Jordon Groff visited Geingen, Germany in 2012-2013. He spoke with Jerry about meeting his goal of learning the German Language and his appreciation of a more relaxed culture.
Hello, my name is Jordan Groff, I am currently eighteen years old, I graduated from Conestoga Valley and I went to Germany in a village called Giengen, it's home of the Steiff Teddy Bear, if you may know that, just a little information.
One of the things I would definitely tell some of the younger kids going along is just to know what you want to do there. I think my main goal, while going there, was to learn the German language, I feel that I succeeded very well in that. I feel that if I wouldn't of had a goal I would have just been wasting my time. But, I was able to concentrate on what I wanted to do, make sure that I knew what I wanted to do.
Since I knew that I wanted to learn the language, I read some books in German, talked to a lot of people, went to a lot of social events and I was able to learn the language pretty well.
What about cultural differences, Jordan?
There are a lot, to list a few, I think the German culture is a lot more laid back, I think that is one of my favorite things about them. They kind of take a break in the middle of the day for lunch. They don't just say, “OK, ten minute break for lunch.” They go home, they cook a meal, and then they eat it there, and then they go back to work. It's a lot more chill, I think a better experience overall.
