Then we watched a German film: Almanya - Willkommen in Deutschland (Yasemin Samdereli, 2011). It was a really emotional and beautiful movie - about the story of a Turkish immigrant family who came to Germany after World War 2, the father having been invited as a ‘Gastarbeiter’ to help revive the German workforce, and their varying struggles regarding identity, culture and belonging - and we all enjoyed it! We then completed a workbook about some of the themes covered in the movie. That made us really hungry, but luckily it was time for lunch! 

Next, in the afternoon, we had a talk about what it is like to study languages at Reading University, both in school and abroad. We got to see a typical timetable of a first year studying German and had some questions answered by a student and her professor. She told us some common choices were German and Business, or Modern Languages and Economics. Finally, we ended the day with a translation workshop, where we came up with different interpretations of the poem Ich habe zwei Heimatländer, by Sabri Cakir. The poem was really insightful as to the views of dual nationality and belonging to more than one place, and we discussed various ways a text can be translated into a different language and how the nuances alter the meaning.

We are all really grateful we had this opportunity to spend a day at Reading University learning about migration in Germany. We would like to thank Frau Mueller, Frau Hellwig, and all the staff at Reading University who made this day as incredible as it was!

By Usmi, Moya and Daisy - Year 11