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Second Part
Although the program was being offered in Germany and within a German education system, there were still elements of strangeness and irritations for the native German participants. As interviewee one comments, "Well, that we are students from all over the world, that’s foreign of course." This is also mentioned by interviewee two, "First of all, all the people that came from foreign countries, ha ha, that was new to me . . ."
Ironically, while some of the foreign students complain of a lack of guidance and help, the presence of a coordinator is a new phenomenon for the Germans: ". . . and also to have study coordinator was something completely new to me. Somebody like Eva [the name of the coordinator] we didn’t have, somebody you always knew you could go to and ask any questions you have, and he would be responsible for it," interviewee one states.
The German love of discussion and the freedom of expression makes them forget about the practice in other countries. Interviewee two says that "in classes it’s foreign to me that people don’t discuss so much, because in my former studies we were discussing a lot more . . ." Interviewee two adds, "What irritates me in the group is that not everybody is giving the same effort or putting the same effort . . ." This fact had some effect on the role of the German students, especially when it was a matter of giving a presentation in German. Interviewee one says: ". . . for example, if we do any work for a seminar, like a Referat, um, there is always a problem that the Germans feel that they have a high influence on – well, ja, on the others and that they are international students don’t they do so much—we are not so much sure about the relationship." This feeling causes insecurity in deciding about the mode and manner of communication: ". . . [I] just think that sometimes the relationship is not really clear, clearly defined," intervieweeone says. "We are, we, it’s my personal impression that I’m sometimes just not sure if it’s really okay what we are doing or not or what I’m doing or not, or what the other person feels about it."
The equal treatment of the students by the university is not acceptable for interviewee two: ". . . and, like this, we have emm, or , and at the same time the university is not requiring the same thing from every person. Like people who don’t work as hard as the others, they also make the exams, they also get the same degree, the same diploma. And it is not comparable the effort people put in and what we get at the end."
Despite the insecurity and hesitation about the right relationship, the German interviewees found the internationality of the course to be important. Interviewee one states: "The international group, I think, is very important, because this is where I really have the feeling that I learned something. That was not my idea when I first came here. I thought I want to do intercultural communication studies. That is interesting for me . . . but it turned out that international students and this and interesting relationships, um ja, the relationship that we founded are very important and have a big influence on me."
The liberal and more relaxed system of German education causes the dissatisfaction of the German interviewees about the amount of work expected of the students: ". . . then, that in every class we have to do some kind of Schein or Studienleistung, because we didn’t have to do that always, and very often we did active work in the class, so that was already the Schein, or Studienleistung," interviewee two states.
The size of the group was a positive point for many of the students, including the Germans: "I think, now I like it more because it’s more personal, more, you have more contact to the people you study with, em, you can exchange more," interviewee two says. But even the Germans find the amount of discussion done in ICEUS too much: "Here in ICEUS everything can be, is a matter of discussions, everything can be changed. I think that’s good, but at the same time it causes a lot of problems, a lot of instability . . . ," interviewee two states.
Another point of criticism was the content of the program. Interviewee one, for example, states: ". . . from the content I think that – they looked at what they have, the professors who teach and then they formed the program. And I think it should have been the other way round. They should have thought about what do we want to teach, what is the aim of the program and then they should look at what professors they need. But of course this is not going to work in Germany because you cannot, emm, pay new professors to come and to form a new program . . ." This lack of clarity in the aim and perspective of the program was criticised by many.
The last point to be discussed is what the Germans thought about the city. The city as was explained before, was a matter of controversy. Both German interviewees believe that a bigger city could have been more suitable for an international course of this kind. In contrast to a German tendency towards decentralisation, with regard to this particular program interviewee two comments: "I don’t think the city is appropriate, um–– perhaps I would have said that it’s too small, but I think other cities that have the same size they are more active, there is more life than here. Here in Fulda if you go to the street at six o’clock there is no one in the street, em, there is very- Well, people from my study tell me that they have problems with the people in Fulda . . . there are not many possibilities." And interviewee one supposes that, "the city needs the studies more than the students need the city, I guess, of course, it would be more interesting if the ICEUS were situated in Frankfurt, because we could do a lot more practical work in a multi-cultural city like Frankfurt . . ."
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