Majors
This year's German majors had a variety of different activities and projects. Each day in class was different, and the German majors engaged in everything from painting to singing to dancing.
This year's theme was identity - what it means to be a German speaker. The students worked with creativity enhancing strategies, using a hybrid of George Bett's Autonomous Learner Model and Joe Renzulli's Triad Model.
Every day, there were presentations. Each student had to do 2 half-hour presentations. One was about a current even occurring in the German world, and the other could be on anything topic they liked. The My Own Topic presentations ranged from clogging to learning how to draw anatomically correct faces. Of course, all of this took place in German.
The culminating project was the research project, an assignment for all the foreign language majors. Unlike some other languages, the German majors did not have to choose a topic related to Germany; the only requirement was that the entire 1-hour presentation had to be in German. Of course, this gave a lot of freedom to choose whatever they were interested in researching.
Cabaret
Each year, the Foreign Language Department at GHP puts on a cabaret - a show guaranteed to make you burst into laughter, even though you have no idea what the people are saying. This year's German skit was no different. The German majors chose to create a skit of a normal German girl coming home from school and watching TV, therefore allowing a great diversity in the content. The shows included Oprah, Pimp My Ride, music videos, and Monty Python, complete with commercials. In the finale, the German boys danced and sang the YMCA, or rather, the Uppsilon Emm Tseh Ah, to great success.
Trading Spaces
In addition to the cabaret, the foreign language classes also host a cultural trading spaces. Each major picks a lesser-known country or culture that speaks its language and decorates the room of another major in the fashion of that country/culture. This year's German majors chose to decorate the French majors' room as Bluminau, Brazil.
Minors
The German minors were just as busy as the majors. Their activities this year included an art show and a mini cabaret. For the art show, each language minor chose a class theme for their work. This year's German theme was "Eine Nacht im Herbst (A Night in Autumn)." The class also decided to focus on tactile artwork, wanting more than just 2-D paintings, using sculpture and texture. Each person created their own masterpiece, pertaining to German culture and identity. The mini cabaret was exclusively for the foreign language minors, and each class had a skit that was 5-7 minutes long. The German minors' skit was the classic tale of Cinderella, with a few new twists.
