From The President:

Minnesota Staatsbrief

Fall, 1999

When I was asked to consider taking on the challenge of the presidency of MN-AATG my first thought was that I didn't have time for one more thing. It often seems teachers are being “one-more-thinged” to death.

All teachers face a great number of challenges. Classes tend to be too large. Administrivia rules. The public seems to want teachers to resolve all the social problems children have while at the same time exercising the prime directive of babysitting.

Language teachers have their own special challenges. How on earth can we deal with the Profile of Learning while being “optional”? What will happen to electives when districts make enough courses required in order to make placement of standards easier (in direct opposition to the original intent of the Profile of interdisciplinary teaching)? How do I teach to state and national standards that are proficiency-based without giving up on accuracy issues?

Some challenges are unique to German teachers. People perceive the language to be very difficult. German culture is sometimes equated with evil in the popular media. German teachers tend to work alone with little support. As I write my own curriculum, how do I know that it is right? My program will thrive or wither based on my own performance.

Being active in German and language teaching organizations is “one more thing” that makes other aspects of our positions less overwhelming and more rewarding.

All German teachers in Minnesota can do themselves a favor by checking their e-mail listings on the MN/AATG Web site at:

If your address is incorrect, let us know! If you are a Minnesota German teacher and are not listed but would like to be, let us know!

The directory is a convenient way for German teachers to stay in touch with each other on a one-to-one basis. We can also share information and ideas with all German teachers on the system.

If you have not been receiving periodic e-mail messages from MN/AATG announcing German teaching position openings or dates and places of German events, your address may be incorrect on the directory--or missing.

Please help us keep you informed! Send me an e-mail, or use the e-mail option by clicking on Report errors and changes at the top of the directory page.

The 42 students from Baden-WŸrttemberg who stepped off the KLM flight in Minneapolis on August 30, 1999, are the twentieth group to participate in the Minnesota-Baden WŸrttemberg Exchange Program sponsored by Minnesota AATG.

In its 20 years of operation, the program has hosted nearly 800 students from Baden-WŸrttemberg, and given an equal number of Minnesota secondary students the opportunity to experience life in families and schools in Germany. Several former participants later became teachers of German in Minnesota schooIs. Amy Hallberg, for example, participated as a student from Prior Lake and now teaches German in the Chaska district. Hallberg also serves as a member of the exchange program's advisory committee.

The program grew out of a chance encounter in the late 1970s between Minnesota teacher of German EmiI Balz and a representative of the Internationaler SchŸler-austausch (ISA) department of the Oberschulamt Stuttgart. The ISA had wanted for years to initiate an exchange program in the United States simiIar to its 3-month program in the Canadian province of Ontario. The ISA's wishes were transmitted to Suzanne Jebe at the then Minnesota State Department of Education. Thanks to her initiative, MN/AATG agreed to work in partnership with the Oberschulamt Stuttgart to organize a student exchange. Under the direction of a committee consisting of Jebe, Lieselotte Tschesche, Mary Vick and George Reimer, the first group of 3l host students was recruited from Minnesota high schools to welcome their partners from Germany in the fall of 1980.

German students spend three months in Minnesota in the faIl. In the spring Minnesota students spend three months in their exchange partners' homes and schools in Baden-WŸrttemberg.

The program was so popular that the need for a director became imperative. The first director, Dr. Jermaine Arendt, oversaw the early rapid growth of the program. Student participation reached its peak in 1987-88 with 61 students. After Arendt retired in 1987, Dr. Hedi Oplesch directed the program until her death in 1997.

The program continues to attract students from all parts of the state. It's low cost ($1400 this year) and the intensive 3-month family and school experience make it ideal for motivated students who cannot afford the time or the expense of a year-long program.

If you teach in a Minnesota secondary school and are not familiar with this MN/AATG-sponsored student exchange program, please contact the current director, George Reimer, at 612-824-2518 (e-mail: greimer494@aol.com) for more information, or contact a member of the Advisory Committee: Amy Hallberg in Chaska, Rosemarie Hogan at Minneapolis South, Patrick O'MaIIey in New Prague, or Vicki Swedeen in Faribault.

Noah Mackert, high school student from St. Cloud, MN, received a check for $1,000 presented by the Minnesota Chapter of the German-American Chamber of Commerce for his essay, written in German on a topic of cross-cultural interest to the German-American community.

The theme for the second annual essay contest was “Warum Deutsch?” (Excerpt from Mackert's essay on page 8).

The annual essay contest, initiated by the German-American Chamber of Commerce last year to recognize the importance of language learning at the secondary level, is open to all high school students in Minnesota.

Noah, his family, and his high school teacher, Emmerich Sack at St. John's Prep School, were invited to a dinner at the Wayzata Country Club for the award presentation.

To place your high school on the mailing list for an invitation for your students to participate in this essay contest, contact Inge Froebe at the German-American Chamber of Commerce, telephone (651) 962-4081.

“Spitze,” sage ich noch einmal. Sie lacht, und fischt nach ein zweites Weinglas in ihrer sanften braun Leder Armtasche. Nach zwanzig Minuten sagen wir “Du” zu einander.

Und deswegen Deutsch. Englisch kšnnen alle; alle die ich kenne. Und auf dem Bank, wo gŸnstige Gelegenheit lebt und stirbt, kann ich Deutsch, weil es gesprochen wird. Weil ich in Deutschland sitze. Weil die Syntax, die Wšrter anders sind. Weil wir in …sterreich stehen, schifahren, arbeiten. Weil es Ÿberall Leute gibt, die sprechen wŸrden, nur um zu sprechen. Und weil es Leute gibt, die Englisch nicht sprechen wollen, mŸssen oder sollen. Ich lerne die Sprache, denn dadurch lernt man Verstand. Und ich lerne die Sprache, denn sie lernen meine. Wie kann man doch wissen, wie es seiner Nachbarin geht, ohne mit ihr zu sprechen? Es ist eine freundschaftliche Geste: meine Sprache zu unterlassen, als Entgelt fŸr ihre. Es ist bequem, es ist gewohnt, es ist menschlich, es ist neu. Und das ist Deutsch.

Who stands out this year a bit above the many outstanding primary, middle or high school German teachers in our state?

It's never too early to be looking around and thinking about whom you would like to nominate as this year's top German educator.

Teaching Tips

Need a change of pace for your classroom activities? Send your students shopping in Germany - in the Internet lab! Here are some web sites that are good for developing shopping trips:

General catalogs: http://www.neckermann.de http://www.otto.de http://www.quelle.de

One of the frustrating realities about the Internet is that the web sites change frequently and without warning. Once I prepared an Internet activity a week in advance, and when my students did the activity, some of the pathways had already changed. It is best to check your activities at the last minute to make sure they are still workable. Then it's safe to Xerox your activities.

A word of warning about shopping activities on the Internet: Make sure the students do not actually order the items. While most web sites require a bank account or credit card number to place an order, some in Germany do not!

1. Write a list of groceries (including brand names) that your students have to buy. Have them write down the prices and then tally the total. The first student who gets the correct total wins a prize.

2. Give the students an easy recipe in German. Have them write down the item (including brand names) and price of everything they will need to make it.

3. Find specific items in the catalog, write down the pathways, and have the students write descriptions of those articles.

4. Each student needs new clothes for a party. Give them all DM 300 (cyber money) and see what they come up with. Have them write down the articles of clothing and prices.

5. Create a Schnitzeljagd of items students have to buy. Write down the name of each specific item and have them record the price. Or you could do it in reverse - write the general category (z.B. Schuhe) and the price, and have them come up with the article that matches that price.

Let your imagination be your guiding star in creating these Internet activities.

The Pommerscher Verein of Wisconsin will be hosting the fourth U.S. PlattdŸŸtsch Konferenz in Wausau, Wisconsin, October 22-24. Entitled "Wi Snack Platt," this year's conference focuses on the Low German spoken in the Midwest, and the renaissance of interest in the language and culture of areas where Low German is spoken.

The varieties of Low German represented at the conference include East Fresian, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Mecklenburg, Lower Saxony, and East Pommeranian (Ost-Pommersch). A large number of children who grew up in rural areas learned to speak these dialects at home before entering Kindergarten, where they learned English. As a result, many Low German speakers, while they enjoy speaking their mother tongue, read and write only in English.

The conference is of special interest to a group of 38 Germans from the State of Schleswig-Holstein since on December 1, 1998, Low German was accepted by the European Council in Strasbourg, France, into the "European Charter of Minority Languages." Thus Low German now has status as an official minority language in Germany.

In 1995, the American/Schleswig-Holstein Heritage Society, under the leadership of Glenn Sievers, organized the first Low German Conference in the U.S. In 1989, the society's Vice President, Bill Storjohan, developed the first Low German language course for speakers of English. Since then, scholarly articles and dissertations under the guidance of Prof. Bill Keel, Kansas University, and Prof. JŸrgen Eichhoff, Pennsylvania State University, have been published.

In 1998, Robert Lee Stockmann released his 500-page book, Platt DŸŸtsch/Low German: A Brief History of the People and Language plus Glossary and Orthography, Platt DŸŸtsch Press, 10748 100th Street, Alto, MI 49302.

During the Late Middle Ages, the Baltic seaport of LŸbeck in Schleswig- Holstein, was the administrative and cultural center of the Hanseatic League, an immense trading empire and network of more than 160 cities reaching from England to Russia committed to free trade. The primary language of this predecessor of today's European Union was Low German. Today, although no longer the language of economics and business, "the uniquely warm and expressive nature of the Low German language thankfully still resonates in several parts of the world,” bringing people from all social classes and both sides of the Atlantic together (Stockmann, 440).

For further conference information, contact: Donald Zamzow, P.O. Box 358, Wausau, WI 54402-0358; (715)359-5189; fax (715) 359-5816; or e-mail zamzow@dwave.net

Dr. Joachim Reppmann, Professor of German at Carleton College; 3 Lincoln Lane, Northfield, MN 55057; phone (507) 645-9161; fax (507) 663-7929;

The Minnesota Chapter of AATG provides a wide range of services to its members and by extention their students through the countless hours of volunteer service donated by dedicated German teachers, active and retired. Your annual chapter dues of $5.00 are essential to help defray a least a portion of the expenses for materials and mailings. Please support MA/AATG by joining or renewing your membership. Fill out and mail in the form provided below.

Dues will also be accepted at the chapter table at the MCTLC/MN-AATG fall conference in October. Look for us!

Nota bene: MN/AATG urges you to become a member of the national AATG. Just as Minnesota/AATG provides services within the state, the national AATG organization in turn provides members and chapters with additional services to assist us in our mission of serving teachers of German better. A form for application membership or renewal is provided in this issue of the Minnesota Staatsbrief.Fill out and mail it in to the national headquarters in Cherry Hill, NJ.

The annual MN/AATG dues were increased from $4 to $5 by unanimous vote of the executive board on August 24.

Several members had complained bitterly that it was difficult to come up with four $1.00 bills at dues time each autumn.

The MN/AATG treasurer verified that Some members submitted $5.00 bill with a note telling AATG to “keep the change.” The treasurer treated all such over-payments as a donation to MN/AATG.

“Five is a nice round number,” stated a long-time member who chaffed every year over the four-dollar amount.

The Society for German American Studies Symposium held in April, 1999, drew a large crowd to the small town of New Ulm, Minnesota.

Most popular on the varied program of topics on history, people, language, literature, and religion were sessions on German Genealogy.

Dozens of genealogy resources were offered to both teachers and persons interested in learning more about their German ancestry. A good place to start is: The Germanic Genealogy Society, P.O. Box 16312, St. Paul, MN 55116.

The increase in the number of Web sites available for genealogical research has exploded in recent years. Paula Goblirsch, whose genealogy hobby became a serious research interest, shares her list of more than 30 Internet resources for German Genealogy and History at her Web site:

Paula is convinced that genealogy is another good way to get students fired up about learning more German, and to motivate them to develop the ability to read the old German script since they encounter a need to know as they begin to trace their roots. Many of the Web sites are in Germany, and many of the critical documents were recorded in the old Gothic script.

Selection as the SGAS conference site was a recognition of New Ulm's German heritage as well as the town's high hospitality quotient and organizational ability. It was the first time the annual SGAS symposium, which is attended by scholars from across the nation as well as from abroad, mostly from Germany, had ever been hosted by a town the size of New Ulm .

Conference guests were pleased with the scholarly offerings as well as the informative tours of the local cemetery, museums, and the second oldest family-owned brewery in the U.S.