Growing up, I never knew where I would be next. My father’s job meant my family moved every year or two. In fifth grade, I had my first international move to Mexico, but Spanish was not a new language to me. We spoke it with our family in Panamá, and I had always studied it in school. At the beginning of high school, we relocated to Germany for two years where I first encountered a language totally foreign to me. I was desperate to make friends and to get out of the house, so I joined a local soccer league.

At the first practice I was lost in fragments, I did not even know der Fußball meant the ball. Biking home from training, I spoke to
myself, each day sounding out the melody of a foreign language. Though it would have been easier to pre-study German, to have a translator, or to join an English speaking team, I had none of those options. All I truly needed was
practice: the opportunity to play with language and a soccer ball.

Colleges have an academic language and culture too, with all the foreignness and contradictions of nations. I had never set foot in Atlanta or Georgia before move-in. On my first day, I met my new soccer teammates and I could not understand anything (except for ‘ya’ll’). However, this time I did not feel lost. Remembering the joy felt when fragments of German came together, and my anticipation when biking back to the second day of practice, ‘Fußball’ fixed firmly in mind, I openly welcomed the process of adaptation. Cross-cultural understanding is a part of me, and it exists within the U.S. as much as it does outside of the country.

By the time I came to Agnes Scott, I knew I wanted to continue studying German. It was a gateway to a country I am connected to, and something I can never fully master as a non-mother tongue speaker. It is something I will keep mastering throughout my life. This post has three videos, from my German course at Agnes Scott. In Intermediate German II, we debate each other rigorously, taking on new vocabulary, current events and themes in every class. It is certainly one of the most challenging courses at Agnes Scott, but it makes you more conversant and agile in the language and German culture. We are encouraged to study deeply, but to also play, make mistakes and actively create videos, presentations and games to learn from and with each other. This was one such project, and exemplifies the joy students bring to the discipline.