German Gymnasium 🇩🇪 How Are Our American Kids Doing in Germany's Toughest Schools? Part Two 

Awe that’s so wonderful that you were able to help him. Just being a friend to a foreigner is a really big deal. We can feel quite lonely and scared at first, so having friends makes a huge difference! ❤️

A lovely story. We arrived here from Greece, it took time to adjust, our kids never complained they understood we had to leave Greece then our kids thrived. I am so impressed by the German system. Very pleased indeed.

@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife When your child goes to a German Gymnasium you carefully should check before if this Gymnasium has a main emphasis: Is your child more a musician/artist (then you should send him/her to a so-called "Waldorfschule", teaching a lot of arts, music and craft), is the child more interested in science (then a Naturwissenschaftliches Gymnasium is suitable) or sports (a special "Sport-Gymnasium" where athletes are trained for a professional sports-career)? If your child is in the wrong emphasis it can give a rude awakening after some years... I was on a very old "Humanitisches Privatgymnasium" (with the emphasis on old languages like Latin, Old-Greek , Old-Hebrew was also possible), luckily I learn languages fairly easy.

TBH the difference is not as big as some make it out to be. Universities can only expect you to have what is requires at Abitur level, so everyone mostly starts from scratch anyway. It can be dangerous to start out thinking you know a lot of material already.

@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife Do not send your child to a "Waldorfschule" as another user recommended...! They teach accordingly to an ideology called 'Anthroposophie' which basically is a lot of woo, especially when it comes to technology and the natural sciences, and their history curriculum is basically made up bullshit by their founder that includes Atlantis being real. Many of the so called 'Querdenker' in the South-West have ties to those schools or that ideology. Be aware of that!

That‘s what I was thinking. Also get the school involved and ask for support.

Okay thank you - we will do that! Great suggestion.

Yes, my region also contracted a bus company to cover extra busses in the morning and afternoon. Only if you missed them, you had to rely on the public ones. But other citizens weren’t banned from them ever.

Okay very good to know! We are always learning from the comments in our videos. It’s so awesome!

Especially in subjects like foreign languages, German and History oral participation counts a great deal.

Eigentlich bewerten wir Schüler folgendermaßen: Klassen 5-6: je drei Klassenarbeiten pro Halbjahr im Mathe, Deutsch, Englisch. Und ein weiteres Fach. Das weitere Fach schreibt nur 2 Klassenarbeiten pro Fach. Ab der 9. Klasse sind es nur 2 Klassenarbeiten für alle Hauptfächer. Dafür sind sie umfangreicher. Weitere Bewertungen in den Hauptfächer: Tests (z. B: Vokabeltests) Projekte und mündliche Mitarbeit (im Unterricht). Die anderen Fächer schreiben Tests oder führen Mappen für Projekte, o.Ä. Für Kinder, die noch die dt. Sprache erlernen müssen, galt eine 2-Jahresfrist, in der sie nicht bewertet werden. Kinder werden quartalsweise bewertet. Zum Halbjahr gibt es Zeugnisse. Mitten im Halbjahr gibt es den Elternsprechtag. Da wird eine Notenübersicht für alle unterrichteten Fächer erstellt und den Eltern vom Klassenlehrer gezeigt. Die Lehrer/innen sprechen dann mit Eltern über den Lernstand/Lernfortschritt der Kinder/Jugendliche. Diese Elternsprechtage vergeben Termine Uhrzeiten, wann man da sein sollte. Manchmal muss man warten, denn es gibt immer viel zu besprechen. Sorry, my English is not the best for this subject.

@@gvicze Danke für die Infos

@@gvicze Aua, da hat man uns damals aber mehr gefordert. Die Faustregel lautete: Wochenstundenzahl = Schulaufgabenzahl. Ein Lateinlehrer war noch etwas schlauer: er hielt noch eine sechste Schulaufgabe ab - für die, die eine versäumt hatten. Für die anderen zählte es als Extemporale.

Yeah carpooling is a good idea! And yeah you’re right about how taking the bus allows the kids to make friends. Our boys were just invited to another kids’ house on Friday, and he was a kid they met on the bus!

I lived in a village with NO public transportation. So yes, school buses do exist in Germany as well.

Dependng on how far they live from school. In my secondary school back then there were kids that lived in up to 15km distance, so for those who could not walk there was buses to collect and drop them to their villages and towns

@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife Germans don't really do carpooling to get their children to school and back again. If you're a kid in Germany and need to get anywhere, you generally either walk, ride a bike or take public transportation. Dedicated school buses exist (especially in rural areas), but aren't the rule. How far do you live from the school?

There are no super special yellow buses like in the US. But regular bus companies run buses at certain times that are really only used by students. They may even have some sign designating them as a school bus

For my kids we had to fight for a change of schedule because the were not able to catch the bus on time for the way home.

As mentioned in my comment. When my siblings and I went to school, we had the same issue with coming late to school. I remember that there had been some sort of agreement, that, if we had waited at least 15 minutes for the bus, we had to call the school secretary, to inform them that the bus didn´t show up, and we could go home. This has usually been an issue in winter. There had been many cases, where the bus operator informed us. There used to be a small shop close to the bus stop in our village. So, if they knew they were late, they called them, and kindly asked the shop owner to inform us.

Great suggestion, thank you. We will contact them!

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@@muesztaerrieh Same thing for me in the 1980s in a small village: it was minus 20 degrees Celsius and lots of fresh snow, and the elder children told us: we’d have to wait for maximum 1h, and if the bus didn’t come, we would go home. An older woman living right next to the bus stop saw the dozen children out in the cold and let us in and made tea and gave us some Christmas cookies she had made, so we wouldn’t have to wait out in the cold, and in the end we went home and enjoyed our free day, because the bus never came, and nobody was reprimanded, because we had waited the usual time, and lots of buses didn’t arrive that day (- pretty much an act of God / a case of force majeure (“höhere Gewalt”) due to weather).

Such a helpful comment, thank you!

Good to know! Yeah that would work well in the spring and autumn. But we need the bus during the winter. It’s so icy around here. Hmm, okay we can talk to the other parents.

Yes, in Germany, the school year is divided into two semesters (Halbjahre) and now your sons have one semester to get a grip on the system and at the start of the new semester they will start to get grades.

Okay good to know! It seems to be the same here in southern Bayern. People shop around to find the best fit.

Tag der öffnen Tür was really important. Mostly for the focus of a school/Gymnasium. We had like 4 schools (3 Gymansien and 1 Gesamtschule) I watched the lessons and for me I choose the secondary school with focus on languages. I actually am really happy about it, because the other two were rather muscial/mathematician focus and science focus. I f.ex. was in a bilingual class (that's how it was called back than - 20 years ago) where I had French as major (5 school hours per week in 5th class) and English as 2nd foreign language (3 school hours per week in 5th class). As I was in a bilingual class with the focus on French, in later school years we had like some Nebenfächer in French (history, politics and geography - continuously till grade 10, 3 hours per week). We also had many chances at our Gymnasium to speak English and French- we had a partner school in the UK and in France. The English classes even had the opportunity of an exchange to UK in 7th grade (2 weeks) and our French focus class had an exchange to Toulouse in 6th grade (3 weeks). And the exchange students than also came to Germany the next year. The exchange was only pupils and I think 3 teachers (just FYI because you had a video about self reliance and independence of children jn Germany) and we had assigned host families. Before going to Toulouse we were Pen pals with the French students of the partner school. In Mittelstufe we had a Model European Parliament project where representatives of European countries stayed here in Germany for I think 2 weeks recreating the European Parliament and the EU in general. We hosted a Beitish and Greek representative. And as Germans are often much influenced by Hollywood and the Englis-speaking media, we had so many chances to improve English during that time. Also from grade 10-11 many pupils had the chance of doing a year or half a year abroad - most pupils at that time went to English-speaking countries (USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand were in the leading spots back than). In the Mittelstufe we also had some more English hours per week and we could pick Wahlfächer: f.ex. music/arts, Religion/ethics and Spanish/Latin. So since grade 8 I even had Latin and could take my Latinum at grade 12th. It's not the biggest use nowadays but for me- as I like Roman languages - it was good. At the end of my school "carrier" aka Oberstufe I had my majors in French and English and could almost drop all of the Naturwissenschaften (except biology and maths - maths unfortunately wasn't optional). For me this was a blessing because the sciences (physics and chemistry) I actually hated during school - I know Kevin is an engineer, so for you that might not be understandable - so I was glad just to take biology (which was more like learning by heart) and maths. For the language I could take in Einführungsphase (grade 11) even Spanish. But unfortunately because I already had 2 foreign languages as major in grade 12th and 13th and Latin on top I actually had to drop Spanish after grade 11. But with the background of Latin and French I started improving my Spanish during my vocational education phase (berufliche Ausbildungsphase) and as I started working in 2017, since than I learned and am still learning Italian - the Latin I had in school is a real advantage here😊 So to conclude, I think it's really important to know the abilities and maybe the "strengths" of your kids and choose the school according to that. Well sure it was also a big advantage for me to have a few classmates of my Grundschule in class. But my than BFF went to a Gesamtschule because of her grades - she didn't fit (according to grades) the Gymnasialniveau. I'm a German with Korean roots (one of my parent came to Germany jn the 80s and stayed here; I do speak fluently Korean) and our class was really diverse for that time because we had many children from French-speaking countries. Actually our school had a good diverse mixture.... So yeah, just wanted to share this. I love your videos. For me it's always helpful to learn and improve my English and your clips are so interesting and as you don't have a strong accent it's so cool to watch them. Keep up👍🏻👍🏻 P.S.: So yeah, it's actually 4 languages I can fluently converse (German - 1st native language, Korean - 2nd native language; English and French - foreign language I'm able to fluently converse) and 2 I have the basics which are good for holiday use (Spanish, Italian)

Me again: I remember that we had a French girl who came to Germany in grade 6. As her parents were both French, she had to adjust in a functioning class community and had also the language barrier. But I remember that when she was in grade 8 she really was fluent in German with a little French accent. So I think your kids will adapt pretty fast.❤

Oh how sad you cried for an hour! It can be so scary as a kid. And good to know the public transportation was bad in your small town, too.

Hallo Carola! Thank you so much, we’re so glad you enjoy our videos. And so cool that you’ve also experienced culture shocks - it’s something that’s hard to relate to unless you’ve lived in another country!

Lp Leider

@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife I went to kindergarten, 1st and the first part of 2nd grade in New York State. Then my family moved to Northern Germany. Our tiny village school there had one classroom, one teacher and about thirty-five pupils grades 1 - 8. Oh boy - culture shocks galore!

Oh Wow someone else from Bavaria! I grew up and went to school in a small town called Schwabach, you probably know of it being that it’s only 20Km outside of Nürnberg 🙂

@@emmaonthefarm1085 yes, that’s pretty much around the corner 👍😊

Yes! I was glad sometimes when we missed the bus and could hang out in the caferteia and do our homework

That’s a good idea to have a plan B!

That’s so true. With smartphones we don’t really ask for directions anymore. It could be a strange concept to kids. I never thought about that.

I guess a solution without smartphone could be a local map. Seems a little outdated, maybe, but nevertheless effective. A small one just showing the area right around the school should be sufficient. Back in the days "before smartphone navigation", situations having to ask for the right way were pretty scarce as well, at least in my experience. Maybe the expectations of finding your destination were lower, always getting right were you want to go on your first try without ever having looked at any map at all was sheer dumb luck. And even with a map, you might not have found what you wanted right away, depending on the quality of the map... fun times ;) it was basically more laid back, because navigation did not have to be perfect. I mean, I don't expect everybody to find their way just by looking at a map at home and following it in their mind - you can always print it out, maybe buy one or even get one for free at a tourist information or town hall. (opportunities vary greatly from my experience)

That reminds me of my cousin (in the 1970s), who went to the police station that was luckily nearby to explain that she missed her bus station *. The policemen were: a) so nice to call us and b) explain to her how to get back to our part of town and told us which bus she is now taking. * The old express bus system required you to press the stop button in any case, otherwise the bus would simply drive through if no one wanted to get off or get on at the station. Our younger child went to school in the next big city and luckily the older schoolmates were always helpful when for example the route was blocked and everyone had to find another way. When our child was one of the elders, they looked after the younger ones as well. (Abitur 2010)

@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife Children here are usually trained not to ask "anybody" on the street for help when they are in trouble, but rather to go to a shop and ask the salespeople there. It's kind of a security issue. I don't want to scare you, but children approaching strangers on the street are more likely to be exploited than children asking a clerk in a store for help. I am very sorry that your kids had this bad experience with the busses. The American school bus system also has advantages. Other than that, they look super cool!

I just love the community mindset here in Germany and how adults will help kids when they see them struggling. It’s something we don’t have much of in the US anymore, mainly due to the whole infrastructure being based on cars!

Oh I’m glad you like that part! It’s my favorite thing to film.

Yes, almost every child in our class was in a Verein afternoons. If it was ballet/soccer/judo, it was many times a week plus many weekends with acuall championships, or dancing, horse riding etc.. Min.1-2x a week too.

You're right but on the other hand 3 times a week in a sports club can help you. It depends on the person, I remember that Fußball gave me the energy back that I've lost while sitting and learning. Sports is the absolute opposite and I would recommend it any student. Not necessarily in a club and just as much that it doesn't hurt your learning schedule

I would question if there is one "Bundesland" representing the whole of germany, not even Hessen...i mean, isnt that a beautiful part of the federal system? different places coming together?

@@Max_Winters yeah from what we’ve learned about Germany, it’s quite diverse between the different Bundesländer.

Yeah our bus system is due to the fact that we live in such a small village. A drawback to smaller places!

​@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife i think if your school sees your children coming in late from that only bus in the morning they will ask the operator themselves, because its not your kids fault. you know we had that topic in Gymnasium every single day, when school started.. oh they are late because of the train/bus. school and village/town/local authorities will help out.

German way of growing up, you learn from expirience an become more independent.

Never heard of that🤔

It’s such a relief for us that they’re doing well now. Whew! One big huge hurdle crossed!

Oh really! Good to know it’s similar in Italy!

I grew up in Austria though, and my gymnasium was a fancy one on a hill far outside the city. It was serviced by an intercity bus that had a route optimised for student pickup from the main city, via small villages to the gymnasium up the hill, with a timetable around the schools schedule. It was a normal intercity bus though, and occasionally one or two adults on their way to God-knows-where would get on in a village. The volume of all conversations suddenly dropped with an adult present, and we all showed our best behaviour (it was a Catholic school) Looking back it feels quite amusing.

Thank you so very much! Your comment means so much to us.

Thank you! I am better but the kids continue to get one virus after another! Maybe there are different strains here than where we lived in the US…

@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife Hope this passes for you all soon!

Hi! I am looking through all these videos and if you ended up moving. We have four children as well and are always considering a move. My oldest is 12 so it feels like it's now or never. Specifically scared about the school aspect. I see a lot of these videos are older, would love to get in touch with people that are like minded and on the same journey.

We are, too! Whew! One big huge hurdle crossed. We’re so happy they’re doing well for now.

Well, there are bus runs specifically for school, but anybody can buy a ticket to use it too.

@@ThePixel1983 in NRW children get a Ticket for a year without paying. Depends from the Distance

@@Miristzuheiss Yeah, that's what it was like in northern Bavaria too.

Yeah that makes sense. I think we have 5-7 kids from our town that go to the same gymnasium as our boys, so there’s just not a huge demand for the buses to make it worth their time.

@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife It can be really difficult if you live in a rural area and the school is in a different town. You might consider contacting other kids' parents and trying to organize a car pool. Might be difficult, however, if school days end at different times for each kid. On the other hand, I found that getting familiar with German public transport and dealing with interrupted and unreliable services helped me to learn self-reliance. And in those days (70s), nobody had phones. ;-)

Okay very good to know! That’s very fair and reasonable. Do you teach for a Gymnasium?

@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife I teach at a Gesamtschule. But I used to teach at a Realschule before and we did the same. I'm not sure about the rules in Bavaria but maybe you can look into it.

@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife I teach German as a second language at a Gymnasium in North Rhine-Westfalia and we've got the same 2 years without grades - rule plus support in learning German. Additionally, if parents elaborate on their children's good skills and grades in previous schools, it's no problem to be accepted at the Gymnasium (for a two year test phase). I always feel sorry for you being in the state with the strictest rules in Germany in your situation.

@@wissensdigger6717 yes, so do I, and it sometimes makes me angry - but that's Bavaria 🤔

Wait, DaZ is actually a thing? I was only aware of DaF. Live and learn!

Thank you!

As that reaction RU-vidr said: Your videography is top notch!

Yes! It’s harder for introverts to make friends.

Same regulation as when I went to school. The public transport bus ran seldom and didn’t stop anywhere near the gymnasium. So there were coaches doing the school tour. They were overcrowded and the pupils at my bus station- we were the last to be picked up - had to stand. Which wasn’t fun if the driver decided to break hard, since a coach has nothing which you can grab…

@@claudiakarl7888 oh man! That’s rough!

@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife It gave you survival instincts. Especially taking into account that our school bus driver most of the time was the senior boss of the coach corporation the school rented the coaches from. And his eyesight wasn’t the best anymore… 😉

Oh a good feature! Thanks for letting us know about that. That’s right - the bus situation was difficult but it was a great lesson in self-reliance and independence for the boys.

@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife the kids needs a phone with a good battery life then

Younger! Yay! Thank you.

Thank you so much for your kind comments. I do work very hard on these videos and it’s so nice when it’s noticed. 😍

@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife and soon you can add subtitles German and French too, and stock up your boys' pocket money for this ;)

@@furzkram oh I do usually have the German subtitles up but on this video I forgot!

@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife I wasn't criticizing, I just thought your boys would like a little side job maybe ... ;-)

​@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife I can only agree: Great, interesting, well-produced videos that I am always looking forward to watching. 🥰 11:28 A little tip for your learning German: "Deutsch" = the German language itself (e.g. "ich lerne Deutsch", "Deutsch als Zweitsprache", "Deutsch als zweite Sprache") "Deutsche" = a female German person (e.g. "sie ist (eine) Deutsche") "Deutscher" = a male German person (e.g. "er ist (ein) Deutscher") "deutsch(e(n/r/s))" = general adjective for something that is German (only capitalized in proper nouns or start of sentence/phrase) (e.g. "ich trinke deutschen Wein", "er besucht eine deutsche Schule", "es gab deutsches Essen", "die deutsche Kultur erleben") Also: "Gast" = guest "Gastschule" = host school "Gastschüler" = guest student (for college: "Gaststudent") 😊

Yes that’s so true! It’ll be much, much easier!

Thank you! So cool you’re a German tutor to two German girls!

Thank you so much 😄

Thank you!

My family is in Northern California and our preschool and kindergarten age children go to the German international school here. Would love to hear more about your transition from California to Germany!

@@MA-zg2pz OMG there's so many factors of transition to cover. But to specifically focus on my children's (6 and a 9 yrs old) education, my wife and I decided that a full-immersion in German language was necessary and therefore a grundschule after the kindergarten was our decision. For sure, there were ups and downs during the process but they were able to pick-up the language within a year. It also helps that my wife is from Vienna, Austria and she speaks German to the kids even when we were in the States and that tremendously helped.