Six exhausted students and their two weary teachers recently returned to Australia after spending four glorious weeks in Germany.
We began our trip in the capital, Berlin, which was at the time suffering from typical autumn weather. We visited the Parliament buildings and the Haus am Checkpoint Charlie Museum (a museum established in the 1970s to tell the stories of those who had escaped communist East Germany). We discovered German shopping and German food and worked our elementary ‘shop German.’
After two days, we hopped on a train to Bremen where the real adventure began! We were met at the train station by our host families and went our separate ways. Students attended school on most days and had the joy of seeing all disciplines taught in German (except, of course, English, French and Latin!). Each week the Australian students and their buddies took a day off school to go on an excursion together. We went to Hamburg, Celle, and on a bike tour in Cuxhafen. Every time we fell off our bikes or crashed into something our German hosts merely informed onlookers that we were only Australians and therefore such accidents were to be expected!
On the very last weekend we had the pleasure of witnessing a true cultural event, that is, we saw Werder Bremen thrash Berlin in soccer. After that we headed off to the Freimarkt, an Octoberfest equivalent which had just opened in Bremen.
As a teacher, it is such a privilege to see students integrating into another culture through language. What a fantastic opportunity to learn how other people think and to see that behind our cultural and linguistic exteriors we are all essentially the same – created and loved by God.
Author: Mrs Rachel Collis (German Teacher)
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