Feeling at home beyond borders

Since 2004, France and Germany have celebrated their very special friendship on German-French Day, 22 January. A young Frenchman and a young German woman talk about how they found a second home in the other country. 

Language enables integration: Guillaume Amouret 

“As far as I’m concerned, there’s no border between Germany and France any more.” Guillaume Amouret was born in Brittany and now works as a freelance journalist in Hamburg. Amouret initially went to university in Bochum, an industrial city in the Ruhr area in western Germany – quite a contrast to the French coastal region of Brittany. So it’s hardly surprising when he says: “For me, life is aesthetically more pleasing in France”. Yet he’s torn between the two: “When I’m in Brittany I have this sense of homely comfort, but I love the hustle and bustle of German cities, too.” When he enrolled on a Franco-German bachelor’s degree programme in history, he moved into a shared flat with Germans in Bochum – which was how he became familiar with day-to-day culture in Germany. His flatmate was a fan of Schalke 04 football club and everyone watched the TV crime series Tatort on Sundays – as in countless other German households. Amouret now feels Germany is his second home – so much so that he even takes on the dialect of wherever he happens to be living. But there’s one major difference he sees between the two countries. It has to do with language, he says with a knowing smile: “Purely technically speaking, it’s much easier to be gender-sensitive in German.” 

Love at second sight: Nora Karches 

Nora Karches has a special relationship with France. She is a freelance literary critic and reviews French-language books. She travels to France several times a year, too; last year she walked part of the French Way of St James. But even though her parents are French teachers, Karches didn’t learn the language properly until she went to university. “At first I didn’t understand the other students at all because they’d often use colloquial language,” she says, describing the initial difficulties she encountered during her semester abroad, first in Dijon and later in Paris. “I’m often asked why I didn’t stay in France, but I've always taken the pragmatic view that I’ll never really belong if I want to work for French media” – there’s just too much of a difference between a German and native speaker of French, she says. So after studying journalism, Karches decided to embark on a career in Germany – but since her work is focused on French literature, she retains a close connection with France. There is one thing she misses, though: “I’d like to speak more French again.” It really helps to have constant practice in speaking everyday language, especially when the conversation moves onto more complex topics at a typical French dinner party, says Karches. “At some stage you always get to the point where people start talking about current political issues. In France, things get much more political when you engage in debate about society.”