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- Good afternoon - Good afternoon
- How did your adventure with the German language start?
- Well, it started here, in a high school, because earlier I hadn’t had the opportunity to learn this language.
In my elementary school I was taught English and Russian, but in the high school I couldn’t continue those languages, not on my profile.
Here I started learning German twice a week, so it was not too much. Apart from that I took up French and Latin.
- How often do you visit Germany?
- Once a year, except my work-visits, I mean the student exchange.
- Have you ever considered staying in Germany for the rest of your life and starting a family?
- Never, Germany is so much different from Poland, that I can’t imagine staying there for life.
I’m so much connected to Poland, to people I love, that I couldn’t leave it all
and start from the beginning, looking for new friends or making a family.
It would be impossible for me. I really wanted to visit Germany for a short period of time, to finish my studies
But staying there for the rest of my life? Rather not.
- Did Professor £epkowicz teach you in high school?
- Yes, she did.
- What was she like as a teacher?
- Great, Ms £epkowicz was a special person and special teacher.
I remember that being her student I was sitting at the first desk and I was always looking with fascination at her.
I always laugh that first I fell in love with my German teacher and later with the language itself.
She was uncanny. I always repeat that she was crazy, because she was the only teacher, who had a little chain around her ankle,
special jewellery which no one else had and much more of crazy stuff. She was really original.
- Is it thanks to Ms £epkowicz that your passion to German has grown in you so big?
- Yes, I think that a teacher is really a big help for students to understand the subject and to make them like it.
Obviously, that is not the only thing, but it is very important, I believe.
Ms £epkowicz is the person who attracted me to this language
and thanks to which my fascination with the country started.
- Were you on a student exchange in high school?
- Yes, twice, once in the 2nd class and once in the 3rd.
- What do you remember from your first exchange?
- I was terrified. I remember this feeling until today.
When I am with you on an exchange, I can understand what you feel – it’s exactly what I felt long ago.
When we were approaching the school car park in Reinbek and we saw all the Germans waiting to see us, we were terrified.
I thought I would forget how to talk and I would fail to understand them,
because I didn’t know any of those people, they were complete strangers to me.
- How were you welcomed by your host German family?
- They were very, very nice. They took a good care of us.
- Do you notice any differences between the exchange visits which you organise nowadays and the once you took part in?
- A form of the exchange is still the same, because the main goals are the same – to give students
possibility to know each other, to eliminate bad stereotypes.
The ones who co-create each exchange are students, and that has changed a lot since my school days.
I remember that when I was an exchange student, we were very much different from the Germans,
we were wearing different clothes.
At the very first sight it was obvious which group was Polish and which was German.
But today those differences have disappeared.
When I look at you, I don’t know who of you belongs to us and who to the Germans,
because your looks has changed.
Only the form of the exchange has stayed the same, because it’s good.
- What do you like more: organising or being a participant of the exchange?
- Definitely I like organising the exchange more, but both functions are connected with some sort of stress.
I like organising the exchange because every time I stay with the same family, same people, who I like and know very well.
But students are under stress every time they go, because you always get to know different, strange people.
So, I surely prefer to organise the visits.
- Have the exchange visits always taken place without any problems?
I mean, were there any problems with the students?
- There have always been some kinds of slight problems.
think this is something you can’t avoid completely.
But it is not so much because of the cultural differences.
It seems to me that before you get to know each other better, before you break the ice, there are misunderstandings.
I think that is natural. The last exchange caused the fewest problems ever.
It is not finished yet, because we are still waiting for the German students to come to Ko³o.
They’re going to be here in March. The latest visit to Germany was completely different from the previous ones.
. I think it’s thanks to you all, because you made the right atmosphere which influenced all the people involved.
- How were our students welcomed in German houses?
- I think you should ask the students about it.
I have some information though, but I know that students hide some things from us and so I don’t know everything I should.
But I know that the German families tried to welcome them as well as they could.
I also know, that our students felt in those houses very well,
, that they had everything they needed and they felt good.