Isobel (front row, 2nd from left) with her international scholarship group during their tour of Germany.
Year 13 student Isobel Welsford-Ackroyd spent July in Germany after winning a prestigious ILEP Language Scholarship.
Isobel spent two weeks staying with a host family in Aschaffenburg near Frankfurt (left), where she attended their local high school, and two weeks travelling through Germany with her scholarship group of 12 students from New Zealand and around the world.
She says she found the German high school quite different from MAGS – teachers move around classes rather than the other way around, the school day runs from 8.3am-1pm and then on a varied timetable up to 5pm, and students do not wear uniform. “It was quite old-fashioned in many ways – students didn’t use devices for learning, and we had to stand up whenever a teacher entered the room.”
On their tour through Germany her group visited Bonn, Cologne, Frankfurt, Wurzburg, Berlin and Munich.
“It was amazing to experience the sights and culture, and helped my German a lot,” says Isobel. “The scholarship was well worth the effort, and I’m very thankful to have had the opportunity.”
Next year Isobel plans to study a conjoint degree in Law and Arts majoring in German at Victoria University, with the aim of spending a year of her degree at a university in Berlin.
Isobel was able to give some tips to Year 12 German student Hugh Malcolm, who is a finalist this year for the same scholarship. Following a 20-minute interview conducted entirely in German, Hugh has been chosen to travel to Wellington for a two-day immersion programme at the Goethe Institute.