I didn't just learn German--Part Two

Here I am standing with the full-time teacher at the Maedchen Realschule in Memmingen, Germany. My job was to introduce the students in two schools (the Realschule and the Gymnasium) to American English and American customs. Since their teachers had all been educated in Britain, the schools wanted the students to hear and learn about American English. While I was living there, the French shut down an American Army base with all of those soldiers coming to live on a base outside of Memmingen---it was the first time such a large group of Americans had come to this town. I felt like my presence was important for the soldiers, the townspeople and the students. I was called several times to help soldiers communicate with the sales people in the shops.

Lesson #4 I learned that I loved teaching---I hadn't wasted 3 years learning to become a teacher!

Lesson #5 I learned that the teacher learns a great deal from the students. I learned a lot about the British--they "queue up", take "lifts", don't pronounce "aunt" like the insect "ant" (gales of laughter when I talked about one of my aunts).

Lesson #6 The German school system differed vastly from the American system with the most intelligent students (university bound) attending gymnasium until the age of 20; the least intelligent were only schooled to about 14.

Lesson #7 The German students took awesome field trips. The younger students would hike in the Alps, the middle aged went skiing for a week (I went along once), the older students went to other countries. Here I am accompanying a group to Venice, Italy. We stayed in youth hostels, ate a lot of pasta, but had a great time.

Lesson #8 Teachers need to pounce on those "teachable moments" and not rely strictly on lesson plans. The Beatles and Rolling Stones were very big at that time---the students were learning the lyrics to the songs, but had no idea what some of these songs meant. I used to giggle when the students incorporated these song lyrics into their English conversations and compositions. But, they were learning English!

Lesson #9 There weren't many people my age in Germany. I only met one person (a student of mine) who was born in 1945 as I was. The German families were pretty split up and stressed in 1944 and 1945---babies were not on their agenda.

Lesson #10 I learned that I really enjoyed teaching English as a foreign language which I did in Parkway School District for 5 years. I enjoyed helping people understand Americans and hope that I broke down a few walls.