Austausch/Exchange 2014
German/ Irish Exchange
Ireland
On the 6th of April this year we, Sinead Prunty, Laura Dempsey and Carly Walsh from Transition Year and Sarah White, Eimear Brennan, Ciara Cahill, Hayley Murphy and Sophie Donnelly from 5th year welcomed our German exchange students to Ireland. They stayed with us and our families for 10 days and attended school with us. Their English was unbelievably good ! They found Ireland very different to Germany and at the beginning found it hard to understand our accents, although some of them had already been on an exchange to Cork. We showed them as much as Wexford as we could and we also brought them to the beach. For some of them it was their first time ever being at the beach as the nearest beach to Cologne is several hours away. We also brought them to the Dunbrody Ship in New Ross, to the Heritage Park and also shopping in Dublin (they spent hours in Penneys!). They found our school very strange because we wear a uniform and it's an all-girls school, whereas theirs is mixed. In school they did some power points in the German and Geography classes to tell everyone a bit about Germany. On the 16th of April we said our goodbyes in the airport but it wasn't long until we saw them again as we headed to Germany 9 days later!
Germany
On the 25th of April we boarded our plane and headed off to Germany for 10 days. We stayed in Cologne with our exchange partners and their families. We attended school, visited many tourist attractions and participated in their daily routines.
Life in Germany
Life in Germany is quite different to life in Ireland. Most people come from small families (usually one or two children) and live in apartments. They eat all of their meals together as a family unlike some families in Ireland and they don't start eating until everyone has been served their food and the mother or father says 'Guten Apetit'. The people living in Germany nowadays come from all over the world and there is a huge number of Turkish people living there. We found that German people are not at all like the very strict stereotypical German. They are incredibly nice, mannerly and welcoming and they made us feel right at home. We also found that they are very conservative and very Eco-Friendly (Umweltfreundlich). They drink all of their water from bottles and when they are finished with the bottles they take them back to the supermarket to be recycled properly. Also, most of the houses have four different bins for different types of rubbish whereas in Ireland most houses only have two! The dialogues we learned in 1st, 2nd and 3rd year came in extremely handy when we were ordering food or ice cream and once when we had to ask for directions.
School
The school we attended in Germany was a lot different to ours. The Gymnasium, Realschule and Hauptschule were all in the same grounds and although we attended the Gymnasium, some of our classes were in the other two schools. It was a mixed school and they don't wear a uniform. Each student has their own individual timetable which means that school starts and finishes at different times for everyone. They have a lot of short breaks during the day and fewer, but longer classes. They don't have much books and in class they work mostly from handouts and their folders. Every student is involved in the class and topics are discussed between the students and teacher rather than individual work, meaning there is much more conversation rather than just writing and taking notes. We found some of the topics a little bit hard to understand although we got the general gist of what they were talking about.
Food
We found the food in Germany really nice and while over there we ate a lot of pasta, cheese, bread, sausages and other types of meat. In the supermarkets there are huge delis full with different types of cheese and meat, much bigger than the ones in Irish supermarkets! They don't snack as much as we do although their meal portions tended to be a lot bigger than what we'd usually have in Ireland. They drink mostly sparkling water instead of still water and when we got there they had to buy still water especially for us!
Trips and Activities
While we were in Germany we visited the Rhein(Rhine) river, which runs right through Köln(Cologne). The Rhein is used to transport heavy goods and is also used for party boats during festivals. We went to Phantasialand which is a huge theme park in Cologne. The English teacher took us on a tour of Cologne city and we travelled over the Rhein in a cable car (Seilbahn). We went to the Dom, which is probably the most famous building in Cologne. They have been building the Dom for over 800 years and it is still not finished! We climbed over 500 steps to the very top of the Dom and got an amazing birds eye view of Cologne. We then went to the lock bridge where people write the name of the person they love of a lock and lock it onto the bridge, which means that their love will be eternal. There are so many locks on the bridge now that soon they will have to take some off because the bridge is getting too heavy! On the 30th of April we went to a street party called Mai Fest. This is a night when all of the girls go out to parties and the boys stay at home (although most of them didn't). At 12am the boys put a May Tree (Mai Baum) outside the house of their girlfriend or of a girl that they like. These trees are quite big and are decorated with colourful ribbon. This festival marks the beginning of May.
Back to Ireland
On the 5th of May we headed to the airport and said goodbye to our exchange partners. Everyone was really sad to leave but we all made plans to try and organize to come back next year. We all became very close with all of the exchange partners and we really hope to keep in contact with them. Not only have we improved our German from this trip, but we have all learned so much about life and the culture in Germany. It was a truly amazing experience and we would strongly recommend organizing an exchange to anyone who plans on studying German for the Leaving Cert.
Ireland
On the 6th of April this year we, Sinead Prunty, Laura Dempsey and Carly Walsh from Transition Year and Sarah White, Eimear Brennan, Ciara Cahill, Hayley Murphy and Sophie Donnelly from 5th year welcomed our German exchange students to Ireland. They stayed with us and our families for 10 days and attended school with us. Their English was unbelievably good ! They found Ireland very different to Germany and at the beginning found it hard to understand our accents, although some of them had already been on an exchange to Cork. We showed them as much as Wexford as we could and we also brought them to the beach. For some of them it was their first time ever being at the beach as the nearest beach to Cologne is several hours away. We also brought them to the Dunbrody Ship in New Ross, to the Heritage Park and also shopping in Dublin (they spent hours in Penneys!). They found our school very strange because we wear a uniform and it's an all-girls school, whereas theirs is mixed. In school they did some power points in the German and Geography classes to tell everyone a bit about Germany. On the 16th of April we said our goodbyes in the airport but it wasn't long until we saw them again as we headed to Germany 9 days later!
Germany
On the 25th of April we boarded our plane and headed off to Germany for 10 days. We stayed in Cologne with our exchange partners and their families. We attended school, visited many tourist attractions and participated in their daily routines.
Life in Germany
Life in Germany is quite different to life in Ireland. Most people come from small families (usually one or two children) and live in apartments. They eat all of their meals together as a family unlike some families in Ireland and they don't start eating until everyone has been served their food and the mother or father says 'Guten Apetit'. The people living in Germany nowadays come from all over the world and there is a huge number of Turkish people living there. We found that German people are not at all like the very strict stereotypical German. They are incredibly nice, mannerly and welcoming and they made us feel right at home. We also found that they are very conservative and very Eco-Friendly (Umweltfreundlich). They drink all of their water from bottles and when they are finished with the bottles they take them back to the supermarket to be recycled properly. Also, most of the houses have four different bins for different types of rubbish whereas in Ireland most houses only have two! The dialogues we learned in 1st, 2nd and 3rd year came in extremely handy when we were ordering food or ice cream and once when we had to ask for directions.
School
The school we attended in Germany was a lot different to ours. The Gymnasium, Realschule and Hauptschule were all in the same grounds and although we attended the Gymnasium, some of our classes were in the other two schools. It was a mixed school and they don't wear a uniform. Each student has their own individual timetable which means that school starts and finishes at different times for everyone. They have a lot of short breaks during the day and fewer, but longer classes. They don't have much books and in class they work mostly from handouts and their folders. Every student is involved in the class and topics are discussed between the students and teacher rather than individual work, meaning there is much more conversation rather than just writing and taking notes. We found some of the topics a little bit hard to understand although we got the general gist of what they were talking about.
Food
We found the food in Germany really nice and while over there we ate a lot of pasta, cheese, bread, sausages and other types of meat. In the supermarkets there are huge delis full with different types of cheese and meat, much bigger than the ones in Irish supermarkets! They don't snack as much as we do although their meal portions tended to be a lot bigger than what we'd usually have in Ireland. They drink mostly sparkling water instead of still water and when we got there they had to buy still water especially for us!
Trips and Activities
While we were in Germany we visited the Rhein(Rhine) river, which runs right through Köln(Cologne). The Rhein is used to transport heavy goods and is also used for party boats during festivals. We went to Phantasialand which is a huge theme park in Cologne. The English teacher took us on a tour of Cologne city and we travelled over the Rhein in a cable car (Seilbahn). We went to the Dom, which is probably the most famous building in Cologne. They have been building the Dom for over 800 years and it is still not finished! We climbed over 500 steps to the very top of the Dom and got an amazing birds eye view of Cologne. We then went to the lock bridge where people write the name of the person they love of a lock and lock it onto the bridge, which means that their love will be eternal. There are so many locks on the bridge now that soon they will have to take some off because the bridge is getting too heavy! On the 30th of April we went to a street party called Mai Fest. This is a night when all of the girls go out to parties and the boys stay at home (although most of them didn't). At 12am the boys put a May Tree (Mai Baum) outside the house of their girlfriend or of a girl that they like. These trees are quite big and are decorated with colourful ribbon. This festival marks the beginning of May.
Back to Ireland
On the 5th of May we headed to the airport and said goodbye to our exchange partners. Everyone was really sad to leave but we all made plans to try and organize to come back next year. We all became very close with all of the exchange partners and we really hope to keep in contact with them. Not only have we improved our German from this trip, but we have all learned so much about life and the culture in Germany. It was a truly amazing experience and we would strongly recommend organizing an exchange to anyone who plans on studying German for the Leaving Cert.