German students at Manhattan High School have taken advantage of opportunities to test their prowess in the German language in the month of March. 

Students from all four levels of German at MHS, accompanied by German teacher Elke Lorenz, attended Schü​lerkongress at Kansas State University on March 4. 

“It’s kind of a field day of different German events,” junior Connor Buchanan said. 

Students from across the state gather to compete in events such as a German culture quiz, a scavenger hunt, poetry and sight-reading. 

The event is sponsored by the Kansas Association of Teachers of German and Kansas State University. 

“I got to meet other people who like German,” senior Audrey Cook said. “And I got to see what [learning German] is like at the collegiate level.”

Eight MHS students – four juniors and four seniors – took the German Language Diploma 1 exam (DSD1) on March 23. 

The exam, administered nationally and internationally, is a comprehensive measure of German literacy. The DSD1 is composed of reading, listening and writing elements. The speaking portion, which covers a topic of each individual student’s choice, will occur on March 29. 

“We make a presentation and give that to a representative who comes up from Houston and she listens to us speak,” Buchanan said. “She evaluates our speaking proficiency.”

Students who meet a specific level of overall proficiency will receive the Seal of Biliteracy and the opportunity to take the DSD2.
According to senior Aspen Tallent, the students prepared well for the exam in class but learning a foreign language is a challenging task. 

“[The DSD1] gives you a sense of respect for the people who speak this language all the time,” Tallent said. “They have a command over this language that I probably never will have.”