German Gymnasium

I will apologize for the title….this is another name for advanced schooling in Germany, similar to a Master’s program in the U.S. It is NOT a place where basketball is played; I just wanted a cool sounding title.

I do not get a good taste of German schooling, since I am in a study abroad program, but here is what my schedule is like. I am only in 12 credits’ worth of classes, per MLC’s wishes. I have two subject courses on Monday and Tuesday. Each class lasts two and a half hours and sometimes they are pretty brutal. BUT they are only once a week, so it is not that bad. I also take Intensive German four days a week, Monday to Thursday. These classes are three hour long language classes, but these go very quick since, at my German level, we mostly spend our time talking about personal experiences and current events. It is nice to finally practice speaking German for a long time, which is one of the main reasons I wanted to go. It is very different from classes at MLC.

One thing that was difficult for me was the tests. The German test was quite simple, but for the subject courses I found it hard, since we only had class once a week and the learning for each class was all in the readings that we must have completed prior to each class. I had to write two 2 page essays for each class, four altogether, from questions given to me before the test. I could prepare somewhat for these, but this kind of testing I had never done before, so I was insanely nervous. This also was pretty much the only grades for these subject courses, so a lot was riding on these tests. It was not as hard as I thought to write two pages’ worth of essay, but it was still difficult and took over an hour and a half each time.

From what I learned from my fellow students who go to bigger universities, this is pretty normal as far as expectations in academia go.

What was also difficult, and this is something I really haven’t experienced either, is the lack of interest in the course. This was only for one of my subject courses, but the lack of interest makes it hard to get any sort of work done. Since I haven’t experienced this at MLC, I take this as a good sign in our college’s education. I know what MLC teaches will be important later on.

Also, here are some pics from my time in Warsaw!

 

Kielbasa (Polish Sausage), Me at the top of the Palace of Culture and Science, (The purple building below), and the skyline of Warsaw, or at least what it looked like most of my visit.