ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, November 6, 1996 TAG: 9611060024
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE
"She's a very energetic teacher."
"She wants people to learn it, not just fail the test and forget about it."
"She likes to sing and dance in class."
Sylvia Klaus, the only German teacher in Montgomery County Schools, enjoys a small but loyal following. Her students at Blacksburg High School say the language is often difficult, but she can make it fun.
And, oh yeah, there's a perk: many have been lucky enough to travel with Klaus to a small town in eastern Germany, and others have hosted their German counterparts on visits here.
Klaus developed the exchange program three years ago after meeting two German teachers who visited the area. Enrollment for German classes was down, and Klaus wanted to find a real-world application to excite her students about the language.
For the third summer in a row, a handful of Blacksburg students spent two weeks in Quedlinburg. They lived with host families, taught English at the high school, toured the sights. A few even dyed their hair purple to match the hairdos of their fellow teens - temporarily, at least.
This fall, the Blacksburg crew got the chance to return the favor by hosting a dozen German students. They took them hiking and, of course, shopping. They carved pumpkins, watched a football game, visited Monticello and celebrated Thanksgiving early with a potluck dinner.
Both experiences - visiting Germany and hosting German students - taught them more than simply the language. The German school system demands more responsibility from its students, the group said, and allows more freedom. Germans seem to enjoy a slower pace of life, though their fascination with things American in this post-Cold War era surprised the students.
And, there's always the cultural differences to work through.
"You have to learn to get along with someone that's not like you," said junior Kaitlyn Beisecker.
Students who participate in the exchange, Klaus said, often continue to study German through college. Robert Rogers traveled to Germany once with Klaus, then two more times on his own to visit his host family. Now a sophomore at Tech, he is minoring in German while he studies finance.
The group receives a small stipend from the American and German governments, but families cover most of the trip's cost, which Klaus has managed to hold under $1,000 per student. Next year she hopes to offer a scholarship to help one Blacksburg student visit Germany.
Klaus still worries about attracting students to what can be a difficult language to learn for some teen-agers. Blacksburg Middle School is now offering Spanish in the eighth grade, which will compete with the German class.
So, why bother?
"There are lots of industries based in Germany, and besides 55 million Americans trace their heritage back to Germany," she said.
Klaus was born in Switzerland and lived in five countries before coming to America in 1982. She continues to organize trips to Germany, with help from parents and students, because German is a link to brilliance.
"It's still the language of the thinkers, of the poets, the philosophers," she said with an awe-inspired gaze. That's the kind of attitude, her students say, that becomes contagious.
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Blacksburg High School students and their Germanby CNBcounterparts gathered for a group photo during a trip to Germany
this summer. 2. ALAN KIM/Staff. Sylvia Klaus, Montgomery County
Schools' only German teacher, developed an exchange program with
eastern Germany three years ago. color.