Germany Archives - Page 2 of 5 - Fulbright Student Program Blog

Home Sweet Home

June 22, 2016

Mikayla Posey, 2015-2016, Fulbright English Teaching Assistant to Germany and Reach the World Traveler (left), with a friend

In partnership with Reach the World (RTW), the Fulbright U.S. Student Program is publishing a series of articles written by Fulbright English Teaching Assistants participating in Reach the World’s Traveler correspondents program, which through its interactive website, enriches the curriculum of elementary and secondary classrooms (primarily located in New York City but also nationwide) by connecting them to the experiences of volunteer Fulbright English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) and other world travelers who are currently studying and living abroad.

Where do you consider your home? What are important parts of your home? Can your home change? When I was a kid, I had very clear answers to these questions. My home was 760 Crestwood. It was the brick house with a pine tree out front, my room inside with my stuffed animals and the people who lived there—my family! However, over time my understanding of my “home” changed. First, it changed when my parents divorced and then I had two homes and eventually two great families. It also changed when I decided to go to university over 1,000 miles away from Arizona. But even when my address changed and new people surrounded me, I always felt at home because I always had a community. What is a community? It can mean lots of things, but for me it means being surrounded by people who truly care about you, whether family, friends, teachers, coworkers or roommates.

Until I moved to Germany on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship, my community always sprung from either my family or my school. However, when I arrived in Germany, I felt for the first time that I was very alone. I did not know anyone my city, all my coworkers seemed to already have their own friends and, on top of that, I was having a hard time speaking German. It’s much harder to make friends when you are not comfortable speaking their language!

0 Comments

U.S. Fulbright

Time Flies When You’re Having Fun

May 2, 2016

Kara Witherill, 2015-2016, Fulbright English Teaching Assistant to Germany and Reach the World Traveler

One thing that never changes, no matter where you are in the world, is how fast time goes by. It was almost exactly a year ago that I found out I had won a Fulbright U.S. Student grant and would be spending this year in Germany teaching English. Now, as I look forward, it’s hard to believe I only have four more months left in Germany and that this is my last journal entry for Reach the World. However, thinking about the passage of time brings me to one of the most important pieces of advice I can give to someone planning on pursuing a Fulbright grant: take it one day at a time.

I cannot emphasize this point enough. When I realized I was going to be leaving behind everything I knew and embarking on this journey in a foreign country, I was very excited, but I was also terrified. Thinking about moving to a foreign country for a year, especially one that speaks a different language is scary. When you think about the fact that you won’t see your friends or family for months, it can be sad. When you think about trying to find a place to live, navigating a new lifestyle and making new friends, it can be daunting. However, I’ve learned that instead of thinking about all those things at once and totally freaking myself out, I need to think about these things one day at a time.

0 Comments

U.S. Fulbright

Learning about Home—from Abroad

February 16, 2016

Brandon Tensley (far right), 2012-2013, Fulbright English Teaching Assistant to Germany, with one of his fifth grade classes at Realschule Stadtmitte in Mülheim an der Ruhr

In honor of Black History Month, we are re-posting Fulbright English Teaching Assistant to Germany Brandon Tensley’s article, in which he describes what it was like being a black American teaching English in a German primary school while also encouraging fellow black students to study abroad and “tell America’s story” of diversity from the unique perspective that only living in another country can provide.

Most of the time, I’d hear them before I’d see them.

“Are you the teacher from America?”

I’d spin around, and there’d be a knot of students, their shyness trumped by their curiosity, hungry to confirm the rumor floating around about an Ausländer—foreigner—on campus.

“That’s me,” I’d say, laughing. “And who are you?”

But they’d rarely be interested in talking. A moment later, I’d have about a dozen tiny fists, clutching bits of paper, waving in my face.

“Your autograph!” they’d demand. I’d comply, and they’d make off with their new bounty.

1 Comment

Foreign Fulbright

Fulbright: A Love Story

February 14, 2016

Fulbrighters Tobi and Mariana

Our Fulbright Programs started with a Fulbright Gateway Orientation. As with any event these days, there was a Facebook group so that grantees could meet and find people who were going to our same host university. Tobi and I met there. We were both going to be studying at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and we started talking online. It was great to meet someone who was going through the same things as I was, and it was comforting to know that I would already have a friend in the city that would be home for the next two years.

August 20, 2012 came fast. It was the day I was to fly from Mexico City to Jackson, Mississippi for my Fulbright Gateway Orientation. It was an exciting time, and I was thrilled to meet so many other grantees. Tobi and I met after the first orientation session, when everyone was just standing around meeting new people. Suddenly, he came up to me and said, “You’re Mariana.” I remember thinking to myself that I really liked him when we went to a Mexican restaurant later and he asked me what to order. I suggested a popular beer cocktail called a Michelada. I didn’t think he would like it because Germans have a specific way they like their beer and that is with, well, just beer. This cocktail had everything from lime juice to hot sauce—he liked it. Success!

7 Comments

U.S. Fulbright

Surrounded by Extraordinary People

December 3, 2015

Jonathan Rabb, 2012-2013, Germany, hiking in Marburg

“If you surround yourself with people who are smarter than you, there is no telling how far you will go.” That is what Reiner Rohr, the Deputy Director of the German Fulbright Commission, told me and a small group of bright-eyed Fulbrighters upon our arrival in country. This just so happens to be some of the most important advice I have ever gotten, and it helped me utilize every single moment of my grant to the fullest.

My name is Jonathan Rabb and I was one of seven journalists awarded Fulbright’s Beginning Professional Journalists grants to Germany for the 2012-2013 academic year. This grant was created in 1996 to allow a select group of promising U.S. journalists to come to Germany to conduct research, improve their craft, and complete residencies at German media and news outlets. For my particular grant, I did multiple residencies in digital audience development and transmedia, including one at UFA LAB, a one-of-a-kind digital creative lab owned by the oldest and largest production company in Germany. At UFA LAB, I worked on developing new formats for online television and did on-air coverage in both German and English for “eNtR berlin,” a YouTube channel, on events ranging from Barack Obama’s historic 2013 visit to Berlin to re:publica, one of the world’s largest and most important conferences on digital culture.

0 Comments

U.S. Fulbright

English by Day, German by Night

October 19, 2015

Larena Nellies-Ortiz, 2013-2014, Fulbright English Teaching Assistant to Germany (right, in blue jacket), with a group of her sixth grade students on an excursion in Spandau, Berlin

On my last day as a Fulbright English Language Teaching Assistant (ETA) at the Paul Moor Elementary School in Berlin, Germany, the fifth and sixth grade classes shyly presented me with a colorful booklet. It was filled with students’ most memorable moments in my English class. Some wrote about the time they tried salty seaweed and chili sprinkled mango, and were charged with the task of guessing what they were called. Others remembered researching and leading a sightseeing tour through their neighborhood. During these activities, I noticed students who had shown little participation during regular class time were now fully engaged, attentive and willing to try their English in a new setting. As an ETA, I had the freedom to create engaging material that would resonate with students. Of course, I got my fair share of blank stares, as any teacher would have, but those moments were heavily outweighed by the countless times students stepped out of their comfort zone and into the possibility of genuine learning and exchange.

After school hours, I continued to teach, but in a different setting and language. I joined a group of dedicated volunteers to teach German to refugees through Multitude e.V., an organization that provides German language classes to refugees across Berlin. Drop-in evening lessons took place at the public housing where refugees lived, and on any given day, topics ranged from basic literacy skills, to practical tips on everyday life in Germany. My students and I found common ground in our shared experiences of navigating a society and culture different from our own. Participating in the Fulbright ETA Program gave me an opportunity to help create a foundation for cultural exchange and mutual understanding by integrating into the community and contributing my skills in a meaningful way. The stories and connections I shared with students were vital to revealing how our differences in origin, language and culture were a tool, rather than a barrier, to achieving our language learning goals.

1 Comment

Older Posts

Newer Posts