Posts tagged ‘bilingual’
Carolinenschule, Bochum opened
It’s Bochum’s first private elementary school and it opened Tuesday. I already reported about the project. Therefore I won’t repeat how the bilingual Carolinenschule works. It started with four classes and 45 pupils. There is space for 80 pupils but the license for the school came only 14 days before the opening.
WAZ Bochum, 18.08.2009: “Bochums erste pivate Grundschule ist gestartet” (Christian Schmücker)
European Capital of Culture is a multi-lingual project
At least “European Capital of Culture” indicates that the city granted the title offers a lot of English language activities. Pam and I just have been to Linz, European Capital of Culture 2009. In my opinion Linz’09 seems to focus three things: sound, light and electronics.
Some of the offers of Linz don’t need language at all, e.g. the daily organ concerts at different churches. For a lot of the museums, there are offers of weekly English public guided tours. We went to the ‘Landesgalerie Linz’. The nice thing was that the guided tour just was for the two of us. We were told that this is not always the case. But I also heard about Austrian groups booking English tours. We also had an English language tour through the Ars Electronica Center. It could only cover party of it. Therefore, we returned. To get an idea of the Ars Electronica Museum, you may want to watch the following video.
You don’t need a guided tour through the Ars Electronica Center. All installations and descriptions are bilingual – in German and English. When I recall what the highlights of European Capital of Culture Ruhr.2010 will be, I am sure that they will be bilingual, too. Just have a look at the route of industrial heritage: the signs are all bilingual. I hope there will be more. I am sure there will be.
Ruhr.2010 will bring a lot of English language offer to our Region – the metropolis Ruhr. European Capital of Culture are always a good place to expect English language offers.
We also watched a show – “Clownerie” – which contained music but no language.
Project of Bilingual Kindergarten in Bochum
By accident I ran into information about the project of a bilingual Kindergarten in Bochum named BiKiBo e.V. It’s not connected to any of those schools project. All of these school projects seems to think about founding own Kindergartens, pre-schools or nurseries.
First, there should be clear what the term Kindergarten means. The word “Kindergarten” is a loan-word to English. The semantics of Kindergarten [engl.] and Kindergarten [germ.] are different. Kindergarten [engl.] is only the last year before schools start. Kindergartens [engl.] are connected to the schools. At least, this is the concept my native speaker here at home explained to me. The Kindergarten [engl.] prepares for school. Sometimes the children already start learning how to read and write. IMHO a good translation for Kindergarten [engl.] would be ‘Vorschule’. The Kindergarten [germ.] ist better translated with pre-school or nursery.
The project of the ‘Verein zur Gründung und Förderung einer Bilingualen Kindertagesstätte in Bochum e.V.’ has a website named BiKiBo.de with a profile of the Kindergarten [germ.]. They want to start an institution for children between 6 months and 6 years. Therefore, I would call it a nursery and pre-school.
Like in the Carolinen-Schule, the pupils shall learn German and English via immersion
Interesting.
Two Days – Three Schools
In the last two days, I met people from all three projects in Bochum for founding private (public substitute) schools in Bochum: The International School Bochum, the Carolinen-Schule and the Bochumer Bildungszentrum e.V. The progress of the three projects seems to be different. Looks like the first two will start with two to four classes each in August. The last one is still looking for a building.
I will post reports on the state of all three projects here soon.
Bilingual Class at Comprehensive School
In Dortmund exists a comprehensive school that offers a bilingual branch for interested pupils which is called ‘Big English’. These pupils at the Heinrich Böll-Gesamtschule get additionally two more English lessons in 5th and 6th grade. From 7th grade on they get subjects like geography, biology and history taught in English language. The aim ist to develop the special vocabulary needed for these subjects.
Bilingual Class at Secondary Modern School
After a meeting with the people from Bochumer Bildungszentrum e.V. (BBZ) about their work and project of an English or international school, I realized that there are demand and offers for bilingual offers at the different German school types. There is not only a comprehensive school. Traditionally, the secondary school in German knows three different types of schools: the Hauptschule (literally: main school), the secondary modern school (Realschule) and the German Grammar School (called Gymnasium). The school project of the BBZ could end up with such a secondary school. Different from the British system, pupils go to different secondary schools in Germany.
Today I want to focus on an existing secondary modern school: the Elsa-Brändström-Realschule in Essen. The school bilingual branch offers a biliginual class where in grade 5 and 6 two additional lessons English are taught per week. From the 7th grade on additionally another subject – later two – are taught with more lessons per week and in English language. The class aims at strengthening the English language skills of pupils either to get more easily into job which need English or to more easily attend a high school afterwards.
Bilingual Branch at Heisenberg-Gymnasium, Dortmund
I just heard of another bilingual ‘Gymnasium’ in Dortmund besides the Leibniz-Gymnasium: the Heisenberg-Gymnasium. The Heisenberg-Gymnasium doesn’t offer an optional International Baccalaureate like the other one. An article about this offer is available here in this blog: “International Baccalaureate (IB) at German bilingual public schools“.
The Heisenberg-Gymnasium offers a bilingual class since the academic year 2002/03. The 5th and 6th grade get two additional English lessons per week. Fort the 5th grade this means 7 English lessons and for the 6th grade 6 lessons. Beginning with the 7th grade upto two subjects are taught in English and German language: Two of 3 lessons per week are in English, one is in German. While preparing the German baccalaureate (Abitur) In 11th and 12th grade, there is an offer of English as an advanced course (Leistungskurs) and an basic course of one subject taught in English language. Pupils achieving the German baccalaureate will get an additional certificate from the school telling about the bilingual education done.
Zollverein World Heritage Site
The picture on the front cover, title and the first paragraph clearly define what this book is about: the history of the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen.
The Zollverein colliery and coking plant in Essen is a unique architectural monument and a testimony to mining history in the 19th and 20th century. At the same time it is now a new venue for art, culture, design, education, research and tourism. The Zollverein mining complex (comprising shaft site 12, shaft site 1/2/8 and the coking plant) was inscribed into the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2001. Is is one of three industrial World Heritage sites in Germany and one of only 41 technical and industrial history World Heritage sites throughout the world.
This article is not about the Zollverein World Heritage Site. It is about a book with this title which gives a tour through the history of this historical industrial site which is part of the regional Route of Industrial Heritage (Route der Industriekultur) and the European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH). The special thing about this book is, that it is bilingual. On the left of each page you’ll find German language and the other half shows the English translation. Maybe it is a gift for people who are learning German?
I cannot recommend this book for people who just look for a short summary about what Zollverein actually is. It shows the history of coal mining, especially of coal mining in Ruhr and at Zollverein with its connected coking plant. It doesn’t deal with the industrial heritage of Ruhr in general but it focusses one of its most important relicts. I recommend this book if you want to compare living in Ruhr yesterday and nowadays.
The development of Zollverein since the pit was closed down in 1986 and the coking plant in 1993 is a prime example of the structural transformation of the Ruhrgebiet. Just as the pit and coking plant reflect the development phases of the golden age of industrialisation, the transforamation of the industrial complex to a venue of arts, culture, the creative economy and research is a model for the radical economic and commercial upturn in the region.
The book is published by Klartext Verlag, Essen for the price of € 17.90.
Welterbe Zollverein World Heritage Site, published by the Zollverein Foundation in cooperation with the Foundation for the Preservation of Industrial Monuments and Historical Culture, bilingual: German & English language, Klartext Verlag. Essen 2008, ISBN 978-3-89861-8441
Bilingual School is Looking for Teachers
The Carolinen-Schule in Bochum wants to start in summer 2009 with first and second grade and is now looking for teachers. In fact, two different types of teachers are needed. Due to the concept of the school each class will be simultaneously taught in English and German. Therefore two teachers are needed: a real elementary school teacher (Grundschullehrer/Grundschullehrerin) and an assistant teacher. One of them shall be a native speaker of German. One of them needs to be a real elementary school teacher.
The job advertisement can be found on the website of Carolinen-School under “Stellen-Angebote”. The school will add a 3rd grade next year and a 4th grade in 2011. Therefore, year by year more teachers will be needed. So don’t hesitate to get into contact if you’re interested. Even if you will only be free in 2010 or later to work for them, they are already looking for you because after the elementary school has all four grades they want to start a secondary school (a German Gymnasium).
International Baccalaureate (IB) at German bilingual public schools
At the moment, I see some activities in Ruhr about new schools. The hype is around the the Term “International School”. There seems to be some demand for a bigger variety of schools in the Ruhr area for quite a while. The hype started with Dr. Jürgen Großmann, CEO of RWE, offering money for founding a private International School. The intentions seems to be to get a school with the elements: English language, German as second language taught as a subject, Cambridge Curriculum, Internationale Baccalaureate (Germans call it ‘Internationales Abitur’). It shall be an offer for academic staff or managers who speak English. An international class that moves around the world with their children. In my opinion, this project is more part of regional business development. Ruhr as an international metropolis will need an International School like this. The next one is situated in Düsseldorf.
“International School” is also used for other school, partly with similar concepts. The International School in Velbert-Heiligenhaus is going to open a branch in Bochum. As far as I unterstood the concept is different from International Schools like the one in Düsseldorf – the one mentioned above. It seems to focus on an international clientele and a German as well. Different form this concept is the one of a private bilingual school, the Carolinen-Schule in Bochum. This school is going to use the curriculum of the state of Northrhine-Westfalia. This is the officual one used by public school. Lessons shall be offered in German and English via two teachers at the same time. Following the public curriculum the school will get public sponsoring by the state and the (German) pupils will be garanteed to fulfill compulsory schooling here.
There a plans to add preschools/Kindergarten and grades 5th to 12th.
“International School” can also refer to schools that offer an International Baccalaureate without being a private school, an International School like mentioned above or beeing connected with an elementary school. Currently, there are secondary public schools in Germany that offer bilingual education. Some of these offer the option of an International Baccalaureate
I knew about a school in Bochum, Hildegardisschule, with offers bilingual education in French and the additional Baccalaureate. About bilingual public Schools offering the IB, I just read about at ruhrbarone.de
Looking at the websites mentioned by ruhrbarone.de there is the Leibniz-Gymnasium in Dortmund since 2007 and the soon will be the Goetheschule in Essen. Due to its website the IB will be offered at Leibniz Gymnasium form 2009/10. Both schools offer bilingual German-English education and optionally the IB. Due to the website of the Leibniz-Gymnasium there are 40 schools like this in Northrhine-Westfalia. At both schools some lessons will be offered German, some will be offered in English. Different concepts work with two teachers and lessons are bilingual. Further “International Schools” offere lessons only in English and German taught as second language.
There is a demand for a broader offer of schools in Ruhr. It’s developing. The diffences mentioned here, are not the only ones. E.g., private schools often offer smaller classes.
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