Magda, German exchange student

Her serious smile caught my eye. My husband and I were studying the mug shots and information sheets on potential exchange students spread over our dining room table. We studied each page, setting aside the most promising to fit with our family. We handed the area exchange student representative our first three choices. A phone call later the area rep confirmed my first choice: a 16-year-old girl from Germany.
Between work, trips to Indiana and New York and evening meetings, we had very little time to prepare for her arrival. The day before her arrival, I jerked the sheets off the bed my college son had used all summer, scooped his clothes out of the dresser drawers and stacked his stuff by the front door. He was out, the German student was in.
She arrived a week before the first day of school, initiating our first experience with teenage girls sharing a bathroom, studying Calculus together and gossiping about their teachers, school, friends and activities. Language has not been a problem. All exchange students are required to have at least three years of English before they apply. Our guest had six years of English plus she tutored other students in the language.
Not only is she comfortable with English and German, but she has also studied a couple other European languages and her original language was Polish. When she was 9, her family emigrated from Poland – where her grandparents still live – to be near her mother’s family in Germany.
Her unique accent came in hand recently.
I was heading into town to try out or a part in the fall play at the South Arkansas Art Center. She asked her to come along and do some shopping. “Sure, but I will be at the arts center for a while so you might want to bring your books along to study.” She grabbed her Calculus book and purse.
We finished shopping quickly and headed to the theater. I picked up a list of characters in the play and studied it. One part role was a German maid. “Look,” I held the paper out to her, “you could be Helsa, the German maid. You wouldn’t have to learn this accent.”
She smiled uncertainly, as I enthusiastically railroaded her into filling out the application form. She checked off “no experience” and underscored, “I will not accept any other part than that of Helsa.” During the readings, her accent fit the part of the maid perfectly. On stage we had a cultural exchange: she corrected her German, we corrected her pronunciation of Irish blarney and Americanized French terms. She never opened the Calculus book.
She got the part of the German maid. I was cast as a woman totally absorbed in writing and re-writing a musical production while murder and mayhem swirl around her.
All those nights of going to and from practice are just more time to become better acquainted and include others in the intercultural exchange.


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