Hi! My name is Joie and I am a third year student currently studying BA German and I chose to work as an English Language Assistant (ELA) for my year abroad. Currently, I am in my last week working at the school so I would like to share my experience both prior and during. I hope that the information I give will be useful to those who are considering also applying to be a language assistant.
The process
I applied through the British Council and the website provided lots of help throughout the process. In December 2023, we (other aspiring language assistants) had an online meeting with the people in charge of the program. We were provided with the application timeline, information about our role and also time to ask questions. We were also able to hear about the experiences from previous language assistants. I then sent my application in January 2024. In the application, I had to state my reasoning as to why I wanted to apply and I also had to provide information about my German language level (as you need A2 to do this program). I was also given options to rank so that they could allocate me into a school. I had to rank which geographical region in Germany I wanted to work in, if I wanted to work in a city, small city, town or village and which age group I wanted to work with. I then heard nothing until August 2024, when I was sent an email saying I would be working at Ulf-Merbold-Gymanisum, which is a grammar secondary school in Greiz, Thuringia. In this email I was also able to get into contact with my support teacher.
My main tasks before arriving to Germany were to look for accommodation, apply for an IPCP and to sort out my visa. As Greiz is not a very student city, there were no affordable flats I could rent that also had furniture. Luckily, my support teacher already knew this was a problem, so she offered me a room in her house for me to stay. This was also quite helpful because I was able to go to school with her everyday without the risk of being late. I then had to apply for an IPCIP, which is basically a criminal record check. This was super easy; I just had to do it all online and it cost me £90. The next task was my visa. The British Council provided some information about two versions of visa I could apply for, which were the D-Visa or the Residence Permit. My recommendation would be to apply for the Residence Permit but to get into contact with the registration office in your town/city as soon as possible!!
Arrival to Germany
My contract with the school began on September 16th but I knew that there was a lot of official things to sort, so I arrived in Germany on September 6th with my family. In the first week, I had to apply for an Anmeldung (registering my address officially), a German bank account and a new SIM card. Make sure to give yourself enough time before you officially start school to not only sort out these things, but to also familiarise yourself with your new home. Another recommendation would be to apply for a Deutschland ticket. As I am writing this, they cose around €58, which is quite steep but from my experience, it definitely pays off.
For the Residence Permit, I would recommend sending an email straight away to the nearest Ausländerbehörde (Foreigners’ registration office) because through my experience, it took around 4 months (from September) until I received an official appointment date. Make sure to ring them up as frequently as you can!
I worked at the school 5 days a week (8-12pm) with students aged 10-18 years old. I would mostly be helping the students with their work, while also working alongside the teacher. In my first week, I was doing presentations about who I was, and I was also given the time to do lots of Q&As with the students. I am glad the teachers allowed me to do this so that the students could be a bit more comfortable with me in the school. I also occasionally made lessons about different aspects of the UK. For example, school life (how we wear uniform in the UK and how it compares to school life in Germany) and Christmas traditions. This was very fun to do with the students because they always had lots of questions to ask.
In the second semester, I was also given the opportunity to work in the Primary school next door called Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Every week on a Thursday and Friday, I would spend 45 minutes with grade 3 to do some English lessons. I would help the teacher with answering questions and I would also make games for the students. This was also quite fun because I was able to see also how primary school compares to English primary school. As they were much younger, I would mainly be speaking in German.
Life outside of school
With the Deutschland Ticket, I was able to travel quite spontaneously. Instead of having to book train tickets in advance, I could just decide I wanted to go somewhere at the weekend and just hop on the train. I tried to use the weekends to travel around and explore. I explored the region of Thuringia, going to cities like Jena, Gera, Weimar and Erfurt. As I was also close to the Saxony border, I was able to easily travel to the cities like Leipzig and Dresden. Though the area I was in does not have a big student life, I was not able to do group activities as you would with Erasmus at a university. This was a downside to the area I was in, as I had to do a lot of travelling on my own. I did, however, use the opportunity to visit my course mates and friends around Germany. I went to Nuremberg, Berlin and I am planning to go to Frankfurt next week!
As I mentioned, I was not able to meet other students, which meant it was very hard to make friends. This is a downside to being an ELA in a small area. I am lucky in the sense that my support teacher tried to include me in every event throughout the year. For example, we went to a cabin in the woods with one of her friends and we did a games evening. For Easter, we had a big Easter party and even went Easter egg hunting. At the weekends, when the weather was nice, we would go on a long hike in the woods. I was not a big hiker fan before this but now I think it will be one of my hobbies when I go home! I was able to meet lots of new people through my support teacher, which I am very grateful for. I was also able to practise my German everyday with the people I was with.
If you do want to take part in this ELA program, just be warned it may not be what you expect. Even though we were given the options to choose from the beginning, there is a low likelihood you will be given what you pick first.
My overall tips
- Research the visa process. It is very important you already have an idea, so that you are not totally overwhelmed with everything else you need to sort out.
- Give yourself enough time before you officially start to sort out your accommodation, visa etc. I heard from one of my friends that in their accommodation, they were not provided curtains!
- If you are able to, I would recommend finding a share house to live in, Not only would the rent be cheaper but it means you already have people to talk with from the beginning.
- Be flexible to where you will be placed. You are only given a region choice and the type of area. I was not expecting to be specifically placed in Greiz, but I am happy with what I was able to experience here.
- Buy the Deutschland Ticket and use the free time you have to travel as much as you can. Even though the trains are famously late, they are still very easy to use.