Diane Ullius, team leader for the week for the German conversation at Langley-Brown Community and Senior Center, discusses the impact of learning something new with Carlos Hecker. Photo by Shirley Ruhe/The Connection
Last week the theme was "hats." Some people wore hats, and one person brought a computer printout of hats with names and historical dates associated. The weekly German conversation at the Langston-Brown Community and Senior Center is about to begin. This Friday according to Diane Ullius, the team leader of the week, the theme is the impact of learning something new. Irmy Herrmann-Haut comes in. She said she has been coming to this German conversation in Arlington for four to five months.
Why did she come to America? "A long story but officially to go to the University of Pennsylvania."
According to Carlos Hecker, who has been attending for five months because he didn't know about it before, "this is an advanced class for people who are fluent in German. You couldn’t come here and learn it.” Hecker’s parents came from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and moved to Venezuela where he grew up. He says every week there is a different theme and people prepare stories related to the theme.
"And some of them talk too long and we need to remind them," says Ursula Alao. Alao says she is from Hanover and came here in 1984. Why? "A man," she smiles. Alao had been a nurse in the German Peace Corps.
The German conversation was set up in October 2011 and now has 42 members with about 20 appearing in any week. About half are native speakers.
"We learn from each other a lot of facts about living but also better German," said John Stepanchuk, an American. "I've told stories here I've never told to anyone else."
Heckler added, "We enjoy each other very much."
One of the members addresses the impact of learning something new by volunteering that the brain is plastic and can be remolded. Hecker says, "well, if you are asking if sports can improve the mind or change the brain, I think sports are very important and healthy but if you think it changes the brain, you need a new researcher."
Stepanchuk says the nuances of German are unbelievable.
Ullius points out that the word geist means both mind and spirit in German and that makes this discussion interesting.
To sum it up, Etwas neues zu lernen halt den geist und körpes jung und gesund. Or in English "learning something new keeps the body and spirit young and healthy."
This German conversation (not really a class they say) is one of the Arlington County 55+ programs offered through the six County senior centers.