The depiction of immigrants (or of the other) is the same around the world
My German Integration Courses begin next Wednesday, June 28. These are the official language, history, politics and culture courses offered by the German government to new immigrants. I received permission to take them even though they are not essential for me to do so. Receiving permission means that I pay half the price which made perfect sense to me, although perhaps not for the German bureaucrat who reluctantly ok’d my doing so.
I take the courses at the local Volkshochschule which is the equivalent of an American community college. On May 22, I took a language proficiency exam to find out what level of language instruction I should be in. The exam was quite interesting, not because of the language testing, but because of the images and the people depicted in the test. Let me describe some of the contents of the test to give you some idea of what the Germans are thinking about its immigrants.
One page of the test depicted a street scene with Turkish people hanging out in front of a rundown apartment building. Here they were, the colorful immigrants, about 10 of them doing their thing. There was a guy sitting on the curb rocking out with a portable radio pressed to his ear. There was a young girl at the second story window just looking out, relaxing. There were two women and one man standing, having an animated discussion on the sidewalk from the looks on their faces. There was an old car with the hood up and two guys shown underneath working on it. And there was a baby asleep in the back seat of the car despite all the hubbub.
The Turks could have been replaced with African or Mexican-Americans and the same page could then have been found in an American textbook. Poor people of color hanging out on the street in rundown neighborhoods.
Another section of the test had pictures and descriptions of three people. The first was a 37 year old Turkish woman who was living in Germany now for 15 years. She had 5 children and meets regularly with other Turkish women to go shopping and for support. L little German support for Turkish women doing Frauenkampf or in other words fighting for their rights?
The second was a 35 year old man from Kazakhstan. He and his wife and one child have been in Germany for one and a half years. At first, he describes that life was difficult for them. They didn’t speak much German. Now, it is better and they are speaking more German together at home. A little social prompting of the importance of using German at home?
The third and last person was a 12 year old Turkish boy. He wants to improve his German in order to get better grades at school. A little social urging for how youth should knuckle down and earn the language properly?
The integration of the other is problematic for all societies; it’s going to be interesting to see how the Germans portray this issue especially given Germany’s tremendous need for more immigrants.
I take the courses at the local Volkshochschule which is the equivalent of an American community college. On May 22, I took a language proficiency exam to find out what level of language instruction I should be in. The exam was quite interesting, not because of the language testing, but because of the images and the people depicted in the test. Let me describe some of the contents of the test to give you some idea of what the Germans are thinking about its immigrants.
One page of the test depicted a street scene with Turkish people hanging out in front of a rundown apartment building. Here they were, the colorful immigrants, about 10 of them doing their thing. There was a guy sitting on the curb rocking out with a portable radio pressed to his ear. There was a young girl at the second story window just looking out, relaxing. There were two women and one man standing, having an animated discussion on the sidewalk from the looks on their faces. There was an old car with the hood up and two guys shown underneath working on it. And there was a baby asleep in the back seat of the car despite all the hubbub.
The Turks could have been replaced with African or Mexican-Americans and the same page could then have been found in an American textbook. Poor people of color hanging out on the street in rundown neighborhoods.
Another section of the test had pictures and descriptions of three people. The first was a 37 year old Turkish woman who was living in Germany now for 15 years. She had 5 children and meets regularly with other Turkish women to go shopping and for support. L little German support for Turkish women doing Frauenkampf or in other words fighting for their rights?
The second was a 35 year old man from Kazakhstan. He and his wife and one child have been in Germany for one and a half years. At first, he describes that life was difficult for them. They didn’t speak much German. Now, it is better and they are speaking more German together at home. A little social prompting of the importance of using German at home?
The third and last person was a 12 year old Turkish boy. He wants to improve his German in order to get better grades at school. A little social urging for how youth should knuckle down and earn the language properly?
The integration of the other is problematic for all societies; it’s going to be interesting to see how the Germans portray this issue especially given Germany’s tremendous need for more immigrants.
posted by paulmediaeye at 6:01 AM
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