From Behind the Wall to Around the World

by Nicole Findlay

Frank Ritterman, a German Instructor, SLALS grew up in a small town in former East Germany. Perhaps the childhood experience of living in a country separated from much of the world by the Berlin Wall created a passion for travel.

“It was my dream to come to Canada,” said Ritterman. While in university, a Canadian instructor arranged for Ritterman and his peers to travel to Calgary for a language exchange. It was during his stay, that he developed an appreciation for the country.

“I found everyone was friendly to one-another even with this mixture of cultures,” said Ritterman. He found that many of the Canadians he encountered accepted each other inspite of or perhaps because of differences. This brief exposure left him determined to return.

Last year, Ritterman applied to Paedagogischer Austauschdienst the German branch of an international program that provides recent university graduates with an opportunity to teach in a foreign country. Of the approximately 180 applicants for a position in Canada, Ritterman was among 12 chosen. He was assigned the position he currently holds in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Carleton.

Ritterman works with classes of 15-25 students ranging from beginners all the way through to the advanced level. However he focuses on a lot more than grammar. He aims to contextualize the language by providing information on German customs, culture and history. His students include those with German heritage through to psychology and business majors who one day hope to work or travel in Germany.

Bi-weekly German pubs are organized at local watering holes to further encourage students to interact with one another and the instructors in a more casual environment. Often a theme is assigned to each night – such as birthday or song night, so that students learn the customs associated with these events. As the interaction is approximately 70 per cent in English with the remaining 30 per cent in German, the pub nights are open to anyone interested in German language and culture. He is also teaching his colleagues back home a thing or two about Canada. Ritterman writes regular articles about his experiences in Canada for a German magazine.

With a degree in primary education and in German as a Second Language, eventually, Ritterman plans to return to the classroom to teach the primary grades. However before he does he intends to get a lot more travel under his belt.

“My aim is to learn more about how people from different countries live and behave so that my students will understand that there is a bigger world beyond their community,” said Ritterman. “It’s a teacher’s responsibility to bring the world to the students.”