Arvada West’s German teacher, Anne Garlow grew up in Ochtrup Germany.
“In Germany I grew up in the Northwest near the Dutch border in a place called Ochtrup in a small village called Welbergen… I grew up in a small village, I had a good time growing up there. It’s a good, fun place I go back to visit all the time,” Garlow states.
She had grown up in a place called Welbergen in Ochtrup, which is near the Dutch border which has a population of around 19,000. Before her permanent move to the US, Garlow visited the east coast in 2003 for an internship.
“I have lived here since 2015 permanently so that’s 8 years, and before I was traveling back and forth and I lived here for one year in 2003 and 2004 and I was doing an internship on the east coast so I was here for one year when I was very young then I came back in 2015.” Garlow mentions. When she Garlow reflected on the great opportunity her internship provided as it helped her see the world. She lived in Boston,
Massachusetts at first to learn English, but during that single year in Boston she met the man who is now her husband, that was her main reason to permanently move to the United States in 2015.
“I moved to the US because for me it is much easier to move here than for him to move over to Germany and I just liked the United States and specifically Colorado.”
Garlow says that school in Germany is different from school here. You go to Kindergarten from the ages 4 to 6, elementary school ages 6 to 10. Then after fourth grade is called secondary school being grades 5 to 10. This may seem pretty similar to school in the U.S. but the big difference is that in secondary school there are different levels of education being a low, medium, and high academic level, then you have the classes with the same people in the same level as you. The level you go into and tend to stay in is chosen when you are still in elementary school. The teacher and child’s parents will decide what secondary school the child will attend. looking at her classes Garlow is reminded of her own self when she was young, even though there are new things for kids like smartphones and technology.
Not only can Garlow speak German and French fluently but also Dutch and bits of Spanish and french. Why would she choose German over Dutch? Garlow feels that a lot more people in the world speak German versus Dutch because the Netherlands, having a population of 17.53 million people, is a small country and there is not very much need for Dutch.
In conclusion Garlow shows and spreads her love of German to her students by saying, “I grew up with German and I love German. I love Germany. I love German culture and I love giving some of that to my students.”
