Diya Ai from Nanjing, China, attended a German language course at the Humboldt Institute for about four months before starting at Steinm\u00fchle. There, she went by the name Andrea, a name by which many of her classmates here also know her. <\/p>\n
Andrea has been living at the Steinm\u00fchle boarding school in the \u201cWestfalenhaus\u201d since early September. In a conversation with the new boarding school director, Jochen Eisold, she describes her first impressions of Germany. <\/p>\n
She noticed that most Germans weren’t as strict as she had thought, that people here have a relatively large amount of free time, and that not everything is so fast-paced and hectic. \u201cIn China, you always have to work a lot.\u201d <\/p>\n
At first, she found it strange that they had sparkling water here\u2014which she didn\u2019t like\u2014and that people ate so much bread. In China, she had hot meals three times a day. The fact that \u201ceverything is closed on Sundays\u201d here was also a completely new experience. <\/p>\n
Diya (Andrea) immediately liked the bus system, which was designed to accommodate older adults and people in wheelchairs.<\/p>\n
Andrea describes the way of learning in Germany as a unique experience. While school in China typically goes until 5:00 p.m., here you have to organize part of your time on your own. As an example, she mentions the support provided by the boarding school\u2019s study center. There, students can partially manage their own schedules to take responsibility for their own learning process. As a student, she plays a major role in shaping the content of this support by defining her educational priorities and individual needs, which are then coordinated through the study center with subject teachers as well as the newly established support program during vacations and on weekends. \u201cThis was a completely new experience for me,\u201d says Diya. <\/p>\n
In particular, Diya had to adjust to the way lessons are taught at Steinm\u00fchle. Diya: \u201cAt school in China, things are first taught using a textbook. They explain to you what something is and how it works. Then comes practice, practice, practice\u2026 Here at Steinm\u00fchle, you learn much more through hands-on experience. Under guidance, you search for answers to questions on your own or in groups, and together you gradually work out the solutions. I have to get used to that first.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThis account shows that the boarding school faces additional challenges as it welcomes international students. The boarding school staff\u2014especially the house directors\u2014are tackling this task with great dedication!\u201d says boarding school director Jochen Eisold with enthusiasm.<\/p>\n
Andrea is also familiar with the upcoming Christmas celebrations from her time in China. There, too, people decorate their windows and families get together. However, the main focus is on shopping together. The Chinese New Year at the end of January most closely resembles our Christmas. Along with the \u201cMid-Autumn Festival,\u201d this is the traditional family celebration, during which people also exchange gifts. <\/p>\n
The boarding school community is really looking forward to these celebrations and is excited to celebrate them together at the Steinm\u00fchle boarding school.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Diya Ai from Nanjing, China, attended a German language course at the Humboldt Institute for about four months before starting at Steinm\u00fchle. There, she went by the name Andrea, a name by which many of her classmates here also know her. Andrea has been living at the Steinm\u00fchle boarding school in the \u201cWestfalenhaus\u201d since early […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[86,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43290"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49029,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43290\/revisions\/49029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}