Leading up to October 10, classrooms and households prepared to welcome newcomers to Ithaca as excited chatter passed among IHS students: “The Germans are coming!” These twenty-one exchange students arrived on October 10 from the surroundings of Tuttlingen, a city in Swabia, the southwest of Germany. For two weeks, they packed themselves into tenth and eleventh-grade classrooms as they shadowed IHS German program students.
American classrooms and schedules are a brand-new experience for the German students. The five-minute craze that occurs in between class periods at IHS as students scramble through stuffed halls to get to class on time is a stark change from the way German classes work. “You have to switch the rooms, and [we stay]. And, your breaks are very short between the classes,” said Malou Schmider. German schools often have fewer classrooms with teachers who move between the rooms, while the students stay put. This provides some benefits, like less hectic break periods and ample time to use the bathroom between classes. However, the main drawback is a lack of elective classes. Another German student, Lara Hofmann, described: “[ICSD students] had earlier the choice to decide between the different classes […] since sixth grade.” At the Otto-Hahn Gymnasium (OHG), students get most elective freedom in eleventh and twelfth grade. The tradeoff is that almost all German high schools are specialized, so students can choose what general areas they want to focus on, just not the specific classes they take. OHG is a school for sports and natural sciences, but they have a sister school right next door that focuses on linguistics and music.
The Ithaca-Tuttlingen exchange started in 1989 as a tri-district collaboration with OHG between Homer, Cortland, and Ithaca. According to Boynton Middle School German teacher and Ithaca foreign exchange coordinator David Isley, the German foreign exchange students began coming to Ithaca, exclusively, after Homer and Cortland lost their German programs. What was an annual program became harder to plan and organize as the exchange lost coordinators. However, the now bi-annual exchange is still thriving in Ithaca, especially as the German program remains strong.
OHG offers their students three school trips: to Ithaca, London, and France. When asked “Why Ithaca?”, Malou responded, “I love the Niagara Falls and America and it’s beautiful to be here for a longer time and not only four days. I also think that in London, there’s no time to learn the language if you’re just hanging out with your friends.” This underscores the importance of exchange programs and not just trips: one can really learn the language and culture better through immersion than a tourist experience.
The Ithaca students will most likely also get to go to Germany and stay with whomever they’ve hosted this fall. Germany is known mostly for the regions of Berlin and Bavaria, but Ithacan students will become friendly with the state of Baden-Württemberg, which contains the cities of Frankfurt and Stuttgart, as well as the Black Forest.
The exchange program between OHG and IHS is an important cultural and linguistic learning opportunity for Ithacans and Germans alike. Malou participated in the foreign exchange program “to learn the language as good as possible. I […] like when I go somewhere and people are also interested in my culture.”
Be First to Comment