BEFORE embarking on a six-month language course in Germany, it is imperative to know something about the country first. Remember that if you’re schooling in Germany, you are immersed with a German family for the rest of the period and you will take breakfast and dinner with them featuring authentic German meals. Hmm….yummy! You will be guided through all the nice places in the city where the language school is located. Of course, you will pay for the excursion expenses through your tuition. But in a way, it really is a memorable experience for aside from visiting these amazing places, your host family will serve as your private tutor to supplement the everyday lessons at the language school. In return, your host family will also expect you to teach them a few words of English, your native tongue. You do not need to worry about anything because these families have already been pre-selected by the language school.

These language schools do not just teach the German language. They also teach German culture appreciation and etiquettes such as table manners and driving manners. In table manners, certain protocols have to be followed. For example, meat or potatoes should not be cut by knife but by fork. And when you are about to eat the chunk, the fork must be pointed upward and the direction of your hand must be toward the mouth instead of parallel to it. Remember too not to utilize the spoon used in stirring coffee, chocolate drink, milk or tea. It is best not to enroll in a language school right at the heart of Germany and not in Berlin. Berlin is already a melting pot of international cultures and it has some urbanization attached to it but in rural parts of the country, you can see the distinctive German charm emanating.

Try to go to a town called Deidesheim. Here, you will find a goat fountain in a park which splashes unsuspecting tourists intermittently. You will also find that the specialty viand of one village is roasted horse meat dipped in vinegar. Then there is also labskaus which is a combination of mashed potato and cured meat decorated with fried egg and dipped in beetroot juice. There’s the yummy salzweisenlamm. Although lamb is imported from New Zealand but the way the Germans cook it is amazingly delicious. Along the German coasts, you will find varieties of seafood such as crabs and mussels. If you want to dine like a German head of state, then consider trying pfalzer saumagen.

Although this is just stuffed pork belly, this particular recipe has already been embedded in history because this is the dish served during then Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s famous meeting with the last General Secretary of the Supreme Soviet, Mikhail Gorbachev. The stuff inside is made of potatoes, carrots, onions, nutmeg, white pepper, cloves, coriander, thyme, garlic, bay leaves, basil and parsley. Then there’s also blood and liver sausage which blends well with German beer. Remember, German beer is the best in the world and try to take a German language course during October when the beer festival is in progress.