Anna Fleischer
Student
Some people might be surprised that I, German, chose Romania for my Erasmus semester. But if the university SNSPA would have offered courses held in English I had been here already in 2005.
The main reason I selected Bucharest is that I was and am interested in East Europe. Most of the countries of the European Union I have quite a good idea about – either from history lessons, media, or travelling. But Romania is one of the countries I did not know a lot about and in my opinion this is terrible, especially if you think about the admission in the EU. It is a duty of all European citizens to have knowledge about the different countries.
The second reason I chose this country was my fascination for different cultures. As I had stayed in the USA for a year and come from a western culture myself, I am captivated by ways of life and traditions which are not my own, not only in everyday life but at universities, too.
Third, I was really looking forward in living in a capital and large city! The town of my university in Germany just has about 30,000 inhabitants and I wanted to have a larger variety of cinemas, exhibitions, museums, concerts, clubs.
{viewonly=registered,special}A fourth reason worth mentioning is an economic aspect. For Germany, Romania is a huge market and therefore it might be interesting for future employers that I know more about this nation and its people than the average.
At the end of August 2006 I arrived at the airport Baneasa and was picked up by my contact person of my new university. She accompanied me to my first accommodation – a student’s residence at campus Regie. My Erasmus semester started with a Romanian language course at the University of Bucharest to learn some basics to survive in a foreign city. Afterwards I moved in an apartment with two French girls at Gara de Nord.
At the SNSPA (Scoala Nationala de Studii Politice si Administrative), being more exact the faculty of communication and public relation, I was able to choose from six courses held in English. Since I did not need any credit points for my home university I just chose the three I was most interested in: ‘Globalization’, ‘Political Communication and Presidential Campaigns’, and ‘Non Profits in Romania’.
Actually, the first mentioned was not just an offer, more an obligation, because the pro rector of the university asked me and a fellow student especially to teach us. In this class there were just four people: the professor, his assistant and two students! As you can imagine it has been a class full of information, discussion and big impact. We were even invited to travel around Romania – first in the North to Iasi and the monasteries in Bucovina, later to Sibiu, the European Capital of Culture 2007.
Talking again about this class I cannot compare it to anything I have ever experienced in Germany because we were really treated specially. We met in the professor’s office, received a coffee, were given material for the next class… I have to admit that I was not asked to read that much since my first two years of studies in Germany. But the topics were interesting and the teacher let us choose from different possible issues. They were always very well prepared the 90 minutes were often divided in a part of lecture and one of discussion. I had never before studied Globalization and this class opened my eyes for the complexity and effects it will have on my country. This class we finished with turning in a paper on a topic we could choose.
Political Communication and Presidential Campaigns I enjoyed a lot because it has been very lively every time. Every other week a team of students had to present their topic to the class and it was nice to have closer contact to Romanian students during the preparation for the presentation. There I noticed what seems to be a difference in our cultures: ideas have been discussed more emotional and less factual and calm than I am used to! And I have to admit that I never met a teacher as enthusiastic and stirring before! She encouraged discussion and also paid attention to usually more silent students. Furthermore, she asked for feedback after every presentation and I thought it very useful to listen to positive and negative critic from a fellow students. In this class we had a midterm exam, a presentation and a paper to get our grades.
The class I did not like that much was Non Profits in Romania. Although I expected it to be an interesting topic I have not learned a lot there. The teacher was not as interesting as the others and what she told us was often quite dry. Nevertheless we often had to do exercises like making up a new NGO, building their mission and way to raise funds etc. We had to turn in a paper, doing an own case study about a topic we chose. I thought it quite surprising that freshmen were asked to do a case study – it is quite early because I guess that they just learned about methodology.
In general, the only aspect I did not like much about my courses was the fact that those two classes I had were only participated by freshmen. For one thing it has another standard and it is more difficult for me to connect to students 4-5 years younger than me.
I was asked to compare the ways universities work in Romania and Germany but I am sorry to say that I did not learn enough about the SNSPA, specialization of students, methods etc. to do that.
I really enjoyed staying in Romania, getting to know many people I will keep in contact with and I am looking forward to travel more around this country to see its beauty.
Anna Fleischer, born in 1982 in Meerbusch, Germany, close to Düsseldorf. In 11th grade she went to Anchorage, Alaska, to study one year at Robert Service High School. After finishing school in Germany she started studying Applied Media Science in Ilmenau. In 2006 she went to Bucharest to participate classes at the SNSPA for one semester. In her free time she likes to meet friends (especially in pubs!), to do sports, to read novels and newspapers, going to the cinema. {/viewonly}
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