My Year in Chemnitz: Reflections of a Fulbright Scholar
by Dr. Tyrone Parker, assistant professor/department head, Foreign Language

As many of you may know, the U.S. State Department selected me to participate in a teaching experience of a lifetime. For a while, I didn’t know where I would be going. The final letter came indicating that I would be going to Germany. On Wednesday, July 17, 2002, I boarded Icelandair flight 643 from BWI to Frankfurt, Germany to begin my year as a Fulbright Exchange Teacher in Chemnitz, Germany.

Chemnitz is a city of 260,000 in Saxony, located about an hour and fifteen minutes from the cities of Dresden and Leipzig in the former East Germany. After World War II and until the time of reunification, Chemnitz was called Karl-Marx-Stadt (Karl-Marx-City). In early August, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic experienced some of the worst flooding possible. Saxony was one of the worst hit states.

Although Chemnitz escaped some of the worst flooding, Dresden, the capital of Saxony, and Prague, which is only two hours from Chemnitz, were devastated. Train travel to and from Chemnitz and within the state of Saxony has been greatly hampered. It is estimated service will be back to normal within one year. I never expected to be in the middle of such a disaster during my Fulbright year.

The school year began in Chemnitz on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2002 and ended on Friday, July 11, 2003. I taught English and French at the Alexander-von-Humbolt-Gymnasium. The faculty, administration, parents and students were so supportive and welcoming. Teaching French to native German speakers requires a great deal of concentration and realization of the pitfalls German speakers experience in learning French.

In addition, I have to work accurately between the two languages, neither of which are my native language. The students enjoyed the interaction of having a native speaker for their English classes and the classroom activities we did together. These activities included “Jeopardy,” “The Wheel of Fortune” and the “Dr. Tyrone Parker Talk Show.” These are all activities I presented at the national foreign language teachers’ conference (ACTFL). Even student teachers have come to observe my classes. It just goes to show you that students all over the world watch TV and enjoy classes that are engaging and fun.

My days were long and I spent a great deal of time planning for classes. It was like being a first-year teacher all over again. I took some time to meet people, enjoy the museums and go to the theatre. I was able to do some trips to places such as Weimar, where Goethe and Schiller lived and died. These are two of the biggest names in German literature.

I went with other Fulbright scholars to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp, about five miles from Weimar. I can’t tell you how emotional I became after being guided by the audio tour and going through the camp. I experienced the best and the worst of German history in one weekend. In addition, I had to travel to Auschwitz, Poland.

I finally visited Berlin, the capital. It is a beautiful city. It reminds me of Paris with its monuments, wide boulevards and rivers. With the help of a Berliner, I discovered the formally divided city while attending a required Fulbright Conference in March. By keeping in touch with the other “Fulbrighters” and making new friends, I visited Augsburg, Dresden, Hamburg, Jena, Munich, Plauen, Vienna, Prague, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki and Oslo.

My winter break found me boarding a flight from Frankfurt, Germany to Windhoek, Namibia in Africa. This was a former German-speaking colony. I wanted to learn how much German language and culture was still there today. To my surprise I was able to get around the country using German. German is still one of the recognized languages of Namibia. The language and the culture have remained.

Being in the former East Germany has given me a much better perspective about the German people. My lessons will now contain both the West German and the East German perspectives. Although we now see one Germany on the map, there is still a divide within the country. It can be heard in the news and among the people.

I would like to say that the East Germans have not had it easy. An individual said to me that the word “freedom” means more to an East German than I could ever understand because I have always had it. He did not forget the issues of slavery and prejudice against blacks in the United States and asked me questions about this issue. I was asked by the Curriculum Specialist of English in Saxony to do a workshop titled “Race Relations between Blacks and Whites in the USA: Yesterday and Today” for the English teachers of Chemnitz. I had a great deal of work to do.

I was complemented on how well I speak and use the German language. In addition, the Germans were impressed at my smooth transition to everyday life in Chemnitz. As most of you know, I’m not just a traveller to Germany. I was an exchange student in Germany in 1980 and I had the pleasure of living with a German family. My relationship with this German family grew over the years and I spend time with them at least once a year during my summer vacation or during breaks.

Jan Allen of the English department had the pleasure of meeting my German family when we had lunch together in Solingen just over three years ago. I am not a stranger to the customs of the Germans or the German way of life. I travelled to Solingen to spend my Christmas vacation with my German family. In short, I felt very much at home there.

Americans also have the impression that everyone around the world speaks English. This is not the case! Please remember that this part of Germany was a Soviet block country. The teachers taught Russian as the primary foreign language. Therefore, the faculty with whom I worked had to communicate with me in German. I used my German 24/7. This included speaking with my landlord, the principal of the school and in the stores when I went grocery shopping. I must admit that I received more invitations to do things with people because I do speak the German language. The knowledge of a second language is so vital to our nation if we are to be integrated as a global player. Our national security depends upon it.

In short, the Fulbright year was an experience of a lifetime. I feel proud that I was selected to be an ambassador of goodwill for the United States. If I had to do it all over again, I would do it in a heartbeat. I would encourage everyone to become “world citizens.”