On Wednesday, 9th January 2013, course EN 113 had visitors from five different countries to experience national identities (including their own) outside the textbook.

There were the two European Volunteers Kimi Kyllönen (Finland), Henrik Holm (Sweden) and the three exchange students Teisi Lindvest (Estonia), Amy Shen (China) and Paula Torres Pinto (Chile).

At the beginning we were sitting in a circle filling out papers with our associations of the five countries represented by our visitors, but also our ideas of what is typical of Germany.

After 5 minutes we went around and compared the results. Then we were separated and allocated to one of our guests. In these groups we worked on five topics related to school life, private life, typical “Fettnäpfchen” and, as a not-so-serious task, animal noises in the six countries.

At the end of the meeting it was interesting to compare the results and to see how differently (e.g. schools in China and in Germany, greeting habits in Finland and Chile), but also how similarly (e.g. weekend activities) young people all over the world live.

To sum up it was a really interesting and useful experience to communicate with teenagers from other countries in English in a relaxed atmosphere. This lesson was a welcome change from the usual routine at school.

for EN 113 Maurice Kramer and Marcel Hanneken