Bilingual schools across France are struggling to find people who can teach in German as English becomes more popular. A group of parents have set up a recruiting agency to help the government.
There are a number of bilingual programs in French schoolsImage: JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN /AFP via Getty Images
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Maurice Umbdenstock, 61, used to have everything under control. The former auditor had a sharp eye for numbers. But his new job entails a certain loss of control. When he opens the door to his primary school in Munster in France's Alsace region, he is surrounded by 24 small children aged 3 to 5 and he can never really know what the day will bring. He came a little late to his vocation. "I am an educator at heart," he said with a smile. "But I must admit that, in my day in the 1960s, children had more respect."
Umbdenstock is one of the 30 teachers of the German language who were found positions with the help an Alsace parents' association over the past 12 months. "The state has a huge problem recruiting German teachers, so we thought we could help," Claude Froehlicher, the president of the association Eltern Alsace (Alsace Parents), told DW.
German is more popular in the regions that border Germany than in southern FranceImage: Renardeau - sa
A year ago, the association started searching for teachers of German to complement the efforts of the authorities and ultimately set up its own headhunting agency, RecrutoRRS, with three full-time employees. "We do it in a modern way," Froehlicher said, using Facebook, Instagram and other social networks, as well as job portals. Funded by the region and the European Union, RecrutoRRS searches for suitable candidates; if it can find 50 to 100 teachers per year, the region will be able to overcome the shortage of German teachers.
Within a year, the recruiters interviewed about 300 applicants and placed 70 of them in schools. Thirty of them received contracts, including Umbdenstock, who only spoke Alsatian at home with his parents, and can now teach German to French children. However, he will retire at the end of the school year.
From language teaching to cultural institute
06:54
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Promoting German, Alsatian
Teaching is bilingual in at least one-third of schools in Alsace. This too is thanks to Eltern Alsace, which was founded in 1995 to strengthen German and Alsatian in the region and promote bilingualism in schools. But, as the number of students has grown continually, the number of teachers has stagnated.
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Lorenz Herbst said the situation was better in Alsace than in other parts of France. He teaches history and geography in German at the Jeanne d'Arc high school in Clermont-Ferrand in Auvergne, but he, too, is soon to retire and he worries that it will be difficult to find a successor. There are three high schools in the greater Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region where students can take the French-German high school certificate (Abibac). Herbst said teaching was an increasingly unpopular career in France; one of the reasons is pay, which is over 30% less than the average teacher's salary in Germany.
There are fewer people studying German at universities in ParisImage: Julie Sebadelha/abaca/picture alliance
Peter Steck, who is responsible for German instruction at the Education Ministry, said German had been the international language of choice for stronger students for decades. "German in France had a similar reputation to that of Latin in Germany," he said. But this changed by the late 1990s as English became increasingly popular.
In 2005, the French government established bilingual classes in secondary schools where German and English are offered in parallel. "That saved us," Steck said. Today 15% of French students learn German. In Alsace, there are 30,000 students learning German today.
In the "privileged capital region," 18% of students take German and about 80% of Paris schools offer bilingual classes. But at university, the number of people studying German is decreasing. Steck says that there is too much competition from other paths of study.
German idioms you really shouldn't take literally
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Franziska Katharina Bauer studied journalism in Germany. She worked in the media for about five years, but, after moving to Mulhouse in southern Alsace, she decided to change profession. She found a job as a teacher with RecrutoRRS and she now teaches on the two days a week when classes take place entirely in German.
"It was quite a challenge considering there were only six introductory days," the 33-year-old said, but she has no regrets. She said both the students and parents welcomed her. "They were reassured when I said that I had taught German as a foreign language for a year in China," she said.
There are various long-term options for people who join the teaching profession a little later in life, but, for now, Bauer just wants to get through her first school year.
This article has been translated from German.
From 'Krisenmodus' to 'Lichtgrenze': Germany's 10 past words of the year
"Krisenmodus," or crisis mode, is the word of the year 2023. A look at the political buzzwords selected by the Association for the German Language over the last decade.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Büttner
2023: 'Krisenmodus'
Wars, inflation, the climate emergency: There are many issues to worry about. "The crisis mode is a permanent state," said one German politician in a 2023 debate on how the COVID pandemic was managed. "Krisenmodus," or "crisis mode" was picked by the Association for the German Language as the political buzzword of the year.
Image: Ohad Zwigenberg/AP Photo/picture alliance
2022: 'Zeitenwende'
"Zeitenwende," literally "times-turn," refers to a historic turning point: The term was used by Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a parliamentary address held in reaction to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. With its WWII history, Germany's postwar defense policy had been rather cautious, but in this geopolitical context, the country would need to significantly increase its military budget.
Image: Christophe Gateau/dpa/picture alliance
2021: 'Wellenbrecher'
A plausible choice in times of an ongoing pandemic, "Wellenbrecher" (literally wave breaker) is a term that comes from coastal protection — it means breakwater. It also stands for all the measures that were taken to break the fourth COVID-19 wave that year, said the German Language Association, which has been selecting Germany's word of the year since 1977.
Image: Fotolia/Joshua Rainey
2020: 'Corona-Pandemie'
The COVID-19 pandemic was, of course, the leading topic of the year 2020, and that's why the German word of the year was none other than "Corona-Pandemie" (corona pandemic). The runner-up word selected by the jury was also related to the pandemic: "Lockdown."
Image: Sebastian Gollnow/dpa/picture alliance
2019: 'Respektrente'
Planned changes in German pension laws were set to put many workers at a disadvantage by retirement (Rente), so the bill was disparagingly dubbed "Respektrente." The term won over the expressions "Rollerchaos," referring to the chaos created by the sudden invasion of electric scooters in German cities, and "Fridays for Future," the English name for a worldwide school strike for climate movement.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
2018: 'Heisszeit'
The term "Heisszeit," or warm age — as opposed to an "ice age," which sounds quite similar in German, "Eiszeit" — was chosen as the Word of the Year in 2018, reflecting not only Germany's extreme summer that year, but climate change as as whole.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/B. Roessler
2017: 'Jamaika-Aus'
"Jamaica coalition" refers to the symbolic colors of three parties in German politics: black for the conservative CDU/CSU, yellow for the business-friendly FDP and green for the Green Party. In 2017, coalition talks went on for weeks, but then came to an abrupt halt. This was "Jamaika-Aus," or Jamaica Out.
Image: picture alliance / Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa
2016: 'postfaktisch'
During the United States presidential election campaign, and after Donald Trump's victory in the fall of 2016, the word "postfaktisch" or post-factual came into common usage to denote the spread of fake news. Even then-Chancellor Angela Merkel used it. The term comes into play when public opinion is formed by emotion and resentment rather than objective facts.
Image: DW
2015: 'Flüchtlinge'
Refugees — undoubtedly, no other issue had a bigger impact in Germany in 2015, when the Syrian civil war brought nearly a million refugees into the country. Runner-up was "Je suis Charlie," for expressing solidarity with the victims of the terrorist attack against the French satirical journal Charlie Hebdo. No. 3 was "Grexit," which referred to the possible expulsion of Greece from the Eurozone.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Hitij
2014: 'Lichtgrenze'
The winning word in 2014 was "Lichtgrenze," or border of light, which referred to a light installation on the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. This was followed by "schwarze Null," or black zero, describing government efforts to avoid new debts. Another favorite was "Götzseidank," a mash-up of "Gott sei Dank" (thank God) and the legendary goal of soccer star Mario Götze in Brazil.