It happens every year: Fall brings cold weather, changing leaves…and German exchange students. For the past nine years, students from Neues Gymnasium Nürnberg, a school in Nuremberg, have come to stay with Spartans for several weeks in late October. In return, Spartans visit Germany the following summer.
“What is funny is Nuremberg is my home town, so that’s why I really love doing it–because I’m going there in the summer anyway,” said WS German teacher Katharina Fuerst, who joined the WS community two years ago.
While WS students enjoy the summer trip, they are also excited to act as hosts.
“I’ve wanted to do this since I was pretty young; I wanted to do it as a seventh grader,” said junior Julia Rondeau. “I found out from my neighbor who did [the exchange program], and she loved it, and so I decided to do it and signed up for it in May.”
After filling out a variety of forms, Rondeau was matched with German student Yamila Fischlein. The two began texting and even planned coordinating Halloween costumes. Rondeau was eager to test her language skills once Fischlein arrived.
“I feel like learning a language is one thing, but hosting an exchange student forces you to apply the language you learned. And I figured, if I was going to learn a language, I might as well go all in and not just go half way and be like, ‘Alright, that’s good enough.’ I wanted to see if I could really apply my language and improve my skills,” Rondeau said.
For her part, Fischlein was eager to see a new country and culture.
“I wanted to see America. I’d never been to America before,” she said. Since her family is large, she wasn’t sure she would have another opportunity.
In general, her stay didn’t disappoint; her impressions of the United States were fairly positive, and she and her fellow exchange students were fascinated by the yellow American school buses.
“America is very cool, and I always wanted to see how the school is in America. I went to different schools in different countries, and it’s really interesting, because you see always, like, the clichés,” said German student Mathilde Lefftz.
The German students went on a variety of day trips, seeing various sights in DC before heading to New York for several days. They also shadowed WS students for several days to get a glimpse American of culture.
“It’s very different [in Germany] because we can’t choose our classes, and it’s really strict. We have to learn a lot. It’s a little bit relaxed here,” said Lefftz.
Despite the differences between German and American society, German and American students often form very close friendships.
“I have students from Germany revisiting their families, I have American students going over there; even sometimes the whole family visiting the other family. So it’s really something that builds international connections,” said Fuerst.
However, the exchange can bring something beyond friendships: a change in worldview.
“Especially here in our area in Northern Virginia, I see my graduates moving on to high-class universities and jobs, maybe in the Pentagon, maybe in the government, and for them it’s just opening a window of possibilities, ideas, traveling. International experience, I think, is very valuable to give them ideas to move on later in life–to have this kind of openness is actually the biggest thing that comes out of [the exchange],” said Fuerst.