The time
difference is 8 hours from Utah to Germany, and it is hard to
catch a good window to talk to someone in Germany. You have to call them before 2 pm, or they will be in bed! So I helped Sophie with her international report about Germany via email questions. Thought I would post it here, since I took the time to write out my thoughts....might as well. :)
GERMAN LANGUAGE:
Some easy words in German are:
Hallo (hello)
Tschüß (goodbye) It is pronounced like
"JUICE" but starts with a "CH" sound instead of the J.
/choo-s/
Mein Name ist..... (my name is....)
/Nah-mah/
Bitte (Please and Your welcome)
/bitta/
Danke (Thank you)
The schools in Germany are interesting.
The children are not required to go to school until they are 6
years old, and start 1st grade. However, most children start
Kindergarten when they are 2 or 3 years old, and attend the same Kindergarten
group until they enter school at age 6. Kindergarten is a German
word. In America we adopted the word from Germany, and use it for the
year before 1st grade. But actually, Kindergarten in Germany is all
pre-school attended before elementary school.
Elementary school is called "Grundschule" and is 1st
through 4th grade. The children in Grundschule have the same teacher for
all 4 years of this school.
Here in our town, the children are encouraged to walk to school
in groups together, even in the winter. They are asked to wear reflective
vests to walk to school, because it is dark outside, and makes them more
visible to cars. It is nice to walk to school because you can talk
to your friends on the way and also get your wiggles out and when you arrive,
you feel ready to learn.
A typical German backpack for elementary school is called a
"Schulranzen." Here are two examples. They are larger
than most American backpacks, and have a hard casing.
The children bring a snack to school. They have
class from 8-11:30 in first grade, and 30 minutes longer each grade after that.
Timmy has 2 subjects, has a recess break, eats his snack and has
two more subjects with another short break.
Kids who choose to stay for OGS (after school time) can have a hot lunch after school and do homework together in the classroom.
Then, they can play or attend different sports or classes (swimming, soccer,
drums, ping pong, arts & crafts). Most children like to stay for
this after-school time.
Starting in fifth grade, the kids have 3 high school options,
which they attend from 5th grade until 11th or 12th grade:
Gymnasium is the option that
leads a person to attend University or college. You have to have good
grades and a recommendation from your elementary school teacher to attend
gymnasium.
Realschule is the other option,
and you can attend a trade school after attending this high school, to learn a
trade and directly go into the work force.
Gesamtschule is the 3rd
option. In this high school, you have kids who are preparing both for
trade school and for University. They intermingle with each other and
socialize at school together, but each student is on a different
"track" to either prepare for college or a trade, and you usually
cannot switch easily once you have started another.
If someone chooses to attend University after attending a
Realschule, they will need to take a 1-2 year additional course to pass the
"Abitur" test in order to apply for University or College.
One part of education that is interesting about Germany is that
people who attend College or University have very low tuition. Medical
school might cost 250 Euros per semester. The education is funded by the
state. As long as you qualify and are accepted into a University program,
you can study for very little money. (In the United States tuition can
range from ($3,000 - $40,000 per semester)
The food in Germany is DELICIOUS. :)
They have the very best bakeries, which bake fresh bread and
sweets and cakes every day. You can go to the bakery each morning and get
croissants and rolls and bread that were just baked fresh that morning.
Germans eat a lot of pork. They love sausage, cheese,
wine, and beer. They also eat a lot of fresh vegetables and fruits.
Some of our favorite foods are spätzle, which is a German pasta,
and Semmel Knödel, which are German dumplings made of dried bread.
RECREATION/TRADITIONS
Some of the holdiays that we have enjoyed here are
St. Martins Day and Karnival
St. Martin's Day is a lantern festival. It celebrates a
Saint who shared his cloak with a poor man when he was a soldier before he was
converted to Christianity. The schools and kindergartens all celebrate it
with making lanterns and having a nighttime parade with the lanterns.
They sing special lantern songs and parade a route through the streets, usually
following someone dressed up like St. Martin on a horse, ending at a bonfire,
where they reenact the St. Martin's Story. In the reenactment, Martin
sees a poor man, freezing to death, and slices his cloak in half with his
sword, and shares one piece with the poor man. After the play, the
children eat "Weckmänner" which are little bread-man with a little
pipe. My friend Lisa said that it used to be that there would not be enough Weckmänner, and
the children should think about sharing with each other so that everyone gets
some.
Karnival is more of a roudy holiday, in comparison with the
religious St. Martin's day.
It is a big party where everyone dresses up silly, and there are
ceremonies in the city that are all meant to be silly. There are huge
parades that block the streets and the cars and tractors and other vehicles are
dressed up, and throw candy to the on-lookers. it begins at 11:11 am on
November 11th with some parties and takes a bit of a rest during the Christmas
holidays......and completes on Rose Monday in February, two days before Ash
Wednesday.
Karnival is mostly celebrated in the Cologne, Germany region.
Other parts of Germany celebrate different traditions.
Bayern has Oktoberfest and Fasching, for example, which is similar to Karnival.
With Recreation, people really like to hike and bike here.
Road biking is a big pasttime where people take the trains and bike home with
gear on the back of the bike...sometimes even staying the night in hotels on
the way home. Hiking and walking are very popular. Swimming is
also big. Mountain climbing in the alps and of course, skiing.
Good luck on your report Sophers!!
Love,
Katie
