Refugees learn by doing on German language course in Bonn

A new language and alphabet are among the chief challenges awaiting asylum seekers arriving in Germany. Most need help, at least to get started. The good news on this day, however, is that they can leave their satchels, their exercise books, and even their teachers behind - it's time to hit the streets and learn proactively.

The ACB Lingua language school's new "Integration Course" is aimed at recent arrivals. The school sent students on a "treasure hunt" to teach them about Bonn, and to get students to try out some German with strangers. Task 1: "Go to the market - find this stall - what types of fruit and vegetables does it sell?"

Do you know the German for "pineapple?" While French and Italian-speakers have no excuse for getting the wrong answer, the students, most of whom speak Arabic, had a harder time. Thankfully clues abound! The team DW accompanied seemed keen for bonus points; they noted down prices, too, though that information was not required.

Students were urged not to use their phones and to ask people in German for directions and information instead. However, on finding a passer-by who spoke both German and Arabic, the temptation was too great. Bassam (holding the paper) was kind enough to talk the team through several sentences they couldn't understand.

Ludwig van Beethoven is arguably Bonn's most famous native. The house where he was born, near the city-center marketplace, serves as a small museum. Radwan Ajouz and his son Ali, originally from Aleppo in Syria, work on their next task. They find magic number: 1770.

Bonus points were on offer for groups that completed the treasure hunt the fastest - with competitors keeping a keen eye on the clock. Still, within around two hours, the tour took them to a string of places they're likely to visit again. One question asked them to find out and note down the opening hours of Bonn's foreign nationals' office (Ausländeramt).

"Go to Friedensplatz," the team's instructions say, pointing them to another major square in central Bonn. "What is the final destination for bus number 608, and when will the next one arrive?" The 608 also stops fairly close to the Paulus-Heim in Bonn - a former old people's home converted into a refugee shelter, where many in the class live.

Next stop: the city library. There, students should find books in Arabic, Persian or Kurdish, and ask for information on what paperwork they need to borrow books. However, on entry, our reporter was distracted by the sight of the class' teachers chatting over coffee - while their charges did all the hard graft! One of them proudly scrolls through photos of other recent class outings.

"Sit down somewhere," and write a postcard, the class was told, nearing the end of their assignment. "Go to the main post office, buy a stamp and send the postcard. Keep your receipt for the stamp." Another means of communication unlocked - though the task of buying the right stamp for a postcard was a challenge.

This was a longer lesson than usual - with some teams needing more time than others. Early finishers, though, had a game of Pictionary awaiting them: draw something on the board, and whoever names it first (in German, of course!) gets the pen. This game showed quite a gulf between the students; some couldn't contribute, the more advanced were even getting the right genders for the nouns.

ACB Lingua's Alev Erisöv-Reinke had laid on rewards for the groups who scored best on her fact-finding mission around the heart of Bonn. Our team didn't quite make the top three - quite possibly because they were handicapped by a chatty reporter, who was also under orders not to help.

A surprise to end the day: a bonus prize does go to Radwan Ajouz after all, as the oldest competitor to finish the challenge. Ajouz was all smiles throughout the exercise, shouting "Foto! Foto!" (photo) at all and sundry on DW's behalf, after realizing our need to ask permission. His wife and four of his children are still in Lebanon, having fled Syria.