras vanamehike vangutab siis vihaselt pead, pobiseb sõnu mida vaht ei oska, pöörab kanna pealt ümber ja läheb Ülemiste järve tagasi, kus tema alaline asupaik on.

Peaks temale küsimise peale kogemata vastatama, et linnas enam midagi ehitada pole, siis tuleks Tallinnale samal tunnil ots, sest Ülemiste järv kogu veega Lasnamäelt orgu langeks ja linna kõigega ära uputaks.

Tallinna legendid (1985). Tallinn: Perioodika.