”No German talking please“

“Speaking German prohibited for the next three hours” was the serious instruction during the Language Learner Exchange from October 16th to 30th 2011 in Kern County (California) and Albuquerque (New Mexico). Twenty two Friendship Force ambassadors from the German Friendship Force Clubs of Berlin, Cottbus, Norderstedt, Schwerin and Varel led by Horst Neumann (Friendship Force Varel) met for a sixteen day exchange to the USA in order to improve their knowledge of the English language and to tie up new strings of friendship as guests of American families at the same time and in some cases it also happened to be a refreshment of well known friendly connections from former times.

Between the two hosting phases there was a three day roundtrip by bus to the Death Valley.

Welcome at the Los Angeles Airport		Almond harvesting in Kern County		Fields for oil drilling in Kern County
Muffins and vocabularies		Relaxing after the English lecture		Certificate for the successful participation of the English lectures
At Moro Rock close to the Sequoia National Park		“Father” of the giant redwood trees		"Harvesting of Oranges" – the easy way
Scotties Castle in the Death Valley		Bad Water - 85,5 m below sea level		The devil’s golf course
During the total of five lecture sequences practical life situations were offered to us like “at the jeweller’s shop”, “at the restaurant”, “the five human senses” or “how to bake a cake”. On the other hand there were also some customary items on the agenda dealing with ethnic cultures or with the growing and processing of cotton which were presented and discussed in a quite enjoyable manner. There was also a presentation about the crude oil industry in Kern County and a visit to the respective museum as well as to Pueblos Acoma and the city of Santa Fee were on the programme. Finally during the farewell party certificates were handed to us to honour our efforts and progress mad in the English language. As a “Thank you” for the varied and very much entertaining lectures the German Friendship Force ambassadors made a donation for a local social assistance programme to their hosts. Besides a lot of important advices for survival in wild life situations that were given to us there was also this one:” Never proceed to enter a deep forest alone, where wild bears are living. Ensure that you are always accompanied by a partner who is not able to run as fast as you can”. Finally all participants of this exchange came to the conclusion: ”To attend English lectures by these manners is really a lot of fun”! A report in the ”Taft Midway Driller“
A further lecture in English		Conversation in small groups		The test has been passed successfully
Visit to a 6th grade class at school		Interview with the visitors from Germany		At Acoma Pueblo
"Fort" Acoma Pueblo		At the valley: A cable car to Sandia Peak		The mountain top end station at sharp frost
		A farewell with Mexican dances

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