THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 17, 1995 TAG: 9503160206
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 21 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAWSON MILLS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
Some lucky eighth-graders are getting a taste of Germany without traveling to Europe. They get to spend a day with a German family and don't have to leave Virginia Beach.
The kids are first-year German language students attending Virginia Beach and Larkspur middle schools. The host families are part of the German Navy contingent serving with NATO at SACLANT Headquarters in Norfolk.
Margit Naden teaches German at both middle Schools. Originally from Frankenchal, Germany, in the Rhine River area, near Heidelberg, she has been in the United States for almost 22 years and has taught German in Virginia for 10. Knowing that contact with native-speakers is valuable to foreign language students for a number of reasons, she contacted Inge Schwabe, wife of a German Navy admiral at SACLANT to get a mini-exchange program started.
``We call it `Be Mein Gast,' '' explained Naden. ``German is a good language to know, culturally and economically. The two languages, English and German, are so close; English is over 50 percent Germanic.''
The program started at the beginning of the school year. In addition to providing language opportunities it also affords participants insight into German customs and traditions.
For the last two weekends, six eighth-graders spent a day with a German host family. Last Saturday, Amy Reavis, 13, from Larkspur and Hugh Langston, also 13, from Virginia Beach middle schools, arrived around noon at the home of Dietmar and Monika Donner and their three daughters, Yvonne, 14, Martina, 13, and Dagmar, 3.
``The students are encouraged to bring a small hostess gift,'' said Naden. ``Flowers or chocolate are traditional.''
After the exchange of flowers and pleasantries, Amy, Hugh and the Donners, accompanied by Naden, moved into the living room to ``break the ice,'' to get to know each other - in German of course. Any introductory awkwardness quickly melted as the older Donner daughters invited their guests upstairs to see their rooms and to play a game looking a lot like Chinese checkers.
Downstairs again, the young people laughed and talked animatedly - in German - during a lunch of potatoes with sauerkraut, kassler (smoked pork) and sausages.
Later, explained Monika Donner, they would spend more time together getting acquainted and looking at photographs. She expected her daughters to introduce their guests to ``techno,'' a computerized style of music that is all the rage in Europe.
``I've really been looking forward to this,'' Amy said. ``I like German; it's a neat language. It's nice to be able to talk with a German family.''
Hugh said, ``It's fun. It's better than to be in class, just repeating after the teacher. I'd like to go to Germany when I get older.''
Dietmar Donner is a master chief in the German Navy assigned to the personnel office at SACLANT. The family arrived in Virginia Beach last June, coming from the naval base at Wilhelmshaven, Germany. They will be here for three years. In Germany, he said, his daughters had participated in an exchange program that took them to France for two weeks. The following year, they had hosted some French students.
Naden's mini-program is both economical and easy to participate in, while still offering an international cultural experience.
``I'm not aware of any others like it,'' said Maria Still, coordinator of foreign languages in the Office of Instruction for city schools. ``This is an individual school-by-school type of event. The teachers are good at bringing the authentic culture into the classroom.''
Still said the weekend visits complemented Foreign Languages Week in Virginia Beach, which culminated in a festival at Plaza Middle School last Saturday.
Capt. Walter Reichenmiller and his wife, Traudi, were the first to host two area students. Cmdr. Wolfgang Schaefer and his wife, Anke, have also opened their home.
Naden is confident there will be more.
``It's a wonderful confidence builder,'' she said. ``It shows the students that they have learned something they can apply, that they can actually use.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by DAWSON MILLS
Clockwise from left: Eighth-graders Amy Reavis, 13, of Larkspur
Middle, and Hugh Langston, 13, of Virginia Beach Middle play a game
with the Donner daughters, their German family hosts, Yvonne 14,
Martina, 13, and Dagmar, 3.
by CNB