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Tuesday, May 2, 2000
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8A
Cultural exchange
German graduate student teaches English courses
By Karen Lucas
Special to the Kansan
Six-year-old Andrea Weis loved to sing along in English when she heard songs by Elvis Presley, Carole King and Janis Joplin in her native Germany.
"The English language sounded beautiful to me," Weis recalls more than 20 years later.
That early rapport with English flowered.
After years of formal English study and exposure to American culture while growing up in Germany, Weis not only is fluent in English, but she also is a graduate student in American Studies and a graduate teaching assistant in English at the University of Kansas.
"She brings in a lot of personal stories that help the class identify with the German culture," said Julie Mohart, Overland Park freshman.
That's not all. This semester, Weis is teaching an English course of her own design and on a subject close to her heart: German/American Literature and Film. It looks at how various literary texts and films treat it
complex relationship between Germany and the United States, with emphasis on World War II and the Cold War.
The course is a section of English 203, a composition and literature class based on special themes.
To compete for a teaching slot, a GTA in English must have a few years of teaching experience and also must submit a course proposal to the director of freshman and sophomore English, said Richard Hardin, professor and chairman of the English department.
Weis said she was glad to get the chance.
"I can relate to the topic not only on an academic level," she said, "but also on a cultural and personal level."
At the beginning of the semester, the class
studied Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five.
Other selected works include Billy Wilder's *One*, *Two*, *Three*, a fictional film that focuses on a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Berlin in 1961, and Bertolt Brecht's play *The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui*, which Weis said criticized German industrialists for backing Adolf Fidler in his power quest.
How is the course progressing?
In a recent class, Weis and about 25 students viewed a selection from Leni Riefenstahl's documentary film that showed Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics in Munich. Afterward, they launched into a discussion of how the film related to several articles they had read.
"I get the impression it's going very well," Weis said. "I feel good about it because the students seem to be interested in a country other than their own."
"I really like this class," said Julie Mohart, Overland Park freshman. "It's different from a lot of my classes because we discuss a lot. She doesn't always know the answers. She really wants our input. I think it's a learning process for her and the class in general."
Bubbling with enthusiasm, Weis interlaced her observations with those of her students. Her frequent smiles and positive comments further energized the students.
Weis also complimented various students as she handed them their papers.
Weis concluded the class meeting on a triumphant note when she returned a set of papers.
"They were really good," she told the class. "I was so proud of you."
Ray Pence, Caspar, Wyo., graduate student, knows what a devoted teacher his colleague is.
"She truly cares about people, especially the students," Pence said. "GTAs as a group are some of the most committed people to
their students, and she particularly stands out."
Erika Ratzlaff, Buhler freshman, said she also appreciated Weis' receptiveness and commitment.
"I like the way she's very open to her students," Ratzallz said. "I went in to talk for 15 minutes about a paper and ended up chatting for an hour and a half."
Weis likes to resort to storytelling as well.
"She brings in a lot of personal stories that help the class identify with the German culture." Mohart said.
Weis grew up in former West Germany, which she said was heavily Americanized with McDonald's, Coca-Cola, billboards in English, rap music and Hollywood movies. She also made friends with American exchange students as well as soldiers stationed at military bases.
As a high school student, Weis began her formal study of English. She said she was more interested in English than French and other foreign languages. Reading literature in English was a pleasurable experience for her.
Weis sampled American culture firsthand in 1988 when she was 18. She visited several Western states with an uncle, who later moved to Oregon and became a horse trainer.
Eight years later, after having made two other U.S. trips, Weis came to Kansas as a recipient of a Graduate Direct Exchange scholarship. Graduate students at the University of Kansas and various foreign universities can participate in the exchange program. When Weis applied, she was studying at Germany's University of Mainz.
Weis liked it so much that she decided to stay after the year of her scholarship and become a degree-seeking student in the University of Kansas' master's program in American Studies.
"I felt like the scholarship here was more sound in the sense they used more up-to-date theory and methods," she said.
Todd Starke-Meyerring, a St. Paul, Minn., graduate student who shares an office with Weis, lauded her intellectual ability. He said she was a rigorous thinker who liked to go
into depth.
Weis' mastery of English has not gone unnoticed. Faculty members have had
Andrea Weis, a teaching assistant from Germany, talks to her German/American Literature and Film class after a recent student presentation. Josh Day, Wamego sophomore, listens. Students are working on projects for the course designed by Weis. Photos by Selena Jabara/KANSAN
much praise for her English skills.
"Both in her written work and in her conversation, I would not pick up that she is not a native speaker," said David M. Katzman, professor and chairman of the department of American Studies. "She has a command of idiomatic English that only native speakers have."
Yet Weis conceded that she didn't have a perfect mastery of English when she came to Kansas.
"It took me about a half year to figure out when it was appropriate to say 'right on,'" she said.
Weis also said that for a while she preferred not to speak German or hang out with other German exchange students but that had changed. Speaking her native tongue is more important to her now.
"It has a lot to do with your identity," Weis said. "There's only so much you can express about yourself in a foreign language."
In addition, Weis has taught German conversation classes to KU students.
As a KU student, Weis has returned three times to Germany. But going back hasn't been easy for her.
"The longer I live here, the stranger I feel going back home," she said.
Her sister, Susana, has referred to her jokingly as "the American."
Yet a fascination for American culture does seem to run in the family. Another sister, Nora, is into rap music, and her brother, Martin, loves basketball.
Although Weis misses her family, she doesn't plan to leave Kansas anytime soon. After completing her master's in American Studies, Weis will go for her doctorate as she prepares for a career in academia.
Weis hopes to land a teaching job at an American university. But she said she would consider teaching in Germany.
"It's most important I get to do something in the English language," she said. "I like speaking English. I enjoy teaching in English."
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