On the mountain. (usc) There are real linguistic talents among the refugees from Syria and Iraq. This was evident in the most recent integration courses with literacy. They lasted over a year. The courses were once again organized by the ISE language and vocational training center in Amberg for the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.
According to ISE managing director Peter Blendowski, achieving language level A2 is a great achievement, and achieving language level B1 is an incredible result. After further intensive training, levels B2, C1 and C2 come.
At the beginning of the Alpha course, the participants had no prior knowledge of German. They only attended a maximum of five classes of secondary school in Syria or Iraq. Not everyone was able to learn Arabic, let alone Latin, at home. They now had to laboriously catch up on this, comparable to literacy in the first grade of a German school.
In three months the young men and women mastered the ABC. This was followed by simple grammar and an introduction to the German language. In the two parallel courses, the 20 participants received 1,200 hours of language instruction. Another 100 teaching units in the orientation course focused on the topic of “Life in Germany”.
When the final certificates were awarded, ISE managing director Peter Blendowski was convinced that most of the refugees trained here in Amberg will probably take up employment or training. As far as the language skills they have already acquired allow, two men want to work as tilers and a young woman wants to become a nurse. Blendowski appealed to the young refugees to seek contact with locals and to improve their language skills. Based on his knowledge, some course participants will aim for a higher language level in ISE courses. Of course, the good performance of the course participants also pleased the teachers employed at ISE, Nadja Kiseleva, Charlotte Kischkel, Jennifer Battaglia and Kerstin Reckermann.
Erwin Rohrer, regional coordinator for integration at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, was visibly enthusiastic about the good exam results, as some of the course participants had gone to school for the first time. Rohrer noted appreciatively that achieving B1 six times was a great achievement. Rainer Liermann, team leader of the employment agency at the job center, who selected the course participants, made a similar statement. Liermann referred to the options for follow-up advice in the job center.