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German students love ‘family bonds’ in India

“I was initially scared. But it turned out to be comfortable. It was more of a family life. Everyone talked…

German students love ‘family bonds’ in India

“I was initially scared. But it turned out to be comfortable. It was more of a family life. Everyone talked to each other,” said Luisa Pfeiffer, a ninth grade student from a school in Germany.

The German girl was a part of Indo-German educational cooperation and school exchange programme recently.

She stayed with a family in Gaziabad for one week and was touched by the warmth of her hosts in India. “They cried when I left their place. It was amazing. Indians are passionate, friendly  and are more patient,” Luisa said.

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She visited Shimla with a group of German students and teacher AnabelEulner.

For most of the German students, while cleanliness, traffic chaos and honking in India was a concern, they loved the traditional values, family-bonding in India and said what they practically saw what they read in books.

“In Germany, we live with parents. In India, we see the children living with parents and grand-parents. It’s different here,” said SveaThones, a 12th standard student.

She said the schools are more disciplined and strict in India. “In Germany, we have more freedom and we don’t have a uniform in schools,” she said.

As many as 45 students came in two batches from five German schools from Heiligenhausen and Wuppertal.

They lived with families of the partner schools in Delhi and Agra for a week and travelled to other places for one week under the exchange programme.

All of them now eagerly await the school students from India to visit their nation and stay with them next year.

“It is a great learning for them,” said Rajvinder Singh, initiator and felicitator of this school-level exchange of students and teachers between Germany and India.

Singh is a well-known German language writer and cultural educationist of Indian origin and is three-time poet laureate of Germany.

The idea struck him at a creative writing workshop for pupils in a school in on Indo-German theme in 2004-05.

“I used to conduct such workshops to acquaint the German students with multi-cultural, multi-religious, multi-ethnic and multi- lingual fabric of India, displaying the best example of unity in diversity. From such workshops, the programme was later expanded to school exchange partnerships to give learning a practical exposure.” Singh then led a group of students and teachers of BayreutherStrasse in Wuppertal to Delhi’s Springdale school.

He said the response was good and 120 schools of Germany and India are now a part of this exchange. For the last 12 years, the programme is going at a solid pace.

“India is a subject in senior classes. We learn so much about India from books. But I really wanted to see it. One of my daughters came here twice in the programme that made me more curious. So I travelled to India. I love the intensity, the impressions and different shades of India,” summed KatjaUhl, a teacher in Wuppertal.

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