Integration Story

Today, I wrapped up the 100 hour German integration course.  I'm officially integrated.  So I'll make ten observations:

1.  As far as the book and the instructor are concerned....as the folks in charge of the concept....history for Germany started in 1914, and ends in this current year.  There's virtually no mention of the Roman period, the Thirty Years War, or Kaiser Wilhelm I.  Yep....roughly 2,000 years of history missing. But to be honest, how would do this with such a limited number of hours?

2.  The explanation of the EU?  Done over approximately three hours.  My view of the others in the class (the Syrians, the Iraqis, etc)?  Most don't see a big need to connect the EU into Germany.  To them, it just complicates matters.  I tend to see and agree with them on that.

3.  Geography is a major point of the class.  You'd be surprised over how many 'new' people had issues in grasping the 16 states, the border countries and cities in Hessen.  Maybe it's just a non-European thing, or they never thought about it.  

4.  There is a full-up test at the conclusion, but because this is in summer.....they can't give us the stupid test until the late part of August.  How much will be forgotten by then?  Maybe a quarter.

5.  Would I have used Professor Clark's video material from Cambridge University?  Yes.  History-wise, he does a 10-star introduction program and it can't be beat.

6.  The word 'dictator' probably got mentioned by the instructor at least 400 times over the 100 hour course.  Yes, it was a bit too much.

7.  They actually give you a listing of the 300-odd questions used in the big test at the end.  Question by question....it's all right there.  So if you memorize the listing, you pass easily.

8.  How much of DDR (the former East Germany) is in the test and class?  Way too much.  I think on questions alone, there's at least forty questions that deal with DDR.  At one point, they want you to memorize what the DDR flag looks like but frankly.....95-percent of Germans will tell you that this is way too stupid to remember this stuff.  The need to know what the DDR's financial planning agency was named?  Really, do I need to know about an agency that has been non-existent for thirty years?

9.  Getting the concept of the Wall across to the students?  Some of these folks were born in 2000 era, so it's ancient history to them.  Just mentioning Helmet Kohl.....who hasn't been Chancellor in 25 years, is a bit difficult.

10.  The instructor?  She actually did a decent job....although a bit overly dramatic at times (she might have done well with Tennessee William's Cat On a Hot Tin Roof).  The thing is that you have to get across to a bunch of foreign adults....some element of German history, government and culture, and let's be honest here.....it can be rather 'dry'.

My last comment.....if you posed this question list to most Germans (over the age of 50).....they'd fail.  That's my humble opinion.