Desk-Knock Success!

The Hallowed Halls of Ulmenstrasse Campus
(The Building Where I Teach)

I've learned a lot of things from my English conversation students so far.

"Licking" is teenage slang for kissing, for example.  I discovered this when we were playing catch-phrase and a student had to describe "licking" for the others to guess.  She started out, "It is like when a man and a woman really like each other..."   You can imagine the look of utter confusion and suppressed horror on my face.

After we cleared up our mutual misunderstanding on that one, I told them that I'd probably end up licking my husband when I went home--which was hilarious to everyone involved.

Or, I also learned that there's a holiday called "Carnival" here.  When I followed up by asking if people threw plastic bead necklaces from parade floats and women wore feathers and glitter and did the Samba, well, you can imagine their looks of utter confusion and suppressed horror as they explained that, no, in fact, Carnival was during January and February (feathers and glitter indeed!) and involved paper lanterns, various sweet breads, and occasionally roller coasters.

Though...I'm still unsure about the roller-coasters thing since, when I expressed surprise that there would be roller-coasters in, you know, the fraggin' middle of the freakin' winter, all the students gave me a look that said, "Well, when else would you have roller coasters?"

There was a slight communication breakdown at that point.


I've also learned that Rock-Paper-Scissors is actually a much more animated game called "SHING-SHANG-SHO!" and involves some vigorous arm flailing.  Also, Germans think it's pretty terrifying and inordinately violent that, when we play Hangman, we draw individual body parts on the gallows.  Instead, they start with a hill, then they gradually draw the gallows, and the "hangman" is drawn all at once in the final turn. They're civilized like that.

But, perhaps the most personally surprising thing I've learned from my students so far is a common University tradition.  After I ended my first lecture for my Wednesday class, I gave them a run-down of what to expect at our next meeting, and then said something like, "See you next week!"  I immediately looked down to start organizing my things (because I subconsciously learned along the way somewhere that it's weird when a professor just watches you leave the room and that my job at this moment was to try and look busy while vacating the room as quickly as possible).

Right at that point, I was absolutely scared witless when all of the students simultaneously started very loudly knocking the desks with their knuckles.  I literally jumped two feet into the air, gave them what was most likely a very panicked look (I was only three days off a plane from Utah, mind you), and said, "What did I do?  What did I do wrong?  Did I do something wrong?!"

Which was verrrrrry amusing to them.

Turns out that this is a pretty common thing at Universities in Germany--when a lecture is deemed somewhere from acceptable to really good by the students, they let the lecturer know with a vigorous desk-knocking (volume dependent on their enthusiasm, or so I think I understand).**

This explanation warmed my heart and soul and those students will be forever beloved by me, amen.



** I actually didn't get a desk-knock for my first Tuesday class, which made the Wednesday class's knocking that much more surprising/scary.  But, I don't blame the Tuesday class at all--I had recycled a worksheet from the other University professor that I knew was boring, but I somehow thought that maybe German students would find it entertaining (?what?).  Also, I was so lethargic (mid-sickness) and scattered that I honestly felt sorry for them after I finished.  Wednesday's class got a totally revamped lesson plan sans the boring worksheet which, now I know, merited a vigorous desk-knock of gratitude.

This last week, I returned to the Tuesday class armed with a non-worksheety lesson and the knowledge that I had to earn my desk-knocks.  And I did this time.  I got TWO desk knocks in fact--one mid lecture, and one at the end.  It made me so happy I almost wanted to lick them all!