Plymouth College German Assistant, Greg Heigis from Munich, has been running a teddy bear exchange with a school in Bavaria to help Year 8 pupils gain a better understanding of German culture.
With the teddy bears sent on their travels to Germany, the Bavarian pupils took pictures of themselves with the bears to show Plymouth College students what life in Germany is like. The Plymouth students returned the favour, sending letters and photographs to Germany.
"The aim of the project is to fulfil one of the aims of modern language teaching; to cultivate an understanding of the culture attached to the target language," said Plymouth College Head of German, Adam Carr. "We wanted the students in Plymouth and in Germany to gain an insight into each other's lives in order to overcome stereotypes and learn about the two cultures.
"The project has been really successful and students in both countries have been enthusiastic and heavily involved. Next year we will be offering German to Year 7 for the first time so we hope the teddy bear exchange will be the perfect way of introducing the German language and culture to them."
