On course for the german

Nandar kampf seems happy. Although she has so much to cram in right now. She is a participant in the integration language course for foreigners. The young woman from myanmar, the former burma, has on the 25. Married on june of this year and since then lives with her husband in rodelsee. "It is much warmer in my country than here", she says, but is quick to add that she likes being in germany.
And now she's really getting into the swing of things, getting used to foreign characters and looking cheerful at the same time. The law graduate and former tour guide liked the german passport and is making an effort for it. Just like her fellow students. Four are from afghanistan, the others come from all over the world: ukraine, thailand, vietnam, iraq, the dominican republic, nigeria, latvia, the philippines and bulgaria. Many are in their forties or younger, almost all are married and most have children.
A real multicultural group has gathered around the classroom table. People from up to 25 nations learn german in kitzingen. "For a city in the rough order of kitzingen, this is quite a colorful pattern", says jorg toppner, coordinator of the vocational training centers of the bavarian economy (bfz) based in wurzburg, which have been offering language courses for immigrants at irregular intervals in kitzingen since 2005. People like nandar or 30-year-old godwin aginwa from nigeria will be future county residents if they pass the language course exam and the immigration test.

Certificate for the burial

Nandar kampf and her classmates have to pass level B1 of the european frame of reference to get the german certificate they need to enter the country. You should be able to understand limited opinions on abstract subjects and understand instructions or public announcements. People who want to burgle must understand simple instructions and articles as well as the main information in texts on a familiar topic. You should be able to write letters or take notes on content whose subject matter is familiar or predictable.
Their teacher, margarita hockelmann, can empathize well. She is from russia and has lived in germany for 30 years. She has been teaching german for six years, but you can still detect her slight accent.
Hockelmann discusses with nandar and the others prepositions with the dative case. The teacher introduces the next lesson with the following words: "now it's going to get really complicated, but you're a good course". It is a question of which case to the questioners "where?" And "where?" Follows.
Before that, all of them listened to a CD on which the text was spoken rather quickly, and had to write a short letter. Now the students have to tell us what impressions they have of germany. Some report on the more or less friendly reception they received when they immigrated, until godwin finally asks the teacher: "do you want prints or hard copies??" It is not meant as a joke. The young nigerian wants hockelmann to explain the difference between the two nouns again.
In between, people leafed through rather worn-out word books or took a sip of a drink. The lady from vietnam has her drink in a germany cup in the colors black-red-gold. She looks attentively at the textbook, which is marked "berliner platz 2" is titled. She still has a lot to learn. 100 hours of instruction per month, plus homework and home study.
600 to 900 hours of language instruction, which ends with the german test for immigrants, is followed by a 45-hour orientation course on everything important about the FRG.
To participate, immigrants need a certificate of eligibility from the federal office for migration and refugees. All new immigrants must take the course. The jobcenter or the foreigners authority can oblige to do this.
Jorg toppner admires the language students. "Some people are starting from scratch and still have to get used to a new script", he says. Nandar kampf is already looking ambitiously to the future. After the german course she wanted to take a computer course at the volkshochschule.