The Department of German

The academic year 2020-2021 posed significant challenges and obstacles to the German department - as it did to the entire school community - not least, due to the serious restrictions around international travel as a result of the Pandemic, and therefore, the inability to run any trips abroad. However, we persevered with our pen-pal programme with our partner school in Wilhelmshaven, involving students from Year 7 through to Year 10 in this. Furthermore, we continued our cultural knowledge and immersion through student projects, such as posters on art and architectural movements from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and we even managed to run day-trips and excursions to German and Austrian cultural centres in London towards the end of the year.

For example, Year 12 students visited the Austrian Cultural Forum to see an exhibition on ‘Für das Kind’, the Kindertransport during World War Two, and a trip to the Goethe Institut to watch the German film, ‘Curveball’.

Co-curricular learning was fostered through remote learning projects, such as creating a diagram of the solar system with the German terminology, and designing stop-motion animation videos with German voice-over.

Similarly, during Activity Week 2, we collaborated with both the Classics department on a Linguistics day for Year 8, and the History Department on a day of learning about the Cold War in Germany for Year 10.

Our students had a number of successes in various competitions, such as the UK Linguistics Olympiad, the Oxford German Olympiad, and the Anthea Bell Translation Competition (run by Queen’s College, Oxford).

Our fantastic prefects continued to run Languages Society every week remotely during the lockdowns, where they presented on a huge variety of fascinating topics (such as Socio-Linguistics, and the Languages of the Star Wars Universe). We are filled with optimism and excitement at the next academic year returning to school and learning without bubbles, so that we can share the love of German across year groups, and to hopefully get back to trips abroad.

Laura Probodziak Head of German

European Day of Languages

Students had the opportunity to engage with unusual facts, quizzes, and games about languages in their form time, to learn about how speaking more than one language shapes your brain, and to re-watch the immensely popular video from last year’s assembly of staff and students talking about why languages are important to them, in a foreign language. The day also featured staff wearing foreign or cultural dress into school – such as a traditional Dirndl, hat from Kazakhstan, French outfit complete with beret, and others sporting various colours of national flags on clothing. MFL Prefects ran a baking competition, where entrants sent pictures of the baking process and the finished product, with a link to the languages and cultures they are studying. Nursultan Balkibekov in Year 9 won the school-wide Geography short-essay writing competition, organised by the Academic Prefects to celebrate European Day of Languages, with his thought-provoking essay on ‘How can geography help to solve problems during this pandemic?’

Oxford German Olympiad

Students from all year groups studying German had the opportunity to submit an entry to this year’s competition. We have enjoyed success in previous years and are excited to see how the entries from our students are received in this round. This year’s competition was themed around ‘The Alps’ and students produced such submissions as: a visual representation of mythical alpine creatures with descriptions in German; research on the ice-man ‘Otzi’; an imagined conference programme about stopping the melting of glaciers; an illustration of a scene from the story, ‘Heidi’ and research on alpine equipment used by the mountain communities, among other things. We will receive the outcome of the Olympiad in March 2021 and will share this with all of you as soon as we can.

Russian Translation Completion

Congratulations to Peter Bellerby in Year 12 on being selected as one of ten winners across the country for the Russian Translation Competition of the University of Sheffield. Peter will receive a certificate, £25 Amazon voucher, and be able to attend an exclusive Translation Workshop run by the university featuring professors and professional translators.

Goethe Institut

Congratulations to Matthew Todorov on his successful application to participate in a highly sought-after German work experience week, for which Sixth Formers studying German from all over the country were invited to apply. The week should have taken place in Germany over half-term, but moved online in light of Covid -19 restrictions. Matthew worked with a team of other students and members of the Goethe Institut in London as well as those from Schwäbisch-Hall (Germany) to produce podcasts and interviews - all in Germandesigned to support others learning German. These materials will be shared by the Goethe Institut on their website and through a social media campaign.

The German Department is thrilled to announce that Frank Shrimpton, James Perry, Peter Bellerby, and Matthew Todorov in Year 12 have been selected as just one of ten teams across Europe to win the Goethe Institut’s ‘Oekoropa’ competition. The four Year 12 students entered the competition by submitting a climate-neutral plan for a tour across Europe, planned for the summer of 2021, to stop at Berlin, Lisbon, and Ljubljana. As such, they had to specifically choose methods of transport that do not negatively impact the environment, and plan the time spent in each location carefully, as the trip should not exceed three weeks. They submitted all of this plan entirely in German to the Goethe Insitut.

Now that their team has been chosen as one of the winning ten across Europe, the four students are set to receive 5,000 Euros to either put towards funding their planned trip, or if they would rather not go ahead with travel due to the implications of Covid-19, they may invest this money in an environmentally friendly project relating to school or the local area. In addition, each of the boys along with Frau Probodziak, who had agreed to accompany them on their trip, will receive a folding bicycle as a prize.

There will be an online prize giving ceremony later in December that the four Year 12 students will be attending. We will keep you updated with their plans for how to invest the prize money and whether or not their tour does go ahead.

Sag’s Mir Podcast

Year 12 student, Matthew Todorov, was part of a team of young people who organised, edited, and interviewed for the production of a series of podcasts for the Goethe Institut’s ‘Sag’s mir’ Podcast. These are designed for students learning German and are on the topics of culture, politics, and STEM, and how German supports and interlinks with all of these. We are delighted to announce that Derin Burke in Year 12 was accepted onto the Podcast Team to produce the next series of podcasts over February half-term.

German Translation Competition

Ritvick Sharma, Peter Bellerby, Matthew Todorov and Frank Shrimpton entered the German Translation Competition run by the University of Sheffield. This competition is open to students in Year 12 and Year 13 studying German and requires those entering to translate an extract from a brand new novel in German written by Julie Zeh. The text is about conflicts between residents of an apparently idyllic village in Brandenburg and explores perspectives from various characters. The winners of the competition have the chance to take part in an exclusive translation workshop, organised by the university.

Institute of Modern Languages Research

Frau Probodziak and a number of Year 12 Germanists attended a live talk online held by the Institute of Modern Languages Research (of the University of London). The talk was titled ‘Capturing the Zeitgeist’ and featured comments and presentations from Kathrin Kunkel-Razum of the highly-regarded German dictionary and publisher, ‘Duden’, and from Wendalyn Nichols, publishing manager of the prestigious Cambridge University Press. The topic of the ‘Zeitgeist’ was in relation to the invention of new words, and when these are officially adopted into dictionaries in England, the USA, and in Germany. Students were able to hear interesting anecdotes about Wendalyn and Kathrin being lobbied by individuals passionate about particular words they had heard or invented, and about the linguistic research that both lexicographers undertake to ensure their work is well-founded. Students thoroughly enjoyed the talk and engaged with both speakers at the end of the presentation by asking questions.

MFL competition

Students of German in Years 7 - 13 have been learning more about the skill of translation in preparation for a competition later this academic year, organised by Queen‘s College, Oxford. Year 7 students looked at ‘concrete poems‘ in the shape of pugs, whilst Year 9 translated a poem about saying farewell by May Ayim, a prominent black female poet from Germany - this also formed the basis of further discussions around celebrating Black History Month. Year 10 tackled a poem by the renowned Goethe, in the original language of the 1700s.

British Film Institute

Year 12 Germanists watched a film screening from the BFI London Film Festival of ‘Undine’, a brand new German-language feature film. The film was released in Germany earlier in the autumn, but its appearance on the BFI Film Festival this week marked its British Premiere. It is a modern-day reimagining of the mermaid fairy-tale of ‘Ondine’, originally from the French medieval period. This was an excellent chance for students to expand their linguistic horizons and share in this cultural experience.

UK Linguistics Olympiad

Year 12 students studying Latin, French, and German participated in the Advanced round of this competition. The paper featured some fascinating questions using languages with scripts totally different to any language the students will have come across before, and with problems that tested students’ understanding of vowel sounds, patterns of syntax, and observations of morphology. We are delighted to announce that a number of students have been recognised with Bronze and Silver Award Certificates. Matthew Todorov, Elise Stringfellow, William Boyd, and Wren Welfare received Silver Award certificates and Abdul-Rahman Muazu, Anupam Bandi, Derin Burke, Kiran Pearce, and Ritvick Sharma gained Bronze Award certificates. The students thoroughly enjoyed the challenging paper - Frank Shrimpton in Year 12 was so inspired by the questions on Native American Indian languages that he researched these further and presented his findings to the Modern Foreign Languages Society.

All Year 12 pupils studying French entered and out of 1017 participants nationwide three of our pupils won a Bronze certificate at the Advanced level. To put their performance into perspective, here are the languages they had to decipher: Mandombe, Old and Middle Chinese; Nglkolmpu; Sauk and Dagaare. Congratulations to Damita Laryea, Maya Parmar and Viraj Seelam on their performances.

East Side Gallery

Joseph Davies, Year 11, entered this competition run by the DAAD (Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienste) which required him to invent a new German word that captures the ‘Zeitgeist’, or ‘spirit of the times’, define this new word, and provide a short dialogue where the word is used in a context. Joseph’s word was ‘Krankenhauspferd’, used to describe an individual in a particularly unusual position. Eine Person in einer - oft politischen - Position, die von Natur aus seltsam oder anormal ist und um die herum große Unsicherheit, Verwirrung und Besorgnis darüber herrscht, wie ihre Position erlangt wurde. The winners will have their word published in a new, illustrated dictionary.