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Robyn Gray: My work as a PAD Fremdsprachassistentin in Berlin

Europe 2012 2089

My name is Robyn Gray, and over the school year of 2013-2014, I worked as a Fremdsprachassistentin in Berlin as part of the PAD program. The school to which I was assigned was a Gymnasium, so the students attending were between grades five and twelve.

My experience began with a three-day orientation that took place outside of Cologne. I was pleasantly surprised by just how helpful this orientation was, in not only preparing for the work we would be doing, but also in allowing us a chance to meet new people that would be working near us. The organizers grouped together students that would be living in the same cities and areas in Germany, so that we would have a network of friends upon our arrival. The majority of students there were from England and Ireland, since students from the U.K. could do this experience abroad in the third year of their degree. This is referred to as an Erasmus exchange.  There were only about 7 other students there from Canada, but also some from New Zealand and Australia. There was a group of these students that I saw regularly throughout the year.

At orientation, we gained some information about our roles in our new schools, but there were variances for each of us once we arrived at our actual workplaces. At the orientation, we learned about how to create our bank accounts once we arrived in our cities, how to obtain a visa, and how to find a place to live (I was fortunately all set up before I arrived). We practiced creating lesson plans for classes, learned some aspects of the difference between our roles and the teacher’s role, and were encouraged to get involved in extracurricular activities at our schools.

My first few weeks in Berlin were a bit frantic with getting everything settled. Setting up my bank account was not too difficult, especially since everyone working at said bank were very adept at English. I was a bit worried about setting up my visa, but luckily everything went smoothly. In regards to getting around, I was lucky that the transit system is so extensive in Berlin. A few of my friends working in smaller cities ended up buying a car, or else they made sure that they lived close to the schools where they worked.

The principal and teachers working at my school were extremely happy to have me there, especially since I am a native English speaker. They hadn’t really expected me to speak much German, so they were surprised with how much I knew (even though when I was applying to the PAD program, I had to prove how much German I knew by passing an exam!).

To anyone who partakes in the PAD program, I recommend that you ask your teachers to create a weekly schedule. I heard stories about some students that would show up at work and not have any idea what they would be doing that day, or if they would be called upon at all. I was given a specific schedule, showing what class I would be assisting with every day so I knew when to be where. I had Fridays off, which gave me the opportunity to travel. There were three or four teachers I worked with every week, usually with the same classes. My regulars ranged from grade six to ten.

The difficult thing with this job was not having a very clear idea on what my role was. I tried to make sure that I discussed my role with each teacher, so that I knew where I stood – the amount of responsibility I had varied based on which teacher I was working with. In some classes, I would take small groups of students into the hall and have conversations with them. In other classes, I would do a portion of the lecture, coordinating my teaching time with the primary teacher. There were a few classes in which I designed and executed a lesson plan on my own. I created one lesson plan and PpowerPoint presentation telling the class all about Canada.

Every week, I ran a “Conversation Class” individually. This was a drop-in class for any students in any grade who wanted to attend. Each week I would have a theme for the class, and we would have discussions based on this theme. Sometimes we watched television or movies.

When I wasn’t teaching, I was getting involved in German life in other ways. Since I used to play the bass guitar in high school, I joined a recreational orchestra. This was a great way to practice my German with the members of the band. I also joined a gym near my apartment. In addition, I took a three-month German language course at the Technical University in Berlin, where I met other international students and had the chance to improve my German.

There was a group of about twelve students living in Berlin that had met at orientation, and we got together about once a week. In Berlin, they have an event called “Cinesneak” at the Potsdamer Platz movie theatre every Thursday. You buy a movie ticket for 5 euros, but you have no idea what movie it is you’re seeing. It became a weekly tradition for us to go to dinner and then Cinesneak.

During a school holiday, a group of me and my friends from orientation went to Oktoberfest. There are small Oktoberfest events in Berlin, but we were able to go to the one in Munich as well. Hotels around Oktoberfest book up extremely early in the year, so the best we could do was stay in tents at a campground. I was happy we went on weekdays instead of on the weekend – it was still very busy during the week, but on the weekend it would have been insanely packed.

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Outside of this trip, there were lots of other opportunities to travel – personally, I went to Barcelona, Amsterdam, Prague, Leipzig, and even Dresden for the famous Christmas Markets. The Christmas Markets in Germany are like nothing I’ve ever experienced in Canada. My friends went to a lot of other places too, including Budapest. I tried to find a balance between traveling and seeing as much of Europe as I could, while also saving some money to bring home with me when the year was done.

The year in Germany seemed to fly by. One of the best pieces of advice I received at orientation was that even though it is an amazing experience and “one of the most memorable years of your life”, not every day will be perfect. You will sometimes miss your bus, or fall and scrape your knee (that was a crappy day, let me tell you!), or feel homesick. It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but it is still a job with several daily stresses.

It felt like I played a fairly minimal role at the school, but at the end of the year I was so touched by how grateful the students and teachers were. A few classes signed cards for me, the teachers gave me gifts, and even the students in my conversation course gave me chocolates. I learned a lot about myself over the course of the year, improved my German fluency, and gained a lot of confidence.

I hope that you consider pursuing this amazing opportunity. As much as a year can seem like a long time to spend in a foreign country, it is short in the grand scheme of things. For me, this was the perfect step to take once I had finished my degree and wasn’t sure where my life would go next. I have made friends all over the world that I still keep in touch with and can’t wait to visit, and my experience teaching taught me a lot about myself as a person.

If you want to read more about my experience, please visit my blog at: https://robynpippin.wordpress.com/

Aufwiedersehen!

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On behalf of Stephanie Taralson: PAD – worth doing!

Sometimes in the rush of moving on to the next stage in your life, it’s easy to forget to wrap up loose ends from the last stage. My position with the PAD finished over a month ago, but I suppose it’s never too late to post a farewell on this blog.

I couldn’t have had a better time during my year as an assistant. From the photos that I saw on Instagram, the tweets, and Facebook posts, many of my fellow assistants felt the same. For a couple of days, there was a stream of class pictures, photos of farewell gifts and parties, and general fondness as we all said goodbye to our schools, students, and friends. I, for one, felt many pangs at leaving my lovely flat and driving out of Göttingen.

If anyone is considering applying to the PAD, all I can say is: DO IT. My goal for the year was to improve my German to the point that I felt comfortable communicating in any situation, and I think I can say that I’ve made it. It’s often sprinkled with mistakes or missing the perfect words, but just in the past month, I’ve gone apartment hunting again and managed everything comfortably; shopped for new running shoes with proper arch support; talked politics, feminism, and history; and sorted out new health insurance at the Krankenkasse. I wouldn’t have dared to do those things ten months ago.

Not just the language, but the cultural experiences have been incredible. From Christmas with friends near Frankfurt to classes at the university to a choir retreat in the Harz mountains, my German friends and colleagues were kind and welcoming, and they gave me a real taste of life here. That’s not to mention the literal tastes – we just finished Spargelzeit. Asparagus season is the most delicious national celebration period ever.

The next stage is just beginning. A few weeks before the PAD assistantship ended, I was hired by a travel company to manage their day-to-day operations in central Europe, based out of Berlin. When I started German 101 at UVic almost four years ago, I had no clue that I would end up moving here long-term. I came to Germany hoping that some new direction would open up for me, and thankfully I was ready to seize the opportunity when it came. I’m now becoming an expert on all things ‘visa paperwork’, which is just as much fun as it sounds…

So this is ciao from me for now – viele Grüße aus Berlin! Bis dann!

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Lauren in Laufen: an introduction.

Grüß euch! 

Like Stephanie and Alex, I will first excuse myself for not posting earlier, it took me a while to figure out exactly what I needed to do (and what I should write about!).

My name is Lauren Thompson and I  am one of the many (well 6) former UVic Germanic Studies students who are working as Fremdsprachenassistenten in Germany for the school year 2014-2015. However I have been sent to place quite far away from most of my comrades, the borderlands between Bavaria and Austria.

The city where I am living and working is called “Laufen” and it is in Bavaria. It is not to be confused with Laufen in Switzerland or the city named “Lauf” in Bavaria. It is a city of 6000 which lies directly on the border of Austria. The border here is the river Salzach and on the opposite side of the bridge over the river is the town of Oberndorf (ca. 5500 people), so the two function as a sort of international combined community. The internet tells me that they used to be the same city, but they were split between Germany and Austria after the Napoleonic wars. Laufen is quite an old city which got rich because of the use of the Salzach for shipping salt from the mountains (I will aim to write a post about the salt trade as there are multiple museums and salt related attractions in the area). 

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The bridge between Laufen and Oberndorf from the German side. You can see the Salzach a little bit beneath the bridge.

In Laufen I am working at two schools, a Gymnasium and a Mittelschule*. My time is split so that 1/3 of my hours are at the Mittelschule and the rest are at the Gymnasium. I’ve been at it for almost two months so far and what I do varies week to week.

  • At the Gymnasium I have a few hours that are consistent. In particular 3 hours per week I have small groups from the Oberstufe (the grade 11s and 12s) to practice speaking English. I also help to organize activities in normal classes, give pointers on presentations and help clarify English vocabulary during writing exercises.
  • In the Mittelschule I am always with the same classes, one 5th, one 6th and one 9th. The exercises I do with them also vary (as does how much I use my German). With the grade 5s I act as an example for pronunciation, with the grade 6s I lead exercises with small groups and with the grade 9s I do small group exercises where we work on speaking and pronunciation.

 

I also live in the city of Laufen, but on one of the last streets that can really be considered in Laufen proper. The secretary from my school was lovely and found me a place which is typically a Ferienwohnung (vacation rental), which is not the cheapest accommodation, but is also not terribly expensive and I have two bedrooms, a full kitchen and a large living room with a view of… farms. It is about a 10-15 minute walk to the schools and a 25 minute walk (or 10 minute bike) to Austria.

Now that you know where I am and what I’m doing, I’ll tell you a bit about my free time and what I’ve done so far.

You don’t have to pity me too much for being in the country as Laufen is only about 20km North of Salzburg and I can quite easily be in the mountains here. Unfortunately the train journey to Salzburg isn’t the easiest connection, from Laufen it only runs now and then, but from Oberndorf there is a “Lokalbahn” that travels to and from every 30 minutes. Although it isn’t the best of connections, if I want to go out to one of Salzburg’s many Irish pubs (yes, many) or to the theatre, Salzburg really isn’t too far.

As mentioned, the mountains, aka the Alps, are quite near to here and I pretty much live in the foothills. I really like hiking and skiing, so this is a fantastic for me. On the weekends I’ve done a few hikes and a short bike tour with a colleague from the school. I am already planning some ski trips including possibly going on a school ski trip.

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View from Rauhen Kopf near Bischofswiesen.

I’ve done some longer trips already, pretty much all within Germany apart from my frequent forays into Salzburg and 5 days spent in Amsterdam before I started to work. These were mostly visiting friends in Mainz, Köln, Trier, Freiburg, Frankfurt and München. I already have some other plans in the works to head up north in December and January.

Me (on the right) with friends Tylor and Svenja in Villingen. Tylor is a former FSA who now lives and works in Germany.

So that is a short introduction to my life in Bavaria, you’ll be sure to hear from me soon. So stay tuned if you want to hear about the Bavarian dialect, living on the borderlands, my arrival in Germany and my adventures in and out of school!

Pfiat eich!** Lauren in Laufen. 

*Mittelschule is the Bavarian Ministry’s euphemism for Hauptschule. 

** Also can be spelled “Pfiat euch.” Bayrisch for something like “Tschüß,” though the actual hochdeutsch would be “behüt euch Gott.”