Guten Tag! German Exchange Students Arrive At Lower Moreland High School

Lower Moreland High School recently welcomed a group of German Exchange students who will be staying in the district for the next two weeks.

Five kids from the Albert Einstein Gymnasium in Wiblingen, Germany came across the pond on April 6 to stay with the families of current Lower Moreland High School students (who are studying German as a language).

Two family members, a brother and sister, plus three others make up this year’s group of exchange students. They’ve all known each other and have been friends growing up, and all have a pretty firm grasp of the English language.

Exchange Students/Host Family:

• Irina Schramm/Ana Jacoby
• Olivia Bangmowski/Kelly Molly
• Andi Gruber/David Fisher
• Regina Domin/Morgan Lesser
• Sarah Gruber/Ellen Shlyakanova

Andi and Sarah Gruber have been to the United State once before for their mother’s 50^th birthday. But aside from that, the experience in the States is a new one for all of the students.

While each one has been studying the English language since their childhood, their days at Lower Moreland High School are drastically different than what they are used to in Germany.

Being able to hold a conversation with other classmates is one thing. But getting accustomed to the difference of a public school is a totally different situation that takes getting used to the culture shock.

The main difference: food.

“Food is different,” Andi Gruber said as he ate the rest of his Rita’s Water Ice at a party to celebrate their arrival at LMHS. “They are eating a lot of fast food in America. All the time. And many sweet things.”

One week in America and already these German students have us down pat. We enjoy our fast food, a little too much. Germans enjoy McDonald’s and Burger King, too, just not four or five times a week like most Americans consume the fatty foods.

The exchange students attend German language classes and help current LM students learn their native tongue. They also are taking French and Spanish, as well as a couple of other subjects that are a little foreign to them.

“There are some subjects we don’t have in Germany like health, personal finance and cooking,” Gruber said. “But they don’t have Religion.”

Not only is the subject matter different, but so are the schedules. In Germany they will sit through 90-minute classes, compared to the ones at Lower Moreland which are under an hour. That length of a class is usually reserved for college-type classes.

“The students each day have the same subjects,” Gruber said. “We would have different subjects. And the teachers have rooms and the pupils must come to them. In Germany, it’s different when a teacher changes rooms.”

Lower Moreland partners with the Council Rock School District’s exchange program run by Ron Harvey at CR-South. The exchange students will be at Lower Moreland until April 28, so feel free to stop and say hello if you see them.