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Recently, Emmy wrote about the effects of and potential for e-learning in Kenya. In Germany, the Internet has changed the way educational content can be accessed and how it is taught at schools.

For instance, I use a lot of websites to look up words or study vocabulary. Each week in Spanish class at my university, another person uploaded the most recent vocabulary to the website Vokker. All of my classmates could then access them and study at home.

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We’ve got warm weather and sunny skies right now in Germany. Most kids here are now going to open air pools, looking forward to six weeks of summer holidays. But some are also afraid of the end of the school year. Their grades aren’t good enough to go on to the next class level or to stay at their school. I talked with one of my mom’s friends, Gaby, about such worries.

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María commented on my blog from May 14, saying she was surprised about what I had written about the situation of women in the German job market. Actually, when I learned about those numbers the first time, I was surprised, too − particularly because I personally have never felt discriminated against due to my gender. My parents, for instance, have treated my brother and me equally. Gender differences are only apparent during family parties: Most of the work is done by women, and men, particularly those over thirty, become a rare species in the kitchen. But I don’t care too much about that. After all, you won’t see me helping during construction work − then again, you won’t see my brother either.

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When I think back, I’ve learned a lot outside of schools or universities: swimming, gymnastics, playing, dancing. They’re all activities I learned together with other children in clubs in Germany during my free time. Since classes ended in the early afternoon when I went to school, we had the afternoons off. When we were kids, we could meet just to play, or we could go to those club activities in our town. My friends and I had a great time going to our local sports club – whether by playing a sport together or doing things like camping trips.

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Last week, I was talking to a friend who has just started her career. She told me that her boss said that male colleagues had been sceptical about hiring her. My friend is 30 years old. The gentlemen in the company were afraid that she would work only for a short period, get pregnant und take parental leave.

Luckily, her female boss could convince her colleagues that my friend was the right one for the job. If not, the position might have gone to a male just because he is a man and can’t get pregnant. I’m annoyed that these kinds of thinking patterns still exist. That it is taken for granted that men don’t use parental leave options to care for their children. And on the other hand, that it seems obvious that young women want to have children and stay at home.

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I ran into some friends from school at a birthday party this weekend. A lot of my friends studied humanities or social sciences – some of them were able to find jobs rather quickly; others needed more time. I myself participated in my first assessment center (AC) with a big German company last week as part of my job search.

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Last year, I finished my degree in American studies, political science and communications. That means I’ve completed the long journey through Germany’s educational institutions: elementary school, the Gymnasium (high school) and the university are all behind me now.

I think I’ve had a lot of freedom, especially starting in the 11th grade. That’s when we’re able to start choosing some courses that we want to focus on and like the most. But when we think back to our time in school, we remember the people more than all of the studying.

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