Language for Business and Technology: Austria and Germany

Description

• Immerse yourself in the local culture and history
• Interact with locals in everyday, academic, and workplace settings
• Use program destinations as your classroom for language & intercultural learning
• Improve your German skills by studying in small classes, with German student tutors, and local hosts
• Learn about current issues facing German businesses & society
• Earn upper-level language credits: be on your way to a minor or (double) major

The application deadline is Feb 1, 2025. Scholarships available! 

Vienna, Austria (Director: Kathrin Köppe) 

In Vienna, you will take the class GRMN 3696 German Business and Technology: Current Issues and GRMN 3697 German Business and Technology: Communication.

Vienna is an international nerve center of cultural history that would provide an unparalleled educational opportunity for interdisciplinary experiential learning. Its position at the confluence of Eastern and Western Europe affords the unique opportunity to gain an international perspective on the global contexts of today’s grand challenges. The city’s historical significance in the sciences, fine arts, and politics provides an exceptional groundwork for the development of a radically interdisciplinary curriculum. 

This program offers an essential educational opportunity. It will provide the opportunity to be immersed in arts and cultural education at a substantive level. You will gain a nuanced understanding of the creative process. In addition to intensive language immersion, you will visit companies in several professional arenas. Company visits currently planned include a visit to the Headquarters of the United Nations, the waste processing plant, Ottakringer Brewery, the Architekurzentrum, the Parliament, and others. You will also have hands-on cultural experiences and visits to world-class concerts, museums, festivals, hiking in the Alps, the Danube River, and the palaces of the Hapsburg Empire.

Berlin (Director: Kathrin Köppe)

The program's second course, GRMN 4691: Berlin: The Capital in the 20^th Century,” takes place in the vibrant capital of Berlin. In Berlin, you will see how the city can serve as a classroom: hear about the building of the Berlin Wall in the morning, and touch its remnants with your own hand in the afternoon. The class provides an overview of Berlin’s history and local culture during the 20^th century, arguably the most transformative period of German history. The course is meant to complement your personal experience of the German capital in a productive fashion by providing historical background information and inviting you to think about how the German experience of the 20^th century has come to shape Berlin into the place it is today.

By engaging with contemporary topics as reflected in film, literature, photography, architecture, political speeches, and others, students will become familiar with topics that dominated the different periods of Berlin’s turbulent history between 1918 and today. Afternoon or day-long excursions to Berlin’s historic and contemporary sites will round off classroom discussion and will open opportunities for further, creative engagement with the material in the form of an ongoing group project: In teams, you will create a short documentary film on an aspect of Berlin’s local culture or history.

Locations

Vienna, Austria (May 12 – June 18, 2025)

Berlin, Germany (June 19 – July 4, 2025)

Dates

May 12 – July 4, 2025

Host Institution

INNES Institute Vienna and TU Berlin

Accommodations

Hostels

Courses

• GRMN 3696 German Business and Technology: Current Issues (3 credits)
• GRMN 3697 German Business and Technology: Communication (3 credits)
• GRMN 4691: Berlin: The Capital in the 20^th Century (3 credits)

Prerequisites

German at the 2000-level and good academic standing; at least GRMN 2001, but GRMN 2002 is preferred. 

A recommendation from a current or past Georgia Tech German instructor is required, having completed a German class at Georgia Tech. If you have not yet taken a German class at Georgia Tech, please contact the program directors to meet with them personally before being eligible to apply for the program.

Cost

Payment Schedule and Deadlines

Program Fees

Fees are estimates and subject to change.

• $ 3,500 for Vienna, Austria and $2,000 for Berlin, Germany
• The program fee includes housing, ground transportation, excursions, health insurance, welcome and farewell dinner, cultural events.
  • In addition to the program fee, there is a non-refundable $500 deposit due at the time of application.
• The program fee does not include tuition fee (out-of-state students pay in-state tuition), international transportation, visa, technology fee, independent ground transportation, “travel on your own,” days off, or most meals. Lunch and dinner throughout the program have to be paid for by the traveler with only welcome and farewell meal exceptions. These meals are not part of the program fee.

Application and Payment Deadlines

• Apply via Atlas by Feb. 1.
• A $500 non-refundable deposit is due at the time of application and is applied to the overall program fee.
• The first half of the program fee is due Feb. 15 and the balance is due March 15. Payments are withdrawn directly from the student's OSCAR accounts on the deadline.

Fee Payment Information: Please adhere to the deadlines stated for the program. Please observe the information in Payment Options to ensure that your payments are processed at the Bursar’s Office on time. Fees will be charged to your Oscar account on the due dates. Make sure you make all necessary payments on time in order to avoid a hold on your account. Students expecting financial aid must submit a letter from the Financial Aid Office stating the allocation and date of payments expected. Tuition and student fees are due according to the Registrar’s schedule for summer tuition.

Informational Meetings

All accepted applicants must attend two mandatory pre-departure meetings. If you have a conflict with another class, you cannot attend the other class on those days. Note that other meetings may be required by OIE.

The first pre-departure meeting will take place on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, at 6 p.m. in Swann 320.

Cancellation Policy

Students who cancel their participation in the program after being accepted will be subject to the following non-negotiable fee schedule:

• Students canceling before Jan. 15 will lose their $500 deposit.
• Students canceling after Jan. 15 must pay 25% of the program fee.
• Students canceling after Feb. 15 must pay 50% of the program fee.
• Students canceling after March 15 must pay 100% of the program fee.

Program descriptions and fees are subject to final approval by educational units and the Office of International Education. Georgia Tech reserves the right to alter or cancel this program due to low enrollment, unavailability of a professor to teach a planned course or other unforeseen circumstances. Once Georgia Tech has made payments to service providers, or if Georgia Tech cancels the program before departure or while the program is in progress for reasons beyond its control, such as political unrest or danger to participants' safety, only those fees that Georgia Tech is able to have refunded by service providers will be returned to participants. 

All information on this page is subject to change.