NEWSROOM: Info talk

So despite devoting time to German in preparation for a few months overseas, you're having trouble with that e-mail from your hosts. The Internet might be your salvation. Several websites will translate text - or websites - into English, giving an idea of the content. Web translation isn't as accurate as work done by people, though. Translating the first sentence of this article into German and back resulted in this: »Thus despite the time you?ve dedicated itself for some months overseas, you?re which has still trouble with this e-mail of your central processor source materials to German category in the preparation.« Still, sites such as www.freetranslation.com and world.altavista.com might help in picking up basic ideas.

Contest alert: Oskar's and www.logstoff.de, a bag-designer with its own web-forum, are giving away ten »communicative« bags. Logstoff bags come with a personal e-mail address on the front. Anyone who owns one of the bags can enter a special forum and get in touch with people whose bag address they have spotted on the street. Since Oskar?s and log stoff both focus on communication, the ten funniest, craziest or most touching stories about communicating with someone from your exchange-country will be awarded with a logstoff bag. Send your entries to exchange@logstoff.de by December 31, 2002.

Youth Exchanges is one source of information you need in planning an exchange trip. The first section is the most valuable, dealing with questions students should ponder: How does the program operate? What social mores will you encounter? How will you reintegrate yourself into American life? While some questions address issues you've probably already dealt with, much of the book?s first half will raise new issues. The second section is a guide to more than 50 exchange programs, detailing where they go and how much they cost. The section also lists information on dealing with bureaucracies and provides the names of organizations that can help in foreign countries. Some details have changed since publication, though, so check addresses and phone numbers before leaving home.

Hoping to see more of Germany than your host's town, but concerned about finances? One way to travel but still save enough to pick up a dirndl is to stay in youth hostels. Hostels come in all shapes and sizes, from castles near Munich to farm houses in the Rhineland to industrial buildings scattered about the country. Prices range from 10 to 20 Euro per night, depending on the season and type of room. (Most hostels offer dorm rooms, which are cheap, but are not the way to deal with jet lag.) Although hostels don?t offer many frills, they provide more social interaction than hotels: One lure of hostels is the opportunity to make friends and share experiences. The easiest way to find hostel?s is through the Deutsches Jugendherbergswerk (www.djh.de), which requires a $25 membership that can be bought from the American Youth Hostels Organization (www.hiayh.org). Unaffiliated hostels, which don?t require membership and are often cheaper than DJH facilities, are listed in travel guides and Internet directories.