American Association of Teachers of German

Reports from 3 students - Ethan Mauldin, Ben Lipton, and Jordan Hitchcock

Ethan Mauldin with host family

When I applied for the AATG Endowment Scholarship, I did so with large hope of winning, but without the belief that I could realistically receive the award.  I had only taken two years of German, and although I loved learning the language and was trying to learn more about German history and culture, I knew very little at that point, and I believed that, while I would love the opportunity to visit Germany and do a student exchange, there was very little chance of that actually happening.

When I finally received the email – sitting in the same library as I am now – which informed me that I had received the award, I was overjoyed and in disbelief.  I called my parents immediately and sent an email to my German teacher, who had rushed the application in as soon as she could and had faith during the entire process that I would be able to travel to Germany.

Over the next months, I continued, though now with greater intensity, to study German language and culture as well as the municipal layout of Berlin.  I waited for any mail from AATG with information about the trip, and once school ended, couldn’t wait until two weeks passed so that I could finally depart, and, more importantly, arrive in Berlin.

When I got there, it was more difficult than I had expected.  I was unsure of what to say to my host family, and very unsure of what they were saying to me.  They were very friendly, but communication was difficult, and trying to get used to the cultural differences and jet lag made for a difficult morning.  Finally, some time after noon, my German came back to me, and I began to understand the Grimms Märchen which were being told at the philharmonic, to which Sandra, my host sister, had taken me.  Later, Sandra led me around the city and explained where we were and what we were looking at.  Slowly, my confidence in my German increased, and I became more comfortable conversing with her and the rest of my host family.

When I awoke the next morning, I had overcome the jet lag and any reservations about being in a foreign country so far away from home.  I woke up ready to get to know my host family, my fellow exchange students, and the city and country in which we would be living for the next three weeks.  From that point on, I never looked back, and the next three weeks turned out to be some of the best three weeks of my life.

Our trip was set up so that time was divided between being in the classroom formally learning German, spending time on cultural field trips, and spending time with the host families or other exchange students and their host brothers and sisters.  Together, this proved to be an excellent combination; we were able to learn about German culture and language both formally, inside the classroom, and informally and spontaneously, outside of it.  And beyond simply learning about language and culture, we were able to live and experience it all, while enjoying our time doing so.

My experience in Berlin will be one I remember as being both remarkably educational and enjoyable.  Our group made day trips to tour the city, visit a porcelain museum, view a German opera, learn about a concentration camp, visit Potsdam and tour Schloss Sansoucci, and cook German food, as well as a weekend trip to Dresden.  Each of these experiences, as well as many others which we had as a group or as small groups with a few of us and our host brothers and sisters, was extremely enjoyable and educational, and being able to visit places I had read about and connect them to what German history I knew was a really valuable experience.

Through all of the experiences we were able to share, I feel like I really got to know many of the Americans and Germans on the trip very well, and I ended up being able to make a lot of German and American friends throughout my stay.  Along with the experiences I had and everything that I learned, I think that meeting and conversing with all of these people was one of the greatest parts of the trip and one of the things I will remember most.  Everyone I met was exceptionally friendly and willing to talk about anything ranging from their own life to international politics.

In particular, I remember a conversation I had with one of Sandra's friends.  We were at her friend's surprise party, and I was being introduced to everyone there.  At first it was just small talk, but after a while her friend's granddad starting asking me about the American political system, which I did my best to explain to him.  Afterwards, I had a long conversation about American politics and America's view of Germany as well as Germany's view of America, and I ended up learning a lot about what Germans think about different regions of Germany and America, as well as more about where the American stereotypical view of Germany had originated and what Germans thought of this.

Later in my trip, as my host family was all sitting around the table after dinner, my host father, Herr Bildstein, left and retrieved three large boxes which he brought into the room and set on the table.  The rest of my host family groaned and said that I would have no interest, but I was eager to see what was inside.  It turns out that my host father was a landlord and had been collecting photos and documents which his tenants had left behind, and the boxes he had set down were full of hundreds of priceless historical photos and documents.  He explained each to me and we ended up having a long conversation about German history, which was fascinating for me and very personal and difficult for him.  The fact that he was willing to open up and talk about his family's story to a relatively unknown American living in his house was something I found amazing, yet it was something I encountered in almost everyone I met, and definitely one of the things I will remember most about my stay in Germany.

Since I reluctantly returned, I have made plans to visit some friends I made on the trip in Boston and New York, as well as possibly having German friends come visit us in America.  I have also started making plans to return to Germany next summer to do an internship while staying with another host family and taking weekend trips to visit friends in Berlin and explore other areas of Germany.  I am starting at college this fall with a plan to major in German and Religious Studies and minor in French, an idea about which I am very enthusiastic.  I know that my intense interest in Germany, as well as Europe and other  cultures in general, would not be nearly as strong, and my intent to major in German and minor in French likely nonexistent, had it not been for the terrific experience I had this summer thanks to AATG.

At first, I was concerned about this trip. I was nervous about my ability to speak German when it was required of me, and I thought that the culture would be very different and was afraid I would accidentally be rude. I didn’t know if I would be comfortable with my host family or my fellow travelers, and I knew that I would miss my family in New York. So although I was excited when I got to the airport in Newark, I was also quite nervous. In the airport and on the plane rides, however, I got to know some of the people I was traveling with, and decided that I felt comfortable after all. As we got closer to our destination, I became more and more excited, and by the time we reached the airport in Hamburg I was looking for and taking pictures of anything that looked “German” about the airport: “Ausgang” written above the exit door, “Hauptbahnhof” displayed on the bus, and so on. I was tired from a long day of traveling, but excited to meet my hosts.

My host brother met me and brought me home, where I met the rest of the family. And here another one of my worries about the trip was dispelled. They were the sweetest hosts I could have asked for. They gave me my own room, took me on trips, and fed me strawberry shortcake. I soon became very comfortable with them. I would talk with my host mother about what I had done that day, with my host father about his work or about the music we both liked to listen to, or with my host brother about politics, culture, and computer games. Getting to know my host family was definitely my favorite part of the trip.

This is not to say, however, that the rest of it wasn’t fun. Quite the opposite is true, in fact. Every day we went to school at the Gymnasium, where we Americans would begin the day with a period with Mr. Taglang, our chaperone. This was a time to get to know each other, to tell stories about the previous evening, and to discuss how we were settling in. This period was both very useful for learning new words and appreciating differences in the culture, and also very entertaining because of all the funny experiences people had had with their host families. After first period, we would have politics with Frau Pelny, and then German with Frau Zenk. Both of these were very enjoyable for me, because I had never had a class taught only in German before. I learned a lot from these classes, in large part because of what was being taught in them, but also because trying to understand what was being said in the class was good exercise for my ear.

Eventually, though, the trip came to an end. There was a potluck dinner on the last night, and we Americans provided the entertainment, to thank our hosts for all they had done for us. The next morning at breakfast, my family brought me farewell gifts: a T-shirt, a postcard, and a box of chocolate sprinkles! It was hard to say good-bye to them. It was just as hard when we reached the United States, after three weeks in Germany and then 10 hours on a plane together, and had to say good-bye to each other. But the good news is, we’re keeping in touch. I’ve exchanged messages on Facebook with both my American travelling companions, and some of our German hosts. And I’m keeping up an email correspondence with my host family, half in German and half in English. I won’t forget this trip. I met some really great people, saw lots of cool things, and got practice in German that I never could have in school. I’m not sure yet what language (or languages) I’m going to be studying in college, but I do know that every time I speak German now I’ll think of my host family and the conversations we had.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to visit Germany and the Salem International Summer School. I had a wonderful time at the school and in the surrounding towns.

I left for Germany from Logan International Airport in Boston. Seven hours later, I landed in Frankfurt around five o'clock local time. From Frankfurt, I took a short, half hour flight to Friedrichshafen,  a town close to the Salem International Summer School. On every flight, both to and from Germany, I had a window seat which allowed me to see more of Germany from the air. I arrived around noon, and was met by Jenny, one of the school assistants who took me and four other students to Spetzgart.

Saturday was spent recovering from the jet lag, playing soccer, and learning names. Saturday morning there was a placement test, and in the afternoon there was a rally around the school grounds. Sunday was also relaxed, which was good because my internal clock was still seven hours slow. In the morning there was the “Tobel Race” which was a competitive journey through the fields surrounding the school. After lunch we spent three hours exploring and sampling food in the nearby town of Überlingen.

At six forty-five the next morning, I was awaken for a daily morning run or swim. The first week I chose to run. The course was a two kilometer path through a wheat field, a wooded area, and a orchard behind the school. It turns out that running is very hard at seven o'clock in the morning, although I did manage to consistently be one of the first finishers. Breakfast was at eight, and classes started at nine. I was placed in the advanced German group along with fifteen other students. The classes were three hours long, ending a half hour before lunch. Although the content varied widely, the format was same. The first two hours consisted of cultural lessons in which we read part of a book Die Geschichte von Herrn Sommer by the German author Patrick Süskind, talked about cultural stereotypes, and discussed different types of literature. The third hour was devoted to grammar, and we covered such topics as the genitive and relative clauses.

After lunch, I had Outdoor II for the first week. We went mountain biking, canoing, sailing, and on the last day water skiing. On Wednesday we spent another hour in Überlingen, and in the evening the Clubhaus opened up for dancing.

On Saturday morning, we broke up into groups for our weekend trips. I had sightseeing in Freiburg which was an hour and a half drive from Spetzgart. After dropping off our bags at the hostel where we were staying, we took the streetcar into the heart of the city. There, we saw some of the historical sights such as the Freiburg Münster, an impressive thirteenth century cathedral, before we were set free for three hours of shopping. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant, after which we returned to the hostel for the night. On Sunday we drove a half hour to an amusement park where we spent the rest of the day.

The second week went by much like the first. In the morning I went swimming followed by class. In the afternoon I had Survival instead of Outdoor II where I learned first aid, how to tell if water is clean, and again on the last day we went water skiing.

Saturday, August the second, was my last full day in Germany. Most of the day was spent preparing for a presentation later that night for the parents. As my musical talent is limited, and my acting skills are non-existent, I helped out with the set changes. When I was not busy rehearsing, I was able to spend some quality time with the people who I had gotten to know during my stay there, but who I would probably never see again. I was also able to take one last swim in the lake, and play one last game of soccer. At seven o'clock sharp the performance started. As far as I could tell, the performance was great; the music was good, the set changes were fast, and the acting was funny. When the last song had ended, we quickly broke down the stage, and the Clubhaus opened for one last night of dancing.

Early on Sunday morning, I had to say a sad goodbye to the wonderful people I got to know over those two weeks, and begin my return journey to America. My stay in Germany was very inspiring, and it encouraged me to continue taking German for my last two years of high school. Although I do not know what the future holds, I intend continue my German education into college, and perhaps even enter a career where knowledge of the German language is necessary.  I had a great seventeen days in Germany, and I hope the students next year and in the years to follow will enjoy their time at Salem International Summer School as much as I did.

A summer visit to the International Summer School at Salem College

The school year 2007/2008 was a quite successful year for the German program at Hanover High School: Our students scored above the 85th percentile in the AATG National German Exam and all participating students passed the German Language Diploma A2 (DSD). On top of these impressive results, Jordan Hitchcook, then a German 2 student, received the Salem International Summer School Scholarship awarded by the AATG for his excellent performance in the AATG National German Exam. Thanks to a travel stipend awarded by the Salem International School / Salem College (http://www.salemcollege.de), I was able to visit their International Summer School Program in Überlingen / Spetzgart this summer. 

This visit was a very memorable one. Dr. Christian Niederhofer, business manager of Salem College, took a lot of time to make us familiar with the school: He gave us an introduction to the school’s history and philosophy and he showed us the four campuses of the school – three castles (Hohenfels, Salem, Spetzgart) and a recently built Salem International College (Härlen), an architecturally impressive campus with a focus on sustainability.

My wife and I were accommodated in a spacious apartment at Spetzgart Castle, home of the International Summer School, with a spectacular view over the Bodensee – it was easy to get up in the morning with such an amazing view. All male students were accommodated in another wing of the castle, the female students lived in a newer building of the Spetzgart campus.

The students were truly international: a good number of students were from Germany, but students came also from Spain, Italy, Greece, Russia, China, South Korea, Bangladesh, Great Britain, etc. Salem College has a bilingual German-English campus, and each student took language classes to perfect their second or third language. All meals are catered in the cafeteria and students and staff eat together.

Naturally, I was mostly interested in the school and its German language portion of the summer school program. I was curious to see how Jordan was doing in a different, more natural language setting. And he was doing just fine: He placed into the highest language group and so the program was challenging at times, but it was a very good experience to be in a classroom with a mix of students who have learned German at a bilingual schools and more traditional foreign language classes. As far as I could tell, he found his German sufficient to communicate with others. Three hours of German for two weeks in a full immersion environment (with the option of escaping into his native language) boosted his language skills and added a little local southern German flavor to his language education. (Back in our classroom at Hanover High School after the summer, Jordan is more confident then ever using German and is determined to use it in conversation with me.)

The mornings at the summer school centered on the three hours of language class. The afternoon activities ranged from mountain biking and hiking to water skiing and survival training. On the second weekend, students could choose between several activities – Jordan picked tour to the university town of Freiburg, others went camping or did other activities.

One day, we picked up Jordan right after his German class and went with him to Meersburg, which hosts Germany’s castle with the longest continuous use as a residence. We took a guided tour, which shed light into the castle’s varied history, from involvement in the Inquisition to its use as a family residence today. In order not to miss the afternoon activity, we drove Jordan to the next event – waterskiing at the Seepark Linzgau.

For me, visiting Salem College was the highlight of the summer. The program was excellently organized by Maike Häusler and Natalie Lander and everyone was very welcoming. I very much enjoyed visiting Jordan’s German classes with his teachers Maya Siegel and Maike Häusler. I would like to express my thanks to Dr. Niederhofer for showing us around and for providing us with an introduction to the school, its history and philosophy, and also to all the teachers and other program staff for their openness and hospitality.

Uwe Goodall-Heising, teacher of Jordan Hitchcock