ex pat
Last night I went with a bunch of students from my school to the American ambassador's house here in Berlin. Some people from some kind of cultural awareness committee at the American embassy had gathered together a few politicians, a couple women (Iranian and Afghani) who work in communications, some guys from Wedding (probably the ghetto-est district of Berlin) who work with problem kids, a restaurant owner from India, and all these students (probably 10 out of 12 of whom are of non-German nationality) to talk about the immigration/integration issue. It was fascinating, because some very personal opinions and experiences were aired, and also riveting, not least because it was all in German, which still takes an excess of concentration for me to follow--especially when people get all fired up about something. And the guys from Wedding used a lot of unfamiliar slang.
The discussion particularly made me anxious to really get to know some of the students at my school, because all of them have great stories, and a lot of insight into the issue for their age. This is partly because they've been asked so often to talk about it, being students at a school where over 80% of them are non-native German. (That is, not of German nationality, although most of them were born here. There are so many politically correct and incorrect terms for it, and, being that the operating language is German, most of them are monstrously long, and also not fully translatable.) There's a phrase in German, "to have one's nose full of..." which means to be fed up with something. Hopefully the students will still be interested in talking to me about it though.
I'm finding it more difficult than I expected to figure out where exactly I, as an American and as a recent (22-year-old) college grad, fit in at the school. I'm not a real teacher, but I'm not one of the students--and I'm not even similar to any of the student teachers they have in their classes from time to time, because in America one is "finished" with university (i.e. undergrad) at 22. Here it's more like 27 or 28. (As far as I can tell, at that point one has something comparable to a master's degree. But there's not the break between undergrad and grad work that many Americans take.) The students are usually surprised at how young I am when they ask me my age, and I've tried to explain the difference several times. So. I'm only a few years older than they are (high school goes to 13th grade in a Gymnasium, which my school is), but I'm finished with university.
And as an American...well, I'll try to put it nicely: more and more I want to dissociate myself from Americans I meet abroad, especially those with power. I was, suffice it to say, less than impressed with the ambassador last night. (Though his house was enough to make me want to learn to schmooze with the US government.) He was perfectly nice and all, but his cookie-cutter speech sounded hopelessly empty after all the insightful and impassioned discussion among students less than a third his age, and he spoke no German at all. The last thing I want to be to the students and teachers at my school is some kind of American Big Brother, or a sort of analyst using them as specimens for study. Even while writing my project proposal, and stronger yet now that I'm here, I have the feeling that I'm still an outsider, that I may not have yet earned the right to pry into people's lives.
I'm still pondering what exactly the outcome of my project will be. I guess in what I've just written, it's clear that part of the point is to make the whole situation a little clearer to Americans. It is, after all, hard to understand the situation here when you're an ocean away. So. There may be more of these ponderously long blogs as I work it out.
On an entirely different note, I found a cafe in the area that does "Piano Mondays" and another a little further away that has open mic every few weeks. Possible substitutions for Mondays at Billy's? I believe I'll have to find out.
The discussion particularly made me anxious to really get to know some of the students at my school, because all of them have great stories, and a lot of insight into the issue for their age. This is partly because they've been asked so often to talk about it, being students at a school where over 80% of them are non-native German. (That is, not of German nationality, although most of them were born here. There are so many politically correct and incorrect terms for it, and, being that the operating language is German, most of them are monstrously long, and also not fully translatable.) There's a phrase in German, "to have one's nose full of..." which means to be fed up with something. Hopefully the students will still be interested in talking to me about it though.
I'm finding it more difficult than I expected to figure out where exactly I, as an American and as a recent (22-year-old) college grad, fit in at the school. I'm not a real teacher, but I'm not one of the students--and I'm not even similar to any of the student teachers they have in their classes from time to time, because in America one is "finished" with university (i.e. undergrad) at 22. Here it's more like 27 or 28. (As far as I can tell, at that point one has something comparable to a master's degree. But there's not the break between undergrad and grad work that many Americans take.) The students are usually surprised at how young I am when they ask me my age, and I've tried to explain the difference several times. So. I'm only a few years older than they are (high school goes to 13th grade in a Gymnasium, which my school is), but I'm finished with university.
And as an American...well, I'll try to put it nicely: more and more I want to dissociate myself from Americans I meet abroad, especially those with power. I was, suffice it to say, less than impressed with the ambassador last night. (Though his house was enough to make me want to learn to schmooze with the US government.) He was perfectly nice and all, but his cookie-cutter speech sounded hopelessly empty after all the insightful and impassioned discussion among students less than a third his age, and he spoke no German at all. The last thing I want to be to the students and teachers at my school is some kind of American Big Brother, or a sort of analyst using them as specimens for study. Even while writing my project proposal, and stronger yet now that I'm here, I have the feeling that I'm still an outsider, that I may not have yet earned the right to pry into people's lives.
I'm still pondering what exactly the outcome of my project will be. I guess in what I've just written, it's clear that part of the point is to make the whole situation a little clearer to Americans. It is, after all, hard to understand the situation here when you're an ocean away. So. There may be more of these ponderously long blogs as I work it out.
On an entirely different note, I found a cafe in the area that does "Piano Mondays" and another a little further away that has open mic every few weeks. Possible substitutions for Mondays at Billy's? I believe I'll have to find out.
you articulate your thoughts so well, lo. "only in writing" you might argue, but i think in all aspects, you express yourself well. and i appreciate that.
i also appreciate that link you sent me, right up my alley, as you predicted. let's do it.
Posted by
Mary Horning |
12:41 AM