Lauren Bayer, Pitt in Munich Summer 2023
Every day, we have our language class in the morning and either our culture course or a planned excursion in the afternoon. Since we have so many diverse excursions each week, our schedule looks different every day! Below you can see a picture of some of us with our language instructor from the Goethe-Institut on a mini tour around the city, in which we all prepared presentations for each of our stops!
The classroom environment at the Goethe Institut was much more interactive than a normal class at Pitt. Since we are in classes with people of all different backgrounds and mother languages, the teacher has to make sure everyone is understanding and on the same page. This was done through multiple group activities and partner activities throughout the morning. Both teachers I had made sure to have every single student answer a question at least once. In addition, since we are ultimately trying to expand our German speaking skills there were a lot of segments of having conversations during the class. These were my favorite parts because the teacher would normally gear the conversation towards a topic in which we could use our new grammar and vocabulary skills from the previous day.
Here you can see one of our little projects from class. For the first two weeks, we were in a class with only those from the Pitt program, and for the last two weeks we joined an international class with people from all over the world and of all ages. Everyone takes a placement test before their class, so that the pace and language level are just right.
Our language courses are with the lovely Goethe-Institut teachers and staff and last four hours in the morning, from 8:30 to 12:45. We usually wake up around 6:30 AM and eat breakfast in the cafeteria, then get on the U-Bahn towards the city!
In the afternoon we have either our culture course with a Pitt professor, or a planned excursion like tours of museums, opera houses, or stadiums. In our culture course we read and discuss texts which are pertinent to not only the history of Germany but specifically Bavaria and Munich. Below, you can see our group at a tour of the Staatsoper in Munich, the largest theater house in Germany!
Here is a picture I took of my friend taking a picture of the beautiful Neuschwanstein Castle, which King Lugwig II built as a combination inspired by fairytales and real medieval castles, something we read about in out German culture course. One of the great things about this program is that the culture course is a hands-on experience of history. We get to read about people, places and events and then witness those things firsthand.
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