I don’t know how the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) rewards its outstanding staff, but if there were awards such as Most Outstanding Post or Award for Best Practices, I would nominate the Philippine Consulate General (PCG) in Frankfurt am Main in Germany.
The PCG in Frankfurt was my host during my two-week stay last month in Germany. With a lean staff, PCG was able to plan and coordinate my three lectures and two meetings in three universities in three cities (Frankfurt, Berlin, and Passau), not to mention one train ride, two road trips, and a flight from Berlin to Munich, with a couple of sightseeing tours on the side.
With clockwork precision that I had previously associated only with Germans rather than Filipinos, the PCG staff took care of me, at the same time that they were taking care of OFWs (renewing passports, officiating marriages, putting out fires, that sort of everyday thing that they do at consulates), Germans asking for visas, and liaising with various business corporations and government offices. With my own eyes as I watched them in their clean, cozy, and tasteful office, I saw the staff dealing with utmost courtesy and friendliness with people coming through the door.
Even when I was already about to board the flight back to Manila, two of the PCG staff accompanied me and guided me through the huge Frankfurt airport.
Here are the names of the heroes (that’s what I would call them) of the PCG in Frankfurt: Consul General and now Ambassador Maria Cleofe R. Natividad, Deputy Consul General Raul M. Santiago Jr., Consular Attaché and Administrative Officer Melinda S. Hernais, Consular Attaché and Protocol Officer Edgar C. Canta, Records, Property and Cultural Officer Dexter G. Macaraeg, Consular Attaché Lianna Judith B. Sale, Acting Finance Officer Mario D. Simbulan, General Utility Man Alexander T. Manuel, Local Hire Chester Llaban, and Local Hire (my driver in Frankfurt) Rolando Cabanding.
In Berlin, driver Vieto Pilapil was most helpful in taking me to various events. To help me get to Passau from Munich in time to give my lecture, driver Juergen Leitz drove fast but nevertheless carefully (a difficult combination).
I also have to thank especially the Honorary Consuls (these are Germans who help represent our country), particularly Honorary Consul for Bavaria Eckbert von Bolhen und Halbach and Honorary Vice Consul Jutta Hippelein.
If this were a travel column, I would definitely recommend dining at the Schlosshotel im Grunewald AlmaBerlin, with its beautiful rooms, delicious cuisine, and extraordinary service; the Schlosshotel Kronberg in Frankfurt, also an architectural and interior design delight; and Café Einstein in Berlin (where everybody who is anybody goes). Of the cities I visited, Passau was the most beautiful, with a central old town comparable to some of the more popular tourist spots in Europe.
As for the Germans, I was very much impressed by the service in restaurants, and not just in the fine dining ones. Everywhere I went, the service was extraordinarily fast and friendly. I have been to numerous countries and I have dined in countless restaurants, but the way that German waiters take care of customers is remarkable. Their excellent training obviously reflects well on their supervisors and managers.
By the way, Germany has decided to shorten its 13 years of pre-university education to only 12 years because, as one of their senior professors put it, they want to follow the global standard of 12 years. We are going at it the other way: we are extending our 10 years to conform to the global standard.
The three universities I visited (Goethe in Frankfurt, Humbolt in Berlin, Passau in Passau) were very proud of their accreditation status. It is sad that, in the Philippines, only a small minority of our universities are accredited. Accreditation (not government recognition) is the badge of honor of a university.
The three universities are also extremely interested in improving their Philippine Studies programs. (Yes, Filipino – called Tagalog there – is taught in Germany.) In one university, they have been looking for a professor for two years now, but in vain. Of course, our problem is that we do not usually teach German in the Philippines. It really is about time that we think of foreign languages other than English. The efforts of the Goethe Institut, Instituto Cervantes, and Alliance Francaise would be greatly enhanced if our undergraduate majors were required to learn a European language other than English. But that is another column altogether.
TEACHING TIP OF THE WEEK: Education is not and should not be all book learning or classroom work. In Humbolt, students are encouraged to play musical instruments and to engage in sports. The university also offers subject-related peer counseling, as well as career counseling. Language courses are offered for foreign students whose German may not be advanced enough for university studies.
If we translated these practices into our own setting, we would have universities that have active music programs where a lot of students can participate (not just a handful of musicians in the youth orchestra or the drum and bugle corps), an intramural sports program as equally funded as the varsity teams, and a language clinic (for those whose Filipino or English is still at the high school or even grade school level).