Hallo!! Guten Tag
“Willkommen bei Germany”
These were the first words I heard when I came to Germany for the first time.
Ich bin Saurabh.
Ich komme aus Indian.
Momentan ich wohne in Hannover.
To begin with, studying at HISSEMA (Hannover International Summer School of Economics and Management) has definitely been a phenomenal experience and I am beyond grateful that I got an opportunity to attend a program of such exceptional standards in the Summer of 2017.
I don’t have enough words to describe HISSEMA and the wonderful experiences that it has brought in my life.
From Academic standards to gregarious counsellors (Anne Höech, Carmen Fernandez, Francesca Cristaldi), to our unforgettable excursion to Berlin and not to mention, my placement!
Oh yeah! I got placed and my interview was held in Berlin (the capital of Germany) and I can say that all day long and throughout my life. I am extremely happy and so are my parents, my cute little sister and my friends too.
As HISSEMA is an international college, there are students here from all over the world. There are people from USA, Italy, Indonesia, Russia, Palestine, Egypt, India and some German students as well. My favourite person here is Vladimir Tarasov. He is from Russia and is one of a kind. If you challenge him, he can get tons of contacts in a minute. To be with such different people is actually exciting and inspiring. People here are very open minded. I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. I learnt that no matter where you are, you always find people you get along with, people you have problems with, stupid people, smart people… but there are also things that set our cultures apart.
So there is a difference and for that we must travel, meet new people and try to learn from every place.
Here, people mostly speak and understand German, and only a few people can understand English. But it’s interesting to get to know people and talk to them. And here in Hannover, it only gets dark between 10 pm to 6 am and the temperature is usually 10 to 19 degree Celsius.
One thing that I really want to share:
“When the flight landed safely at Hannover airport, all the passengers started clapping. At first I thought it was for the pilot, but then Anne said to me, “It’s for all the passengers, crew members and pilot. As all have come to a new land, new city safely”.
And now to commence with academic term, here in HISSEMA there are three courses:
1. German Language, Culture and Business
2. European Union, World Economy, German labour and Schooling System, CAP (Common Agriculture Policies) in Europe
3. International Management and Economics
As of now, we have finished two courses and I really liked the first one and the language part in it. Now, I can say that I can speak about 30 percent and understand around 75 percent of the German language.
“Welche Sprachen sprechen sie Englisch und Hindi und Marathi und Gujarati und ein bißchen Deutsch.
Ich mag fisch.
Mei leiblings Farbe ist blaue.”
Course 2 was a bit more difficult and lengthy. And we have final exams for each course except course 1, each having 5 credits.
I will be talking about the courses in detail in my next article.
Last but not the least, if something doesn’t appeal to you, the counsellors will always come to your aid with a smile on their faces. I find it astonishing, if I think about how I have forged some of my closest friendships with students hosting diverse cultures and beliefs even though we’ve never even met before. I think I might have to get a box of tissues for the last day, as it will be impossible to describe the rush of emotions on the last day of summer school.
To conclude, HISSEMA is a fantastic experience and a journey that one must embark on, if they have the opportunity to do so. And remember one thing, the duration is for almost 2 months (July and August), so you can travel to other countries of Europe while you are here.
I am going to explore Prague (Czech Republic), Amsterdam (Netherland), Brussels (Belgium), Berlin, Hamburg, Schwerin, Poland and maybe France.
A piece of advice to all the juniors: do join Hissema next year, as it will be an amazing experience, to explore other parts of world while studying is beyond imagination. As there is only one thing more precious than our time and that’s on what we are spending it.
For now,
Auf Wiedersehen
Some interesting facts about Germany:
- Beer (Germans cannot live without beer – Oktoberfest)
- Football which they call fußball – Germans are crazy. You can see huge celebrations, when their city team wins the match. (Bundesliga)
- Prison escape is not punishable by law in Germany – German law maintains, that it’s a basic human instinct to be free and therefore, prisoners have the right to escape jail.
- German Cars – Mercedes, Audi, BMW, Volkswagen, Porsche, Daimler AIG, Ford, Opel.
- German engineering is exceptional and interesting. If you come here, you will come to find out what engineering really is.
- Traffic rules and signal are all different for walking, cycling and vehicles.
- People use bicycles all the time. No motorbikes at all.
- Fully destroyed after World Wars, ruled by 4 different nations (France, Russia, UK, USA) and west east unification of Germans in 1990.
- Personally I found their History much more interesting before the world war and even after World War and how they have managed their growth till now.
- Their Education system is different, divided by Low track, Medium track and High track. After 4th standard they have to choose their major subject in which they want to go. Students after 9th and 10th standard joins blue and white collar job respectively and high track students join college. Low and medium track student can join college or can change track by going special schools.
Tschüß (Bye)
Written by Saurabh Nipane
SSBF Pune
Batch 2016-18
