Interview with Tony Greif
Winner of AATG/PAD Study Trip Award 2006
Student of Lois Sabino at Waubonsie Valley High School
(Junior at Level III)

1. In which town did you stay?

I stayed in Kulmbach (in the Upper Franconian region of Bavaria)

2. Did you travel? Where?

As a group of Americans, we traveled to Berlin for a week (during a few World Cup games!!), and my family and I also did some traveling. On the last weekend I was in Germany, we left very early on Saturday morning to go to Munich, and later we went to Schloss Linderhof and then on to Seefeld, Austria. We spent the night at a Gasthof in Seefeld, and then on Sunday we went to Innsbruck (the Alps were AMAZING).

3. Please describe the family you stayed with. How did the members of the family interact with and relate to you? Was the communication positive?

My family consisted of two parents (Harry and Irmgard), a 14-year-old sister Beate, and my 17-year-old host brother Maximilian. I felt really lucky because Max was less than a month older than I was; we were almost exactly the same age, which made it really easy to relate to him. I didn't become very close friends with his sister; I would assume it was because of the age difference. Also, I was always doing things with Max and his friends, who naturally did not interact too much with his sister. However, there was no hostility or anything of that nature, and family time (like meals) was always very comfortable and never awkward. Max's parents were always very helpful and enthusiastic about my experiencing the German culture and language. They would always talk about how thrilled they were that their foreign exchange student could speak German so well, which (whether or not it was true) increased my confidence a lot and made me want to speak it more.

4. What was the most interesting and/most enjoyable aspect of the trip?

For me, the most interesting part of this trip was simply stepping into the shoes of a German teenager for a month. Although I was living on the other side of the world, the whole high school/teenager lifestyle felt really familiar. I was always fascinated to find out that many of the students in Germany talk about many of the same things that students in America talk about; they all stress about grades, projects, etc., only in a different language. As I became more comfortable with the language, I was able to become just another kid in Max's circle of friends, and after a while I wasn't "Max sei Ami", but rather just "Tony", another kid everyone talked to. I just remember being so surprised at how close of friends I had become with everyone by the time I left: I didn't realize how much the German kids actually liked "den Austauschschuler" until one of the last nights when they all kept asking, "Sehn wir dich ma wieder?! Kommst scho moin in die Schule?", and at that point I really feel like I had successfully immersed myself in the culture of Germany. I didn't feel like an American kid studying in Germany for a month; I felt like a German. And I really liked it.

5. Did you meet a lot of Germans? How did you like that experience?

I addressed this question before (sorry, rambling happens to be one of my strengths ?), but Max introduced me to all of his friends and to as many people as he could. There were many festivals in the city (one of which was Altstadtfest, and we got to experience that) where almost everyone in the city went, and therefore I got to see these people a lot. We also saw each other a lot in school, since most of Max's friends were in his class. I EXTREMELY enjoyed meeting other German teenagers, because (as I said) I was continually fascinated with how similar their lives were to ours here in the United States.

6. How much German did you learn? How did you learn the most?

I cannot express in words how much my German improved while I was in Kulmbach. It was interesting because they speak a very strong dialect (Oberfränkisch) in Kulmbach, and I can remember the first day sitting at lunch and thinking, "How on earth am I ever going to survive a month??" because I could hardly understand anything. However, it most certainly got easier as time went on, and by the end I could understand almost everything that my host family was talking about at meals. It was during these meals that I learned a lot of this dialect (and German words in general), and it ended up working out in my favor because my family spoke with a VERY strong dialect. Therefore, I could understand many other people who did not speak with so much that I met in the town. However, I learned the most German by speaking to Max and his friends. For me, speaking German to Max's parents was a little intimidating just because they were adults (I still did it, but wouldn't really speak unless they asked me a question at first). However, I felt very comfortable speaking around Max and his friends, and therefore I would just start talking around them, and even if it was horribly wrong we'd all just kind of laugh and it was a lot less intimidating for me. After a while, I really did not have to think about translating different things from English into German because I was already thinking in German as a result of all the talking I did with Max and his friends. I also got lucky because not many of them liked speaking English, so they were more than happy to help me speak better German so they didn't have to focus as hard on a different language. After gaining the confidence from them, I was more willing to speak German with people who did not know that I was an American, and (surprisingly) they responded also with German (sometimes at the beginning people would still respond in English because they could tell we were not from Germany). That was exciting for me, knowing that my pronunciation had improved enough to where I didn't sound so much like a tourist.

7. Overall, how did you find the experience?

I hope it's clear at this point that the 25 days I spent in Germany were WITHOUT A DOUBT the best 25 days of my entire life. It was so exciting that no matter where I turned, I could never escape the German culture and the German language; they were constantly surrounding me. Furthermore, I met people (both Germans and Americans) that I talk to almost every day in both English and German, and I do not intend to break that contact any time soon. If there were any doubts about my majoring in German in college, they are at this point most certainly washed away, because this trip helped me realize how much of a passion I have for German culture and the German language, and for that I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart who helped to afford me this opportunity!!

RANDOM STORY

I could never in a million years imagine anything like this happening. I went to my high school about a week ago to turn in registration materials, and I asked off-hand (totally random, I didn't really expect an answer) if the secretary knew how to find out if there were going to be any foreign exchange students at my high school next year. As it turns out, she had no idea, BUT she did know that a lady had just stopped in and dropped off registration materials for a kid from Germany who would be living with her and her family this coming year. What's more, this lady happened to still be in the office. So, the secretary called her over, and we got to talking, and I finally asked, "Where in Germany is he from?", to which she answered "Oh, some cute little town in Bavaria, it starts with a K...hmm...K-u-l-something". I thought, "Oh god" and asked, "Kulmbach?" and she said, "Yeah! That's it! Have you heard of it?" "I just got back two weeks ago from living there for a month!" Now, I knew that one kid from the school I went to in Kulmbach was studying in the Chicagoland area for a year, but I figured there are way too many schools around Chicago for there to even be a chance that he would go to mine. But, as luck would have it, he is. I asked the woman if it was this kid, and she said "Yes! You know him?" and at this point my mind just went crazy; someone from the school I went to in Germany is going to my school next year. So she asked for my phone number and e-mail address, and I've been in contact with Christian (the guy from Germany) for a while; he just got in on Friday, August 11. All I can say is WOW. Talk about weird coincidences.

Ich hoffe, dass Ihnen diese Antworten gut gefallen. Wenn Sie mehr von dieser tollen Reise wissen möchten, erzählte ich ja gerne mehr davon. Ich muss aber zugeben, dass ich es ein bisschen komisch finde, auf Hochdeutsch zu schreiben, denn ich schreibe immer im ICQ mit meinen deutschen Frenden auf Oberfränkisch (die haben auch alle gesagt, dass es ihnen doch schwer ist, auf Hochdeutsch zu schreiben und zu reden, und deswegen kann ich ja auch mein Oberfränkisch behalten).?

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,

Tony Greif

E-Mails an Tony: goodgrief43@sbcglobal.net