The visit to the U.S. Consulate General in Düsseldorf

On 23rd February, 2012, we - the bilingual Advanced Course English Q1/ 12 - visited the U.S. Consulate General in Düsseldorf with our course leader Mrs. Schneider; we were also accompanied by Mrs. Rudnik and our social sciences teacher Mr. Janus. Taking part in the consulate's "Meet US"-program we were granted the possibility to meet an American consul, Mr Wiedeman. After being thoroughly searched at the door by security, we were welcomed by Mrs. Tatzelt, who arranges the meetings between German students and Americans. Our course was seated around a table in a conference room in which we were informed about the work done by the consulate. The main part of the program was talking to Mr. Wiedemann, the Consul, who took an hour and a half to answer our questions, which were mainly about the American Dream, immigration and the American presidential elections. Insightful questions such as "Today, a lot of countries seem to be similar to the US guaranteeing democracy, equality before the law and appreciating many other aspects of the American Dream. Why do you think that the US is still extraordinary?" or "In what way is the consulate involved in the elections of 2012?" were answered in detail, in a very understandable way and generally very satisfactorily by Mr. Wiedemann and were underlined with different examples of his personal experience.

 

Discussing the visit in our social sciences and English classes in retrospect, our course appreciated the visit immensely since it was very informative. It has proven to be a great opportunity in getting to know the American way of thinking, not only concerning politics, but also everyday life.

 

Advanced course English Q1/12 (Schn) (Aileen Echelberger, Maria Eck, Jannis Stock, Marius Tripke, Verity Mackscheidt), 28/02/2012

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