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Read what the students wrote about their experiences! The following is what the students wrote about their experience:
Germany: How to prepare to work, study and live in Germany By Carmella LaBianca Cultural Preparation Financial Preparation Well, enough about the price of beer... Once you’re here, you’ll want to go to other places in Germany, check out eastern Europe, TRAVEL. The trains in Germany are expensive, and they recently got even more expensive. If you make your travel plans a year in advance and are a family of 8, then the trains are cheap. If you have a normal lifestyle and are single then they are really expensive. Many people get around through ride-sharing. There are two websites: www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de and www.mitfahrzentrale.de. They connect drivers and travelers together, you just pay for the gas. It is safe. I’ve done it many times and never had a problem and you can save tons of money. Once you are here, there are some cheap airlines that fly out of Germany: www.germanwings.de, www.buzzaway.com, www.airberlin.de, among others. If you are planning to stay for a while, then you could put an add in one of the papers (Zitty, Tip) to tutor English or correct papers. As an inexperienced tutor you could charge €10-15 an hour. You can also hang up signs at the universities. Finding an apartment The “best” places in Berlin (the places with the most bars, cafes, night life, cheap restaurants, and students, as well as cheaper to live in) are Prenzlauerberg (Pberg), Kreuzberg (Xberg) and Friedrichshain (Fhain). It also depends on which university you will be studying at. Schoeneberg is an alright neighborhood, but to me it’s more expensive and a bit dull. I have never gone out anywhere in Schoeneberg before. Most things happen in the three neighborhoods mentioned above. Academic preparation Just keep in mind, no matter how bad or frustrated you feel about your language skills, they ARE getting better. Just relax, and have fun with the whole confusion. In comparison to Bard, there is less reading to do each week for each class (unless it’s a literature class!), so you won’t have to read a German book a week or anything. During the first two weeks you “shop around” for classes, meaning you don’t sign up (unless it says so in the course book – very rare – but check out if you have to read anything prior to the first class!) but visit whichever class sounds interesting and then pick the ones you want. Make sure you sign up on the lists that get passed around on the first day and pick Referat (presentation) topics as soon as you can. If the class is really full and the professor wants people to leave, you should get priority as an exchange student. The professor-student attention level is different to Bard. If there are 40 people in class, it is impossible for all to say something. It’s easy to feel lost in a big sea of students. Each professor has specific office hours and there is ususally a sign-up list hanging on his/her door a week before. Then you have to sit and wait a while to talk to him/her. It depends on the professor if he/she has time for you or not. But there is a lot less hand-holding by the professors and administration than goes on at Bard. If you are an exchange student though, there should be some Bard-connected advisor there, no? If you are coming over to study independantly of Bard, there is a whole bunch of paper work to do and lines to wait in and things to collect. That is a whole other report.... But, ultimately, the three things you’ll need are a dictionary, a sleeping bag and an adventurous attitude.
By Valerie Levan It is also really normal to feel lonely and disoriented for the first few months - it does get better! I think it is also common to reach a language plateau after a few months - you understand everything, but just can't express your ideas the way you want to. This takes a lot of time and effort to work through, but it is worth it. It is SO easy (and cheap!) to register at German universities as an auditor, and while this is not an especially good way to meet people, it is a great way to get a feeling for German academic life.
To be an au-pair for a year – pros and cons By Valerie Levan If you go through an au-pair organization, know your rights! I had some friends who ended up switching families because they were expected to work 6 days a week and clean the bathrooms. According to German law, the time you work is limited to a certain number of hours, and you are allotted a specific salary for that amount of work. Also, your responsibilities do not extend beyond caring for children - which may involve cooking, laundry, and some light cleaning, but mostly for the kids. Some people do try to exploit this, so it is important to know what you are entitled to going in.
Working with the ‘Musikfestival’ By Valerie Levan
By Carmella LaBianca A friend of mine was au pairing in Hamburg and her family kindly allowed me to stay at their home while I was in Hamburg so I did not have the stress of trying to find an apartment or paying for one. That really made things much easier.
Before you go! By Valerie Levan
By Bill Magruder
Teach English with the Bosch Foundation By Carmella LaBianca There were meeting at the beginning, middle and end of the 10 month program. The first meetings prepared us a bit with what would be expected of us as tutors and established a network among us. I taught English Conversation, Grammar, and American Literature at the university. I had to organize and advertise my own classes, as well as find my own teaching materials. It was a lot of freedom – challenging, but I could do what I wanted once I figured out what that was. Others in the programm were given set classes to teach by their universities. The programm took care of where I lived and paid enough to get by on and travel a little bit. It was a great year, I made some wonderful friends (two of whom I am living with in Berlin with now) and traveled around Germany and got some teaching experience (which makes finding a teaching job afterwards much easier).
By Nathan Reich I came away from Rostock, where for ten months I had taught American language and culture to University students, with the following impressions: national borders do not reflect a permanent state of affairs but a state of arrested conquest and exhaustion; a need to regroup and replenish a military’s need of men; to proselytize and generate a consensus called popular opinion, or nationalism or patriotism; to educate an army of engineers and scientists that can organize and manufacture raw materials into a country’s internal prosperity; to gain leverage over potential rivals and to incite less fortunate countries to pursue amicable although dependent and therefore indebted relations. In short, my confidence in a capitalist democracy was shaken, not because democracy is inferior to communism, but because governments abuse and will always abuse their power, because virtuous leaders are seldom born and even less frequently succeed. I find that I now take little comfort in the thought that men could live at peace with one another, although they certainly possess the power to do so. And it is not because they don’t want to. It is because we remain convinced that nations facilitate human happiness; that governments reflect our interests; that militaries are essential; and that wars are sometimes inevitable. None of this is true, although all of it is confirmed by and needs the support of public opinion, which has always been the opiate of the masses, whether cut in the cloth of religion or of materialism. Nations and public opinion are inseparable; the latter is simply internalized, and corroborated and extended by word of mouth; it is a form of self-government that corresponds to a nation’s political and fiscal ambitions. I find my opinion about the relation between government and men confirmed whenever I travel abroad; that everywhere individuals share largely the same interests—in truth, the good life and beauty; in inquiry, family and art; in curiosity, friendship and genius—and that it requires the sustained assault of metaphysical fanatics to persuade us that we are genuine, ideological, irreconcilable enemies. But this rhetoric, an intoxicated cruelty freely distributed from the wagon of charisma, is a fantasy. Only he that has come to believe in it could ever impose it as truth on the impressionable hearts and minds of children or students, or on a nation weakened by intestine discord and poverty. The tragedy, of course, is that men and women flourish in society; that a government structures and ensures the safety of society; and that men can’t live both prosperously and peacefully with government or without it. The only specific against the unconscionable excesses of government and the inadvertent tyranny of the masses. . . is a critical and independent mind. Such a mind is both the most vulnerable and the most indefatigable enemy of popular opinion; and it is also its own defense; and if it is drawn to pursue its freedom in a foreign land, then its inclination to do so is beyond reproach.
Humboldt Universität, Berlin By Bill Magruder, 2003 i loved berlin right away... it's a huge city but it's very easy to get around with public transportation. once the semester starts students must pay a fee (a little less than 150 euros, i think) and that gets them a 'semester ticket' which is valid for all forms of public transportation in berlin (as well as potsdam). it's a great way to get around. although i bought a bike at a flea market and i ride that almost always now that the weather is nice. one thing to expect in berlin is lots of waiting and long lines. many offices have hours that change depending on the day of the week and don't seem to make any sense. but if you pay attention to the hours and go early, it shouldn't be too bad. there is quite a bit of bureaucracy that i had to go through in order to matriculate, including registering with the police, paying the fees, getting cleared for health insurance and so forth. also, getting a residency permit can take quite a long time. however, there are special days just for university students when the lines aren't so long. i went bright and early on one of these days and the wait wasn't too bad. i'd definitely recommend getting these things done as early as possible. computers are another thing. there are several 'PC pools' at humboldt but they are open strange hours and there are always long lines. (of course, there are internet cafes but those cost money) i would definitely recommend bringing a laptop if possible! i'm glad i did. but my modem doesn't work here (not sure if that's true for all US computers...) so i would say don't necessarily count on having internet at home. i just started the university so it's hard for me to say too much about it. the biggest problem i had was with the different types of classes. there are many different types (Vorlesung, Proseminar, Seminar, Uebung, etc.). As I understand it, to get Bard credit one must get a Leistungsschein from each class. It was difficult for me to figure out which classes gave out Leistungsscheins without going to all of them. So i think the classes will be confusing at first for students, but should become better before long. Oh, another problem i had is with the Vorlesungsverzeichnis (VV). There is a VV for all classes at humboldt that you can buy, but it doesn't have descriptions of the courses. Then, each individual discipline comes out later with a Kommentierte VV that you must buy as well (or i believe they are usually on the internet). Because i was interested in courses from different disciplines, it was a bit hard to figure out when which classes started (for example, all the literature classes started the second week instead of the first). The Vorlesungs are generally huge, sometimes there are too many students for the amount of seats. The proseminars can be quite small, however. Students can also take classes at the Sprachenzentrum during the semester. I would recommend it -- it's a good way to work on grammar problems and so forth. I've eaten at the Mensa a couple of times. It's quite cheap but the food isn't too great. The Mensa Nord at Humboldt is much better than the one in the Hauptgebaeude. I haven't had any experience with advisors, i'm not sure whether i have one. Basically I had to figure everything out by myself (with the help of other students of course), but everything worked out fine. I also took the intensive language class during March at the Humboldt Sprachenzentrum. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who's doing the exchange program. It's a great way to meet people and brush up on grammar and also get a feel for the university before classes start and there are thousands of people everywhere. The international office sometimes organizes activities which are quite enjoyable. There was a bus trip to Potsdam, for example, and there's a boat tour next weekend. I've also been doing a lot of exploring by myself... Berlin is great because it's a huge city, yet there are so many parks and also forests and lakes not far away. Being a student in Berlin is great... there are student discounts for many things, in particular theater which can be extremely inexpensive. (I'm seeing arturo ui next month!!!) And there are tons of great museums. Daniel Libeskind's Juedisches Museum is particulary interesting because of its architecture. It's quite evident that the city is changing rapidly... there's construction everywhere and interesting new architecture can always be seen. All sorts of cuisines can be found all over the city, as well. It's not too easy to find german food, but turkish and asian food is everywhere. And i would definitely say that the cost of living here is less than in the U.S. Click here for some very useful links, tips and tricks BEFORE you go to study at the Humboldt University or plan to stay in Berlin in general.
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