Student embraces Berlin

It’s been an immense year for Toowoomba girl Rebecca Vonhoff. From seeing in the New Year at the Reichstag with champagne and falling snow, to celebrating with Germany as it marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, this is one adventure the PhD student is savouring.

After completing a journalism and history honours degree at USQ, Rebecca decided to formalise her passion for German- Australian history and undertake the daunting task of completing a PhD. Armed with a keen interest in her German ancestry, and a love of study she applied for and was awarded a University of Queensland scholarship to research the presence of radical nationalist sentiment in Australia during the Kaiserreich between 1871 and 1914.

To complete her PhD Rebecca required competent German language skills, and decided to commute to Toowoomba and enrol in USQ’s Faculty of Arts German Language Course. Despite the complexity of learning a new language, Rebecca said she received encouragement and support from USQ lecturer Gabriela Pohl which made reaching her goals a reality.

'You could say that USQ was a springboard. Gabriela is a fantastic lecturer. She nurtured my interest in German even when I knew absolutely nothing and could have become disheartened by the enormity of the task before me.'

In mid 2009 Rebecca was awarded two scholarships to study in Germany. After months of preparation she moved to Berlin where she has spent the last 10 months immersing herself in all things German.

'Every morning I trot off until 1pm to learn more about the nightmare that is German grammar. I didn't set myself an easy task when I decided on Deutschland and its Sprache,' Rebecca said.

'Trotting off to these classes now that Spring is here is much easier. Heading off in -20C, pitch black was bleak to say the least.

'Learning German has been a lot harder than I imagined. When I first came here I assumed I would just "pick it up". As if by osmosis. But it doesn't work like that. The language is something I have to work on every day.

'I spend my days trolling the German archives, trying to locate, translate and then decipher 'old German' articles. Most of the time I feel completely overwhelmed but I think that's to be expected.'

Rebecca said the experience of living in Germany has allowed her to improve her language skills in a way that may not have been possible otherwise.

'Funnily, I've picked up a Berlin accent which is considered pretty low-brow. As much as I try to mend my ways it seems to have stuck. Everything is "ick" instead of "ich". I sort of wear this affliction with pride though because Berlin is my niche.

'And I have to stick to my guns too because often Germans will hear I'm not a native speaker and default to English. It would be easy to just fall into that sort of interaction but it won't get me my PhD so I answer, in turn, in German and then we're back on track.

'And with time I guess I just started to get frustrated about not being able to express myself so you get to the point where you don't care about whether you use the dative or the genitive case incorrectly. You just want to make yourself heard. And the Germans seem pleased to see I'm making an effort so they ignore my butchering.' 

USQ offers a new Language and Culture (LAC) major allowing students to study either German or Mandarin language and culture as well as an Indonesian language major in collaboration with UNE. For more information please contact Ms Gabriela Pohl on 46311074 or Ms Yan Zhao on 4631 1071 or Dr Rhod McNeill on 4631 1091.