Khonav Haso baked a cake especially for this Thursday. It’s your son Alvand’s birthday, he’s two years old. But the real celebrations don’t start until the afternoon, the morning is reserved for learning German. On this November morning, the Iraqi woman is sitting with six other women in the neighborhood meeting place on Neuschwansteinplatz in Giesing, in front of a comfortably laid breakfast table with coffee, tea, pretzels and the fragrant cake. Hidden in between: lots of memory cards. “Today it’s about home,” explains Beate Stöckle. “Home is where we live. Of course you have your home, but now Munich is your home.”
Stöckle is a tutor for the “Mama Learns German” project. Together with two colleagues, she volunteers to teach migrant women with children the German language. Low-threshold, with a lot of fun and without exam pressure. The group, created in September 2021, is one of 29 long-term “Mama Learns German” courses in 27 facilities such as family centers, church communities, lunchtime care or neighborhood meetings across the city. The 30th group is scheduled to open at Hasenbergl at the beginning of next year. “We are then represented throughout Munich to meet our needs,” says Riki Überreiter, who founded the project 15 years ago.
At that time, the 71-year-old was still employed in the social department, responsible for civic engagement. When she retired in 2015, she no longer had to take care of the German courses, which were only offered in four groups at the time. But Überreiter recognized the potential. “‘Mama is learning German’ became my passion,” says the lively Munich native. She continued to promote the offer provided by the Association for Women’s Interests, and within two years the number of courses had increased to 20.
Open group: the “Mama Learns German” group in the neighborhood meeting place at Neuschwansteinplatz in Giesing.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
In the meantime, Winnie Choo from Malaysia has caught one of the memory cards at the Giesinger Treff. You can see a basement compartment: In almost perfect sentences, the 39-year-old mother explains that she only keeps things in the basement that she rarely needs. Suitcase for example. Or boxing. “What kind of boxes?” asks Stöckle. “Do you mean boxes?” “Yeah yeah”, Winnie Choo laughs and nods, “Cardboard boxes”. She has been in Germany for three years.
Discussions about household utensils and seating habits follow. But politically explosive topics such as the high-rise debate or the question of global warming are also touched upon. In this circle, women dare to speak because they feel welcome, because they don’t feel any pressure. At the end, all the terms that were discussed can be read on a flipchart. With correct article.
The German courses are a guarantee of success, “we are now being asked everywhere, at Caritas, at family centres, and also from towns and communities in the surrounding areas such as Taufkirchen, Unterschleißheim or Fürstenfeldbruck,” says Riki Überreiter. But “Mama Learns German” is a municipal project, limited to the Bavarian state capital. There are several reasons why the concept works so well. On the one hand, the openness: every woman can simply come by without registering, there are no costs, the only condition is to attend the course as regularly as possible. And mothers are allowed to bring their children with them.
Learning through play is now working throughout the city.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
In the Giesinger Thursday round, two-year-old Jamal dashes through the room while his mother Foussena Alassani, a Togolese, breastfeeds her five-month-old daughter and at the same time concentrates on Beate Stöckle. Farzana Haque from Bangladesh expresses it: “It’s great here,” says the 30-year-old. She learns a lot and meets women from other cultures, while her daughter is looked after in a “very friendly” manner. “We German educators share everything, the lessons and playing with the children,” explains Stöckle’s colleague Ulli Franz. The key, however, and the project and group leaders agree with the participants, is empathy, sensitive listening. “They help me a lot,” praises Dragica Ješankic. The 81-year-old Bosnian has been in Germany for more than 50 years, “but I don’t speak well. Thank God,” she says, “there is such a group.”
As successful as the project is, there is still one downside that the participants don’t notice: the payment of the three project managers who coordinate “Mama Learns German” city-wide. “We are employed on a mini-job basis, but we have to work 30 hours a week because of the immense influx,” says Gabriele Keller. Keller, Riki Überreiter and Astrid Adler have already applied for part-time positions. However, the positions have not yet been approved.