The Latest at Goethe

Schwäbisch Hall recently hosted 56 pupils from all over the world. They gathered there to revise German vocabulary, conjugate verbs, visit the Experimenta and explore the town, which, although larger than a “hall,” is not easy to get lost in. By Jahn Nitschke

The blast of an explosion echoes through the level. Some people are startled, but Timothy calls out, “Cool! Where’d that come from?” The 17-year-old from New York belongs to a group of German pupils at the Goethe-Institut that recently visited the Experimenta in Heilbronn.

The collection of temporary exhibits has lots of interactive stops spread over four storeys, including a hydrogen rocket that is triggered by a crank and frightens visitors every few minutes whenever someone cranks it long enough to produce electrolytic gas from water for a small explosion. After a few minutes and blasts, Timothy and his clique lose interest and instead turn to the model of an ocean current power plant.

PASCH, short for Schools: Partners for the Future, is an initiative of the German Foreign Office that has been bringing teens from around the world to Germany since 2008. “It’s like a summer camp with language classes,” explains Corina Klaus, who coordinates the group in Hall. The initiative works with the Goethe-Institut, the Central Agency for Schools Abroad as well as the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) and the Pädagogischer Austauschdienst (PAD).

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Schools: Partners for the Future

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The pupils have varying degrees of skill in German. “At the beginning we have a placement test so that no one overestimates themselves,” explains Klaus. “Or underestimates themselves either,” she adds. Then the pupils are divided up into four classes aligned to the standardized classifications for foreign language students. A, B and C rise in degree of difficulty and are again divided into 1 and 2, so that A1 is a pupil with little German skills and someone with C2 on their certificate is almost fluent in German.

“The teenagers are very motivated learners,” Klaus glows. “I’ve had courses with far more pupils,” she says, “but we’ve never lost anyone on an outing. And usually they’re even on time.” The team at Corina Klaus’s side is made up of four teachers, four supervisors and two pupil trainees from Cologne and Heilbronn. “Most teachers are freelancers who take the time to work here,” says Corina Klaus, who lives in Leipzig but has been coming to Hall regularly for three years to supervise the PASCH courses. There are two per year: this one lasted from 7 until 27 July and the second from 4 until 24 August. “These are scholarships. Pupils learning German apply for them at their school.”

“Stuttgart is like New York”

The group of 56 pupils between the ages of 14 and 18 – and their teachers – have settled into the Hall youth hostel for the duration of the course. “We’re close together, we know what they’re doing and how they’re doing,” says Klaus and proves it a little later by citing the names and origins of each of the pupils. “I sometimes even meet some of them again when I’m on holiday.”

Anna from Pittsburgh and her friend Dalila from Washington, D.C. are balancing a building brick on a tottery platform. Duan from Ni in Serbia gives them a hand. The tower is growing taller and taller until someone approaches the platform and it the bricks topple down. “I’d never been in Europe before and was really excited,” says Anna. She is in the tenth grade and has been taking German for five years. A teacher approached her and told her she’d probably enjoy the PASCH course. “Then I had to fill in some forms and now here I am,” she says. “We tried getting lost in Schwäbisch Hall but it’s impossible,” the 16-year-old reports, “it’s too small.” She notes that it is a positive thing. “But there are so many stairs here,” she complains, “I never want to see any again.” Asked what she thinks of Stuttgart, she replies, “Stuttgart is like New York – lots of people, but much prettier and cleaner.” And the air here smells different.


The course has a new motto each year and this year’s is Vision of the Future: Environmental Protection and Climate Change. “The Experimenta is ideal for this since it covers a lot of the subject matter. The exhibition is good for young people because it’s interactive,” says Klaus. They also will visit Heidelberg, were at the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart and baked pretzels at the Kronmüller Bakery. “Tomorrow evening, we are holding a nations event where everyone will present their country and some will cook national dishes.” The teens come from all over the world – from China, the United States, Uganda, Russia, Malawi, Serbia and Brazil, for example.

“Schön is my favourite word,” says Chasaya, who actually comes from Zambia, but lives in Malawi in the capital city of Lilongwe. He claims he is 15 years old until his classmate Enalla, 14, corrects him, “You’re fourteen!” Langweilig (boring) is her favourite German word. Timothy from New York likes Schadenfreude, which cannot be translated into English. Juvella doesn’t think the word unheimlich is at all sinister, but nice to pronounce.

Nermine Abdel-Aty from Alexandria, Egypt is familiar with both sides of German lessons: She has been learning German since she was four. Now, she is teaching it. “As a foreigner, you can only learn German in courses for youths,” she says. You can hardly tell that it is not her native language. “Germany deliberately holds programmes to promote integration,” she extols. She especially likes the n declination, she admits, “I like languages; that’s the way I am.”

Courtesy of the Haller Tagblatt. The article has been slightly abridged.