German Language Students Headed to Berlin

Traditionally the College’s immersion learning trips take place during March’s spring break week, But full immersion in a foreign language can take a little longer.

Students enrolled in Professor John Byrnes German 202 class will leave Monday for nearly a week and a half in Berlin.

The trip includes a walking lecture tour of Dahlem, the section of Berlin where the Free University and many research institutes are located; a walking lecture tour of central Berlin, visits to the German Resistance Memorial, the Sachsenhaus Concentration Camp, the Brandenburg Gate, and Checkpoint Charlie.

The group will also visit the Gendarmenmarkt – central Berlin’s beautiful historic square that reveals much of the city’s history. The German Cathedral, on the Gendarmenmarkt, containing an exhibit on German history that concentrates on Germany’s development into a parliamentary democracy.

The course, and purpose of the trip, is to develop the students’ command of German through practice in the use of the language and to increase his understanding of German culture.

"The course culminates in a 10-day trip to Berlin," Byrnes said. "The students have free sufficient time (other than the organized walking lecture tours, and site visits) to explore the city and improve their German by interacting with Berliners.

"For me as a professor, the most rewarding part of taking students on this trip is to see how the German language and culture come alive for the students in a way that is impossible in a classroom here in the United States."