On Orientation

Focus, the German news magazine, brought up an interesting topic today. 

If you are a visa-holding immigrant in Germany or a non-EU member seeking long-term status....you have to go through the integration course (100 hours).  It's a course developed by the BamF folks (Federal Office for Migration and Refugees).

So the key term used in the structure and knowledge of the course....is history and values ​​of the Republic.

But Focus points out....a lot of this knowledge really doesn't help in 'everyday life'.  Even some instructors and students point out the same issue....the lecture design and information....are somewhat useless.

I've gone through roughly twenty-four hours of the orientation course now, and can say I'm mostly amused by the structure....the design....the limits, and the focus.

My class book?  Well....it's a five-star illustrated 'instructment' in terms of graphics and points.  But on history alone....it basically covers the 1930s, the war years, the 1960s, the Wall coming down, and the new era.  Karl the Great, the Thirty Years War, the plague years, the Roman era?  Nothing. 

If you wanted to know about the operation of German schools, the discipline, the expectations, the 99 ways to screw up and fail.....for the sake of your kids?  Well....there's nothing.

How to shop, or how to get the best deal with handy service?  Nothing.  Explaining the tax levels and structure?  Nothing.  The TV tax?  Nothing. 

There is a fair amount of knowledge given over the German legislative system, the parties, the Chancellor and so on.  Politically, you get a fair dose.

If I were in charge, I'd offer up Professor Clark (from Cambridge) and his German history series.  I'd have a twenty-hour addition just on economics and how to function in a daily society.  If you had kids, I'd offer up six hours on how the system works.

But the problem is that you really can't cram the massive amount of knowledge necessary....into the limited number of hours that the government has deemed appropriate.  Some people (especially from third-world countries) might need three-hundred hours of orientation.  Focus may have a point on this, but it's hard to see how the government would go and fix this.