With the start of a new school year comes the return of sports, clubs, and new classes for students every Fall, and with those, huge adjustments to new routines. Now imagine having to adjust to a new country as well! For the students involved in the German exchange program at Knoch, this was a nerve-racking reality.
Earlier this year, 10 German students traveled to our very own glamorous Saxonburg, Pennsylvania to participate in the German American Partnership Program (GAPP) through Knoch. While they were here, they were subjected to the full American experience: high school football games, fake Octoberfest, and even Target shopping trips. However, their short time in the U S of A has taught both them and us a lot more than expected.
Being a host in the program myself, I got to learn a lot about the similarities and differences between daily life in America, and daily life in Germany through my partner, Celine Götz’s point of view.
According to her, the adjustment from “some weird blender machine that just boils the water” and a kettle was both confusing and fascinating. Besides kitchen utensils, Götz found the lack of public transportation to be a significant change from her own experiences in her hometown of Stulln, Germany.
“We travel by train and bus a lot, while in America, everybody has a car,” said Götz.
Additionally, Götz describes her trip to the states as rather eye opening, learning lots about the complexity of American life and culture.
“Not everybody is dressed as Adam Sandler,” she reports, despite stereotypes of American fashion trends stating otherwise.
But the exchange students themselves aren’t the only ones who learned more through the program. Senior Lindsey Zill, another host, feels like she learned a lot about the differences between American and German culture.
“I feel like our way of life is a lot more go, go, go. We never really sit still or relax,” said Zill.
This is something that I personally heard a lot from the German exchange participants during their stay. Often they described American people and life as much more hectic and busy than that of Europe.
Senior Sarah Mitchell, a non-participant in the GAPP, but someone who still spent plenty of time getting to know some of the German students, also took note of the educational differences between the American and German systems.
“I was really surprised and impressed by how good their English was,” said Mitchell. “It made me realize how the U.S. doesn’t prioritize learning second languages.”
I, too, was very impressed by the language skills and knowledge of the students compared to our own, despite many of our American students taking language classes for several years. Personally, this whole exercise was rather humiliating coming from someone who has been taking Spanish for over four years now, and now feels pretty inept, especially considering I don’t actually know any German at all.
Regardless of a new-found incompetence in language and culture, the experience of the GAPP program has so far proved to be very educational and beneficial, not only to those directly involved in the exchange, but also to other students who had the opportunity to interact with and get to know some of the German students.
The gaining of this experience and knowledge has helped to change many people’s views of life both in America and Germany, and hopefully being exposed to different perspectives will continue to teach us more about people from across the globe for time to come!
