After three and a half weeks together in an intensive advanced beginner course, its not surprising that we feel bonded and sad to leave each other. Human nature, no matter what age, links you inevitably to each other. Age was certainly less an issue than culture, openness and confidence. We supported each other’s endeavors and shared each others’ stumblings.
Its much easier to introduce the students from the class at the end than at the beginning, as you can see from the comraderie in the picture:
Front row: Marco,(Mexico); Valadimir (Bulgaria).
Middle row: Luis (Mexico); Paolo (Portugal).
Top row, standing: Saikat (India); Keyson (Thailand); Masami(Japan); Meilina
(Indonesia); me; Yongin (Korea); Hamid (Algeria).
It was a great program, great class, and I passed my exam! Now I can proceed to the next level (intermediate). I guess I wanted to prove that I could still think and learn like a student, but in the end, even though I did, it didn’t really matter. I highly recommend this to others of any age to connect with people in whatever way you can who are NOT the same age you are. I really learned a lot from this group of energetic world beaters. We are going to be in good hands with people like the ones in my class. That’s my message and purpose for this segment of the trip, I guess, and I’ll be ready to move on to my next quest: the Silk Road.
Travels with Myself and Others 
Great to see you are with the cool kids!
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They were definitely cool because they wanted to learn. We take education for granted, but it is definitely a privilege in most of the world. And with few exceptions they were making a sacrifice. They were willing to expose themselves to scrutiny, embarrassment, and even humiliation just to learn this strange and curious language. I guess German will always be an underdog to English even though there’s claim that old English comes from German.
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Well you all look wonderfully engaged and interesting. AGREE!!! I love engaging with people of all ages, keeps me on my toes and in the know (sort of). You GO, GIRL!! Congrats on passing the exam (like there was ever any doubt) …and wahoo, onto the silk road. I think of Yo-Yo Ma and his silk road project every time I hear that phrase. Can’t wait to hear more and see more as you explore the Silk Road and make it your own. AWESOME.
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Yes, that’s what it’s all about: engagement. There were so many backgrounds from this collection of students enough to boggle one’s mind. Where do they come from? Where are they going? What do they do? It was more than enough material for German conversation, and never boring. My only humiliation was being corrected on my…American accent. I’ll have to track down Yo-yo and what he was doing, thanks for the reminder.
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Oops…I left out a student who wasn’t in the picture. Anette was from Hungary.
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