After one week in Mannheim, I've already uncovered a lot of cultural differences between the US and Germany. In order to discuss all of them (or at least as many as I can remember), I'm going to start a series of observations related to a given topic. I'll start it off with education, since this seems to be one of the things that I've discussed most with the Germans that I've met. Over the next few days, I'll also put up posts related to entertainment, food, and other kinds of things. The long and short of it is that Germany is a pretty interesting place.
German Education
The bachelors and masters programs are combined at German universities. They used to be combined into the same degree, called a diploma, but the EU put pressure on Germany to conform to Europe's usual system. Now, Germans get a bachelors in three years and have the option of getting a masters in another two. Most people don't really like this change—even the ones who don't want to stay in school for five years: the business students I spoke to claim that back in the day, your grades didn't matter until the last two years. Now they have to study all the time at university and can't have any fun.
By the same token: the biggest partiers that I've met so far? Medical students. The medical degree in Germany takes about six years (plus one year of what amounts to a residency—but you don't get paid). The first two years are mostly spent in the classroom learning basic science. There's a big cumulative exam (kind of like the MCAT, but graded) in August, but even though the med schoolers I met are planning to study all summer, they have still thrown the best parties I've seen in Germany. Go figure.
Germans take English classes starting in the equivalent of either elementary or middle school. Near the French border (which is where I'm living) kids start taking French as early as first grade. In English class, they learn all 50 states and their capitals, which explains why one of my hosts here was aware that I lived in Massachusetts (although she thought it was in the middle of the country). Random sidenote: students take classes in religion starting very early in Germany, although the secularization of the country has led to schools offering ethics and philosophy as an alternative in primary school.
Another note on religion in the public life: all of Germany's public holidays have their roots in Catholicism, even though at this point very few Germans have any idea what these days are actually about. Yesterday, for instance, was a public holiday (I had a day off work), but the most anyone knew about it was that people march around churches in some places. It's interesting to note how different this is from America—where most of our public holidays are national in character—but I'm going to have to devote an entire post to German nationalism, so I won't get into it too much right now.
One of the oddest things that I noticed during my first week here is that a surprising number of Germans speak English with an Australian-twinged accent. Apparently Australia is a hugely popular destination for German tourists, to the point where it's nearly impossible for a German to go there without hearing someone speaking their language. Now, it's also very popular for German students to study abroad during high school (they call it Gymnasium) or to take a gap year before university, so a large number of Germans live there for a semester or a year. This results in a very bizarre accent and an inordinate number of Australian girlfriends and boyfriends.
And while we're talking about traveling, I should also mention that the German government will pay students to spend time doing volunteer work in a third-world country. One of my hosts spent three months in a Ghanaian hospital, and another worked for a year in an old-age home in India. Germany used to have a year of mandatory military service, but that kind of transformed into a year of civil service—volunteering at different places in Germany. That's been phased out, but replaced by a number of programs that encourage Germans to volunteer at home and abroad. It's a very cool program, but it's also one of the reasons that the sales tax in Germany is 20 percent.
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