Dieser Blogbeitrag ist mal etwas anderes. Ich wollte schon lange darüber schreiben, wie es ist, sich in eine andere Kultur einzuleben. Letztens meinte meine Englischlehrerin hier, wie lustig es doch wäre, dass ich so „kanadisch“ und „quebecois“ geworden bin. „You have become quite Canadian!“. Ich habe realisiert, dass man, wenn man über eine längere Zeit in einer anderen Kultur lebt, sich automatisch an seine Umwelt anpasst. Und jetzt, am Ende meines Auslandsjahrs merke ich, dass mich die kanadische und quebecoisische Kultur über diese 8 Monate sehr geprägt hat – viel mehr als ich erwartet hätte.

Mit diesen Gedanken habe ich für meine Final Evaluation in Englisch einen Artikel geschrieben. Er befasst sich damit, dass ich typisch kanadische Dinge gelernt und übernommen habe und sich das auf seltsame Weise mit meiner typisch „deutschen“ Seite vermischt. Der Artikel ist zwar auf Englisch, aber vielleicht interessiert es ja einige : ) Here we go:

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Half Maple Syrup, Half Oktoberfest 

By Helene Schiffer, Massey Vanier High School 

To me, I was always an ordinary German girl. I had a raincoat, I was on time, I fit in. I blended in with the masses. But then, I went on an exchange and everything changed. Suddenly, my anonymous German raincoat turned into a big sign saying “foreigner”. I wasn’t a German girl anymore, I was that German girl, the only one.

It made me realise that tables turn once a person switches their surroundings, their community. Daily patterns of mine (like always opening the window instead of profiting from air conditioning) made people around me laugh a lot. I will never forget how overwhelmed I was with the typical Canadian “smalltalk” – why do Canadians spend their time talking about irrelevant things anyway?! All those differences provoked the will to adapt in me – I didn’t want to be the “BUNTER HUND”, I wanted to fit in. 

And after numerous culture shocks, I slowly began getting familiar with the culture and lifestyle here. Without even realising, I adapted my own behaviour. I began to swear in French. I started listening to country music. I watched Hockey Games. I enjoyed the early 5:30pm supper. More and more, I developed a Canadian side: the small talker/ poutine lover in me was born. 

When we as individuals want to fit in, we adapt our own behaviours to our environment. With those adaptations that I unconsciously made, I began to feel at home. I felt like I was in the right place, like this was my “place-to-be”. I would be lying if I was never homesick, but the deeper I dove into this community, the more I lost interest in my German home. Man, now I even like the thing Canadians call bread here – that says something. 

According to Annie Murphy Paul, our community has a tremendous impact on our own behaviour. We act how others expect us to behave and we copy the habits of people we look up to in order to blend in. Adaptation can also be a way to connect with others. During my exchange, I adapted a lot – consciously and subconsciously. I began to speak French like my host family did. I  almost lost all of my cute Parisian accent to the Quebecois slang. Anyways, “je m’en fous”. I also consciously made changes – like no longer wearing that raincoat – nobody needs it here anyways.  

 Although I fully indulged in the Canadian lifestyle

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, I kept my German side. I adapted a lot, but on the other hand I also wanted to share what my life was like. I remember baking traditional Christmas Cookies with my host family and I gave Advent calendars to my host brothers. They were so happy about this ordinary thing (I mean it was chocolate though) that I had never paid any attention to. But to them it was new, it was exciting, and it was chocolate. Their excitement in that moment was like a mirror to me: I saw myself being happy to have discovered something random in Canadian culture – like finding a Tim Horton’s. 

Now, at the end of my exchange year, I find myself in this weird situation: I seem to have a foot in each country and I am struggling to decide which way to go. Yes, I miss my family, okay, and the German bread. But at the same time, leaving Canada feels like giving up my friends, my second life that I established here. I have become a zebra – half Canadian, half German. The struggle to fit into a community will take its place once again as I arrive in Germany. No more Maple Syrup, just stressed, unfriendly, humourless Germans who tell me to wear socks with my sandals. Yay. Do Germans even know who Morgan Wallen is? Probably not. I will be the odd one again, with my Lunchbox, eating banana bread, trying desperately to find “fromage squik-squik” in the German supermarket. 

But did I ever “lose” my German side? No, I never did. All this exchange year did was add a little bit of “Montreal Steak Spice” to my boring, bureaucracy loving German personality. 

 In 3 weeks, some might suppose I will go back to being an ordinary German girl. But after all, I have become a blizzard of swearing in Quebecois, listening to Morgan Wallen, and appreciating good old German bread.