My study abroad experience

During my studies in the last three weeks here at the University of Cincinnati, I learned many things about the American Culture, about important American topics, and last but not least, my English improves from day to day. Everyday we regarded another topic. First, we payed attention to the buildings and landscape, so we got to know the differences between rich neighborhoods and poor ones. The differences are bigger than in Germany. Although, I knew that there are bigger differences, it was astonishing to me. I learned many things about the American culture and history during my museum visits. Especially in the freedom center, I got to know many things I didn't know. I knew that there was slavery, and that Lincoln abolished Slavery, but I got to know that there were many people before the Civil War helping slaves to escape. This system to help people escaping was named Underground Railroad. I learned many things about the Civil War, too, and who played big roles in it. Many of the things we examined are totally different to Germany. I remember here the Culture of Food, for example. To examine, to analyze, and to think about the reasons for the differences helped to relieve the Culture Shock. Due to the fact that I got to know many things about the American Culture, I abolished all prejudices against it very fast. All in all, I think the program was designed to learn many things about the American Culture and History and this knowledge helped me very much to get through the stages of Culture Shock fast. The new knowledge supported me in understanding the American way of life, and the way of doing things very much, too. Due to the fact that I wrote about another theme everyday, we got to know many new special vocabulary, so my treasury of words increased, I think, and I can talk with an average American guy now about important themes easier.

In this intensive English program I learned things in totally different way. During my studies in Germany I'm always in a lecture with 100 to 500 people and someone ahead wants to impart knowledge to me by telling me the facts, and by explaining the difficulties, so the person in the front serves me the lore. Here in the U.S., I have to obtain the knowledge on my own. I examined, analyzed, and evaluated the different things I saw. This was a totally new feeling. On the one hand, it takes much more time, and often you overlook important facts. On the other hand, you get to know much more things, and you go into the theme deeper, while occupying oneself with this certain theme in this way. You can decide what is important for you, and what is less interesting, too. I think that it depends on the stuff you have to learn to decide which way of learning makes more sense. It's the perfect way of learning for this kind of language course because there are not so many students learning something, so the professor is able to care for everybody, and the students don't have to learn the main grammar, which should be explained. Whenever there were grammar themes to learn, the way of learning changed from the learning by doing and examining way to the explaining and understanding way. I like this mixture of those two alternatives because it unites all positive aspects, and it eliminates all negative ones.