Since my last few posts have been kind of serious, I think it's time for a more Buzzfeed-esque one to describe several events I've encountered in Freiburg so far: When I got to Freiburg before anyone else: Waking up in my bed after traveling the entire day before: When I saw my friends from abroad again: When I found all of the Wurststands am Munsterplatz And 1 Euro für ein Kugel Eis: Trying to schedule classes like and then take notes in them in German When I found other Americans in my political science class: When my poli sci professor asked if I was familiar with MUN: When I contemplated whether I will reach a point where I've eaten too many chocolate pastries for breakfast: When I completely butcher a phrase in German When I first tasted Radler: And German beer in general: When I remembered I have to go back to Natty Lite in the States: And open container laws: When I Skype into a meeting at home: ...But it's a Friday night because of the time difference When I'm at a lecture on the American presidential election and don't want people to know I'm American: Trying to convince Europeans America isn't completely falling apart like When a German says "I have a question about Trump's credibility" When the UN lecturer talks about all of the UN treaties that the US hasn't ratified: How the workers at the Amt acted when I tried to get my residency permit: Meeting my tandem partner for the first time: When a kid in my class insinuates I won't be able to speak German well: Avoiding my fellow countrymen when traveling who are like this: And this: ...but then getting to go really cool places with your friends like
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Even if you don't know me personally, a few clicks through this site have probably revealed to you that I have an immense interest in languages and the process of language learning. Consequently, I have a plethora of experiences interacting with people or being the person learning a second language. As a result, I have always been kind of sensitive about the topic. In the past, whenever I have interacted with non-native speakers of English, I try to be conscientious of my word choice. By no means do I try to dumb down the material -- because that can just come across as insulting -- but I will definitely try and think of more straight-forward ways to phrase things, and check myself if I notice that I'm using a ton of slang or strange expressions. My perspective on this subject has been crucially shaped by my own experiences interacting in a second language, both as an exchange student to Germany in high school, and an intern in France between high school and college. While my experience as an exchange student was relatively positive, my one as an intern was more complicated (that's not to say that I didn't have a good time -- I did!). My French was still a work in progress (but I've come to the realization that language learning always is) and the language gap between myself and my employer was a source of frustration on multiple occasions. I did learn several important life lessons from these interactions; never before had I realized how easy it is for many people to equate the ability to express one's self to overall intelligence. Logically, I can see how this connection can be made; we foremost express ourselves, our ideas, and our worldview through language, and so when one's expression is lacking in complexity or clarity, it is easy to leap to the conclusion that this comes from a lack of intelligence. I found myself frustrated on multiple occasions that my employer would question my intelligence or competency -- something that I had never struggled to express before -- simply because I would fail to understand certain instructions in French on the first try.
I took this lesson to heart, and when I returned back to America, I tried to be diligent about catching myself if I found myself judging international students or other non-native speakers of English based on how well they were able to convey their ideas. My feelings on this topic were further developed this past school year when I had the privilege to work as an ESL tutor as part of an English class on adult literacy. Over the course of the semester, as I met twice weekly with my learning partner -- a middle aged Korean woman who had lived in the US for ten years -- I gained many insights into the struggles and prejudices someone might face simply because they didn't know the language. My learning partner shared with me personal stories such as one instance when she went to a Starbucks in Texas and became extremely embarrassed because the barrister couldn't understand her order and held up the whole line. She expressed anxiety to me about understanding the teacher during parent-teacher conferences, or conveying her symptoms to the doctor when she had a chest cold. She also told me how the principal at one of the elementary schools that her children had attended in America had been clearly prejudiced against the parents of the international students, barely offering them a wave while she enthusiastically greeted the parents of the American students. Having worked with my learning partner extensively, I knew how fastidiously she worked to learn and improve her English, and through our various discussions I also knew that she was far from an unintelligent or untalented person, so it annoyed me to think that she was treated as such just because of the language barrier. As a result of our interactions, I began to be more vocal about calling out peers and friends who discriminated against classmates or professors just because they couldn't understand what they were saying due to an accent. Today, I experienced the flipside of this situation. My first (and only class) was the tutorat for my history seminar on the League of Nations. Although technically last week was the first session of it, I had just switched into the class, and evidently most of the others were missing, so we spent the first part of class introducing ourselves and talking about our experiences with previous tutorats. When I introduced myself, I explained that I had never had a tutorat before, because I came from the US and it wasn't really a thing at my university, so I wasn't sure what to expect. After this, our TA talked a bit about the presentations that we have to do for class, and then had us brainstorm in groups good and bad practices for presentations. We then went around the class and shared some ideas our groups had proposed. For his second suggestion, a kid in the final group put forth this... shall we say "interesting"... tip: "I think it's important to have good grammar when you're giving your presentation." (Okay, sure, good, I'm with you so far.) "Like, it can be a bad presentation if you can't speak German well." (Okay...) "Like if you come from another country and make lots of mistakes in grammar and stuff, that just sucks to listen to." (K I'm feeling a bit attacked now). "Like it always sucks if you go to a lecture, and the person giving the presentation is like, from another country, and like, maybe they speak English normally and are now trying to speak German and make more than like two or three mistakes. Like those presentations just suck." I will give credit to our TA -- he was very diplomatic in his response to the kid. Obviously, though, I was angered, because given the context, it was hard not to feel like this was a personal statement directed towards me. I had never even spoken to this kid and he was already, right out of the gate, insinuating that I would give a lousy presentation just because German wasn't my first language. Furthermore, as I noted before, I find it extremely narrow-minded when people judge the content of one's thoughts and abilities solely upon their speaking abilities in a foreign language. This kid is by no means the only person to have ever behaved this way; as I've noted, some of my best friends, and even I myself, am guilty of such discrimination. While I'm still kind of upset, I'm determined not to let this one interaction affect my entire perception of the class. Perhaps in a bit I'll forgive this kid (or just try and show him up by doing a kickass presentation). Nevertheless, I think this story is a good reminder to us all to be more considerate in how we formulate our impressions and interactions with others, especially on the basis of language. Also, considering this post, I think it's kind of humorous, because before we started talking about presentations, the TA opened the class with the question "What is the importance of language when evaluating history?" Heute probiere ich über die erste Woche des Semester auf deutsch zu schreiben. Natürlich ist das ein bisschen schwerer, aber ich glaube, dass es mir helfen wird, um meine deutsch zu verbessern. (Lustig -- ich habe dieses Phrase "deutsch zuverbessern" viele in den letzten Tage gehört). So.
Das neues Semester fängt an Montag, aber ich hätte keine Vorlesungen oder Seminaren, so es war für mich frei. Das war ein bisschen langweilig, weil ich keine Schule bis Dezember hatte, und wirklich würde etwas machen. Ich bin spät aufgewacht, und dann habe ich mein Blog für PLA geschrieben (vielen Dank für die Zeitzone, weil ich wirlklich zu müde am Sonntag war) und dann probierte ich meine Kursen zu finden. Das war... ein bisschen schwer... Ich glaube, dass die Website für die Universität ist fast schlechter als LionPath (und das ist schwer zu sein). Es gibt 2 große Grunde dafür: 1) die Organisation und 2) leere Information. 1) Die ganze Liste von Kursen sind eine große "drop down menu." Danach ist es furchtbar, wenn man verschiedene Kurse vergleichen würde, weil es nur möglich ist, über ein zulesen... nach viele Klicken. Es ist auch fast unmöglich ein Kurs wieder zufinden, weil man viele Schritte erinnern muss. 2) Wenn man auf einer Kurs klickt, gibt es nicht immer, wie viele ECTS, die man bekommen kann. Ich hatte Angst am Anfang auch, weil man nicht für alle Online belegen könnte (das ist sehr anders als in Amerika). Aber, nach 3 Stunden hatte ich eine Studienplan (ich dachte). Am Dienstag habe ich sehr früh aufgewacht. Ich habe eine Banane für Frühstuck gegessen, und dann bin ich nach dem Straßenbahn gegangen. Ja, hatte ich ein bisschen Angst, aber meistens war es spannend! In dem Bahn gab es so viele Leute... es war sehr schwer nur anzusteigen. Ich bin sehr früh an meiner Vorlesung gekommen (bestimmt weil es war ein c.t. Vorlesung) aber natürlich war ich ein bisschen nervös, wenn die Tür fast geschlossen war. Ich habe draussen gesetzt auf meinem Handy. Ein paar anderen Leute -- einschließlich eine altere Frau -- probierte die Tür mit kein Glück aufzumachen, und dann setzte bei mir. Ein bisschen nach 11.15 ist der Professor angekommen, und sind wir drinnen gegangen. Ich setze mich in dem Vor des Zimmers, um ihn besser zuhören. Die Vorlesung war über Musikgeschichte, und war sehr Interessant. Er hatte über verschiedene europäische Reichen gesprochen, und es war jetzt Interessant, weil ich mehr über Stochkholm oder Kopenhagen und so weiter weiss, von meiner Reise... aber alles ist schief gegangen, wenn er sagte, dass man nur 2 ECTS für diese Vorlesung bekommt würde. Nach dem Unterricht bin ich in der Bibliothek gegangen, und dann habe ich meine ganze Studienplan geändert. Mit Hilfe von Google fand ich, dass meisten Vorlesung war nur 2 oder 3 ECTS; man könnte 6 oder 8 oder 10 ECTS für eine Seminar oder eine Seminar mit eine Tutorat bekommen. Nach viel mehr Stunden hatte ich meine ganze Studienplan geändert... aber natürlich hat das mich nicht gefreuet... und ich hatte auch viele Hunger. Ich bin nach StuSie mit keine gute Laune gegangen... aber dann hatte ich ein bisschen Mittagessen gegessen, und dann liegte ich unter die Sonne für ein Paar Stunden... und alles ist besser gegangen. Ich besuchte Alice und Brad in Vauban und hatte Abendessen mit Alice gegessen, und dann war ich bereit für der ersten Tag des Semesters 2.0. --- Ich habe sehr früh aufgewacht, weil meine neue Seminar (über der Völkerbund) fängt an 8 Uhr. Furchtbar, na ja? Normalerweise würde ich keine 8am machen, aber... keine Anhang. Es ist ein bisschen anders hier. 1) Es is nur ein Tag (Mittwoch), nicht zwei oder drei, wie es bei PSU wird. 2) Weil ich nicht so viele Leute hier kenne, glaube ich, dass ich nicht so viele zufällige Abenteuer nach Mitternacht machen werde (vielleicht habe ich kein Recht... aber dann gibt es andere Nächte). 3) Das Wetter wird schön. Ein 8am ist wirklich furchtbar im PSU, weil es unmöglich ist, ein Teil von es im Winter zumachen. 4) Ich wurde ein 8am mehr als ein Seminar am Freitag, um mehr Zeit für Reisen zu haben. Ich hatte das Zimmer am Montag gefunden, so es war sehr einfach dazugehen. Wieder war ich früh... und es gab nur zwei andere Leute. Okay, I'm switching to English now because... Idk. I am. So anyway. A few more students funneled in (all of them guys) which made me feel even more conspicuous. Normally this wouldn't phase me, but being both the only American and the only girl in the class would have left me feeling highly self conscious. "Feels just like a PSIADA party," I messaged few of my friends, then relaxed a bit when a few other girls walked in. All in all class went pretty well. We introduced ourselves, divvied up some topics for presentations (I made sure to go somewhere in the middle so I could see a few examples of what exactly we had to do... but also because I really wanted to present on Jan Smuts, weil er Südafrikaner ist) and then talked a bit about what we already knew about the Völkerbund (League of Nations). For me, the most challenging aspect was trying to think of how to answer, because often what I wanted to say required more specific vocabulary that I just didn't know at all. Normally, after listening to a few responses from others, I could pick out the words I would have needed. I started making a list of new vocab in the side column of my notebook. After class, though, things got slighttttly awkward. All of the students who had studied abroad in the past, as well as presenters at ISO, told us it was very important to introduce ourselves to our professors as exchange students, in case any special accommodations had to be made (maybe with the timeframe for exams or grade reports). I'm already not the greatest at introductions, but nevertheless I bolstered my courage and approached the professor. "Hello, I'm an exchange student from America and I'm very happy to be here." "Okay and....?" was basically his response. Which was entirely fair, because that was basically the response I had anticipated. Luckily I had several other legitimate questions to ask, so it kind of defused the situation, but nevertheless I still felt kind of embarrassed. So now that I’m (slightly) settled in Freiburg (and killing time until I can go figure out how to get the internet to work, I thought that I would reflect on some of my experiences this past week… or just talk about them. You know, so I can remember in thirty or three years (or even a few months) what the heck I did in places like Scandinavia haha (which apparently does NOT include Finland, according to my Swedish tour guide in Stockholm… I’ll have to look into that more…)
So far I think I’m off to an excellent start “adulting.” I arrived in Freiburg wayyyy ahead of schedule – like two hours earlier. I’m not sure where I got the 6pm estimate; I think that’s just what Rome2Rio said and I went with it for some reason, although I do remember doing some math at some point… I think maybe I just factored in having some travel delays or issues or missing some connections or something… which honestly wasn’t a bad thing to do considering I’ve had a lot of issues with those in the past. Nevertheless, I arrived in Freiburg around 4pm and I hadn’t told the international office I would be there until 6. I thought it would be rude or pushy or presumptive of me to say “hey, I’m here early, please come get me,” so I decided to just chill in the Hauptbahnhof for those two hours. I had become pretty familiar with the sensation of just filling random gaps of travel time over the past few weeks, so two more hours wasn’t going to kill me. Finding a nice chair between the good old American staples of Subway and Starbucks, I logged onto the wifi and assured my friends near and far that I was still alive. As time drew (embarrassingly) close to 6pm, I set off, again, lugging my mountain of stuff in the direction I determined to be of the Uni. After powerhouse strugglebussing to what Googlemaps told me was the correct location, I saw nothing promising in sight… so I continued with my patented “let’s forge ahead for a few more seconds before returning and checking out the wifi again” strategy – which succeeded. By going an extra 15 steps or so, the front of the one sign came into view, stating that this actually was the Freiburg Uni Rektorat building. I dragged my stuff up a ramp – its scraping sounded horrendously loud – only to find the door to the building locked. Honestly this didn’t surprise me, because it was the weekend. However, I had no idea where else to meet “Larissa.” I tried to work out texting her, considered calling, and then she opened the door out of nowhere. After being shuffled through some paperwork in a thoroughly German manner, I was told to walk back to the train station, find Tram line 1 direction Wasserland, get off at Am Bischoffskreuz, and then I’d probably find my dorm. Or ask for help. Despite the 80 some pounds of luggage in my hands, I set off with a spring in my step, flung myself onto the Strassenbahn with sheer will power, almost fell all over this little German family, and hauled myself off again at the allotted stop. After taking one wrong turn (I blame a mislabeled map) I found my way to building 10. Luckily, there was an elevator, so I didn’t have to carry my luggage up all seven stories… I struggled slightly with the door, and then let myself into my surprisingly spacious flat. As is the proper custom when entering any new dorm or hotel room, I flopped on the bed for a moment, giggling to myself. I had made it. I had actually done it! After savoring the feeling for a bit, I changed, pulled myself together, and set off to get some food and necessities. Wandering down the street, I came to a shopping center, and quickly stocked up on the necessities:
I returned to my room, but I decided that I was ravenous and these groceries might not cut it tonight, especially since the only other food I had had today was a muffin at the Stockholm airport and some sort of apple pie tart thing that Swiss airlines served me about halfway across Europe, so I deposited my spoils and then ventured out again for a good, traditional German meal of Chinese food. I don’t think I’ve ever downed Chinese food so fast, and I definitely think the waitress was judging me. It didn’t help that when she asked if I wanted to pay with “Bar oder Karte?” I responded “Ummm Geld” when I could have at least said “nicht Karte,” or, from that train of thought, logically assumed “Bar” meant cash… but everyone gets some freebies on their first day, right? In my room I began that exciting but fast-draining process of unpacking. Due to the lack of volume of objects, this went much faster than moving in at Penn State has gone in the past, but this also meant I skipped a lot of exciting parts like decorating or spreading out my really awesome bedspread or deciding where to put my Keurig and got to straight to the less-exciting and more draining step of putting my clothes away. There was some satisfaction in getting to be done with my suitcases after the past few weeks, but even that started to fade… By the time I finished I was actually decently exhausted. I did text some of my friends in the States for a bit, and made a list of things I should attempt to buy or do the next day, but then I pretty much passed out, enjoying the fact that I didn’t have to sleep on top of passport or wallet for the night. |
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