The school system and the university system in Germany are very different from what you might be familiar with. All children in Germany attend elementary school for 4 years, and then they go to different types of secondary school (completing 9 or 10 grades and then apprentice for a job, or completing 12 or 13 grades to be able to study at the university).

Watch the following video for more info about the German School System.

German also distinguishes between different words used at the school or the university level. Students in school are called Schüler and Schülerinnen, whereas students at the university are referred to as Studenten and Studentinnen. Instructors are also described with different terms: a Lehrer or Lehrerin teaches at a school, whereas a Professor or Professorin teaches at the university. Some subjects of study also have different names, depending on whether you take them in school or at the university. For example, the subject Deutsch in school is called Germanistik at the university, and the subject Englisch in school would be called Anglistik, Amerikanistik, or Kanadistik (depending on the focus of your studies). The English verb to study might also mean different things in German: when someone studies for a test or exam, they would use lernen. When someone talks about the subject that they are studying (for a degree), they would use the verb studieren. For example: Ich lerne für meinen Mathetest. Ich studiere Mathematik.

Watch the following video about the German Higher Education System.

You may be asking yourself, why do so many subjects have the word Wissenschaft in it? For example, you have seen Politikwissenschaft, Medienwissenschaft, and Naturwissenschaft. In German, Wissenschaft refers to the systematic study of a subject matter. In English, it could be translated as science (as in political science) or studies (as in media studies). Many other subjects that can be studied at the university also have the suffix -wissenschaft (en), for example Theaterwissenschaft, Sprachwissenschaft, Kommunikationswissenschaft, Wirtschaftswissenschaften, or Literaturwissenschaft.

In English, we often tend to think of subjects such as biology, chemistry, or physics when we talk about science. In German, these subjects would be described as natural sciences or Naturwissenschaften.