“In their minds, they’ve labeled you as foreign,” he explained. “Some people don’t try to see your personality beyond your accent.”
But of course, this isn’t true about everyone. There are still lots of people who want to get to know me, and don’t mind a slow-speaking American! When one of the other teachers at my school makes a joke or asks me about my day, suddenly I don’t feel so foreign anymore.
Luckily, I have a built-in community at the school where I work! They’re all nice people who seem really excited to talk with an American who wants to learn German. Every day I get to chat to other teachers, and I’ve learned a lot from my students too! They’ve given tons of helpful tips about German culture, like what restaurants are the best, what German music to listen to, and even cool German TV shows on Netflix
I thought “integrating” into the community would mean only adapting to the German way of life, but it also means teaching people about American life. I thought that in order to be integrated, I would need to try and change as much as I could to hide the fact that I’m not German. But then I realized that I definitely do not need to do that! Communities are made up of all kinds of people: so as long as people are willing to get to know me, I can be integrated without trying to hide that I’m American. In fact, one of the best conversation-starters I have is comparing how things are done in the United States vs. how they’re done in Germany. I’m so excited to get to know more people, and feel even more familiar as my year goes on!
