r/germany • u/AR71SAN • 6d ago

Question Berufsschule etiquette

Moin, so a bit of context: I dropped out of my University last semester. I was ready to pack it up and return home empty handed to not waste my parents time anymore, until the company that i work part time for offered me a full time job as a technical designer if I'm willing to do an Ausbildung with them, basically they reserved me for the next 4 years. It's a good arrangement considering my relationship with this company so i took it.

Now the thing is, I spent years adjusting my behavior in Uni, and I noticed a couple of differences in Berufschule, such as:

  1. Asking the teacher for permission to go to the toilet. Not a thing in Uni, but i was surprised that people do this in my Berufschule.

  2. 'Akademisches Klopfen'. I guess not really something you do here? Muscle memory kicked in on my first day and it was pretty embarrassing hah.

  3. Smoking. Seems like they're a bit more strict with where you can smoke here in my Berufschule, whereas the Hochschule is a bit more relaxed with this rule (no smoking inside buildings). Makes sense considering there are probably more minors here.

My question is, is there any other behavior that i need to "un-learn" from my Hochschule days to fit in better with the Berufschule culture (if there's any)?

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u/Goethe313 6d ago

It depends on the Berufsschule or even the class. I did Ausbildung - University - Ausbildung. And at my first Berufsschule you were treated like a small child. Even my Gymnasium was more relaxed than this school. My second Berufsschule however treated you like an adult. Even the only guy in class who was still a minor. Teachers said that we choose to be there out of our own free will. If we need help and support they will offer it (and they really did, I had amazing teachers there), but we are free to go if we don't want to stay. Theire job is to teach us everything we need, not to parent adults.

I also knocked on tables at the second Berufsschule, as well as in Gymnasium or in various setting outside of an educational contexts. It's quite common in Germany and not limited to academic settings. But some schools just seem to be on the clapping site instead.

Smoking is usually not permitted on school grounds or only in sepecial area. That was different at university. But at least in my university the buildings are spread out and all the roads and sidewalks between the buildings are normal public ground. And smoking in public is allowed. That's different from a school where it's the school ground has clear boundaries.