(No) Life as a dental student Hey guys, I started dental school in October and had a really stressful, but still enjoyable time since then. Since I have to study a lot for my anatomy exams, there's barely any time left to improve my English and French skills. Well, at least I'm still reading books in English and am talking to my American friend on a regular basis. I hope you're all having a great fall, Jeanette

Bonjour tout le monde! Je m'appelle Jeanette et je suis d'Allemagne. Il faut que je pratique mon français, par ce que c'est ma langue favorisée et je ne veux pas l'oublier. J'ai appris le français pour presque 9 ans et j'ai pensé à étudier l'allemand et le français, mais maintenant c'est "juste" mon hobby. Néanmois je veux que je continue à maintenir et améliorer mes connaissances.

How to never stop improving Hey guys, how do you make sure that you're always keeping improving when you're already fluent in a language? Do you learn new, more difficult vocabulary? Do you work on your accent? I'd love to hear your suggestions since my English is on a pretty high level now. I'm reading/ watching all my books/movies in English, take italki lessons to get rid of my very mild accent and try to learn new words as soon as I hear/read them. How do you expand your active vocabulary? Thank you already for your answers! Jeanette

Back in Germany Hi guys, it's been quite a while since my last entry! I'm back in Germany again, and what can I say, it's pretty different here. It's weird, but people seem to be way more grumpy in good old Germany than in the US. I think that's because people don't care that much about what other people think of them. Personally, I think that smiling at people can brighten up their day, so why not be a little kinder than necessary? Anyways, there are some obvious advantages like cheaper (healthy) food, a better public transportation system and way more reasonable politics in Germany too. After having spent a year abroad, staying at home is obviously no option for me anymore. That's why I'm going to move to another big city in Germany to start dental school in fall, make new experiences and hopefully develop my character even more. I literally can't wait to use my brain again and spend some hours in the library. Sounds weird, but I just love learning new things! Love, Jeanette

First things first Hey guys! My name's Jeanette and I'm currently an au pair in America. I've been here for incredible 10 months now, "time flies" has been my favorite sentence during all of them. Living in America has been quite an experience until now. Many things here are very different from what they are in Germany, no matter if it's food (Give me my German bread!) or politics. But let me talk about something else this time: Watching American news is a really unique experience, but not always a good one. This is not because the news are sad and depressing, it's because they're all about America and almost nothing about what's going on in foreign countries. Many people all over the world think that a large majority of Americans is kind of stupid and uneducated, but then again that might not be their fault (or at least not completly). Since the common news channels aren't exactly a good source of information and subjects like world history aren't obligatory in most schools, it's not surprising that many Americans don't have a clue about what's happening/ what did happen outside of their country, and especially why it's happening/ why it did happen. If I compare American news to our German ones, then the most striking thing is, that American news seem to be more of an exciting, glamorous show, whereas German news try to focus on the actual news and not the anchor. These are only some of my thoughts about American news, but as you could read, only the most negative ones. I'm sure that there are some great TV and radio channels out there, that are more informative. Maybe you've got some tips for me! Thanks for reading my first entry, Jeanette