I haven't had a proper cultural immersion rant yet, and boy, do I have a good one.
The German academic system is a little bit different, and that is to be expected. It does not follow the conventions of what is referred to as the "Anglo-Saxon system." Additionally, being in grad school is a whole different ball of wax. It's centered around independent initiative, not guided classes. You learn as much or as little as you want to.
This is all well and good, but there is one thing that I'm not sure will ever make sense: the German academic hour. In my undergrad a one-hour class actually lasted 50 minutes. In my experience, this is pretty normal. If the class started at 8:10, it started at 8:10 and it ended at 9:00. Straightforward enough, right?
In Germany, they have "academic hours" as well, and they last 45 minutes. The strange thing is, they don't tell you exactly what time a class starts. They'll say a class runs from 12-14. What you quickly learn is that means the class runs from 12:15 to 1:45. BUT only if it is "CT" (which I've defined as Crazy Time) and not "ST" (Sane Time). And so, if the time is written 12:00 it means 12:00, but if it is written 12 it means 12:15 or so. Except when it is an academic function other than a class, then if they say 12 they mean 12.
You can begin to see how this would all be confusing. It will take me a week to figure out when all my classes actually start and end and to get there at the right time. Hehe, crazy Germans!
Flown by mariposa at 10:52 PM on April 15, 2004
