In praise of student placements

Purely by accident we got roped into a foreign student placement. One of our board members asked if we could help her out by having a German language student who is also a chemist on a three week placement with us. I was not sure at first because the placement was supposed to be lab work to extend scientific English skills and three weeks with us certainly was not going to be that! h
However Carolin has been brilliant. She was a little surprised to be at a Discovery centre helping in family activities all about sweets and chocolate but we are having a fantastic time. Her English is stunning and my German is dire but we are getting on really well and she loves the shows. Two of the senior managers from the placement organisation came for a visit today. Matthias and Ulrich were amazed at quite what we were getting up to and even complemented me on my easy to understand English ( without an accent!! in their opinion) but I have to say I found it very hard not to think of Basil at Fawlty Towers when one of them bowed and clicked his heels when we shook hands.
I hope that the next two weeks are as much fun for Carolin as this one has been.