Studying and Working in Mannheim, Germany
January – July, 2001
Eric Sutterlin, Mechanical Engineering

Participation in the John Deere Mannheim program from January 2001 through August 2001 has given me much more than merely a study abroad experience and an internship. The combination of superb instruction in the German language offered as a semi-tutorial by Deere, engineering course work at the Fachhochschule Mannheim where the main mission is undergraduate education and where highly-qualified professors demonstrate on state-of-the-art equipment as they lecture, and work experience in the engineering lab of the Mannheim John Deere plant yields results which as a whole are, indeed, much greater than the sum of the parts. The extra dimension is that of communication. The opportunity to apply classroom learning to the workplace is, of course, the outcome of a good internship. However, taking course work taught in German--highly complex technical German--and using German as the language of the workplace make one self-consciously aware of the importance of communication.

The head of the Waterloo John Deere engineering lab was interviewed on German television in July and stated that the program looks toward the future in providing engineers who are not only willing, but also capable of international work assignments. This is much more than simple familiarity with, or even mastery of a foreign language. It implies feeling at home in the culture and corporate culture of another country. My first project with John Deere involved maximizing the efficiency of a tractor generator. As I became more proficient in German, my technical writing skills in German improved, and my final project was the translation of a technical manual about generators from English to German to be included as part of a report written by the head of the German engineering division. By the end of my Mannheim experience, I felt competent both academically--my grades were high--and professionally in
the German setting.

As European borders become less important and with the introduction of a common currency, Germans, as well as other Europeans, think of themselves less in national and more in international terms. I took the opportunity of the central location of Mannheim and inexpensive student train fares to meet fellow explorers from France, the Netherlands and other countries and together explore fascinating sites on the Maginot Line (close to Mannheim), in Belgium, the Netherlands, and, especially, in Paris. Catacombs and associated quarries undermine approximately a third of Paris and extent to over three hundred miles of tunnels. I found that my four years of high school French were useful in forming firm friendships with fellow explorers. One weekend in July, explorers from all over the world, including Australia, gathered in Paris to explore the tunnels under the city. We would meet each other as we ran in national groups through the system and stop and talk and share observations. I was with a French group which specializes in the historical significance of the many Parisian sights. I'll never forget the happy mood of friendship of our "potluck" meal by candlelight in the catacombs.

Eric

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