By jadoerge
As my first semester here at the Ludwig Maximillians Universität draws to a close, it is very interesting to remark just how different the schooling system and schedule is here as opposed to American universities.
Firstly, from the simple perspective of the calendar, there is a marked difference between the two systems. Here in Germany, the first semester begins in mid-October and goes until December 21st when there is a nearly three-week holiday vacation. School then resumes on January 9th and the first semester ends on February 14. After that, there is a two-month semester break during which I will be doing most of my travelling before returning to school on April 15th for classes until July 20th. This second semester will be particularly short because during the first two months of classes, there are only two full school weeks during which there are no holidays resulting in a long weekend. Clearly, things work a bit differently here.
The structure and grading in the courses themselves are also radically different than life at GW. This semester I had five classes, which are all 2.5 hours long and meet once a week (except for my grammar class). Though classes that long might seem to drag quite often, the amount of free time that this schedule provides allows me to really experience life here outside of school. In terms of grading, the classes here are generally graded on either one or two large assignments or tests with no grade for participation, quizzes, or the like. In nearly every class, there is a “Referat” which is essentially an oral report that one must give for approximately 20 minutes and often counts for 50% of the grade. One particularly difficult Referat that I encountered entailed a 70-minute debate with five other students about the pros and cons of Presidentialism and Parliamentarism in Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic…in German. It was certainly an experience. Aside from the oral reports, the rest of my grade was either made up of a research paper or a final exam. Interestingly, though, most German professors seem to take the Referat more seriously than anything else. For this reason, perhaps, I only have 2 final exams at the end of this semester, neither of which will cover very much material.
As this semester comes to a close, it has certainly been an interesting and exciting time thus far in Germany. The way that I am approaching a full-year abroad here is essentially treating my first semester and long break as a time to be a tourist and really explore my surroundings as well as incorporate myself into German culture. For the second semester, I think my experience will be closer to really experiencing life a German student and integrating myself as a local rather than a foreigner simply trying to do as much as possible. In that sense, the second semester will likely prove to be more of an inner adventure rather than one of cities and countries. In any case, I am incredibly excited to be in the middle of planning a trip through eastern Europe and Turkey with my girlfriend for the first couple of weeks of the semester break before heading off to Italy with some of the students in my program. More on all those plans next week! Until then!
Johannes