There's a German saying that translates to "Other
places always taste better than home."
Gretchen Toth-Fejel, an Eastern Michigan University senior,
found she could really dig in to the metaphor.
"German tastes different than English. Spanish tastes
different than English," said Toth-Fejel, an aspiring
German and Spanish teacher. "It's exactly that flavor
that you can only bite into with the language. How would
you know what pizza tastes like if you never ate it? You'll
never know what German tastes like until you start eating
it."
 |
DINING IN DUESSELDORF: These Eastern Michigan
University students enjoy a drink in a pub in
Duesseldorf
during their first night in that city. The
six students
spent the summer studying at Heinrich-
Heine
University and taking in the sights. Photo
by
Margrit
Zinggeler |
Toth-Fejel was one of six EMU students who arrived in
Duesseldorf, Germany this past July — the first EMU contingent
to study German in a new summer immersion arrangement with
Heinrich-Heine University.
Their program may have only lasted six weeks. The experience
will likely stay with them the rest of their lives.
"Culture is language and language is culture," said
Margrit Zinggeler, an EMU German professor, who laid the
groundwork for a partnership with Heinrich-Heine that gives
EMU students the opportunity to spend either six weeks
or an entire semester at the German university. "When
they have lived the language for six weeks, students become
so open and sensitive to issues they didn't even think
of before. It's about tolerance, acceptance, realizing
the U.S. is not the center of the universe.
"They realize things can work in another way. And,
every other experience they will have in their life that
is different, it predisposes them to adjust and be nonjudgmental," Zinggeler
said.
EMU's previous German abroad program was based at a language
institute in Graz, Austria. Moving the program to Heinrich-Heine
offered several advantages, among them a university partner,
German taught without an Austrian dialect and direct flights
from Detroit to Duesseldorf.
Heinrich-Heine is a modern campus just a few blocks from
the Rhein River, and it has a program specifically geared
toward teaching German as a foreign language. In Graz,
the EMU students lived in a dorm. In Duesseldorf, they
lived with German host families, which provided an opportunity
foe the EMU students to become even more immersed in the
culture.
"That makes all the difference," said Zinggeler. "You
are welcome. If you need assistance with something, the
family is there. You are in a home."
Perhaps, most importantly, moving the program to a German
university made students eligible to apply for German Academic
Exchange Service scholarships, which offset some of the
cost. The six-week program, which is required for German
majors, costs $3,200, not including EMU tuition for six
credits. Students also paid for their own flight, and July
tends to be an expensive time to buy airfare to Europe.
 |
A STROLL THROUGH CAMPUS: Eastern Michigan
University students stroll across Heinrich-Heine
University in Duesseldorf this past summer. The
students participated in a German abroad program. |
Toth-Fejel, who was the first EMU student to study at
Heinrich-Heine during the 2006-2007 fall and winter semesters,
also went on the summer trip. She and the other EMU students
ate, slept and breathed German language and culture in
Duesseldorf.
They learned to live without the familiar
comforts of a world measured in miles, Fahrenheit and
dollars, and where you know without thinking the unspoken
rituals of getting a table in a restaurant or finding a
public restroom.
"It's hard to separate the 'German experience' from
just regular growing up," Toth-Fejel said. "Sometimes,
I think most of what happened has little to do with Germany
itself. It has to do with starting from scratch, having
to deal with things without the usual comfort of 'home
base.'"
The six summer students took German language classes in
the morning and day trips to cultural and historic sites
most afternoons. During one trip, they visited Aachen,
the seat of Charlemagne's empire around 800 A.D.
"This is like the first European Union, and it was
here before the Middle Ages," Zinggeler said.
On their first weekend in Germany, the students
traveled to Stuttgart, home of DaimlerChrysler's world
headquarters. EMU Regent Chair Tom Sidlik, then head of
global procurement for DaimlerChrysler, arranged for two
days of tours and VIP treatment.
The trip wasn't all five-course meals and deep history,
of course. But coping with the unexpected was as much a
part of the educational experience as German grammar class.
On a trip to Prague, one student had her passport stolen
and had to stay behind with a classmate. They went to the
police station, then to the U.S. Embassy. By the time they
returned to Duesseldorf what had once seemed like a crisis
had dissolved into a problem that was solved satisfactorily.
"Most of the time, when something happens, it is
a big learning curve and it makes the student much stronger," Zinggeler
said.
