As of: February 16, 2024, 11:02 a.m
By: Franziska Weber
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The students spent around three months abroad (from left): Yolanda Reid, Marija Antonic, Liv Schiller, Marlisa Holzer, Viola Quadt, Daniel Gitzel, Stella Leogrande and Charlotta Böker.
© andrea jaksch
Many students want to go abroad.
However, a stay is not always as beautiful as you imagine.
The Starnberger Merkur spoke to several students about their experiences.
Biberkor
– Going on a trip after graduating from school – that’s the dream of many students.
Some are already abroad while they are still at school, for example to spend a year with a host family.
At the Biberkor Montessori School, students have the opportunity to organize the first three months (September to December) of the eleventh grade themselves.
Kerstin May, deputy head of the eleventh to 13th grades, explains: “We have restructured our upper level since the 2012/13 school year so that we could offer it at two speeds.” If the students choose the three-year upper level instead During the two-year period, you can choose between a stay abroad, an internship and the realization of your own projects.
They have to organize their time independently.
Alternatively, “those who would like to repeat a few basics again and lay a foundation for entry into the upper school material” can attend the basic courses, says May. The Starnberger Merkur spoke to several students who were abroad.
Among them is Marlisa Holzer.
The 16-year-old was at a boarding school in Dorset (southwest England).
Instead of the planned three months, she was only on site for two and a half months.
She didn't have such a good experience and that's why she wanted to go back sooner.
“The people were difficult,” reports Holzer.
She hardly left the school grounds.
“I felt trapped there.” Although the teachers were nice, she didn’t get along well with the other students.
“I had to pretend to fit in.”
Marija Antonic was away for two months instead of three.
“I just started planning too late,” admits the 16-year-old.
They went to Spain.
Of the two months, she spent a week in Seville, among other things.
There she completed a language course.
For the second month she lived with her mother in the middle of Barcelona, where she attended a language school.
She doesn't speak Spanish fluently now, but it has gotten "much better," says Antonic.
She found the Spanish to be a very nice people who loved small talk, and she tried to strike up a conversation with them at every opportunity.
“That was a hurdle I had to overcome at first and it was a little scary.”
Yolanda Reid was also in Spain - in Garraf.
A small town located about 30 kilometers from Barcelona.
Reid was placed with a host family.
“Garraf is a small village.
It's hard to get to know someone there.” Nevertheless, overall the time was a nice experience.
“It was strange, but not meant in a negative way.
It was just different.”
Charlotta Böker spent her stay abroad in Singapore.
Since her father lives there, she was able to stay with him.
The 17-year-old attended a language school three times a week for four hours each time to improve her English.
“I felt a bit strange there.
Everyone else in my course was over 30.” For the first two weeks, Böker felt alone and struggled with homesickness.
But then the student looked for activities.
“For example, I was at a French film festival.
I made a few friends there,” she says.
When it came to shopping, however, she stopped at window shopping.
“The city is super expensive.” Nevertheless, the 17-year-old admits: “I’m not really a city person, but if I had to move to a city, it would be Singapore.”
Stella Leogrande, on the other hand, ended up in Canada – Vancouver.
The 16-year-old was accommodated by a host family who had a daughter of their own and also took in three other host children - from Japan, South Korea and Chile.
“I had a lot of freedom.
High school was like in the movies, there were football games and cheerleading.” She became very good friends with her host sister from Chile.
The 16-year-old never felt alone.
The Canadians were all extremely nice anyway, reports the student.
“I had to learn a lot, for example how to greet the bus driver and ask how he was doing.” Back in Germany, Leogrande first had to get used to it again.
Even if the six students had extremely different - and also negative - experiences: they would all do it again.
After all, you take a lot with you from your time abroad.
They don't yet know exactly what the students want to do when they finish school.
But my favorite thing is to travel.