Brigitte Albers isn’t really a fan of Wonderbread - or any American bread for that matter.
“The weirdest thing, I think, about America is the bread,” said Ms. Albers. “The bread is weird.” To her, it all seems too soft and fluffy in comparison to the bread back in Germany.
Ms. Albers is the German foreign language intern for this year. She came to Wabash as part of the Fulbright Scholar Program, which financed her travel to and stay in the United States.
Ms. Albers is from Lorupe, a small town with a population of about 2000 people in northern Germany. She recently finished her studies at Carl von Ossielzky University. She majored in the English language and Ethics.
Ms. Albers’ love for teaching and a love for English makes her position as language intern an ideal one. As a college student in Germany, she helped teach an English class for adults. As a language intern at Wabash, Ms. Albers primary responsibility is to conduct tutorials for students in the German program. The tutorials are meant to aid the language learning process and give students experience with speaking the language.
“My goal is, in the tutorials, to get the students to talk and to represent my country,” Ms. Albers said.
Hearing and practicing the language is, according to her, an essential part of the tutorials. However, Ms. Albers also attempts to give Wabash students a better and more complete understanding of German culture. Ms. Albers wants students to realize that there is more to Germany than stereotypes imply.
“The first thing I have to hear every time I meet a stranger is ‘yeah so you have techno right?,” Ms. Albers professed, “and like lederhosen, right?’ Ms. Albers stressed that each region has it’s own unique qualities. For instance, her native region is influenced by the culture and customs of the Netherlands.
The music of Germany, according to Ms. Albers, isn’t homogenous either. Germany has it’s own musical artists in multiple genres from Metal to Hip-Hop and R&B. American music also holds popularity in Germany. Ms. Albers, herself, is a fan of Erykah Badu and NWA although she frowns upon gangster rappers like 50-Cent and the German group Bushido.
“He (50-cent) talks about big boobs, big butts, and sex and drugs. And killing and shooting… that’s not what I wanna listen to.” she said.
Ms. Albers has always been a fan of American rap, however, she learned a lot more about it during a previous stay in the states. In 2003, Ms. Albers moved to Chicago for a year. During that time, she worked as an au pair. The area she lived in bordered the ghetto, which led to many interesting situations when her Oxford English met inner-city slang.
It is, in fact, a series of interesting situations that led to Ms. Albers coming to Wabash. Initially, she didn’t even know she was applying for the Fulbright Scholarship. She first applied through another organization, which then forwarded its selected applicants to Fulbright as potential recipients.
After that, Fulbright conducted more interviews and gave more tests to further thin the ranks of applicants. Ms. Albers had no idea how prestigious or selective the scholarship she applied for would end up being. “If I had known that only 15 people from Germany were picked to go as an intern to the United States I would have never applied,” Albers said. “I was lucky that I didn’t (know).”
After she was accepted as aFulbright scholar, Ms. Albers was selected to intern at Randolph College, an all female institution. However, Randolph later dropped out of the Fulbright program and Ms. Albers was selected by Wabash College, an ironic change in location.
Ms.Albers is adjusting well to life at Wabash. “Everybody is so respectful and really nice,” Ms. Albers said “Really, really nice.” She takes a Spanish 101 class and works along side students and faculty here at Wabash.
Due to her past experience in America, Ms. Albers doesn’t notice all the little differences. Some things, however, do still stick out like the excess of restaurants and the fact that we only eat Ricolla when we have a cough. One of the most notable differences is, of course, the bread.
While Ms. Albers’ English is rather polished, there are still a few American words and phrases she’s having trouble with. “I can’t really say Depauw University,” Ms. Albers said. “Maybe because I hate it already.”