The teens’ jeans and sweatshirts, jackets and gym shoes are the same, but the accents are different.
Twenty German students newly arrived at Lincoln-Way High School from Hamburg blended right in with the crowds in the hallway last week as they took a tour of the Central Campus.
The 9th and 10th graders and three faculty members from Schule Sportplatzring will spend three weeks with Lincoln-Way students and their families, attending classes, school activities and social events and doing a little sightseeing in Chicago.
Udo Helmke, who teaches English, chemistry and computers in Hamburg, said German students start learning English in 3rd grade. “What they need and what they find here is the opportunity to practice (speaking English) on the scene. It’s different from classroom talking,” Helmke said.
The students plan to visit Nike Town and Sears Tower, Helmke said.
And they want to do some shopping, too, said foreign language teacher Marlies Schon-Deveraux of Hamburg. “It’s always the same. They like to buy jeans,” Schon-Deveraux said.
“You can’t imagine how excited these students are,” said Schule Sportplatzring Principal Jochen Kaie. “America is a special country for them. There is a glamor.”
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The German students’ visit is sponsored by the German-American Partnership Program, which fosters exchange programs between German and U.S. students from 700 paired schools.
A group of Lincoln-Way students will visit Hamburg later this year.
Teachers agree that exchange students gain more than language practice.
The youngsters are more mature after their travels, Schon-Deveraux said.
And they see that stereotypes are not always accurate, Helmke said. “There’s a large difference between what we know about American high schools and what we see here. It’s [as big as] the Grand Canyon.”
Matt Orrison, who teaches German at Lincoln-Way, said American students “gain a cultural awareness of what things are like in another country.” Cultural differences are easier for students to understand after their travels, Orrison said.
Sprucing up their English skills may be the German students’ foremost goal. “I would like to learn English better than I speak even now,” said Stefanie Von Doggenhausen, 16.
“I want to better learn English,” agreed Jeremy Qualmann, 15. Jeremy, who plays football, soccer and basketball, may be able to see a few games too.
The students are also eager to interact with their American contemporaries. “I’m here to get new friends,” said Natascha Schlike, 14.
“I want to have a look at the culture of America,” said Anika Birkholz, 15.
Moritz Schroder, 15, came to “see the way of life in America.”
For the German students who attend a school that enrolls 500 pupils in grades 5 through 10, Lincoln-Way with its 2,500 students is quite a change.
“It’s much bigger than our school,” said Tim Bohn, 15, who noticed another major difference as well. “Schools in Germany don’t have sports teams.”
Ute von der Heide, 14, and Evelina Tobiasz, 14, were so impressed by the school gym, they stopped to snap photographs.
Besides attending classes at Lincoln-Way, the German students will take a bus trip to Illinois State University in Normal to get a look at an American university.
Also scheduled are two train trips to the Loop for some tourist musts, including a sightseeing cruise on Lake Michigan.