Uruguay Exchange: Learning from Each Other—Not Just the Languages

They miss their mate tea a little, and dinner is always “pretty early”—but everything else is absolutely perfect for Giulianna and Bruno from the German School in Montevideo. Together with their teacher Riobaldo, they are guests at Steinmühle for a total of six weeks. The stay is part of the Uruguay exchange, a project organized by Steinmühle Spanish teacher María Ramos. Following exchanges in 2019 and 2020, this is the third exchange between students from Uruguay’s capital and Steinmühle. In turn, 11th-grade Spanish students have the opportunity to experience everyday school life in Montevideo. For Lilli and Ben-Luis, there are only a few weeks left until they set off on their return visit to South America and experience daily life at the partner school. 1,300 students attend that school; it is the oldest German school in Latin America.

Bruno began learning German in Montevideo when he was in kindergarten, and added English in elementary school. He enjoys learning languages. His classmate Giulianna’s interest in the German language stemmed from her German uncle and a visit her father made to Germany, “which he enjoyed.” Ben-Luis, a student at Steinmühlen, also has family reasons for wanting to improve his Spanish: “I have relatives in Spain.” Lilli, Giulianna’s exchange partner from Marburg, wants to travel a lot when she grows up and is looking forward to improving her Spanish where it’s spoken.

Of course, the young people had already done a bit of research on their respective host countries before their trip. When asked about the environmental problems of our time, they collectively conclude that there is still room for improvement on both sides: Montevideo, with its population of just under 1.5 million, meets 90 percent of its energy needs through wind and hydroelectric power, but does not practice waste separation. — Just one example of this.

Exchanges offer the best opportunities to improve language skills and learn a lot from one another. The young people all agree: “It’s a great program. We recommend it.” Our photo shows (from left) Lilli, Giulinanna, teacher Riobaldo, Bruno, and Ben-Luis.