Going on back to school on Monday, after a lovely week off, was not a nice thought but as always, once I was there, it was all fine. Besides, I really can't complain considering how many hours I do during a whole week! In my first couple of classes, I did a short talk on Halloween and Bonfire Night in England, in the hope that the students would find a little bit of English culture interesting and a pleasant change from English language. They don't celebrate Bonfire Night in Germany (obviously - Guy Fawkes, Houses of Parliament, King James, duh!) but they know about Halloween. All the students laughed when I asked if anybody did anything for Halloween because, as I learnt, in Germany only the very young children go knocking on doors and asking for sweets. (They say "Süßes oder Saures" which literally translates as "Sweet or Sour" instead of "Trick or Treat") For anyone over the age of say 8, it's just a normal day/night. Whereas in England where Halloween had become another excuse for teenagers to go out and party and get drunk, in Germany, the older students don't really care. I guess it makes sense - I mean what does Halloween even celebrate anyway?! It's another American thing that we have stolen and just turned into one huge commercial event. My last lesson was with the year 10s and involves me taking around 15 students for 45mins and basically practising English for their oral exam. This week, I had prepared a lesson about the Internet which involved them reading some articles, giving opinions and then a little discussion at the end.
In the morning, I had a chat with one of the teachers. I speak German with most of the teachers and I was a little worried that my German may have 'disappeared' after a week of mostly English (Although Lois and I do make an effort to speak German with each other regularly) but I soon found I slipped back into it. Additionally, I was ecstatic when the teacher told me how much my German had improved since my arrival in September. Normally when people say "you can speak good German" I don't tend to believe them, but I genuinely felt she had seen an improvement. I can't say I've noticed an improvement and I'm still frustrated that I struggle to say exactly what I want. I still can't hold a 'normal' conversation, but it is really, really encouraging to know its going in. On Monday afternoon, I met with my tandem partner in a café in the town centre. We spoke German for 45 minutes and then English for 45 minutes (as she wants to improve her English.) It was good and we understood each other throughout. It does give you a good feeling when you can switch between languages, so I cant wait to continue improving my language skills!
On Tuesday, I did 2 more lessons on Bonfire Night and Halloween. This was a little more in depth and involved taking the lesson. I had worksheets for the students to fill out and a few other activities. I was working with the year 7s, who, despite being very good English speakers, are naturally still improving their English skills. They particularly enjoyed trying to say the Halloween themed tongue twister I had prepared for them - "If two witches were watching two watches, which witch would watch which watch" - which of course in German is - "If two vitches vere vatching two vatches, vich vitch vould vatch vich vatch." The fact that Spider is pronounced "Spider" in English and not "Sch-pider" also took a bit of getting used to, but I was impressed. Some of them even knew about Guy Fawkes!
Something else I thought was particularly interesting was the punishment for forgetting homework. If a student forgets their homework on three occasions, they must bake a cake for the whole class to enjoy. Cool, right?! I'm sure many students actually encourage one another to 'forget' to do homework, in the hope they will get some cake! One girl who received this punishment in Tuesdays class explained that she couldn't bake a cake this week for her English class, because she already had to bake two cakes for her Biology class! - I guess one positive we can take from this, is knowing that 'The Great German Bake Off" won't have a problem in finding future competitors and the standard will definitely be high! I'm not sure if it's a 'punishment' (I suspect Lois would forget a lot of homeworks just so she has an excuse to bake!) but I like the idea.
On Tuesday afternoon, I was again with a year 10 class, but this time just spending 10 minutes with small groups outside of the classroom and practising English. It was basically just small talk, but it was really good, because their English is so good it was just like having a proper English chat! We chatted about the weekend, about shopping and about parties and they seemed to enjoy it. I try to make them feel as at ease as possible, because I know that speaking a foreign language can be an embarrassing and nerve-wracking experience and I'd like them to see me as more of a friend than a teacher.
Wednesday and Thursday were pretty standard days at my other school. I enjoyed them non the less. On the Thursday I helped one of the teachers with the writing of an English assessment for the year 10 class. In order to check how challenging it was, I actually did the test. It certainly made me think, which just goes to show how good the students' level of English is over here. I also did a little German test just to challenge myself a little more. Safe to say, I really don't miss German exams.
On Thursday evening I made my way to Eichstaett on the train to see Lois. One thing I would like to mention is the ticket system on German trains. On German trains you HAVE to buy a ticket before you board and unsurprisingly everybody does this. In England you SHOULD buy a ticket before you board, and unsurprisingly not everyone does this. I have to admit, that that used to be me. There was always a chance that you wouldn't be asked for your ticket, so you might be able to have had a free journey. And if the ticket inspector were to come round, you can just buy a ticket from him anyway - so you have nothing to lose. Here in Germany, I can't remember ever not being asked for my ticket. And if you don't have one here, then you pay a hefty fine - no excuses. I've never seen anybody who doesn't have a ticket. I think this is such a good system. Everybody knows what they need to do and they just accept it and do it. So many people in England get away with not paying for journeys (myself in included) making it very unfair for those who do pay. Over here it just seems a lot fairer and I have no issue with a buying a ticket each time I travel.
Another German observation I wanted to share occurred when Lois visited the doctors. Lois hasn't been feeling too well this last week and we visited the doctors together on Friday. The Germans have this slightly odd 'tradition' whereby anyone who comes into the doctors, greets the entire waiting room before approaching the receptionist. Like I said, it's a little odd but really it's actually very friendly and polite. As to be expected, the system of seeing a doctor is fast, smooth and efficient - standard Germany. The doctor suggested Lois give a blood sample and have it tested to make sure everything was ok. I saw Lois' face drop at the thought of having a German nurse stick a needle in her arm and take some blood. This is an unpleasant experience in the UK, never mind a foreign country! Everyone knows this process in England - Following this recommendation, you would go down to the local hospitals Hemotology department, between specific hours and join the queue to have your blood taken. It is likely that this would be either a day or two later and that you would have to wait any length of time when you got there. Once you've given your blood, this would get sent off and tested. Again, this would likely be a few days later. These results would then be sent to your doctor. You would then ring your doctor and either receive the news over the phone or often, make another appointment, a week or two later, to see them and be told about your results. So all in all this process takes a matter of weeks - I know. I've been there.
Here in Germany, the process is again, as to be expected, fantastically simple. Lois went into a neighbouring room, where a nurse was already waiting. The nurse pricked her finger (which Lois described as completely painless) and took a few drops of blood. Lois then returned to the waiting room. Five minutes (and I'm not exaggerating here) later and the doctor called her in again. Her blood had been tested and the results were fine. The doctor gave her a few more tablets to take (straight over the counter of course. No faffing about with prescriptions) and that was done. I was startled at the simplicity of this process and again found myself asking why in Britain this has to be so different.
Due to Lois not feeling great, we had a fairly chilled weekend. But on Saturday, with a desire to do something, we made to a trip to a local city called Augsburg. It's about 90 minutes away on the train and there really is quite a bit there. I would describe it as more of a 'shopping city', with lots and lots of good shops. There is also the 'Fuggerei', the oldest social settlement in the world (it's basically an old medieval village) and the father of Mozart was born there in Augsburg. As we were there, we saw the stalls for the ever nearing Christmas markets being set up and Christmas decorations were even appearing in shops and shop windows. We are both absolutely buzzing for Christmas and can't wait to explore some 'real' German markets. That being said, it's also getting very cold, so it's not as if we need reminding that winter is almost here.
Lois has just treated herself to an iPad. It is so cool! We watched a film on the train to and from Augsburg and it makes the journey go so much faster. It's definitely going to make train travel, which we will be doing a lot more of, much more appealing.
Sunday was spent in typical German fashion - Doing very little. The weather was very miserable, so we stayed inside, practised some German using a cool app on Lois' iPad, and watched some 24 (we've got the new series, as we figured we would be spending quite a bit of time inside as the cold, dark evenings approach.)
Bis zum nächsten Mal!
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