Love the City, Program needs Improvement Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Part of the program required taking a 2 week history course on Berlin prior to registering for classes at the university. This course seemed entirely unnecessary and I personally felt this time would have been better spent taking independent field trips and reporting on various things we had seen in the city. Instead we had to sit sometimes eight hours a day reading information off of a PowerPoint slide. It was frustrating to have to just arrive in a new country and spend most of the time during the first few weeks staying indoors. Once at the university, the classes themselves varied depending on the department and professor. Some classes were challenging in terms of in-class discussions, while others were a practice in staying awake. Students had a choice in deciding between either a final exam or a final paper (12 pages). I opted for final papers for all of my direct-enrollment classes, which was a challenge considering that most German students have the choice of writing their papers after all of their classes have completed, while we were expected to write them while still enrolled in the course. One professor did not understand this and was at first rather unwilling to cooperate with Middlebury's program requirements. This is, however, an isolated case. Another aspect of the program was being required to take an online-based class known as the Kulturportfolio. This was the most insulting part of the program. This "Culture Portfolio" was designed to teach students about the strange people known as Germans, who apparently are frigid, aloof, and strictly business. This information was useful in navigating the Berlin terrain, which was filled with people who were more than happy to chat with me and get to know me better (but then again, those could be several isolated incidents of human friendliness in Deutschland). We had to keep a blog recording our experiences with this strange western European culture, which soon turned into a creative writing exercise. Quizzes would test us on how well we identified the German culture standards, but any disagreements would only elicit a response asking us to reconsider what we wrote. This brings up an even bigger issue with the program. Each student had to participate in a 3 day orientation. I expected it to be an overview of how to navigate the German university system, but instead it was to teach students about cultural differences and how handle them. At some point, after having to participate in a humiliating exercise in which we acted out two tribes trying to sign an agreement while dancing and screaming (no exaggeration here), we were told, “Now you know how it feels like to face a cultural conflict.” I didn’t realize that as juniors in college, we could not have had a normal discussion about cultural conflict and instead needed to do an elementary school skit. The next day of orientation we spent approximately 5 hours memorizing the different correcting keys for when our tutors would grade our assignments. This continued the next day, and after some point, I began questioning my sanity after having to regurgitate for the 60th time the acronyms they were drilling into our heads. Was this at all needed? Well, let’s just say that anytime we received a corrected assignment back, there was an explanation for what the acronym/symbol meant right next to the correction. There was also massive confusion when the time came to register for our classes, but apparently administrative issues are only secondary to making German friends. A positive about the program is that the tutoring system was a good resource for when I was writing my final papers. I learned a lot about the mistakes I was still making in my written German and learned a lot about the nuances of the language. It was also good practice to speak with my tutor in German and have to explain my thoughts in an academic way. Even though at times it was frustrating to go to the weekly meetings, ultimately I learned more from my tutoring sessions than I did from any other part of Middlebury’s side of the program.

On-site administration of your program

I appreciated the hand holding Middlebury provided when it came to registering at city hall and helping us with moving into our dorms. Although it was possible to do it by oneself, it was far easier to have a native speaker navigate the bureaucracy. The program directors were also always available for the students and held regular meetings to ask how we were doing (plus, lunch is paid for weeee). If we were having problems with our classes, they were quick to handle any issues.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

Can I give zero stars? Students were highly recommended to stay in the student dorms for multiple reasons. One being, that it would be easy to just move into a dorm right away and not have to worry about finding a place to stay. That is very true, because most landlords will not rent out a place for such a short time (only a semester) and without having the person see the room in person. They also said it would be a great place to meet other Germans. I feel like most Germans are smart enough to stay away from this dormitory. I’ve seen pictures of Norwegians prisons, and they look infinitely better than where I stayed (then again, Norwegian prisons are very nice). My kitchen was filthy, the bathrooms looked like something out of a TLC tv program, and the dorm itself could have not been further away from anything. I’m sure if I had enough time, I could have walked to the city border. If we wanted to go anywhere that wasn’t the university, it was going to be at least an hour. There were a lot of stores nearby, but if they wanted us to make German friends, they should have tried to house us somewhere along a subway route.

Berlin is cheap, and so is the food. Boy, do I miss döners.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

People in Berlin are for the most part are like people in any other large city, if not a little more racist. It was normal to walk around the city, especially at night, and hear guys say in an attempt to charm me and my friends, “Ching chong, Nihao, Konnichiwa!” Still, yelling back in German worked in shutting them up. Berlin also has a huge expat population, so it will be easy to meet people from all around the world.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I had no problems picking up medication that I needed and seeing a doctor.

Berlin is very safe. It can get a little unnerving to have to take the bus back to the dorm late at night, but otherwise I never felt really threatened by anyone or anything. Just be street smart and don’t look like a target.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

Berlin is one of the cheapest capital cities in Europe. Groceries are cheap, going out at night is cheap, and many museums offer student discounts. Middlebury also provided 180 Euros to spend on cultural events, which can be used for anything from the opera to the zoo. There was also another 120 Euros available for students to use on a special side project, which can include seeing another German city (I used that money to spend a weekend in Hamburg looking at architecture). The monthly rent for the dorm was only 175 Euros, plus 7 Euros for internet access.

0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language

We had to sign a Language Pledge, stating that we will only speak German.

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• Dorm

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• International Students

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• Local Students
• Americans
• International Students

• Berlin
• Middlebury Budget
• Direct Enrollment

• Culture Portfolio
• Orientation
• Communication between students and between institutions

The Outright Urbanite