The accent was on friendship during my twin town visit
Last updated 10:54, Friday, 15 February 2008
I AM Judith, an exchange student from Germany.
Last year I stayed in Cumbria for three months and cameback to Workington, doing a work experience at the Times & Star.
I was really pleased when I was asked to write an article about my experiences in England, and the twinning of Selm and Workington.
This article gives me a chance to thank everybody who welcomed us in such a friendly way here in England, for the great time we’ve had and to encourage other people to take the opportunity of going abroad.
Everybody has a mental picture of the typical English or typical German.
So had I when our teacher told us of the possibility of doing a semester at the Sixth Form Centre in Workington.the twin town of my hometown Selm.
Until then, Workington seemed to me a boring place and I was afraid of the strange habits the English might have; all I knew about England were the things our teacher told us, or what I had seen in movies.
In my mind I saw someone who drinks tea every afternoon, talks about the Queen and ingests a huge English breakfast every morning.
And I cannot remember how often I heard: “don’t forget your umbrella, the weather’s awful there.”
But coming to England was the best decision I could have made, as I have realised that it is a country with much to offer.
Excited and full of expectations, my three friends and I were finally sitting in the plane. None of us had ever been to Workington or Great Britain and got seriously worried when the conductor of the train in Manchester started to laugh, while observing our ticket to Workington.
“What the hell are you doing there?” he was asking, but instead of explaining why he was laughing, he just kept smiling each time he passed.
Why Workington was simple - because it is the twin town of Selm. The delegated individuals signed a twinning partnership certificate nearly 14 years ago.
A year later, the Staedtisches Gymnasium in Selm and Stainburn School started exchanges. A lot of friendships have been formed due to this partnership and it was funny to see that people in Workington know the small town Selm, because if you ask anyone in Germany if he knows Selm, they will most likely say no.
Right until the point our teacher told us about this exchange, the twinning wasn’t of great importance for us. Workington seemed far away and we had no idea how life could be over there. We started to create the worst illusions, but by the time we got off the train we forgot most of them as our host family welcomed us with much warmth. Workington seemed to be a nice town. My friend Melanie and I stayed in Cockermouth, which has soon become a new home for us.
We felt uncertain in the beginning; we did not knew what to say, were afraid of making mistakes or misunderstanding things, but all people we met welcomed us with openness and friendship and this was probably the greatest experience in our time here. It was always nice when people showed their interest in us. Most of the time they started to speak some German, they had learned in school.
Sometimes they also told us stories about their visits to Germany, experiences with German exchange students or that the goal in 1966 football World Cup was really a goal, and England therefore at least once the winner.
Everything was better than we had expected it, except for the Cumbrian accent! We were warned that people have a strong accent, but never expected them pronouncing the words so differently from how we learn it in school!
Especially at sixth form, when it was hard to understand the other students in the beginning. The toilet was ‘uupstars’, the weather was ‘luvly’ - sometimes it was ‘cheers’ instead of thanks, the box was said to be ‘ la’al’ and people were ‘garn yam’!
After a few weeks we were used to it, started to speak without thinking about the right word order and were able to understand everything - except for the English jokes!
We soon noticed that things were not that different from Germany. The food was similar, even if the English people have some strange eating habits, which we’ll probably never understand. For example how you can eat crisps in the morning or how you can go crazy about things like pork pie or pickled onions.
We also didn’t know before how fast girls can run in high heels. Apparently it’s fast, if it’s raining and they want to get into the next pub without their hair becoming too wet. It didn’t seem possible to us wearing only a top and a skirt while walking from pub to pub in early December that you wouldn’t get ill. But surprisingly it is possible!
We made a lot of new friends in school and in Cockermouth and even if we maybe won’t see some of them again, we will never forget them.
After this trip I have visited England several times. It’s always like coming back home. Cumbria has indeed become a second home for us, and through our time in England we have experienced important things - sometimes you have to overcome your fears and just go out into the world to create your own image of places, peoples and the life in foreign countries.
