Reflections from Chris D.

Once you immerse yourself into a culture or country that is when you can truly experience how life is like in their shoes. Learning in a classroom can teach you, but nothing can beat experience. Over the past three years I have studied German at Kennedy Catholic High School and learned a decent amount about the language and culture so I decided to go on the GAPP exchange to Franz Marc Gymnasium. This experience has taught me so much about German culture and made me realize what I have learned over the past three years.

First, living with a family in Germany is about all an American can do to attempt the culture, short of moving here. I started my experience with my first host family, the Netts. They were a very warm family who took me in as their own. The biggest aspect of German culture that I received from this family was traditional Bavarian food and meal customs. Every morning, we sat down as a family and ate a normal Bavarian breakfast consisting of mostly meats, cheeses, and very hearty breads. This was a good start to every morning. Lunch was usually the same food but on Tuesdays Julian would go to his grandparents’ house to meet with his whole family and eat a big meal. When I joined him, the grandma gave me hearty portions of everything, expecting me to finish and eat seconds. This was as traditional of Bavarian food as it gets. Then every dinner was another traditional type of food. After dinner they offered sweets and coffee, but I never accepted because I was too full. This has also taught me how important family is because at every meal they would talk about their lives and what was going on.  All in all, staying with this family informed me of the classic traditions of Bavaria. The second family I stayed with were immigrants from Hungary. Staying with this family, I ate a lot of Hungarian dishes which is slightly similar to German in some aspects. While with this family, they were not as into eating every single meal together which I am not sure if that is a Hungarian thing or just specific to this family. Staying with these two families has taught me more than I ever could have learned in a classroom about culture and has brought me to ponder on American culture as a whole.

Next, this trip was also meant to further my learning of the German language. While in Seattle, we learned an okay amount of German and had a decent understanding but when coming to Germany and meeting people who spoke no English at all, you are forced to use your German and further learn. Unfortunately, most of the people here speak English so at times there was no practice so I had to continually remind myself to continue speaking German rather than English. Once specific experience I had was when my teacher, another student and I were in a supermarket and an old woman began to talk to us! This forced us to use what we had learned in the classroom and we talked with her for a good five minutes in German. We learned that she had a son living in Ohio! Experiences like this make you appreciate what you have learned. Another point that many of us German students have noticed is that even though we cannot speak very well sometimes, we all have very good understanding capabilities. When someone is talking, we usually can decipher the message they are trying to get across which brings about a really accomplished feeling.

All in all, this trip has brought me a new understanding of Germany as a whole. I was thrown into their culture and way of life and quickly learned their way of doing things. This trip has not only taught me, but reminded me of what I have been taught which is truly a gift in itself.  - Chris Dwyer