History, Culture, Education... My Erasmus Impressions

My name is Ahmad, I am from Azerbaijan and I have been an Erasmus+ student for five months in Germany. These five months are golden pages in my book of life. Despite having travelled through many eastern countries, I have never been in any country in Europe. Hearing stories from other students who studied here and watching movies can form your opinions about Germany, but living here is very different. Being in Germany affects my attitudes constructively in three areas. Let’s discuss separately each of them.

History

I am keen on history. I like to read, especially the history of different countries in ancient and middle-ages. Erasmus program provides opportunities to travel. Travelling through Europe and visiting in some historical places gave me the feeling like that I have a time machine. “Cologne Cathedral”, “Triumphal Arch” in Paris, “Coliseum” in Rome... all these were beautiful rewards for my time that I have spent for reading about them.

Culture

I am living in a beautiful place names Remagen. There is also the old city called Linz near Remagen. Walking through these places you can feel the old German traditions that are kept until now. It is amazing to stand in front of traditional German house and listen to German folk music through headphones.

The stereotypes about Germans that they are cold are really false. On the contrary, they are very talkative, especially with foreigners in order to get to know to other cultures. They just prefer valuable conversations and they are good listeners.

The interesting thing which impessed me is that German people greet each other everywhere even when they do not know each other. However, in my country this is rare. We only greet if we know each other. I wish we had this custom in my country.

It is obvious Germany and some European countries are tolerant. I am a Muslim and I feel that Germans respect other religions. Muslims feel safe and confident.

Everywhere people say that, time is precious and everything is available to get back except of time. In my opinion, only Germans follow this idea.

Education

Obviously German education system is one of the best systems in the world. I have been studying at RheinAhrCampus in Germany. I am glad that I was involved in studies actively. There are many things in German education system which inspires foreign students to do master degree and a master student to do PhD.

During Erasmus collected a lot of experiences which will affect my future carrier. The one out of many educational methods which I wish were implemented more frequently in Azerbaijan universities is teamwork. The other methods each student has to pass are writing assignments, giving presentations and workshops shaped our knowledge and made us self-confident for the exam.

I also have taken part in MCD (Managing Cultural Diversity) seminar where I have listened to lecturers from other countries. Between them there were previous Erasmus students of RAC.

Thanks to Lecturers Drs. Shtulb and Borgmann for giving us knowledge and suggestions how to be successful in international structured companies under globalized world.

There are many positive things to write. I am very grateful about Erasmus programme. Thanks a lot to Erasmus for giving me the opportunity to take part in. Azerbaijan students participated in Erasmus use this experience for the bright future of Azerbaijan.