Teacher trainees are questioned about their strategic and emotional relationships with a key area of their future activity, learning. Characteristics of German teacher trainees are identified through comparisons with German students on a related course of study (educational science), and through comparisons with Swedish teacher trainees. N = 875 people took part in the study, of whom n = 135 German teacher trainees participated again after two years. There are national differences both in the numbers of students allocated to the identified learning strategy clusters, and in the balance of learning-related emotions. In both areas, the Swedish students show more favourable configurations. (Contains 3 figures and 6 tables.)