A view of the Berlin Cathedral from across the Spree river.

Author: Sydney Sommers | Majors: Mechanical Engineering, German | Semester: Fall 2022

In late August of 2022, I boarded a plane, prepared for the longest flight I had been on in my life. The destination? Frankfurt, Germany—and then on to Darmstadt. I had my snacks and my passport, along with my beloved copy of the first Harry Potter, but was I as prepared for the study abroad experience as I was for my flight? In short, nowhere near.

I was moving to Germany to attend the Technische Universität Darmstadt for a minimum of six months; that isn’t counting the four-month internship that would follow if I could get one (I did—I am currently working at a company that engineers medical pumps in Kiel, Germany). I had already been learning German for several years at the University of Arkansas, but always in a limited capacity and without any real immersion in the language. After moving into my apartment in Darmstadt, I began my one-month intensive German course and quickly found that while I had learned almost all of the grammar and concepts already, that came nowhere close to speaking German all day, every day, with people from many different countries and mother tongues. All of my classmates were also studying abroad in Germany, and they came from all over the world—Brazil, China, Malaysia, and Ghana, to name a few. For many of us, German was the closest thing we had to a common language, but we were all still learning at an intermediate level. The desire to not only do well in my class, but also communicate with my peers and make friends led me to really push my competence with the German language. In addition, the level of interaction between people of different cultures—and going home at the end of the day feeling like I was really making progress—made this my favorite class that I took over my semester in Germany.

I chose this program at TU Darmstadt, however, to experience what engineering classes were like in other countries. Obviously, physics is physics no matter what country you are in, but I still wanted to discover any differences in teaching methods and general engineering practices. It would also broaden my experience in the eyes of any employer I apply to that would potentially make use of not only my skills in mechanical engineering, but also in speaking German—a distinctly useful advantage, seeing as I am considering living and working either for a company in Germany or a U.S. company with German ties (as is relatively common in mechanical engineering). In the end, I found many of the differences in the classroom setting to be things mostly related to pedagogical and testing styles. Students attend each class only once a week. The classes I attended did not have any assignments; professors lectured for the entire period, and seldom went over examples. Our grades were based entirely on the end-of-semester oral exams. I was especially surprised by this; oral exams for engineering classes were something I had never heard of, and I was extremely nervous for this new format. They turned out to be interesting, though—some were much more challenging than I expected, but in some, the examiner would work with you to help you demonstrate your knowledge.

I would greatly encourage anyone looking into this program to stay on top of your deadlines and make sure you have reliable advisors before leaving. There are a lot of moving parts, between securing affordable housing, obtaining a visa after arriving (truly, a nightmare), keeping up with UARK requirements, and getting all administrative tasks done at TU Darmstadt. Add to that your actual classes and internship applications, and you will most definitely have your hands full. I would also advise engineering students to leave your technical electives until this semester—I found that it is much easier to get a class to transfer to UARK as an elective, rather than a core class.

Outside of class and various administrative struggles, I was able to take short trips to other cities in Germany. I especially loved Bacharach, a tiny rural town along the Rhine river with traditional German architecture and beautiful views. In Bacharach, along with many other small towns along the Rhine, it is common to close down traffic on Sunday afternoons and only allow bicycle travel within the city—effectively trapping any uninformed tourist that had rented a car to visit the town (luckily, I traveled by train). I also enjoyed visiting Berlin, where I visited the Futurium (an interactive museum about the future of science) and the Jewish Museum Berlin, which detailed the history of the Jewish people. I also marched through the streets of Berlin with hundreds of international students from all over Germany in a demonstration encouraging collaboration and camaraderie among all EU nations. Out of all of my experiences, though, my favorite was a much more simple, traditionally German experience: attending the Christmas markets in various nearby towns. The stalls are all decorated in a traditional Germany manner, and on top of Christmas-related wares and lots of German candy, they also sell many kinds of German holiday food. The Bratwurst, Currywurst, Pommes (french fries) and Glühwein (hot wine) were all delicious as expected, but a few other treats surprised me. There were Kartoffelpuffer, which are fried potato pancakes served with applesauce or garlic aioli, and Quarkbällchen, palm-sized doughnut-like sweets made with a batter that incorporates cheese. Walking around the Christmas markets, sharing newly discovered snacks and sweets with friends both from home and those made abroad, was a truly wonderful experience that I will treasure—just like many other opportunities I had while in Germany.