Welcome back to my blog! The International Winter Academy is officially complete, so here are my thoughts:
Daily Routine
Each day followed a pretty consistent schedule: class started at 9 a.m., with a 30-minute break at 10:30 a.m. to grab coffee at a university café. We finished at 1:15 p.m., then headed to the Mensa for lunch before spending the afternoons and evenings exploring Mannheim. It was great to have a structured routine for the first four weeks of living here, especially since it still left plenty of free time later in the day.
I had two other Americans from my cohort in my class, which made it even more enjoyable. Our class seemed to grow daily during the first week, and by the end, we had 17 students from all over the world. Surprisingly, seven of us were Americans, but we were all from different states! The rest of the class came from Norway, Ireland, Colombia, Chile, Japan, China, and Turkey.
We had so many interesting discussions about the differences between our home countries, which gave me a firsthand look into cultures I wasn’t as familiar with. We had two different teachers—one for Mondays and Tuesdays, and another for Wednesdays through Fridays. Their teaching styles varied, but both focused on a mix of speaking and grammar practice, reinforcing what I had already learned.
A Little Discouraged
For the most part, everyone in the class was at a similar speaking level, but I could definitely tell a difference in grammar skills. I’ll admit, I felt a bit discouraged during Winter Academy because I was placed in level A2.2, even though I’ve been learning German on and off since fifth grade. The levels ranged from A1.1 to C1.1, and while I’m not saying I was some kind of German prodigy, everything covered in class was material I had learned before.
German is a tough language, and the key to mastering it is practice, practice, practice, especially reviewing nominative, accusative, and dative cases, as well as prepositions and their verb pairings. These concepts need to be memorized and used frequently; otherwise, they slip from memory, and you feel like you’re starting from square one again. Even though I had already learned the grammar, I hadn’t practiced speaking enough to feel confident using it in conversation.
Luckily, I wasn’t alone in my frustration. Several others in my class had been learning German just as long as I had and felt similarly.
Impact
After completing this intensive course, I’ve realized that to actually become fluent, I need to fully immerse myself in the language 24/7. The tricky part is that everyone here speaks English, and my consulting program with international students is also in English.
Inspired by this four-week class—and my personal language goals—I’ve started actively putting myself in more situations where I only speak German. I now try to use German in cafés, restaurants, and stores, as well as with some of the German cohort students and my family friends who live about 40 minutes from Mannheim. I always feel a little shy at first, but once I warm up, I can switch to thinking and speaking in German more naturally.
Seminars
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the seminars offered to Winter Academy participants. I attended sessions on the German economy—which was taught by the same professor I’d later have for my three-day "German Business, Culture, and Society" class—as well as a seminar on the European Union.
All three seminars left a lasting impact on me, particularly as an American. I’ve noticed a shift in my perspective that’s hard to put into words. I’m still processing my thoughts about what it means to be American, and how this experience has changed the way I see things.
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