Meeting at the Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut

During this meeting we got to talk with two ladies; Yasmin who works at the DAI and my professor’s daughter, Jessica, who talked to my classmates and me about many topics concerning US American culture and German one. We discuss such things as the differences between American and German universities, how is the grading system as well, the GPA, and health insurance. For instance, there was talk that here in Germany it is really common for professors to speak two languages, German and English, so you as a student can turn in papers most of the time in either language, which is almost unheard or impossible in the US. Also, how the GPA grading system is backward in the US 4.0 is the highest and in Germany that is the lowest, they told us that it is really important to correctly translate that to put on our CV because otherwise there is going to be some misunderstanding. We also talked about the differences between internships and work in general in Germany. For instance we were talking of how here in Germany you work less hours than in the US, and how it is more common in the US to have students working and studying at the same time while here in Germany it isn’t like that. Also we talked about the experiences in university of Yasmin and how it was for her a whole cultural shock when she went, and the differences that she thought of the South and North people of the US, also how for Jessica how it was moving from New York to Germany. Overall it was a really nice experience, I got Yasmin info card and I have an appointment scheduled with her, because she will try to help me find an internship in the human rights/migration sector. So for me it was a really productive meeting.