So German!

Why did you decide on Mannheim for an exchange and how long did you stay there?
First of all, in my program at Concordia University, a semester abroad is not mandatory. Nonetheless, lots of students seize the opportunity to go on exchange. I knew I wanted to go to Europe and I’ve been learning German since my first year when I was eighteen. As Concordia has a partnership with Mannheim University, I decided on Mannheim. Mannheim is really international; they have a lot of international students. It’s a good-sized town as well. You live really sheltered. Also, I’ve always been interested in learning new languages. So I stayed in Mannheim for about four months, from September to December.

What are the differences between the University of Mannheim and Concordia University?
The main thing I noticed is that in Mannheim you always have your lectures and then you have tutorials and work sessions that are mandatory. This isn’t the case in my program here because we register for one course and then some courses offer optional tutorials and some of them don’t. And they are not always mandatory.
With regard to the architecture of the buildings, I found the old style of Mannheim University pretty cool – like a castle, built hundreds of years ago. Concordia was built in the 1970s and we got another building for our business school in 2009. It’s all quite new.

What did you think of the university library and how did you see the German professors?
Oh, the library was cool! We had all these lockers where you could lock up your personal stuff. At Concordia, if you have things that you are not allowed to bring into the library, you have to throw them out.
The professors are lovely but personally, I found them a bit fancy. First of all, they’re all doctors. In Germany a lot of professors are doctors but in Canada professors often come from the professional world so they have an MBA but they don’t have to have a doctorate. If you called someone doctor here, they’d be very uncomfortable whereas in Germany they want to be called doctor. That’s something very formal for me. Nevertheless, they’re all experts in their field of work.

Would you recommend studying in Germany? Why do you think not many Canadians go to Germany for their semester abroad?
Yes, totally. I would.
I think part of this is the reputation Germany has. For instance, the seeming coldness of people but also the geographical location. Germany isn’t really cold but a lot of Canadian students prefer a place very exotic and for the most part warm. People don’t want to deal with the long Canadian winter every year. Also, they like countries where you speak English. But with my positive experiences, I hope to encourage more and more Canadians to go to Germany!

Can you compare German and Canadian students?
German students are pleasant and nice people. Really ambitious – which is good on the one hand – but, on the other hand, the students I met were all quite competitive, particularly in finance courses. But I know that students of McGill (university in Montreal) are really intense, too.
A point interesting to mention I learned about German students is that travel is most important for them. Here, it’s not the biggest priority or maybe just not as much accessible. I feel like a lot of people stay here forever. In Europe on my exchange I visited about 11 countries, that was awesome.

A lot of Germans seem to be reserved. Did you experience that?
Yeah, a little bit. Of course, it’s hard to make friends on an exchange if you are only there for such a short time. You really need to join events like “Ersti” parties (students in their first semester are called “Erstis” in Germany) but in general, I would agree. Making friends requires a lot of commitment in Germany. Germans are reserved but in the fact that they just need time to warm up and establish a deeper relationship. In North America there’s a sense of you have all these friends but if you really needed someone who would come? Whereas in Germany you don’t have as many friends but you can certainly rely on them.

Is there anything you found funny about Germans?
My favourite thing when I was in Germany was any time I had a complicated question I couldn’t express in German, I’d ask if they spoke English. They replied “yes, a little bit” and once starting the conversation they were completely fluent in English. I found that very funny. If you asked somebody here if they knew German, they will be like “oh jaaa!” but they don’t actually speak a word.

What do you miss here in Canada?
I miss Currywurst! And I loved the German Christmas markets. I’m not a big “Glühweintrinker” (mulled wine drinker) but it was just so magical. Furthermore, I appreciate that they always have reusable mugs. Germany is definitely more environmentally conscious than Canada. For example, I walked into the grocery store, put my plastic bottles in the deposit machine and it just took it. That’s easy.

Something Germans could certainly do better?
Sometimes I had the feeling Germans are unfriendly. But let me explain that by saying that people here in Canada are very courteous. Somebody would hold the door for me or let me walk first and I would say “thank you”. We say “thank you” all the time. Germans are not mean at all. I just experienced everybody minds their own business at times. It’s just a different culture.