Anna from the divided city Guben/Gubin

My Name is Anna Lewandowska and I am 23 years old. I come from Gubin in Poland – a town that is located on the Polish-German border. Formerly, Gubin was a part of a German town – Guben that after the Second World War was divided into a Polish and German part – Gubin and Guben. The two cities are very interesting because two nations live there next to each other. In the divided city one can observe many differences however the old architecture remains similar. In the stores one can find Polish and German signs, however the existing border is practically invisible. Thanks to that I could attend a German school on the other side in Guben from the ninth grade on. Since I was always interested in learning foreign languages therefore I wanted to become proficient in German.

As a child I was interested in Asian countries, especially Japan and Korea fascinated me. That’s why I started to learn the Japanese and Korean at home. For me those languages are not difficult that is why I decided to move to Berlin to study Korean culture and language. 

I decided to specialize in South Korea because the country is not so well-known in Europe. When it comes to Asian culture, people mostly associate it with the countries like Japan or China.

For me Korea is an exciting country. I had an opportunity to live there for a half year  and to attend the Ewha Womans University in Seoul for one semester as an exchange student. At this university women are allowed to study. I met and became close friends with Korean people who are extraordinarily nice and friendly. Although our cultures are different, I had the feeling of mutual understanding. I would recommend everyone a travel to Korea. 

Currently, I’m an intern at the YBCS and I want to share my knowledge about Korea with the listeners. I think that the work at radio is exciting because it is challenging and one can see very fast the results of the work.