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Monday, May 1, 2000
8A
Cultural exchange
German graduate student teaches English courses
By Karen Lucas Special to the Kansan
"She brings in a lot of personal stories that help the class
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.
identify with the German culture." said Julie Mohart Overland Park freshman.
"The English language sounded beautiful to me," We recalls more than 20 years later.
That early rapport with English flowed.
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.
That's not all. This semester, Weis is teaching for the first time 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 the 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 has to submit a course proposal to the director of freshman and sophomore English, said Richard Hardin, chairman and professor of English.
and she was goad to get due chance. "I can relate to the topic not only on an academic level," she said, "but also on a cultural and personal level."
Weis said she was glad to get the chance.
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 Aruuro I, which Weis said criticized German industrialists for backing Adolf Hitler in his power quest.
How is the course progressing?
"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."
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.
Bubbling with enthusiasm, Weis interlaced her observations with those of her students. Her frequent smiles and positive comments further energized the students.
"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."
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."
"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."
Weis also complimented various students as she handed them their pans.
"I like the way she's very open to her students," Ratziaff said. "I went in to talk for 15 minutes about a paper and ended up chatting for an hour and a half."
Ray Pence, Caspar, Wyo., graduate student, knows what a devoted teacher his colleague is.
Erika Ratzlaff, Buhler freshman, said she also appreciated Weis' receptiveness and commitment.
"She brings in a lot of personal stories that help the class identify with the German culture." Mohart said.
Weis likes to resort to storytelling as well.
Weis grew up in former West Germany, which she said was heavily Americanized with McDonald's, Coça-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 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 chair 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.
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.”
Top: Students work on projects for the literature and film course designed by Weis, centering on German culture.
Photos by Selena Jabara/KANSAN
Above: Andrea Weis, a graduate teaching assistant from Germany, talks to her class about German films as Josh Day, Wamego sophomore, listens.
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