Weekend retreat excellent way to learn to speak German, students say

By Jesse Fox Mayshark, News-Sentinel staff writer

When Shana Hamilton got to Buffalo Mountain Camp and Retreat Center outside Jonesborough, Tenn., on Oct. 11, she was afraid to open her mouth.

''I said, 'Oh my God, I can't speak. If I speak, I'll say something ridiculous,' '' said Hamilton, a premed student at the University of Tennessee.

But by the end of the weekend, she was speaking freely -- in German.

She was one of about 30 students who went on the third ''German Immersion Weekend'' sponsored by UT's Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages.

Students and faculty spent the weekend getting to know each other, cooking, hiking and playing games, without uttering a word of English.

''I don't think I'd ever opened my mouth other than to speak in class before I went,'' said Hamilton, who is taking German 101 as an elective. ''And now I speak all the time in German.''

''She even e-mails in German,'' added Jim Coode, a hotel and restaurant management student who went on the retreat.

The German immersion weekends -- unique among UT's language programs -- are the brainchild of Stefanie Ohnesorg, an assistant professor of German who had led similar programs at a Canadian university.

Ohnesorg and colleague Beverly Moser, also an assistant professor, have organized the trips once each semester beginning last fall.

''(Students) really wanted to believe there were people who spoke German other than in the classroom,'' Moser said. ''I really wanted to just prove to them that they could do an all-German weekend.''

Participants -- mostly students in German classes -- pay $45 apiece. Because of limited accommodations, Ohnesorg said the maximum registration would be about 35 people.

This fall's trip attracted a range of students, from beginners like Hamilton to Markus Lutz, a graduate student from Germany who is president of UT's German House residence.

At a post-weekend reunion recently, all of the students present praised the program.

''I was already planning on trying to study in Germany next year, and that kind of broke down that wall for me,'' said Haverly Rauen, an intermediate student. ''I dreamed in German the first night (of the weekend).''

The immersion weekends -- or ''sprachwochenende'' in German -- have attracted academic attention. Moser and Ohnesorg have written a paper on their experiences that will be published in a special booklet next year by the American Association of Teachers of German. But it's students who set much of the agenda for the weekends, including a big candlelight dinner.

''This whole weekend would not work if just faculty tried to run it,'' Ohnesorg said. She has already scheduled the next ''sprachwochenende'' for Feb. 28-March 2.

In the meantime, some of this fall's participants plan to get even more immersed in German.

Julie White, for example, is making her first trip abroad over Christmas to meet her German boyfriend's family.

Because of the weekend experience, the German 101 student said, ''I feel like I'm going to be able to step off the plane and not say, 'Hello, there's a fish on your shoulder,' or something.''