My STEP project was a four-week study abroad program in Salzburg Austria through the American Institute for Foreign Study (AIFS). While there, I took two courses, one in English and one in German, and participated in excursions to Munich and Vienna. Before the program officially began, I did an optional two-day excursion in London.
I learned a lot about my German capabilities and limitations during this project. I had onlyever studied “German” German (known as “Bundes Deutsch” in Austria) before this summer and apparently this was evident from my accent, as my German teacher in Austria told me. I learned that I have some conspicuous gaps in my vocabulary when it comes to topics like legal terms and plant names. I got to bolster this vocabulary a bit during the trip, especially the latter category, which was aided by frequent trips to a local farmers market. I was glad to be able to see how Austria compared to and contrasted with eastern Germany, where I studied abroad in the past. I found them to be fairly similar culturally, as I had assumed they would be, especially in terms of public transport, but also found some differences. The biggest differences I encountered were food related, both in restaurants and the grocery store, both in product names and offerings.
The part of Austria I was in was also markedly different in some ways from eastern Germany because of the lack of Soviet influence and remnants thereof. The difference in cultures may have been difficult to spot at times, but the historical differences between Austria and Germany are impossible to miss simply from the physical appearance of cities. Though it may be a medium-sized European country today, Austria’s past as part of a powerful empire is visibly apparent. On an interpersonal level, I learned that like-minded people will find each other no matter the group size. Out of the twenty or so students in the program, I ended up befriending all of the music majors/minors and was able to attend an opera and a ballet with this group.
I don’t think I would have been able to (or rather, required to) practice my German as much if the trip had been comprised of students with the same language level. The language levels offered by the program were German 101, 201, and 301, meaning there was a wide range of skill levels among the program participants, including many absolute beginners. I was in the 301 course, which only had five total students and a fairly wide range of ability levels. For reference, the only other OSU student on the trip was also in this course, and she had just finished German 1103 at OSU, while I recently completed my first 4000 level course, German 4600. Among the group of people with whom I hung out, all German levels were represented, meaning that I was occasionally required to translate for friends or be the group representative when German speaking skills were required.
For example, I went to the opera with several friends who were all in the 201 course and was put in charge of buying tickets. I helped a few friends buy groceries for the first time, and helped a friend track down conditioner for her hair, which is strangely difficult to find in Austria and Germany. Outside of using German in a group setting, I also practiced some important skills on my own when I caught a cold and had to buy medicine at a pharmacy. Austrian pharmacies are set up differently from those in America, in that you have to directly ask a pharmacist if you want medicines like pain killers or cold medicine. I was very intimidated at first because I did not know the Austrian brand names for basic medicines like Ibuprofen or things like Dayquil and was very nervous to actually speak to a pharmacist because I was afraid I would lack the vocabulary to answer or even understand their questions. Luckily, we did a segment focusing on sickness and associated vocabulary in German 301, and I was able to successfully buy cold medicine fully in German during the last week of the program.
I was able to get a better idea of how Germany and Austria are historically different by visiting the capital, Vienna. Vienna and Berlin are similar in that they are massive, German-speaking capital cities that are essentially city states where the governmental seat of power currently resides, but different many other respects. Berlin clearly preserves and memorializes the effects of WWII and the subsequent cold war period, with some of the biggest city tourist attractions being the Holocaust Memorial, the remains of the Berlin Wall, and Checkpoint Charlie. The period of history before 1900 is far from being the focus of a visit to the city. Austria’s capital very much focuses on the imperial past of the city as the seat of the Austro-Hungarian empire. This palpable difference really helped me definitively disassociate Austria with Germany, something I had been having a lot of trouble doing previously.
The chance to practice my German in a real-life setting and get a feel for what living in Austria is like were both greatly appreciated because I plan to apply to a Fulbright English teaching assistant program in Austria when I graduate and, even if I do not get accepted to this program, plan to complete my Masters degree in a German speaking country. This experience has given me more confidence in my ability to live abroad, as well as given me some perspective on what the options for living in a German-speaking country are. Aside from this, my German professor was able to give me a resource I had never heard of that may help me in completing my undergraduate thesis that I cannot wait to share with my research advisor.
