Finally Feeling Busy Again

This week, I made good progress on my project. Besides continuing my regular twice-a-week volunteering as an English tutor at one school, I visited another Gymnasium this week that had offered to connect me with students for interviews.

My meeting with the teacher proved to be extremely productive as she not only agreed to have me interview some of her students, but also she helped me out big time in two ways:

1. She asked me to come back to give a presentation on the UW Dream Project and my Fulbright project in general, keeping in mind the theme of "ethnic diversity"—the broader theme for her English class this semester; and 

2. She contacted all her colleagues (foreign language teachers) in Berlin, which was nearly 30 teachers at other schools around the city, about connecting me with some of their students for interviews as well.

Why do these help me out big time? For the first part, the visit would be part of the U.S. Embassy's Meet US Program, which would mean I would be sponsored by the Embassy to go share my experiences. I've already done one of these presentations (and have another one next Wednesday), so I know they're very productive ways to hear young German students' opinions.

Second, she single-handedly increased my school contact rate of success by about 200%, as I've already gotten a good number of positive responses from teachers she emailed. Finally, nearly five months later, my project is gaining good traction.

While I continue working through the bureaucratic processes that exist here in Berlin, I'm also gaining a bit of experience in the classroom as a quasi-teaching assistant. Today, I spent part of an 8th grade class teaching "comparative adjectives." Now, when the teacher first asked me to teach the students this, I was like, "comparawhat"?

After he told me, I realized that I knew what they were, but I couldn't explain the rules for why we say "greater than" instead of "more great than" or "more disgusting" instead of "disgustinger." So he briefed me quickly on the three rules he wanted the students to learn, and off we went. One of the students I worked with picked up the rules right away. The other two were a bit slower. But as the teacher warned me, I needed to find a way to make the lesson interesting rather than just diving straight into the rules. So we used pictures of Lady Gaga, Cristiano Ronaldo, the girl from Twilight (I had no idea what her name was...the teacher told me, and I've forgotten already), Justin Bieber, and Spiderman. 

Side note: these kids love making fun of Justin Bieber. It's quite amusing actually, although there are a handful that do like him/his music. Nevertheless, they are guaranteed a laugh if they just start singing, "Baby, baby, baby-ohhh," though most of them are snickers. 

In the past few days of working with students on English lessons, etc., I'm realizing that the more familiar they become with me, the more crap they try to get away with. I've found myself having to be a bit more stern with them. I've also realized (again) that I do not have the patience to teach kids, although I do enjoy working with older students.

On top of my school visits, I also had a Fulbright event this week. Every so often, the Fulbright Commission invites its scholars to special events and programs. Today, the Free University of Berlin partnered with the U.S. Embassy to host U.S. Ambassador to Germany, Philip Murphy, for a lecture commemorating President John F. Kennedy's inauguration 50 years ago. Fulbright Scholars were invited to the event, so I RSVPed to go and found another rare occasion to wear my suit ("Suit up!"). 

After the president of the university spoke, Ambassador Murphy gave his own speech, and I have to say he's quite charismatic. It didn't surprise me, but he was definitely more down-to-earth than I had thought. His background is in business, and he speaks German (though with a noticeable but not entirely overwhelming American accent). The few snippets he gave in German brought a number of chuckles from the mostly German audience. Happy to say I understood them too. 

When he concluded his remarks about how President Kennedy's goals that even now continuing today (from his inauguration speech, which was one of the best ever), he asked the audience if any of them had been in Berlin for President Kennedy's visit in June 1963. A handful of folks stood up and got a nice applause. The Ambassador asked them to share a few anecdotes, and it was neat to hear their stories—about being a young student watching President Kennedy speak at the Rathaus Schöneberg, about being a kid playing on his lawn when the President's motorcade drove by, or about being a university student waiting to hear the President speak at the Free University. Overall, I enjoyed the event, and sadly, I forgot to bring my camera. But I'm sure the Free University will post some of their pictures online soon.

Finally, after a long day, I made it home and cooked some tasty pasta with white wine sauce. Since I am moving to a new apartment soon, my roommate Ronny and I planned a nice dinner with our good friend, Manuela, whose last time at our apartment was when she helped me move in back in September. We did a good job cooking it all together!

I've known both of them for a few years now through our UW/Seattle ties and also in Berlin, so it was really nice to get together. I gotta say...we cleaned up. We made tons of food, but we ate it all. My other roommate, Swen, and his friend, Gregor, also helped out too. The pan was completely empty.

Not surprisingly, we were stuffed. But we had a fun evening of chatting and laughing and just hanging out in general. Can't ask for anything more than that. 

Tomorrow, I can sleep in a bit again, so that will be nice. But I have to start getting work done ahead of the school visits I have in the next few weeks. Nevertheless, it's nice to feel more productive again.

Till next time,

Sam