Last week, seven students from Germany
accompanied Flenz on her visit as part of
the Menasha Joint School District's world
languages program that starts in
kindergarten.

Julia Sager, 15, one of 21 students from
Germany participating in a three-week
home stay under the German American
Partnership Program, was impressed with
the language skills and curiosity of the
second-graders with whom she spent
some time, conversing in both English and
German.

She said they asked, "What my favorite
sport is. What's my favorite color? What do I
like at school? What's my favorite subject?"
Like most of her fellow students from
Germany, Sager was visiting the U.S. and
Wisconsin for the first time.

"It's good," she said. "It's different from Germany. Here it
so much bigger — the streets, the
shopping malls." Sabrina Kurz, 15, said learning languages
at an early age makes it easier. "In
Germany, we also learn many languages,
like Latin or French and English, of course.
You learn about other countries. I think
that's important."

Kurz, who said she wants to be an
elementary school teacher, received a hug
from two students with whom she had
visited for about 15 minutes, alternating
between German and English to help them
better understand.

For Sebastian Dallinger, 14, the GAPP stay
has been a pleasant trip with great
experiences. "The Green Bay Packer
stadium, that was one of the highlights," he
said. "In Germany, American football is not so
popular," he said.  

"GAPP opens the door to the big wide
world for my students," said Sharon Geurts,
a middle school and high school German
teacher in the district for 12 years. "They
make friends with people from across the
ocean — sometimes for life. They make
real connections to another culture, learn
how things are done somewhere else. It
really opens their minds."

Participating in a foreign exchange trip will
definitely improve a student's German
language fluency. "This program also gets
them excited about learning the language,"
Geurts said. "This was my first flight
and it was very exciting and this is my first
time in the USA."

Host parent Di Popelka took some French
classes in middle school years ago but
never followed through to learn the
language or really use it in any meaningful
way except for occasionally translating
restaurant menu items or her husband's
Facebook posts from a friend.

"I'm not fluent, obviously, but remember enough to
get by," she said. She is thrilled, however, that her two sons
are being exposed to learning German in
Menasha schools. "I don't really remember it being as crucial
back then, maybe because we didn't live in
such a globally oriented world at that time,"
Popelka said.

For the past two weeks, Popelka's family
has opened its doors and hearts to a teen
from Germany for a second time. Two
years ago, her son Jason Kitkowski, now a
Menasha High School junior, traveled to
Germany and her youngest, John Kitkowski,
an eighth-grader, wants to go as soon as
he can, she said.

Ben Adams, a Menasha school board
member, said both of his daughters have
made visits to Germany so they opened
their home as a host family again after
doing it in 2009.

"Our daughters have enjoyed and been
challenged by learning German," he said.
Abby Adams went on a GAPP exchange a
few years ago and Rachel Adams, now a
freshman, went to Germany in 2010
accompanied by her mother Debbie
Adams as a chaperone. "They enjoyed it immensely, they saw how
much older the cultures in Europe have
existed before ours — the USA," Ben
Adams said.

Gahr, a 20-year veteran teacher, said
foreign language teachers in the district
"piggyback on our goals in the regular
classroom. For example, if they're learning
time, telling time to the nearest five
minutes, they do that in German as well.
There's a partnership."

Michael King, Appleton Post 

GAPP Inc. at a glance

What: German American Partnership Program

Background: Founded in 1977 to initiate and develop student exchange programs between the U.S. and Germany, inspiring intercultural understanding, promoting German language instruction and motivating personal friendships.

Participation: Over the years, more than 265,000 U.S. and German students have participated in the alternating year home stay program, including 21 German students currently visiting Menasha for nearly three weeks.