Last Wednesday, September 24th, I got the opportunity to interview Anna (17; 12th grade), Alice (17; 12th grade) and Elizabeth (15; 10th grade), three wonderful German students, who all worked on raising awareness on a very important topic.
They arrived in Hungary on September 20th, Saturday. They spent the following day in Budapest, then on September the 21th, they arrived here in Szeged. The German group was here for three days, leaving on the morning of September 25th.
Each of them shared their experience with me, both about the school, and about Hungary in general. They found Szeged to be „surprisingly pretty” and welcoming. The group noted interesting differences between German schools and Deák. Firstly, what stood out to them was the tools we use to learn. According to the girls, they use digital devices, tablets, laptops and group projects to try and make learning more appealing, as opposed to Hungary with its more grounded system of using books, handwritten notes, blackboards and less flexible classes.
The building itself was mentioned a few times as well. They all seemed to like the feel of the great hall, which they compared to that of an American high school’s. The varying sizes of classrooms really seemed to surprise them; the German classrooms are apparently much more similar to one-another in size and furnishing.
They joined Deák students and watched them go by with their everyday life. They sat into classes, listened to them and tried to get a glimpse into our system. Most of the time though, they stayed as a group and completed projects that way. The local students struck them as kind, open and willing to listen.
The reason for their visit wasn’t accidental. They started raising awareness about social injustice. An Instagram account called Social Talks was created for this project. They worked hard on dissecting every aspect of it, and eventually won the chance to come to Hungary on a study trip. They continued the assignment here, while also exploring our culture and way of life.
Anna, Alice and Elizabeth all said they loved their stay at Deák, and that they’d come again if the chance was given. They all encourage us to try and raise awareness about any pressing issue we have the chance to talk about.
