As our current group of 'Stipis' settle back into their schools or start Uni, we turn our attention to the teacher who inspired last month's alumnus Thomas White to apply for one of our scholarships. Nathaniel grew up in a part of Geelong once known as Germantown, but had to enrol in Saturday VSL classes to learn VCE German himself. The passion he developed for the language and culture led to him becoming a German teacher himself. At Box Hill High School he has been doing a range of roles for over a decade now, including taking students on trips to a German partner school. Nathaniel still uses the lessons of confidence the exchange taught him in his adult life and maintains personal and professional connections with Germany. And, we are most happy to say, with SAGSE. As a volunteer committee member, he has the very important role of Schools Liaison, an enormous contribution to our activities.
Year of exchange: 2010 / 11
Group Leader: Lauren Nichols
School: Grovedale College / Victorian School of Languages
German Teacher: Martina Sherwin
Sponsor: Continental
Town / city of exchange in Germany: Hamburg
2010 was one of the coldest winters of the century, and for a lucky Australian, Germany pulled out all the stops to make a winter wonderland. While the average Hamburger wasn’t overly impressed with the heavy snow and freezing temperatures, I was awe-struck by frosted roofs, dangling icicles, and an icy Alster.
Germany was still riding the high of winning Eurovision for the first time since 1982, taking out the top spot with “Satellite” by Lena. Every store you entered seemed to have a playlist on repeat which consisted of just two songs, Satellite and Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep”. The grip this song had on the country was palpable – fellow Stipi Larissa Whitton was even taken to a circus where she was treated to a show of llamas (possibly alpacas) where the ringmaster had them run around the ring to the lyrics “like a satellite, I'm in an orbit all the way around you”, then stop and swap direction as the chorus changed up. I’m not sure what was funnier, the experience itself or her crying with joy as she told us all about it.
Better yet, Germany’s winter meant that Duck Sauce’s ‘Barbra Streisand’ was in the charts and soon to be adapted into a classic winter-time cover, “Wir brauchen Streusand”.
I was blessed to immediately hit it off with my host sibling Karl, mother Katrin, and father Florian. Living around 100 metres from the Hauptbahnhof, I couldn’t have asked for a more central location or more warm and welcoming people. They took my request to only speak German from day one entirely seriously and I am so thankful to them for helping me become the German-speaker I am today. They were infinitely patient with me and took every opportunity to help me learn new words, expressions, and even celebrate with me the first time I used ‘doch’ correctly in a sentence.
One of my fondest memories is Katrin not believing that Australian bank notes were waterproof and asking me dead-seriously if I was trying to pull one over on her before she finally tested it for herself, running the Queen’s face under the tap and holding up the five dollar note, very pleased with herself that it was not a soggy mess.
The following year Karl visited me in Australia and since then we have managed to see each other every two to three years with a covid-sized gap in between. Just this December I was fortunate enough to return to Germany with my own school’s exchange and was able to sneak in a visit to Hamburg! 14 years on and every time we see each other; it’s like it was just yesterday. The same generosity and warmth, the same genuine care and support for each other.
Sporting a mohawk and gothic outfits, as a teenager I fell in love with heavy metal, nu metal, and industrial music. Unsurprisingly, this led me to Germany’s rich music scene with bands like Einstürzende Neubauten, KMFDM, Oompf!, Eisbrecher, and of course Rammstein. Embarrassing as it is, Rammstein’s grip on edgy 14-year-olds circa 2004 - 2009 was the reason I became interested in German in the first place, wanting to know what on earth they were singing about!
This led me to teach myself what I could from the internet, phrase books, music, and after failing to find any kind of language course in German, making an online friend (Annika) who I began speaking with on language exchange forum. After confirming that we were who we said we were and that we were both in fact 14, Annika and I would swap music recommendations, chat on msn, and video call on our incredibly low quality 144p webcams. We often mailed each other things like public transport tickets, magazines, and began learning about each other’s countries. I even still have the die Ärzte shirt she sent me! My interest in German and Germany only deepened and I kept looking for ways to learn German. During my exchange in 2010, Annika even travelled to Hamburg and we met for the first time!
At high school I had always been interested in languages, learning Indonesian at primary school, then Japanese until the end of Year 9 at Grovedale College. Although the school did not offer German, the suburb had previously been named Germantown until 1916 due to its large German population at the time. At the end of Year 10 I discovered the Victorian School of Languages and quickly enrolled in Saturday classes. I was fortunate enough to be learning with many students who were of German background who generously helped me fill in the gaps in my knowledge. Now a teacher myself, I can truly appreciate the masterclass in differentiation Frau Martina Sherwin gave us each weekend, working with a multi-aged class which even included adult learners. She broke us into ability groups of Year 7-8, 9-10, and 11-12 depending on our language level, setting suitable work for each group and managing the diverse needs of her learners.
One morning towards the end of Year 11, Frau Sherwin welcomed the senior students and told us about an opportunity we should be aware of. She explained that there was an organisation called SAGSE which offered scholarships to German students! I had no idea such a thing existed and was immediately interested; having repeatedly tried to convince my parents to send me on an extremely expensive term, semester, or year-long exchange to Germany through various companies. Needless to say, I applied. During the school holidays with both parents at work, I checked the mail three to five times each day, hoping for a letter from SAGSE. Then, when it did, I bawled my eyes out. I couldn’t believe I was going to Germany! So there I was, attending school in Germany, developing a life-long addiction to Niederegger marzipan, wondering why Victoria didn’t have this lovely ‘Pfand’ system, and planning my next trip back before I had even left.
Free travel highlights included a whirlwind tour of Germany, starting in our Winter Camp location of Weimar (home of many a Dichter und Denker, and also the theme of the Winter Camp), setting off to Freiburg, Nürnberg, Schloss Neuschwanstein, and Salzburg to name a few highlights. My travelling companions were Georgette McKeough, Mitchell Wong, Gabrielle Howard, Joshuah Wren, and Larissa Whitton.
After returning to Australia, I began my studies at the University of Melbourne. I had a strong desire to study Media but to also maintain my German, so UniMelb felt like a dream. Unfortunately, I quickly worked out that media studies offering was far from hands-on. Not wanting to spend three years studying iconography, and the idea of swapping university and giving up German unthinkable, I reflected on what bought me joy and doubled down on German, choosing it as my major. As many Victorian alumni, I had the pleasure of being taught by the esteemed Heinz Leonard Kretzenbacher, whose quick wit only deepened my love of German, History, and Linguistics. I was delighted to find many fellow Gassies at UniMelb and nearby, even living in a share house with a few of them when I moved to Melbourne from Geelong. After completing my undergraduate, I was accepted into UniMelb’s Master of Secondary Teaching. This was especially appealing as it was offered in an intensive format where students could complete 1.5 years of study in a single year, qualify for their teacher registration, then finish the final credits while starting their teaching career. As I undertook placements teaching German and History, I realised how much I loved it, and I began applying for jobs with German method focus for the following year. Fortunately, I landed at Box Hill High School. 2025 is my eleventh year at the school.
Beyond teaching German at BHHS, I have had the opportunity to work in a range of roles such as Head of Languages, Learning Specialist, and Leading Teacher across a variety of portfolios, as well as Acting Assistant Principal. Since 2017 I have been a Goethe Institut Multiplikator and had the pleasure of developing teaching programs, curricula, working with our amazing community of German teachers, and presenting at conferences for the better part of a decade.
Not ready to leave the classroom yet, I recently returned to a Leading Teacher role and teach German with range of year levels each year from 7 – 12. I have been fortunate enough to run our school exchange program with our partner school in Lippstadt, Nordrhein-Westfalen, where I have the pleasure of re-experiencing the joy of discovering Germany through their eyes for the first time each and every single time I take a group.
It's confronting to think that in that time I have taught German to well over a thousand students across various year levels. A few of those have even become Gassies themselves, including Thomas White, Bernhard Andersson, and Iona Easton. Other well-known Gassies such as Ashwyn Perera are also alumni of BHHS. On a recent visit, Ashwyn kindly signed one of our posters he is featured on!
As a member of the SAGSE committee, I act as our School’s Liaison and use my knowledge of the secondary school system to help ensure a smooth experience for incoming Stipis and the schools which kindly host them during their stay. SAGSE quite literally changed my life and I simply wouldn’t be doing what I am today without it.