German teacher a happy newcomer to Putuo
Print Edition
JULIA Martensen says it was an easy decision to move to Shanghai.
Having moved to the city in October, the German teacher admits she was looking for a challenge and a chance to explore the world.
“I started studying languages so I knew that when I became a teacher I would have the possibility to work abroad,” she says. “Then I got this job offer in Shanghai and I thought it was a great idea.”
Having graduated from the University of Freiburg as a languages major, she now teaches German at prestigious Shanghai Caoyang No. 2 High School in Putuo District.
Prior to this job in Shanghai, Martensen taught Spanish, German literature and German as a foreign language for five years in her native country.
Martensen has enjoyed settling in to life in Shanghai. She says she started teaching a week after arriving and has 12 classes, from year one to three, each week.
The main goal with first year students is to get them to feel more comfortable and confident when speaking.
“We were talking about family in the last class and before that we were speaking about hobbies,” she says. “The most important thing is to make them speak.”
The students have other teachers to learn German grammar and writing.
“They do quite well. At the beginning they were a bit shy. Sometimes they are afraid to make mistakes, but making mistakes is the most normal thing when you learn a language,” says Martensen, who also takes Mandarin lessons in her spare time.
She tries to leave the students space to practice. When they start a new topic, they first learn words and then they practice in groups.
Most students in the German program plan to go to college in Germany.
“I have to say the students in third grade are already at a very high level. Communicating is easy. They know a lot of words,” she says. “They really enjoy preparing little scenes and showing something about their daily lives and expressing it in German.”
As a newcomer to Shanghai, Martensen is still becoming familiar with the city. She lives near the school, about 10 minutes by bike and 20 minutes on foot. The neighborhood is lovely, she says. The German especially likes the mornings, when people are walking and exercising in the park, or getting something to eat on the way to work.
“I really love this quarter (on Wuning Road) — the small houses, the alleys and trees,” she says. “For sure I like downtown as well.”
The DSD program Martensen taught at the school is designed for students wishing to pursue in the science and technology field of studies. In addition to the regular high school course work, they have to study the German language as well as some science courses same as the German high schools. Students also travel to German universities after their first year in high school for a one-month language course.
This spring, 11 students in the DSD program at Caoyang No.2 High School were admitted into University of Hannover’s preparatory program.
Among the top 15 applicants globally, 12 came from the school, a real surprise for the university as it initially planned to enroll four students on China’s mainland.
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