Introduction

In 1991 I was teaching German at Dickson College in Canberra.  I kind of fell into it, as I was transferred from Copland College where I had been teaching after  moving from the NSW system in Yass.  We were living in Hackett, right across the road from the school, which was pretty handy.

I was employed as an English teacher but as I had a working knowledge of German I took on a combined Year 11-12 Beginning/Intermediate German class as well. The upside was that I was teaching something that I enjoyed, but the downside was that some of the students were either diplomats' kids or they had German background, so they often knew more than me.  Also I had never visited Germany.  However that worked in my favour at the end of the year, as I was selected to study for two months at the Goethe Institut in Staufen, near Freiburg, Germany.  I was probably the only teacher of German in the ACT at the time who had never actually been to Germany.