Gemma Cleave

From my very first introduction to German in secondary school I have been fascinated by the language and motivated to expand my knowledge of it. Now, as a student taking a degree in German and History at Durham University, I am constantly striving to improve my language skills whilst engaging in German culture and history.

That’s why, when my university introduced me to the DAAD and their program, I was eager to apply. I regarded it as an opportunity to consolidate and build upon my current B1 proficiency whilst also gaining valuable experience and confidence living in Germany for my upcoming year abroad, in which I will spend 10 months living, working and studying in the country.

After applying, I was consequently granted a DAAD-Stiftung scholarship and became incredibly fortunate to have my first real opportunity to further my learning in the country itself. I was honoured to partake in a 3-week summer school at the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt where I was able to truly immerse myself in the German language and culture.

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Gemma Cleave at Naturpark Eichstätt

The course was structured so that each morning we had a class targeted to our language level in which we focused on the principal skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking. I found this to be highly beneficial as being surrounded by other students with an equal interest and skill set helped me to quickly progress my knowledge.

And whilst the lessons differed greatly from my previous experiences of language learning since the teacher did not translate, but rather worked solely with the German language in order to explain the meaning of words, this in turn was highly rewarding as it made me more confident in my language comprehension. At times this created an additional challenge for the class, but nevertheless it helped us to constantly engage with the language and prevented us from simply resorting back to our respective native languages.

In the afternoon we then participated in a culture class to discover behaviours, traditions, and ways of life in Germany and more specifically in Bavaria. As a part of this, we were given the amazing opportunity to conduct an interview with a local and present our findings back to the class. An employee at the local nature park kindly agreed to be interviewed by my group and it was fascinating to learn all about the opportunities and challenges that the nature park was facing.

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The UNESCO world haritage site Bamberg

Furthermore, a couple of days a week we had workshops and I chose to undertake one focused on pronunciation which dealt with the hardest sounds to form in German as a foreign speaker. Personally, I find the ‘ch’ sound as well as the difference in pronunciation between vowels with and without umlauts to be the hardest to pronounce and I made these my focus in these sessions.

Alongside this, I also took a workshop on pop music which followed Germany’s pop history and evolution. This was very new to me and I really enjoyed discovering, listening to and discussing the music. Overall, the sheer diversity that the summer school provided in terms of language learning and methods of learning was incredible.

A further highlight of my trip was the chance to speak with and learn alongside people from all over the world. With the summer school being comprised of participants from 21 different nationalities, it was a truly unique experience to discover cultural differences and similarities. But what stood out to me was our use of German as a common language to communicate with each other.

Whilst my ability to express myself may have been limited at times, I was pleased by my ability to hold a conversation with my peers and teachers, and further delighted by how my language skills, in particular my comprehension, progressed throughout the weeks.

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The City of Eichstätt the river Altmühl in front

Consequently, I feel so much more confident with expressing myself and communicating in German which will be immensely beneficial to my year abroad in Germany, beginning in September where I will firstly work in a school as an English Language Assistant in Zwickau, Saxony, followed by a study placement in Karlsruhe, Baden Württemberg. I can only hope that I continue to progress my knowledge and confidence this upcoming year as much as I have done these past few weeks.

DNot only did the summer school improve my language skills, but it further introduced me to German life. Living in the charming town of Eichstätt, I was able to explore the town and it’s beautiful surrounding countryside. Moreover I witnessed examples of traditional German dress and tried some traditional German foods such as a Bratwurst which was very tasty.

Alongside this, the course provided excursions to the UNESCO world-heritage site, Bamberg and the university city, Ingolstadt where we were given informative city tours and had time to explore by ourselves. All in all, navigating general life and using public transport was a stepping stone for me to ease into living abroad and I will be hugely grateful for this in the upcoming year.