Erfahrungsberichte
The language – "bridge" between Romania and Germany
Reference: Bridges across the Danube
After I retired as a high school teacher in 2003, I found an advertisement in a paper where they were looking for German teachers from Germany who would work for free in Romania. Because I wanted a useful activity to do instead of sitting in my house all day I applied and was accepted. It was in the “diocese of Alba Julia” where young people from the surrounding farms were given the chance of a three-months-course of German to prepare for a practical training in Germany.
So from October till December 2003, I spent six weeks in Gheorgheni, a city of 22000 inhabitants in the eastern part of Transylvania. We were six colleagues who had to teach 60 students altogether. Each of us had to teach 17 to 20 lessons of German per week. After a while a lingual link and a personal connection began to take place between the young people and their German teachers. This happened even though none of the teachers spoke Hungarian, the language spoken in this part of Romania. Before this trip I had tried to learn some Romanian with the help of my knowledge of Latin, and the students helped me learn a little more on the trip.
We were not only with our students in school but we also lived in the same house. So we had our meals together, we met for walks in the country, in a café, for dances or to play games. The only difference was that every teacher had his/her own small room whereas the students had to share one room for every four to six people.
Even though some of the students had difficulties in mastering the German language, they all reached their aim: The following year they were able to spend six months on Bavarian farms. At the end of the six months they attended a final meeting where they discussed the experiences they had made during their stay. Even the teachers could take part in that meeting.
It was a wonderful experience all around. As far as the German teachers were concerned, we were given the chance to see some parts of Romania such as the famous monasteries in the north near the river Moldova,
Brasov, Sibiu and Sinaia. Some of the Romanians could also follow through with their plans to travel around in Germany.
German became the link between partners, we had contact via e-mail for a long time.
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