A LONG (sorry) Note on Language-Learning

Among the many things I've learned (about Germany and Germans, the U.S. and Americans, and myself) so far during my year abroad is that I am NOT a quick study when it comes to learning languages. I am hesitant to speak out in foreign language classes for fear of sounding infantile; I am easily frustrated when I encounter a word in a piece of German text that I should know but don't (or worse: have forgotten); and I cringe at the thought of engaging native German speakers in conversation and exposing the inequity that exists between their mastery of both German and English and my slim grasp of German. I find learning languages difficult and stressful and generally quite unpleasant. BUT: I am trying. And so should you.

The U.S. is a rarity for its lack of emphasis on bilingualism. Granted, there is a much greater motivation (oftentimes a necessity) for someone living in Germany or France or the U.K. to learn a language other than their own native tongue; geographically, they are situated closely to other nations wherein foreign languages are spoken. In contrast, the U.S. exists as an enormous expanse of land wherein a vast majority of its population speaks the same language. A UMass student could depart Amherst by car, and driving thousands of miles to the west coast, never encounter a language other than English throughout the whole trip. A German student, however, would encounter a different language quite quickly, and in any direction, after endeavoring upon the same road trip. Europeans are surrounded on all sides by ethnically distinct nations, enabling a rich exposure to a number of cultures, peoples and their languages.

I have frequently felt embarrassed during my time abroad at my lack of language skills in comparison to students from most other countries. Only recently have I developed a healthier attitude toward my foreign language deficiencies, and accepted the national, geographical and cultural contexts for what I had previously considered personal ignorance. Regardless of whether you know only one language or a dozen, trying to learn a foreign language, albeit challenging and frustrating and occasionally embarrassing, is an experience that everyone should attempt. It will better-acquaint you with the machinations of your own language, will put you into contact with interesting new people, will give you new perspectives on the experiences of foreigners and immigrants (an ever-growing demographic) in your own home country, and will lead you to cultural discoveries from which you can draw for the rest of your life.

Learning a foreign language is also a lot of work. Tedious memorization. Grueling grammatical exercises. Repetition. Repetition. If I were to relive the semesters I spent at UMass before coming to Heidelberg, one thing I would definitely change is my attitude towards and my dedication to my German language classes. If you are considering studying abroad anywhere, do yourself the favor of familiarizing yourself with the language. If you are hoping to take classes at the university level in the language of your study abroad nation (a goal to which everyone should aspire), you should study the language as much as possible before boarding your plane to wherever. I bought a German coloring book, flipped distractedly through some vocabulary flashcards, and bought (but never opened) the German translation of the first Harry Potter. I should have done a LOT more preparatory work! With more serious pre-study-abroad-language-study, I would surely have avoided some awkward social slip-ups and, more importantly, may have given myself a basis that would have allowed me to take literature and art history courses in German, which would probably be more satisfying and interesting than the language courses I am in now. While I am thoroughly satisfied with my course schedule, there were some awesome course offerings in German that I had to pass up because I knew I wasn't ready for the level of German language proficiency expected of their participants. An entire seminar dedicated to Picasso! A seminar on Medieval altarpieces! I'm looking forward to next semester, when I will attempt to participate in one or two art history seminars entirely in German. I'm a bit anxious, but also excited!

I can't emphasize enough how important it is to take your language learning seriously before arriving in your host country. Don't be lazy and function under the illusion that you can "pick it up" once you are there. Prepare intensely and seriously beforehand, and give yourself a solid foundation that will allow advanced language study or, even better, specialized coursework in the field of your major, when you have arrived in your host country.

Here are some potential avenues of study to pursue before your time abroad:
1) Listen to language-learning podcasts or stream German radio programs from the Internet.
2) Use flashcards to expand your vocabulary.
3) Find children's books or young adult novels in German.
4) Subscribe to Deutsch Perfekt, a magazine designed for students of German (it's quite good, and engineered to be useful to people from a range of proficiencies).
5) Practice speaking German! In class, with friends, at every possible opportunity.

Again: study study study study. You'll thank yourself when you are in Heidelberg, taking awesome German courses and conversing with cool German students.

Pre-Semester: Das Max-Weber Haus

After settling into your new room, get ready for a busy pre-semester period! Most international students (including those on the Umass in Baden-Wuerttemberg Program) take an intensive pre-semester language course that lasts three weeks. But first: test time.

In order to gauge the German language proficiency of the hundreds of international students who have arrived from all over the world to study in Heidelberg, the university issues a language exam in the first week of September, the results of which are used to place everyone in a language course befitting their previous German language experience. One or two days after my arrival, I took my first bus in Heidelberg to the testing site, and joined an auditorium of students to take the exam. I found the exam extremely difficult, and was positive that I had placed myself in the lowest level of proficiency possible. I was surprised to discover that my test results qualified me for Intermediate Level 1 (Mittelstufe I); apparently, the test is designed to gauge the widest possible range of proficiency, from beginner to quite advanced.

In the few days following the exam, there is paperwork. And then more paperwork. Make sure you take your passport, room contracts, and other pertinent documents to all of your orientation sessions, just in case you need the to fill out a document. Also, I would recommend making extra passport-sized photos in the United States and bringing them with you to Germany. I didn't do this, and regretted having to find a place in the city to get more photos taken. These photos are required for a number of the bureaucratic forms you will be required to complete and submit during the first weeks of your arrival. Make sure you specify that you need photos that meet the new requirements for passports and visas!

After the first few days of orientation (aka paperwork), my first three weeks in Heidelberg were entirely consumed by the pre-semester language course, which met Monday-Friday, 8:30am to 1pm (with a nice mid-morning break for coffee and snacks!). My course was held in the Max-Weber Haus, which is a language institute affiliated with the university. I was very happy with the instructors of my course, and it was exciting and stimulating to be surrounded by students from so many countries and hailing from so many diverse backgrounds. My Max-Weber peers included exchange students from Greece, Hungary, France, Spain, Hong Kong, Great Britain, Canada and Ireland. There were undergraduates (like me), but also masters students and even a woman who had come to Heidelberg to write her PhD in Archeology!

Given the range of language proficiency with such a diverse group, the instructors didn't take it for granted that everyone shared English as a common language, and therefore all instruction was held in German. Definitions to new vocabulary words were provided in simplified German, as were clarifications of grammatical concepts. It definitely took some time to become acclimated to the all-German-and-only-German instruction technique, but ultimately it proved to be beneficial to my proficiency. It is intimidating and a bit overwhelming at first, but you can do it! And the challenge will prove worthwhile when you notice your German improving day by day.

The Max-Weber Haus also offers German language courses during the regular academic semesters. I am taking two courses in the institute this Wintersemester: Intermediate Level II (having graduated from my Intermediate I pre-semester course) and Bildendes Kunst und Sprache (Visual Art and Language). Again, the instructors of both my courses are highly qualified, with years of experience in the classroom. They are also dynamic educators, and always manage to cultivate a compelling and interactive learning environment in the classroom (even when covering topics with a high potential of dryness...passive tense construction, for example). In my Kunst und Sprache course, we learn vocabulary and language constructions necessary to engage with, write about, and converse over works of visual art. The course also includes a number of excursions to local museums and collections, where we observe and discuss paintings and sculptures in person. I love this course! I am an Art History major with a few years of study experience in the visual arts, but the course is also open to students with no art historical experience whatsoever, and the mix of participants from a number of academic backgrounds makes for interesting discussions and fresh perspectives on art (and language).

The Max-Weber Haus offers a number of such topical courses each academic semester. They are designed for students who have an intermediate or advanced grasp of the German language, but don't worry if your pre-semester level of proficiency is below the prerequisite. Instructors are willing to admit students with varying proficiencies; just be prepared to put in a bit more effort during the semester! Besides the course on art and language, the Max-Weber Haus also offers a course on German film, German history, German for students of the natural sciences and law, and even creative writing in German. Learning a foreign language is a lot less painless (and can be quite fun and satisfying) when you are engaging with the language through a topic that you find interesting. I highly recommend such topical courses as supplements to your regular German language classes!

There is another language institute in Heidelberg: the Seminar fuer Deutsch als Fremdsprachenphilologie, or SDF. I have not yet taken any courses in the SDF, but know that they offer dozens of classes each semester for all levels of German proficiencies. Like the Max-Weber Haus, the institute also offers topical courses, such as “German literature after 1945,” “Surrealism,” and others. All instruction, class participation, and readings are in German. I have heard from other students that these courses are quite demanding, but their level of rigor will only benefit your German-learning.

Note on location: success rates, teaching styles, and course offerings aside, the two language institutes are quite different from one another in one important aspect: aesthetics! In terms of physical appearance and location, the Max-Weber Haus is by far the more enchanting of the two institutes. It once was an actual house, and sits beautifully on the bank of the Neckar River, with a spectacular view of the castle that looms over the city from the hilltop just across the river. If you are fortunate enough to live in the Altstadt (Old City), the commute to the Max-Weber Haus will take you through some of the city's most old-worldy streets and over the cobbled Alte Bruecke (Old Bridge), with its impressive Baroque statuary and iconic two-towered gate. It is definitely the most beautiful commute-to-class I have ever taken, and probably will ever take. As for the SDF, it's building and location are likewise none-too-shabby. It is also located in the Altstadt, and abuts one end of a market place where local farmers sell their produce, flowers, meat, dairy and homemade treats two days per week. While it doesn't offer the same picturesque views of the castle as the Max-Weber Haus, it still trumps most of the academic buildings you will have encountered in the U.S.

My Arrival (and Preparation Tips)

I arrived in Heidelberg on September 1, 2010. It was a long 24 hours of traveling! I flew into Stuttgart, Germany (another city in Baden-Wuerttemberg), and then had to take a few different trains to Heidelberg. Navigating the busy train stations with all of my luggage and a slim German vocabulary was not easy. For those of you who opt to study in Heidelberg, I highly recommend fling into Frankfurt. Luftansa Airlines offers a shuttle that leaves regularly from the airport and brings you directly to Heidelberg. The price is 26 euros for a one-way seat on the shuttle, but the convenience of the service is well worth the price. Save yourself some stress and fly into Frankfurt!

I also recommend searching for flights based on arrival times in Germany; the Info-Center in Heidelberg where incoming international students are to check in has limited hours of operation. You'll want to plan to get to the city when the office is open, because this is where you will get the key to your room. If you arrive after the office closes, you will be without a room until the Info-Center reopens the next day, and will be required to find accommodations for the night. I would look for a flight that arrives in Frankfurt 4 or 5 hours prior the office's closing! This will give you time to go through customs, pick up your luggage from baggage claim, find the Luftansa shuttle in the airport (arriving in Frankfurt on a Luftansa flight is not a prerequisite for riding the shuttle to Heidelberg, so rest assured if you were planning to use a different airline) and make the one hour drive to Heidelberg. You will also need to take a cab from the shuttle drop-off location to the Info-Center, and then find the Info-Center, which took me some unanticipated minutes of walking in circles as well. The last stretch of my journey was a stressful race against the clock to make it to the Info-Center before it closed for the day, and if I were to redo my trip here I would have planned a bit more meticulously to ensure a relaxed travel experience. (Regine will be able to help you look up the opening hours of the Info-Center on Heidelberg's Website if you have trouble navigating the German site.)

A note on packing: after you've packed everything you think you need, and after having removed some items you determine (upon second thought) to be superfluous, take out some more! I was quite surprised the day after my arrival to find bruises on my shoulders and sizable blisters on my hands, the result of lugging the bags I deemed "not-too-heavy" through three airports, three train stations, in and out of taxis, through the cobbled streets of Heidelberg to the Info-Center, through more cobbled streets to my student residence and, finally, up  multiple staircases to my room. I was tempted to ditch things along the way. Regardless of whether you will be in Heidelberg for one semester or one year, you will need to buy refills of necessary things: toothpaste, deodorant, soaps and all your other toiletries, so why not just forsake them altogether during the packing process and get them upon arrival in Heidelberg? I would bring a travel-sized tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush in your carry-on in case of emergencies. Also, you will buy things from one of the two H&Ms in Heidelberg, so you can leave out approximately 1/3 of the clothes you were planning to pack.

Knowing what I do now, I would have brought some basic study supplies: notebook, binder, folders, pens and pencils. You will be given a LOT of paperwork in your first couple days, and it would be wise to keep it organized from the get-go. Also, German notebooks are weird.

Another good thing to pack that takes up no room, weighs nothing, and will save you money: posters! You will want to decorate your room in Heidelberg, and from my own experience it is comforting to have small reminders of home (like the posters you've accumulated during your freshman and sophomore years to decorate the walls of your dormitory) amidst all the newness that will characterize the first few weeks of your study abroad experience. You will also save money; room decorations will be already checked off on your list  of "Things to Buy (aka: Money to Spend)" upon arrival. And trust me that it is a long, long list!

Semester Reflections

As the holiday break approaches, it is time to look back at what has so far been an amazing semester in Heidelberg. Unlike the general academic schedule in the United States, most universities in Germany function on a winter/summer semester schedule, and therefore Christmas does not mark the official end of the academic semester, as it does at UMass. The current Wintersemester will end in mid-February. Nevertheless, German students (and UMass students studying in Baden-Wuerttemberg) are still granted a holiday respite from studying. Despite the cold, it is very easy to enjoy the break from classes; Heidelberg (like many cities in Germany) organizes a wonderful Christmas market (Weihnachtsmarkt) every year. The city's market places have been filled with holiday decorations and wooden booths, from which vendors sell hot German cuisine, delicious mulled wine and other festive treats, and an indescribable assortment of holiday knickknacks. I plan to take full advantage of Heidelberg's enchanting Christmas festiveness with my three best friends, who are scheduled to arrive in Germany this week for a holiday visit!

As I prepare to receive my guests, all of whom have just completed their own semesters abroad and are stopping in Heidelberg to celebrate a German Christmas (with me!) before returning to the U.S., I have been thinking a lot about my own semester abroad (albeit still in progress) on the UMass in Baden Wuerttemberg Program. I'll dedicate my first few posts to a look back at some of the most pivotal moments and important aspects of my year so far. Happy reading!