| Rotary International Youth Exchange Student Year 2001 Ng Jo-Han, Sponsored by The Rotary Club of Tebrau, District 3310 Date : 9 May 2001 Host Country : Germany Host Club : Rotary Club of Schw�bisch Gm�nd , District 1830 Report for the first term - The first four months with my first host family My first host family. Introduction to my first host family. Name : Kienzle Members : Dad - Eberhard Kienzle Mum - B�rbel Kienzle Brother - Philipp Kienzle Sister - Alexandra Kienzle -Eva Kienzle My first meeting with the Kienzles was in the Stuttgart Airport when both host mum and dad came to pick me up early in the morning. I had already liked them during our first meeting. I live in the basement beside Philipp�s room in a room of my own. My host father Eberhard Kienzle also known as Ebi to friends and family members, is a 1.90 metres tall lawyer who has a great sense of humour. He is probably the best host father I can asked for. He is also probably the best lawyer in the region as he virtually have more cases than he can handle and is very well known in this region. Besides joking around with me, he also tries his best to explain to me all the things that he thinks I should know in Germany very patiently. Although he works a lot but he is also active in sports. He plays volleyball and tennis with his friends every Tuesday and Friday.(and occasionally on Saturday too) Besides having interest in sports, he also plays good chess. He was a former team player when he was younger along with his younger brother Alex Kienzle. We occasionally play chess together in the evening and he wins almost all the time except for my solitary upset win over him. Mum B�rbel is also an equally interesting person like my host dad Ebi. She used to live in Bangkok when she was a teenager, so she practically know the Asian values and she played a big part in helping me to assimilate into the family and German culture. She is also a lawyer too and my host parents met each other in the law school and married in the year 1983. Currently she is only a part-time lawyer as most of the time she spend most of her time at home managing the house. When everybody is out at work or at school, she goes to the fitness studio and play tennisto keep herself fit. Usually after dinner, we will have a little chit-chat and she will tell me all her interesting stories. Philipp is currently away in the United States of America as an exchange student in Salt Lake City. We would have been in the same class if he was here. Alexandra is 15 years old and she studies in the same school as me in the Rosenstein-Gymnasiun Heubach in the 10th Grade. Besides being good at studies like Philipp, she also plays handball in a team like Philipp. Their team which is also our local team narrowly missed the champions honour as they lost out to another team on goal difference. She wears a no. 10 jersey. She is also the �school speaker� which is equal to head student in Malaysia. Alexandra also known as �Alex� for short is rather important to me during the first few days in school. She plays saxophone during her earlier times. Eva is the youngest in the family at 9 years old. She is currently studying in a primary school in M�gglingen and next year in Grade 4, she will have take a major examination to see if she qualifies to the Gymnasium, the best school, or the two other types of school. She plays the keyboard and recently had just won a prize in a competition. Although she is good at music, she prefers dancing anytime. She dances with other kids in a dancing group during carnivals and festivals like �Fasching� ,�Gala Night� and many other events. Besides the family member, we also have two pets, Tasilo the cat which are not popular with the family and Maxi the rabbit who is always in its cage during winter. Grandparents Mum B�rbel�s Parents Grandpa and Grandma lives in Heubach where my school is situated. Before my German course started in mid-February, I used to have lunch in their house every Wednesday with Alex as we have to stay back for afternoon classes. Unfortunately I am not able to have lunch there anymore as I had to rush to my German course every weekdays. Grandpa also known as Opa, works for the owner of Swatch and when he was younger, he was stationed around the world including Thailand, Nigeria and some South America country to set up new factories. Also they are about 70 years old but they still live an active and healthy lifestyle where Opa plays golf and Oma plays tennis regularly. Dad Ebi�s Parents My paternal host Grandfather is also a lawyer and is currently a senior member in the Rotary Club of Schw�bisch Gm�nd. He had already joined the club for a long time and he was the one responsible for bringing in his son Eberhard, my host father into the club, as senior member of the club can bring in another new member of the same profession. I have yet to see my paternal host grandmother. Other family member Alex Kienzle, brother of my host father is an eye-doctor with two daughter. My host father has another younger brother. My host mum has a sister in Munich also with two daughters. My School Rosenstein-Gymnasium Heubach Rosenstein Gymnasium , Heubach is my school for my exchange year. I started to attend school on my third day in Germany after medical report are given the green light. I am placed in Philipp�s class which is Klasse 11B (Class 11B). There are 19 students in my class including me. Although we have 19 in our class, only 6 (including me) are boys. I must say that this is a great class to be placed as almost everybody is helpful and friendly towards me. They were really important in helping me to blend with the locals. School starts at 7:30 a.m. as like in Malaysia. On Monday and Wednesday, we had to stay back for afternoon lessons. I must say that the starting was not a bed of roses for me. I virtually don�t understand anything that are written in German except for Maths where I can join the class. Like what I said, people in my class are very helpful that one of the girls even translated a whole text into English for me during some of the lessons so that I can learn together with them. At the beginning I was only able to participate actively in lessons like English, Mathematics, Physics and Sports. Now it is better, I can already participate in not only Mathematics, English, Sports and Physics, but also Religion, and occasionally Geography, Chemistry, Biology and my best subject is History, as I had even help the teacher to give a speech on Chinese History and are able to answer his questions. Anyway I am still rather hopeless in Deutsch as they are learning classical stuff and also French where I can only write down what is on the blackboard. About taking test in my school. I had already took three Mathematics test and one Physics test with the help of a dictionary. Although I took the test but sometimes I am not given any grade. Sometimes I do get my grades and I must say although it is a bad results but it is not too bad as I used 80% of my time translating the questions and my grade is not too far from the class averyge. Although my school lack clubs which I can participate but we do have a lot of activities for every occasion. The population of the school comprises of teachers , staffs and students from grade 5 to grade 13. To do sport, the younger kids below 10th Grade are allowed to use th sport hall near the school but for students 10th Grade and above, we had to walk at least a kilometre to the nearest sport hall. We have two main building in our school but without any library and canteen. I must say that I am really looking forward to attend school everyday and I am proud to say that I had not miss a day of school yet since I started studying in the Gymnasium. Rotary Club of Schw�bisch Gm�nd Club Chronicles The club was founded during a meeting on the 19th of July 1961. Their first official meeting involving the 23 founding member was on the 27th of July 1961. In the year 1966, they form a partnership or regard RC Belfort-Montb�liard, France as their �Friendship Club�. And in 1977, RC Siena-Est, Italy became their second partnership club. In 1986, the club celebrated their 25th Annivessary. Project 2000/2001 My host club, the Rotary Club of Schw�bisch Gm�nd, had done a community project this year to curb or minimise violence cases in schools. This project is being considered the centre and most important project of the year. The theme of the project is �Gewaltpr�vention / St�rkung der sozialen Kompetenz� which literally means Violence prevention / Strengthening the social competence or authority. A two part weekend seminar involving 40 teachers with Rotary Club members including our President Dr. Dieter R�sch. The aim is to motivate and teach teachers the right way to handle violence shall violence occurs by teaching them some mediator skills. The club also supports cultural event like the �Festival der Europ�ischen Kirchenmusik� (European Church Music Festival) in Schw�bisch Gm�nd and the Padagogic HighSchool Schw�bisch Gm�nd. The club is also involved in a Rebuilding Programme in Honduras after a devastating earthquake by supporting financially. The club is also helping RC Puerto Escondido, Mexico financially to help them in an effort to ease the kids in slums. My host club is also involved in a campaign to collect old clothes and other essential stuffs to live for the homeless in St. Elisabeth in Schw�bisch Gm�nd. Rotary International Youth Exchange Programme For year 2000/2001 there is three inbound and three outbound each. The three outbound are : Gero Gruber-Ballehr - RC Allentown , USA Philipp Kienzle - RC West Jordan ,USA Daniel Messner - RC Olmeca, Mexico And the three inbound for this year is Ng Jo-Han - RC Tebrau , Malaysia Julia Barton - USA Gustavo A. Perez P. - Venezuela Contact List President Dr. med. Dieter R�sch Tel. 07171/67610 Fax 07171/38347 Vice President Dr. rer. pol. Kurt von Niessen Tel. 07171/5158 Fax 07171/100910 Secretary Manfred Sperber Oberer Garten 28 73525 Schw�bisch Gm�nd Tel. 07171/65108 Fax 07171/62240 Introduction of M�gglingen M�gglingen is a small town situated between bigger towns like Schw�bisch Gm�nd and Aalen. M�gglingen is also situated 60 Kilometres away from Stuttgart. As M�gglingen is a small town, the population is only about 3900 people. The landscape here is beautiful and like the other towns nearby we still have small farms the nearest being two houses away from my house. Unlike people living in the bigger cities, the people here are practically friendlier and everybody seems to know each other. Although M�gglingen is a small town or even considered by some as village, everything here is complete from the infrastructure to activities for residents of all ages. We are proud to say that we have our own train station which link directly to Stuttgart. The local also told me that I can do virtually any activities that I want to do because there is always a programme for everyone and the longer I am in M�gglingen, the more I find what they say is true. A river by the name of Rem also flows pass M�gglingen, and our official mascot is the Remscockle, a green coloured cock ,probably sponsored by the pub of the same name. Although the population is small here, we can boast of something that some other towns equal or bigger than us in terms of size and population is that we have our own mayor while some other nearby towns shares a mayor with bigger towns like Schw�bisch Gm�nd. The daily language used is of course Deutsch (German) but the only thing is that they don�t speak what we call �hochdeutsch� or High Deutsch or written German but rather the �Schwaben� dialect which they are very proud of. Speaking the dialect is like proving their identity that they come from the Schwaben region. Even Germans who are not from the region can hardly understand what they are saying if they speak only in their dialect. Relationship between neighbours are rather close and crime rate is really low. With the two elements combined, we have a place where fences are non-existence and some don�t even bother to lock their front door when they go out. This town also have a long history behind it. The first document of the existence of this town dated as far back as the 10th century. Besides being an old town, this town had also produced a world Trampoline champion and one of Germany�s Davis Cup player in tennis. German Course I am having my German course in the Volkshochschule (VHS) in the UNIPARK of the University Of Maryland, Schw�bisch Gm�nd. I am placed in Intensive Course 1 and I had been attending classes in VHS since 12th of February 2001. So far everything seems to be perfect in my Sprachkurz (Language course) as although it is an intensive course but we don�t seem to have that intensive feeling. We currently have 18 official students after more than the original half is officially struck off the list due to poor attendance or other reasons. I am the youngest student in my class and instead of that being my disadvantage, I find it my advantage as I have an easier time learning the language compared to the others! Nearly half of the class are from Turkey and I am the only male student not from Turkey. Being the only Malaysian there, I can sometimes talk a little about Malaysia as we need to go in front of the class to tell stories from time to time. Usually we are placed into a group of two or three and we were given a certain amount of time and then we have to go in front again to act out a dialog, this is what every student dreaded but it is my favourite part. Knowing that I preformed exceptionally well with certain people , the lecturer now always group my favourite partner and me together and we are always the example group where we are given the least amount of time and have to performed the best. My language course for Intensive 1 is everyday weekdays from 2 to 5 p.m. in the evening. It is still not too clear when the course will end but according to the lecturers (Frau Valentina and Frau Alexandra) ,our course will end either in the end of June or the beginning of July. 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. 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 |