School pupils introduced to languages during profile choice afternoon
Last Tuesday, the Herta Mohr building was filled with secondary school pupils. During the profile choice afternoon, they were introduced to various aspects of language studies. 'It’s really exciting to be here.'
Studying German at university can be very different from learning German in school, as Saliou and Siem discovered during a lesson on ‘false friends’: words that look the same but mean something different. ‘At school, you mainly have to learn lots of lists,’ says Siem, a third-year pre-university pupil. 'Here, it was much more about the origins of the language. I found that quite interesting.'
With a provisional choice of Culture and Society as his profile, a language study programme is the obvious choice for him, while Saliou is leaning more towards a science programme. 'I'll probably choose Nature and Health or Nature and Technology,' he says. 'I've been to a building on the Bio Science Park for a science study before, but it's different being here among all these much older people.’
Learned a lot
Nour, who took an English class in a neighbouring classroom, says she also finds it exciting to be a guest at the university. 'I've never been here before and of course I hope to end up here later.'
Although she will probably continue with the Nature and Health and Economics programme next year ‘to keep as many options open as possible’, the taster English lecture on irregular verbs has certainly been a positive surprise for her. 'When the lecturer asked why some verbs change their sound, I had no idea. So I really learned a lot, including that children often conjugate all verbs regularly at first and only later learn that some change their form. I found that really interesting.'