School

So, picking up where we left off...school! Our classes are very small, since we are just this one program. I think there are 12 students in my class, which is a great number. Mornings most days we have Sprachunterricht (language lesson) with Susanne, our wonderful teacher. We practice grammar and some vocabulary, with a variety of activities - sometimes changing all the verbs in a story from one tense to another, asking as many questions as we want, reviewing homework exercises, writing or speaking sentences, and of course Susanne teaches more traditional lessons as well for us to learn from. (And she begs us, "Nicht fragen! Accepterien!" [Don't ask! Accept!] when teaching inexplicable things like irregular verbs.) That class is generally from 9 - 12:15, with a wee break in the middle. And once you are in the classroom and Susanne is there, it is all-German all-the-time. We often engage in a bit of miming to get our points across. :)

Then we have lunch, and I usually eat in one of the student cafeterias with friends from class. There I can get a meal (for example, sandwich + Apfelschorle + candy bar/yogurt) for around 3 Euro.

After our lunch break, we have Konversation and Tutorium with Rosi, our tutor. These classes are also great and tons of fun -- we play lots of games, have "cocktail parties" in which we must introduce ourselves and make small-talk in German, and also get help with difficult concepts from Sprach Unterricht.

Finally, once a week we have Landeskunde. This is our only class taught in English, and it is a relief to be able to express more complicated concepts! Landeskunde is taught by Klaus, who is a professor of philosophy and absolutely wonderful guy. He is funny and smart, and the class is really a great exercise for my intellectual side. We study some German history, and also modern events and culture - for example, in our last class, we studied the German political system. We even had a mock election where various groups had to make a speech representing a party. Klaus believes that one great way to discuss cultural values and differences is through minutae - leading to our wonderful and LONG discussions of, for example, why the US has water fountains, and German doesn't. Last class we had a great talk about dialects and accents, and why they are so much stronger in Germany than in the states. Landeskunde is several hours long and always flies by because it's just so interesting and fun! (For nerds like me.)

So far we have already had one quiz, and next Wednesday is a Big Exam. Eep!