Impressions of Germany during my Erasmus+ stay in Karlsruhe – by Phennapha Xaiyasen

Hello everyone,

Here is Phennapha Xaiyasen again, and I just turned 21 years old. Today I would like to share about my experiences and impressions of Germany. I am doing my bachelor’s degree in Information Technology at Savannakhet University, Laos, and l am part of the Erasmus+ Exchange Student Program at Karlsruhe University of Education. I hope you enjoyed my Letter from Laos, which I wrote before I came here.

Coming to Germany was my first time flying and traveling so far, and it was my first time being away from my family and friends. I arrived in Frankfrut on 13th of March. When I got here, I felt excited, happy, and a bit anxious. My colleague Chindavone Sisoulath and I tried to ask people for directions everywhere we went to make sure we were on the right route and were not missing our flights or train. But luckily, we received some advice from the International Office at the PH Karlsruhe and Prof. Dr. Isabel Martin had taken photos of places and signs to look out for when arriving at the Frankfurt airport, which Ms Friedl from the International Office had turned into a “how to find your way” document, which helped us a lot. I really want to say thank you to all of them. Then we took the train from Frankfurt to Karlsruhe.

It was cold and rainy at that time when we arrived in Karlsruhe. Chin’s and my buddy Nina picked us up from the train station and took us to our dorm. After I finished moving my stuff into my new room, Nina took us to the supermarket to buy some essential items. There I saw some pretzels and sausages I did not hesitate to buy them because I really wanted to try them. They were so good! Especially the pretzel. After that we walked around the city and university. She also told me about the traffic rules in Germany. For example, a sidewalk can be divided into two sections, each with a different color: a black, blue or red section for bicycles and regular road coloured section for pedestrians.

She also told us things about the university. One thing I found interesting about the University is that students have their own student ID card, which is very convenient because you can use it to pay for food in the canteen, cafeteria, and laundry at the dormitory, which was something very new to me. What I did not expect was that if I had my student ID card , I might get discounts at some supermarkets or theatres or museums, which is very cool. I always use my student ID card to get discounts whenever I go to the Asian shop called Go Asia, located on Europaplatz, the city square.

I started my first day at the university on 14th of March 2025. My buddy took me to pick up my welcome folder at the International Office. In the folder, there were so many important documents for international students. Everyone got their own PH (Pädagogische Hochschule = University of Education) account for all PH-platforms where students can find information such as classes, timetable, and other information about their studies. From my perspective, this is a good idea because it is convenient for both teachers and students. In addition, the PH account also uses Stud.IP, a digital CMS (Content Management System) where I can find information, homework, and messages from professors or classmates.

I started learning some German in an intensive course from 14th March to 11th April 2025. After that I continued my German studies in the general course, which went on from 15 April 15 to 22 July 22. It was my first time learning German. Some pronunciations were quite difficult. For example, “Büro” means office and “rechts” means right, but there are some words I can pronounce, such as “danke” means thank you, “genau” means exactly, and “Guten Morgen” means good morning. But it was fun. I met a lot of international students from Japan, Greece, Israel, Hongkong, Turkey and Taiwan there. We all came from different countries but we got along very well. And I had two great German teachers (Elena Wormwood and Fenja Durso). I started learning the alphabet, numbers, and greetings, which I really enjoyed. I think these parts are very important, especially numbers, so that I can pay correctly when I go to the supermarket. Sometimes we practiced as if we were in a real situation. For example, if we were learning vocabulary about restaurants, everyone had to be a waiter or customer. The professor also took us to a museum to explore amazing animals. She even told us the names of animals in German. We also learned some words for ordering ice cream. Then the teacher took us to an ice cream shop and we had to order ice cream in German. It was so much fun! I also learned how to order ice cream in German and even got to eat some.

 

When April arrived, it was time to choose courses. I chose 7 courses, 2 about German from the International Office and 5 in the English and Informatics Departments that interested me such as “Global Englishes, Global Citizenship Education & Teaching International English”, “World Dance Calling for the English Classroom”, “Physical Computing“, “Database”, “Multilingualism”, “Germany today”, and “German Language”. I registered for these courses via email with my professors, who then enrolled me in StudIP. I learned a lot from these courses. For example, “World Dance Calling” course was amazing. I learned how to teach (primary) students dances in English. In this course, we tried to use English to teach children so that they can dance and learn English at the same time. For example, if I say circle left and circle right, they have to make a circle and move to the left or right. And I even had the opportunity to share traditional Lao dances in the class room. Physical computing also impressed me. Physical computing is an area of computing that connects the physical world with the virtual world of computers. So it is not only about the computers themselves, but also about the interaction with the physical outside world. I learned with small circuit connected to code, such as Microbit, Aduino, Raspberry pi, and more. I will tell you more about my academic learning in my next blog article.

There are many things that impressed me about Germany. Germans are very careful about separating their trash, when I took out my trash, I saw many colorful bins. Each bin has a different symbol, making it easy to separate.

• Green lidded bin for organic waste, such as, food scraps, leaves, egg shells
• Blue lidded bin for paper and cardboard, such as newspaper, cardboard box, notebook
• Red lidded bin for recycled materials other than paper or glass, such as, plastic, metal, aluminum
• The larger bin is the green bin, but you can see a symbol that means this bin is for non-recyclables and non-organic waste, such as baby diapers, dust, broken ceramics

Another thing I really like is that you can return used water bottles or cans to the supermarkets for a refund. Not only do you get some money back, but you also reduce waste.

Furthermore, I found that the people here are lovely. Especially when I have to cross the street. Most drivers will stop their cars to let me cross first. And when I need help, they are happy to help. The people here also love to ride bicycles. I think cycling is not only good for your health, but also a good way to get some fresh air and it saves money. I borrowed a bicycle from a kind person. Thank you to Prof. Isabel for contaching the owner of the bicycle for me to borrow. I usually use my bike to go to university and the supermarket because it is faster than the tram.

Getting around is also convenient if you do not have a bicycle. You can use the Deutschlandticket on all systems, including trams, buses, and regional trains. For a monthly payment of 58 euros, you can travel around Germany on regional trains without having to buy a new ticket every single time. In addition to traveling with the International Club, I also traveled to other places using Deutschlandticket to Munich, Heidelberg, Freiburg, Tübingen, Mannheim, Strasbourg and Luxembourg. And my next destinations are Frankfurt and Cologne.

I had a lot of great times with my new friends from Greece, Israel, Italy, Poland, Ukraine, UK, Japan, they are: Thomai–Krystallenia Katse, Sharon Maoz, Maria Kallou, Carmen Mussner, Anastasiia Osmakova, Gemma Cleave, Katarzyna Baran, Daria Shevchenko, Hiroki Totani and some other international students. The International Office offered us a lot of activities all semester. Our first trip was to the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. There, I saw a lot of different car models. My second trip was to Triberg waterfall, which is a beautiful waterfall, and I got to try the Black Forest Cake, which is famous in that area. The cake was new to me because it contains alcohol, but you can order it without alcohol. I wanted to try the original recipe, so I ordered the alcohol version. It was a bit bitter and had an alcohol smell, but not too strong. I liked it, it was delicious, especially with chocolate. My third trip was to Konstanz, which was great fun as we took a boat to the other side of the Lake Constance. The water was very clear. Overall, the student-led “International Club” from the International Office always offered a lot of activities that were interesting for us. I learned and saw new things that I had never seen before, like the Porsche Museum, I have never been to a car museum before, and the beautiful lake of Konstanz, too. Thank you to the International Club and Office, I have been able to make new friends, exchange knowledge, culture and even languages. Since I am a curious person, I like to ask my international friends, how to say “Hello, How are you”, “Thank you”, and other words in their languages. Then I tried pronouncing them and writing them down on my phone. Now I have 6 languages on my phone. Some words I can say without looking at my phone.

My term at the PH is over and I am spending the last weeks writing reports like this one and getting ready to go back home to Laos next week. I am ready to share the stories I have encountered in Germany with my family and friends. I have been using my personal Facebook to update them in some videos about what I have been experiencing in Germany. I am very grateful to the Erasmus+ Exchange Student Program , Karlsruhe University of Education and Savannakhet University for giving me this invaluable opportunity. I am very honored to have had this chance. Not only was it a great opportunity to learn new things at university and travel to places I have never been to before, but it also helped me improve my English language skills and make new friends. Moreover, it also helped me grow and gain more problem solving skills.

And I would like to thank  Prof. Dr. Isabel Martin who is the editor of this website, for giving me the opportunity to share my first experiences in Germany and who always supported me.

My dream has finally come true. I hope you enjoyed reading about my experiences in Germany. I am already preparing my third article where I would like to share some very interesting things I learned at university.

Best regards,
Phennapha Xaiyasen

 

Text by Phennapha Xaiyasen

Photos by Phennapha Xaiyasen, Chindavone Sisoulath, Chiara Ritzert, Isabel Martin, Fenja Durso