I have really enjoyed both German 101 and 102. I loved the way the classes were taught—the interaction in class, the focus on culture, and of course, the lack of the repetitive in-class grammar exercises that I was all too familiar with in my high school Spanish classes. It is amazing to me how much we have learned in such a short period of time. Not only do we know basic grammar and vocabulary, but we know a significant amount about the German culture as well. I’ve taken years of Spanish classes and yet, I feel like I’ve learned so much more about culture in the past two semesters of German than I ever have in the past several years of Spanish.

There are a couple of cultural differences between America and Germany that stand out in my mind. The first is the different use of the phrase “how are you?” I was surprised to learn that many Germans think we are superficial because we use the phrase as more of a greeting than a real question. I’d never really thought about the fact that we use the phrase as a greeting… it’s just something that I’ve always done unconsciously. It’s not that we don’t care about our friends and family though. I still genuinely want to know how they are, but I guess I usually ask them using a different phrase.

The difference in openness and friendliness with strangers also stood out to me. I have always heard that some other cultures don’t treat strangers with the same polite manner that Americans tend to use. However, I had not realized that Germany falls into this group of cultures. I was incredibly surprised to learn that Germans are pretty conservative about smiling at people and that it is strange for Germans to smile at someone that they don’t know. I was also surprised that Germans who visited America were often disconcerted by salespeople being friendly!

I have really enjoyed my German classes so far and I am looking forward to learning more German and one day (hopefully sooner rather than later!) being fluent in the language. In fact, I liked German 101 so much that I applied to study abroad in Berlin this summer! German 102 has only helped to strengthen my desire to learn the language and immerse myself in the German culture. I am so excited about my upcoming study abroad experience and I am looking forward to coming back to UNC in the fall and continuing to learn German.