On the 31st of May the students of the English honors courses of Ms. Batteux and Ms. Demirbas, had a quite special day because on that day, we got the chance to talk with an American. Mark McGuigan had been as an exchange student in our school in 1981/82. We talked with him about the US and Germany, Trump’s policy, discrimination in the US, the American Dream but also about personal experiences in his life. Our guest from Philadelphia works at a German non-profit organisation called ''Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste''. Three weeks later, we met another guest; a woman named Noaquia Callahan. She is a young Afro-american lady from California. Like Mark McGuigan, she was also an exchange student in Germany.
While they introduced themselves, we learned that both share the opinion that the everyday life in Germany is anything but different than in the US. After that we asked them questions about the differences between both countries. Mark commented on the differences the school systems have by admitting that he thinks that the German school system is better than the American one because the school quality in the US really depends on the location – an issue Noaquia completely agrees with. As we asked him if he ever had thought that Trump could win this election, he talked about the sleepless nights he had had and how devastated he was as he saw the election result because he thought that there would have been no way that Trump could win the presidential election. Noaquia did not share this point of view. Mr. McGuigan also criticized Trump's plans to make '' America great again'' because he thinks that Donald Trump is destroying everything America stands for instead of making it great again.
Then we discussed the most controversial topic: migration and diversity. Our guest from Philadelphia stated that in his opinion immigration is a blessing due to demographic changes which are the reasons why many countries need more and qualified workers. Noaquia shares the opinion but she added that it is especially important for the United States because this country was built by immigrants.
After mentioning the stereotypes presented in the media concerning illegal Mexican immigrants our guest from the East coast described the problems between White and Black or African Americans. There are still ghettos burning in some states of the US and there is still a long way to go until there will be a world without racism and discrimination. On the other hand, our guest from the West coast sees the situation differently, even more peacefully. Instead of burning ghettos she talked about people of different ethnic backgrounds living together in harmony.
Finally we talked about the American Dream and to sum up Mark's opinion in one sentence: “The American Dream is over.“ whereas for Noaquia it is still alive.
To put it in a nutshell we can say say that these two lessons were really interesting and important because we got in first-hand experience two Americans presented their ideas and opinions about topics we have just discussed intensively in our class. That is why these two guests were such an enrichment for us.