| Rotary International Youth Exchange Student Programme Report : First Term Report (January- April 2001) Name: Ng Jo-Han Email: [email protected] Date: 9 May 2001 Hosted by : Rotary Club of Schw�bisch Gm�nd Youth Exchange Officer's Name: Mr. Dieter Gerrmann First Host Family: Kienzle Street Address: Sonnenrainweg 2 City: 73563 M�gglingen Home Phone: 07174-6095 Email Address: [email protected] Father�s First Name : Eberhard Mother's First Name: B�rbel Host Siblings (names & ages): Philipp (17) , Alexandra (15), Eva (9) Second and Current Host Family: Messner Street Address: Heideweg 9 City: 73529 Schw�bisch Gm�nd-Bargau ,Germany Phone Number : 07173-12311 or 07173-12389 Date of move to the second host family: 29 April 2001 ACTIVITIES : CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS 14 January 2001 - Arrived in Germany 16 January 2001 - First day of school 18 January 2001 - First Rotary Meeting - Gave a speech on Malaysia, Rotary Club and District, family and myself in English. 19-21 January 2001 - Rotary Club�s Austria Skiing Trip 27 January 2001 - Visited the ruin of the Rosenstein Castle with my host family. 7 February 2001 - A Rotary Club member bought tickets for exchange student to witness a live German Soccer live semi-final match between VFB Stuttgart and Schalke 04 in Stuttgart. 12 February 2001 - German course started. 14 February 2001 - Visited a chemical plant �BASF� as part of our Chemistry lesson. 17 February 2001 - Attended the �Guggenmusik� carnival with other exchange students from my host club. 18 February 2001 - Attended Kinder-Fasching (a carnival) with my host family as my host sister Eva was having a performance. 23 February 2001 - Gave a short talk on Malaysia to my classmate and English teacher during English lesson. 24-25 February 2001 - A trip to Schwarzwald (Black Forest) near Freiburg with a Rotary Club member�s family, the Messner with another American exchange student hosted by that family. 26 February- 4 March 2001 - Stayed with the Messner family , the same Rotary family that brought me to Black Forest for 1 week. 27 February 2001 - Went to the town to watch a street procession (Umzug) as it was the last day of carnival with Mrs. Messner and another exchange student. 10 March 2001 - Rotary Event - A visit to the �Staatgalerie Stuttgart� for the art exhibition on �Yves Tanguy� work of art with a mystical theme. 12-16 March 2001 - Berlin Trip with my classmates as part of Politics studies. Places visited includes - Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate), Reichstag (Parliament Building), Checkpoint Charlie, Pergammon Museum, Kabaret in Europa-Centre, Sony Centre, Mauer Museum, IMAX, East Side Galerie (East Side Gallery)(the few remaining part of the Berlin wall, Berlin Fernsehturm (Berlin TV Tower) and other places of interest. 1 April 2001 - A visit to the Mercedes Museum with my host family and other Spanish Exchange Students, who are under a one-week exchange programme with my school. 5 April 2001 - Tarragona Abend (Tarragona Evening) a small carnival. 6 April 2001 - Visited a Bible Exhibition with my classmate. 7-16 April 2001 - Stayed with the Messner family again for one week. 9 April 2001 - Went to Stuttgart with Mr and Mrs. Messner to collect the new car from the Mercedes Headquaters where we were treated to a tour to the production factory of Mercedes Cars. 14 April 2001 - Went to watch a Church Choir from the Protestant Church from Heubach practising where Mr and Mrs. Messner were performing. 20 April 2001 - Met with a group of youth from the Evangelisch/Baptism Church from B�bingen with my classmate. 29 April 2001 - Officially ended my first of my three terms in Germany, next host family, Family Messner who are already close to me. Place I had travelled : Other Country : Austria In Germany : Berlin , Black Forest, Stuttgart List of Group that I had spoken or met with : Rotary Club of Schw�bisch Gm�nd Protestant Church Choir Heubach Youth Group from Protestant/Baptism Church B�bingen Class 10C of Rosenstein Gymnasium Heubach(One week) What subjects are being studied at school? Language : Deutsch (German), Englisch (English) and Franz�sisch (French) Nature (Science) : Physics, Chemistry and Biology Others : Mathematics, Politics, History, Sports , Music and Art How is your language proficiency progressing? Language proficiency is progressing very well. Although my German grammar is not perfect but others can still understand me. English is only used when I need to know the meaning of a new word, otherwise German is used. Although my German is already at a better level than before but it is still in a primitive stage and I still have lots to learn. ROTARY ACTIVITIES: Number of Rotary club meetings attended: 1 Have I attended any Rotary Youth Exchange meetings of conferences? Not yet, probably in May 2001 Am I receiving my allowance regularly? Yes Amount? DM 120 Has contact been made between my host Rotary club and sponsoring club? No, but perhaps indirectly through the URL of the web site http://www.rc-gmuend.de which I had sent to my sponsoring club the Rotary Club of Tebrau. Am I corresponding regularly with: My family at home? Yes Sponsoring Rotary club? Yes, I have been updating my sposoring club regularly about my progress. How is my relationship with: My host family? Very good My host Rotary club? Very good My fellow students? Very good My youth exchange officer? Good, but we do not really keep in touch often My opinions of the programme and how Rotary had changed me I find this programme great, as not only I had benefited greatly from the programme, everybody involved in this programme had also by some how benefited from this programme. Not only I get to learn about a totally different culture, a different lifestyle, a different society, a different climate and other differences, most importantly, I had cleared all the wrong impression that Germans had about Malaysia. Before I came, some of them think that life in Malaysia is like in Jackie Chan�s Hong Kong movies where we always run around and fight all day all night. Some thinks that we speak only Japanese. Some think that we are in Africa or South America. Some wondered if the Malaysia in they saw on TV during the F1 Race in Sepang is the same Malaysia that I come from. Now they know, we don�t act out Jackie Chan�s movie in the street, we don�t speak Japanese and instead of Japanese, I am proud of our own Bahasa Melayu/Malaysia and they can already locate Malaysia in the map. Infact, they are surprised that a normal Malaysian can speak many languages and dialects. They are also surprised that we have our own language. So far, not only Germans had learnt a great deal about Malaysia , not only I had learnt a great deal about Germany, I think people back home in Malaysia who is always in contact with me had also learnt a lot about Germany. Before coming over to Germany, I thought this programme will promote world understanding but after coming here, I know better, it actually does. Besides learning about the place and the people, I also earned something which money cannot buy, the love of my host families, and the friendship of the people here especially my classmates. Instead of shying away from you or banishing you to one corner, they always try to make you feel at home. Although I am relatively new in the class as the others were already together in the same class for 7 years, I don�t really feel that I am a new boy there. Public speaking used to be something I like but most of the time I shy away due to my little stage fright. I only entered debate during my secondary school days because my passion for debates overwhelmed my mild stage fright. Now after giving a few talks about Malaysia ,myself and other stuffs involving my school works, I like to go out to give a talk and is always waiting for a chance to give my next talk be it with a partner or a solo effort. In other words, perhaps my level of confidence is at a higher level. Being here alone also changed my perspective of life. I am no longer living in a sandbox guarded by the delicate hands of my parents but now I have to fight for myself, no longer can I rely on anyone except myself. I supposed that I am more independent than before I participate in this programme. Although I am only about near to 4 months in Germany, I feel that I am a more complete person than before, and I think it is all thanks to Rotary and everybody involve into getting me here in Germany. Thanks to Rotary and everyone who helped me to be in this wonderful programme where I learned things that I wouldn�t learnt had I not been in this programme. Thank you. Reported by : Ng Jo-Han |