Study and research in Germany

Learning German together

There are German students at almost every university in Germany who are anxious to take care of their fellow foreign students. The most popular form of support is a "language partnership” or "language tandem" in which two people get together and teach each their native language. Study-in.de went in search of language partnerships and found one in Passau...

As Prisca and Mariateresa from Italy can attest, language partnerships not only help foreigners learn German. After studying in Germany, Mariateresa was able to pay back the favour to her language partner in her home country.

The 24-year-old Mariateresa enrolled in a teacher certification programme for German in the winter semester of 2007/08 at the University of Passau. She met her language partner Prisca through the AEGEE-Passau student organisation which also arranges language partnerships. This European student forum takes care of Erasmus students and ensures that their stay is as pleasant as possible. Because Mariateresa hadn’t found a language partner yet, Prisca immediately offered to start a language partnership with her. "I definitely wanted someone from Italy”, the 22-year-old European Studies student explains.

Both girls hit it off right away. "We’ve become just like normal friends. Right from the start, our meetings were never just about learning language,” Prisca says. In fact, the two students started doing a lot of things together. "Ice-skating was hilarious. That was my first time on skates”, says Mariateresa who has been learning German since the age of seven. "I love foreign languages and when I tried German, I immediately took to it,” she remembers.

Knowing German helped her make other friends

She found that talking with Prisca in German was a positive experience. "Prisca always waits if I don’t get something right away, or she explains it in Italian. I never had any problems learning with her.” It turned that her German skills helped her find German friends in her age group.

The girls often discussed cultural differences between Germany and Italy. "Mariateresa couldn’t get over the fact that German buses really come on time,” Prisca grins. It’s actually surprising that this punctuality and good organisation are what Mariateresa has come to admire most in Germany. "And German beer,” she adds. "Italians never get tired of talking about food,” Prisca laughs. No wonder they’ve spent so many hours together chopping, stirring and cooking in the kitchen. Mariateresa made a real Italian tiramisu and Prisca repaid the favour with German home cooking – spätzle, sauce and finely sliced meat. "I love that meal,” raves the young Italian, "I’ve even cooked it for my family at home.”

The language partnership heads south to Italy

Prisca also got the chance to visit Mariateresa’s hometown when the two girls switched roles, so to speak. Prisca spent her summer semester at the Universitá degli studi in Pescara – her Italian friend’s home university. She made her decision to study there during a summer course she took in Italy in 2007. Prisca immediately fell in love with the country and her language partnership with Mariateresa deepened this love all the more.

When Prisca began the language partnership, she only knew a little Italian. But her language skills were not very good at the time. "I was able to speak Spanish pretty well, and that helped a lot.” Learning Italian with Mariateresa not only helped her manage life in Prescara, but also get acclimated to her guest university. "I was happy that I already knew Mariateresa, because Erasmus students get no extra help from the university in Pescara,” she explains.

Now she has no problems conversing with Mariateresa in Italian. And when she visited Mariateresa’s family in Savoia di Lucania in the province of Potenza for a few days, she had no problems communicating with them. She had just happened to arrive on one of the most important holidays in the Mariateresa’s village. "I was completely accepted into the village community as one of their own,” she happily recalls.

Editor’s note: Mariateresa wanted to answer our questions about her language partnership with Prisca via e-mail so that she could look up the correct vocabulary in her dictionary. But with Prisca’s support, she agreed to talk with us in person. Although a bit shy at first, she cheerfully told us about her semester abroad in Passau and her time with Prisca without difficulty. She had her German dictionary with her the whole time – but never opened it.

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