Amal Dib, Lebanon

"My name is Amal Dib and I come from Lebanon and I was here for the German language course, beginner level. It has been a really great experience to be in this class, at the FU and in Berlin and it was a great summer for me. The learning experience here is so enriching, I was telling my friends. You can take classes anywhere but taking it here in such an international class, with students from all over the world who speak different languages is just very enriching. The methodology of the teachers is advanced. It makes you learn very quickly. Within only one month I now have decent conversations in German, I can write and read in German, I can understand. I recommend this course to everyone who wants to have a quick and easy way to learn the language. It´s a beautiful language. So I highly recommend this experience."

Alexis Cary, USA

"I am Alexis Cary from San Francisco and the UC-system and I took the course “Urban Spaces and Places” and the German B1 course. I came to FUBiS hoping to improve my German and I found that it ended up being so much more than that: I made some of my best friends I´ve ever made, I had a wonderful time exploring Berlin and I think that my class was a really enriching experience. I am so happy that I came here as a student and not just as a traveler without any clues about the city. So I am really happy that FUBiS guided me through Berlin."

Carmen Pascual Guerrero, Spain

"My name is Carmen. I am from Spain. And this is my second time in the summer course. I liked it so much, so that is why I came here again. The experience is great because the course is so good and the city is so good, too. So I recommend this experience to all the people that want to learn German."

Hisham Ismail, Egypt

"My name is Hisham. I am coming from Egypt. In Egypt I am studying a master’s degree in political Islamic Theory. And I have decided to join the FUBiS program here to explore the German culture, to explore Berlin and for the academic program. I joined two subject courses. One is the “Global Politics” course and the other is “Islam and the West”. And it was wonderful. I got more information about the academia and everything. I also joined most of the excursions, to Weimar for example. It was well arranged and it was wonderful. I enjoyed my time here very much. And I would advise any student to join, to come here and to check the German culture."

Lydia Brosnahan, USA

"My name is Lydia Brosnahan. I thought that my course, “Islam and the West”, was really interesting because it really opened up my mind and really made me think and reflect on who I am and what it is to be in Europe. I had a thought process. It really helped me open my mind, think critically and stretch the limit of my thinking and my intellectual horizons."

Usama Eshan, USA

"My name is Usama Ehsan and I love Berlin. Berlin has an extraordinary amount of clubs and people and different types of coffee houses with different types of people. They are always friendly. And FUBiS has been a great program and really helped learning German, meeting new people and exploring Berlin to its fullest extent."

David Calvo, Colombia

"Hello my name is David Calvo. I am from Columbia. I took, here at FUBiS, a German A1 absolute beginner intensive course. This has been an opportunity for me to learn a lot of German, to meet incredible people, and to meet an incredible teacher who helped me to develop, so quickly and so amazingly good, my German speaking and writing abilities. It is almost amazing here that I can now speak a little bit of German since I’ve come here with no idea of how to say a word. Berlin is a magnificent city. It is impossible to describe it with words so do not miss the chance to come here. It is an excellent program."

William Engler, USA

“Hi my name is William Engler. I’m from Youngston, Ohio at the University of Pittsburg. I came to FUBiS this summer for the B1 intensive course. I had a great experience. I would recommend FUBiS to anyone who wants to learn German, explore an amazing city, and meet great people. It was an overwhelmingly positive experience.”

Fraser Jay Myers, UK

"I´m Fraser from London and I took the Exile Literature Course with FUBiS. I had a great time the last weeks and I met up friends I´ll remember the rest of my life. I had a great time in Berlin, one of the best cities in the world. The program is very well organized as everyone like me feels at home. The trips were really good; I went to Hamburg, Weimar and Dresden. I had a wonderful time and would recommend it to anyone. Berlin is a lot more laidback than many other places where I lived."

Cecilia Damstroem, Finland

"My name is Cecilia Damstroem from Finland, Helsinki, and I´ve been doing the Music Composition Course with Prof. Samuel Adler. The course is a really high-class course as well as the teaching with Prof. Adler. I really enjoyed it and it is a very good opportunity to study with a Professor from New York and staying in Europe. Berlin is now my favorite city; it has so much culture and so many concerts going on. For the Music Composition Course it is a really good city because it is cheap and has so much cultural live, the food is good and everything is perfect here. As a young person you have everything you want: Party, culture, nice people and a nice mixture of all different cultures coming here. And as I fluently speak German I feel more at home here. It has been one of the best periods of my life."

Jacob Glessner, USA

“My name is Jacob Glessner from the James Madison University, Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and the two courses I took were Cold War history and Understanding the European Union. As far as FUBiS goes I really have to say that it extended my world view. It really made me consider modern politics and modern history in a different light. It made me sort of see the world outside from my own understanding and my own little box that I live in in America. This made me more sensitive to the current problems facing our world today allover and it made me understand more the complex issues our generation will have to deal with someday. And the program was great, I really enjoyed the schedule. It was intense but not too intense. I really liked the atmosphere of FUBiS and the Free University in general. It seems like a student run, everyone seems politically active and if there is someone new to me I always have a conversation. I also loved the excursions; we went to a lot of them. Berlin is a great place for history and politics. There is always something to see and something to do. Couple of my favorite was the East Side Gallery, to see the way how people deal with the memories and the past division of East and West. And just to be able to talk to students from all over the place - this also extended my world view from that angle. I get the perspective how other people see and interpret the social and political world."

Janet Sit, Canada

“Hi, my name is Janet Sit from Toronto, Canada, and I took the FUBiS Music Composition Course. I had an amazing time at FUBiS and I learned so much, not only about music but also about life in Berlin, Berlin culture and German culture and also the Euro-Cup-culture. I had a wonderful experience and I would come back any day and I would love to come back another time. I liked from the program that it made it possible to meet composers from all around the world. Their way to hear music was very different from my way. So it was a great way to open my ears and open my mind and just talk about music with different people from different perspectives. It was a really wonderful learning experience as a musician and composer. I would definitely recommend this to anyone else.”

James McCloud, USA

“My name is James McCloud. I come from North Carolina and study at UNC Chapel Hill. This past 6 weeks I have studied in B1 intensive. I really feel I learned a lot. I really enjoyed the class. I was pretty nervous when I came here but I had a really great time - had a really great experience. Berlin was awesome. FUBiS was great. I had a great time with everything I did. I’m really glad I came.”

Sosuke Brause, USA

“My name is Sosuke Brause, I took the B1 level with the FUBiS language program. I thought the program was really helpful and provided a good transition into life in Berlin. It also provided a really good atmosphere to practice and to use German. Everyone in the program was really helpful. They were willing to speak German or speak English to you, anything to help you, to make you feel welcome. I know I’m really going to like it here in Berlin, probably mainly because of the impression that I’ve got from the people with FUBiS. It’s been really good. I’m sad it’s over already.”

Ricardo Caúla, Brazil

“Hello, I’m Ricardo from Brazil. I was here for the German class and the European Studies course. Everything they did here was perfect. Everyone was so nice. We met so many people from all over the world. It’s the best month you’ll ever have!”

Mervi Moisala, Finland

„Schon in Finnland war ich sehr zufrieden damit, dass ich immer ziemlich schnell Informationen über den Kursinhalt bekam. Auch wenn ich Fragen hatte, konnten die Leute von FUBiS sehr schnell meine Fragen beantworten. Das war schön. Ich hatte einen guten Überblick was mich hier erwartet. Alles war sehr gut geplant, die Organisation ist auch sehr effektiv und die Teammitglieder wirklich motiviert und immer gut gelaunt. Wir hatten dann Einstufungstest, nach denen wir in Gruppen eingeteilt wurden und dann ging es los. Meine Gruppe war eine kleine und effektive Gruppe. Unsere Lehrerin hat uns die ganze Zeit helfen können und alle Fragen beantworten und Fehler korrigieren können. Exkursionen haben wir auch mehrere gemacht. Wir haben eine Mauertour gemacht, wir waren in Potsdam, mit meiner Deutschgruppe im Gefängnis und auch die European Studies Gruppe hat viele Ausflüge gemacht, von denen ich nur Gutes gehört habe. Berlin ist so eine schöne und lebendige Großstadt und auch wenn man sagt, die Berliner sind ein bisschen barsch, das stimmt eigentlich nicht. Man muss sie immer nur noch ein zweites Mal etwas fragen. Ich finde, dass ich hier gut aufgenommen worden bin, auch von den Jugendlichen hier. Ich kann die Stadt und die FUBiS-Kurse nur an alle Interessierten empfehlen.“

Aaron Horowitt, USA

"My name is Aaron Horowitt, I did the German class with Susanne Thiel. It really helped me with refreshing my grammar and with my reading comprehension. Berlin is a place that is super easy to get around. I love the city. It is super awesome and very interesting. You can learn a lot just by walking around. And the excursions were really good; my favorite was probably the Potsdam tour."

Andrea Rietmeijer, Netherlands

„Hi, I’m Andrea, I’m from Holland and I did the European Studies course. It was so good, the professor is really really interesting, he knows so much and I learned a lot. Also because, I was already from Europe and lots of people were not from Europe, so it was really interesting to hear as well their perspective about Europe. And Berlin is awesome as well!“

Hyunsuk Kim, South Korea

“My name is Hyunsuk Kim and I’m from South Korea. I took the German language course and the European Studies course. I liked the program. The overall program was rich in excursions and experience and a lot of opportunities to interact with the other students and the instructors. And I really like the city as well.”

Evan Pikulski, USA

“Hi, my name is Evan, I’m from the United States and I took the German B2 level course. I’m so happy I did, because I feel so much more confident in my German and I feel ready to face the next semester. And Berlin is a great city! I would recommend it to anybody.”