Hey everyone
I'm a teenager in Canada and I have an opportunity to stay with my relatives next summer in Germany. I'd be staying with my father's aunt and uncle. My dad is somewhat of a proud German and wants me to go to satisfy my desire to for cultural exchange as opposed to becoming an exchange student and going somewhere else. I went there once before when I was 14 and loved it, but only stayed for two weeks. Germany is a beautiful country and I would like to go back... but I'm not sure if this is the way to go back. I know nobody...
nobody in Germany except my relatives who are in their sixties. That and I don't know any German beyond random useless vocabulary picked up from my grandparents (read: tablecloth, duck, potato, etc...) and "guten tag".
I think if I went through with this I'd become miserable and lonely with nobody to talk to. I don't know any people my age there, I don't speak the language... there would be no "exchange" of cultures going on. I've been learning French in school and I think a more constructive thing to do with my summer would be to go on a government-funded exchange to Quebec to become better at French.
But at the same time, I feel like I shouldn't pass up this opportunity... even if I were isolated in Anglophone teenager land, I could still learn something and have some fun...
what do you guys think?