by Thaddeus Stringer| Summer 2024 |
Two years ago, I went to Leipzig for a semester and fell in love with the city. This summer, I returned as a part of the Honors Global Internship to teach English at the Forum Thomanum school. It was wonderful to return to the city where I had made so many lifelong memories, but I was surprised at how different my second experience turned out to be. When I arrived, it felt like I had never left. I spent several days returning to my favorite restaurants, wandering the city, and reliving moments from my semester.
My carefree trip down memory lane was soon ended by work. I suddenly had responsibilities beyond just dragging myself to class at 10 am. I had to wake up early and be rested enough to interact with 7-year-old German kids who barely spoke any English. Having never worked with young children before, the first week was a major learning experience. I had to figure out how to manage a classroom, keep track of students on field trips, and simplify English concepts, all while dealing with a language barrier. More than a few times, my feeble attempts to explain things were met with confusion and sometimes laughter. At the end of the first week, I was convinced I had made a mistake while pursuing this internship.
I can’t say when exactly my feelings started to change, but slowly, I began to love my daily mishaps and misunderstandings, even as the number of misunderstandings began to decrease. One experience in particular exemplifies the shift. One afternoon, I was asked to help with the storytelling club. A small number of kids were creating storybooks, so my job was to help one little girl transcribe her story into English. While my German skills had been improving, I was nowhere near good enough to understand the imagination of a little girl’s fairytale. I got lost shortly after the main character took a trip through a portal and ended up in a magical world of flowers. I was learning to embrace the confusion, however, so with some help from a fellow novice German speaker and some imaginative illustrations, we managed to get the main character from the flower world back home. Not only did I gain a new bestie who said hello whenever she saw me, but I also solidified a valuable lesson: accept the mistakes and stick with them until you reach the end.
By the end of the internship I had a new appreciation for the difficulties of language learning that I will apply both to my own studies and any future teaching efforts. I also had a refined desire for international experiences. Whereas my semester abroad left me with a desire to travel the world, the second experience left me with a desire to live life in community, wherever I live. The day-in-day-out experience of interacting with locals and working a job was incredibly fulfilling. While my desire to live and work abroad has been redoubled, I also believe that my perspective on work and life has drastically improved regardless of where I am located.
