Eva Frysova

My name is Eva Frysova and thanks to the Erasmus+ project I had the opportunity to spend three weeks in Germany. I stayed in the small town of Furth im Wald, which charmed me with its peaceful forests and rolling hills the moment I stepped off the train. My host Claudia was waiting for me and showed me around the town square. We then drove to the house where I was welcomed by two dogs, three cats, host Hauck, and their son Moritz. I stayed in a small cosy room with a balcony.

The very next day I started at Joseph von Fraunhofer Gymnasium in Cham. I noticed differences from the very first lesson. Humanities took up more hours than sciences, and the timetable included politics, geopolitics, religion, ethics, and personal finance. All pupils had state-funded tablets with digital textbooks. Teaching was more discussion-based than lecture-based, and tests were always done at the desk.

I appreciated that teachers rarely tried to humiliate pupils and valued the ability to explain material in one's own words over rote memorisation. I see the whole stay as a great experience - it enriched me not only in German but also helped me make new contacts and understand how a foreign household works.