[ANSWERED] German Teacher Information

[nightrose83]

Hi folks,

I've been here before about this subject, but have received some contrasting information on a subject and want to be sure I have things correct before I go on my merry way. Please excuse any ignorance on my part with anything under the cut.

Comments

[sashatwen]

she might still have problems finding university classesCan you clarify what you mean by that? I have trouble understanding how that would be a problem once you're enrolled at university

[lied_ohne_worte]

I think the degree thing might be a misunderstanding from what I said in another comment - we were getting into other kinds of degrees, such as magisters and diplomas and separation between faculties and all kinds of things, much of which does not really apply to teachers as they are in a somewhat special situation.

[the_physicist]

Can you clarify what you mean by that? I have trouble understanding how that would be a problem once you're enrolled at university.

well, i think they mean the issue that happens in some German unis when you just need one class to graduate, but it's always oversubscribed and you have to be there in person at 6am the day the sign-up sheet is pinned up on the notice board.

but i only know that for subjects like sciences (not for teaching), so maybe the teaching degrees are not organised in the same way.

[lied_ohne_worte]

But I believe that's a rather recent phenomenon. Depending on the university, you can get definitely get the problems in humanities as well - we certainly had it in History courses, which we shared with the teaching students, and they told horror stories from the pedagogical courses - but apparently, that sort of thing has gotten really worse quite some time after the OP's character studied, when they started with credits/fees/requiring people to adhere to time limitations for their studies/logging attendance in seminaries and even lectures/requiring people to register for courses/and doing all of that through a computer system which bloody well broke down early in the morning of first signup day every semester... and yes, I'm looking at you, Universität zu Köln. I haven't really heard stories of that sort from people who studied a generation back.

[lied_ohne_worte]

How did you get to 27? If she was 19 upon graduation, then after six years of studying, that would make her 25 on leaving university, and 27 on starting to teach - that is certainly possible. And what do you mean by "having problems finding university classes"? As long as her Abitur grade was good enough to make that semester's limit for getting a place in her desired subjects (called "numerus clausus", or NC for short), she could have started right away. If it was not, then that might have resulted in her not getting into her desired university, or having to wait for a place, making her older when she finished. Basically, the NC means that in subjects where there are more applicants than places, they sort people by grades and accept them from the top down, and the grade below which people don't get a place directly becomes the semester's NC for that particular subject. (That's a bit simplified, there are certain special conditions etc., but the system works like this in a nutshell.)

[nightrose83]

I originally got to 27 through a misunderstanding in a much earlier thread, but it's cleared up now. Thanks for the help.

[nightrose83]

A bit OT, but I had a question about sport uniforms. I gather German teams have them professionally of course, but do school teams, or if someone's playing a sport outside of school on their own time? I know police are seen more positively than the military, but I wondered about peoples' reactions to their needing a uniform as well. Do people still have the same wary attitude towards them as they do for 'regular' school uniforms and such?