Pressespiegel:

Impressionen aus Ipswich/South Dakota

Try this on for size: Ottovordemgentschenfelde

Name of Ipswich exchange student totals 24 letters

Writing a story about Ipswich student Svenja Ottovordemgentschenfelde has its problems. There's an excellent chance her name won't fit in a headline. Ottovordemgentschenfelde, who's a German exchange student, totals 24 letters. Take it from me. When you get done typing that name, you're tired. Ottovordemgentschenfelde, 17, arrived in Ipswich in September. Everybody in Ipswich knows her now. But when she first arrived she was, as she puts it, "this foreign exchange student with this huge last name that nobody can say."
Most people in Ipswich call her Svenja. On some school lists, her last name is shortened to Otto.
Ottovordemgentschenfelde is not the German ecquivalent of Smith. Her name is lang even for Germany.
Normally, a newspaper story refers to people by their last names. But in the interest of saving a reporter's fingers, let's just call her Svenja.
A junior, Svenja is from Schloss Holte, Germany. Her host parents in Ipswich are Deb and Ed Gillick.
She hears some questions all the time: How long does it take you to write your name? How old were you when you learned how to write it?
But she points out that it's the only last name she's ever had. So she has nothing to campare it to.
At least part of her name transIates into English. It refers, she said, to a man name Otto standing in front of an area
ealled a gentschenfelde.
Ipswich has another German exchange student. Philipp Langenscheid, from Mastholte, ia also a junior. He is staying
wich Mike and Mary Weinbach.
Ottovordemtschenfelde looks like a spellchecker's nightmare. But when she says it, it sounds almost lyrical, which disproves the belief that French is the only beautiful language and German is gutural.
In Germatiy, she lives in a suburb of Bielefeld, a city of about 350,000 people. When she arrived in South Dakota, Svenja was shocked at how rural the stete is. On her three-hour trip from Sioux Falls, "there were like five oncoming cars," she said. But she has grown to feel so comfortable in Ipswich that she is not homesick at all.
"I like it over here. I have a great host family. They care about me so much," she said.
The two students from Germany both like the strong community feeling of Ipswich. Even though she's a stranger, "Everybody knows me here in town," Svenja said. "They're rast really open hearted and friendly.”
She has noticed, among other things, that "Everyone's so involved in church. I didn't really go to church in Germany. Now we go to church every (weekend)."
Many people in this area, of course, share her, ethnic heritage. Looking at the rosters at a high school football game last fall, she was surprised how many players for both teams had German surnames.
Svenja, who will return to Germany June 23, will have two years of high school remaining. Students in Europe attend school for 13 years. Her English a language she's been studying since the fifth grade is outstanding. Svenja is also a good sport. She responded in good humor when a reporter asked her, "Does your pen ever ran out of ink while writing your last name?"
Even though her name looks like three er four words run together, she likes it. And even after she gets married, she wants to keep it.
In some instances, she admits, carrying the name Ottovordemgentschenfelde around can be a disadvantage. The name, though, is memorable, which can be a plus.
But when you write about a person called Ottovordemgentschenfelde, it's though to keep the story a reasonable length.

From Jeff Bahr, American News Dakota Living editor.

Links:
Junge Leute für ein Jahr in die USA PPP