KU News Release

Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Schuelerkongress brings high school German students to KU

LAWRENCE — About 300 Kansas high school and junior high students studying German will compete for medals at the annual Schuelerkongress at the University of Kansas.

The event begins at 9 a.m. Saturday, March 3, on the fourth floor of Wescoe Hall. Top competitors will receive awards at a 1:30 p.m. ceremony at 3139 Wescoe Hall.

William Keel, KU professor of Germanic languages and literatures, described the awards ceremony as similar to the Olympics’ medal ceremonies. Schuelerkongress translates as ‘student congress.’

The Kansas Association of Teachers of German sponsors the daylong event in cooperation with KU’s Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures. Faculty and graduate teaching assistants from the department will be judges for the various contests.

The activities include contests in poetry recitation, prose reading, spelling, poster making, cultural tests and oral proficiency.

Cultural test questions may run the gamut of geography, cuisine, history — anything related to German-speaking countries.

“Studying a foreign language not only helps you learn another language and culture, but it also helps you understand your own language better,” said Keel.

In the Schuelerkongress, poetry and prose recitations tend to attract students because more can win medals in those competitions, said Keel. The poems and prose selections are made in advance by a committee of high school teachers to match students’ level of study, such as first-year or second-year German.

Few of the poems and prose selections would be readily recognized by the public, but some communities in Kansas with large settlements of German immigrants would know them, said Keel. In central Kansas, Ellinwood named streets for famous Germans, including several poets — Schiller, Goethe and Wieland — and Kennedy Street was previously named Arndt Street. Ernst Moritz Arndt was a poet during the time of the Napoleonic wars in Germany.

Schools planning to compete in the Schuelerkongress are:

Abilene High School; Blue Valley High School, Stilwell; Blue Valley Northwest High School, Overland Park; Blue Valley West High School, Overland Park; Hays High School; Junction City High School; Lawrence High School; Lawrence Southwest Junior High School; Newton High School; Olathe North High School; Olathe East High School; Olathe Northwest High School; Smoky Valley High School, Lindsborg; Topeka High School; Topeka West High School; Washburn Rural High School, Topeka; and Wichita Heights High School.

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