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Spätzle und Spaziergänge: Camping with K-State’s German Section

Unsere Hütte! (Our cabin!)
Unsere Hütte! (Our cabin!)

April 26th – 27th marked the second annual German Immersion Weekend at Tuttle Lake Park. For the past two years a group of German majors and minors, accompanied by the members of the German faculty at K-State go camping for the weekend at Tuttle Lake.
The goal of the weekend is to provide a fun, relaxed atmosphere in which students can speak German, enjoy German food and games, and get to know other German students and faculty. German is the only language spoken on the trip, creating a language immersion environment for the students. During the weekend students cooked authentic German foods, played German games, watched a German film, enjoyed a bonfire, and many more activities.

This annual trip was developed and organized by Dr. Necia Chronister. When asked what led her to develop this program she described two goals. The first was to provide students “the opportunity to use their German for a sustained period of time outside of the classroom, as a way to aid their language acquisition and to help build their confidence.” Secondly, she hoped that the immersion weekend would foster a sense of community among the majors and minors. When asked what they felt they gained from the weekend, many participants mentioned feeling more confident in their spoken language abilities. Jenn Stawski remarked that, “it definitely helped me with my speaking and grammar. I started to be way more confident in my speaking abilities. I was actually surprised how much I could communicate.” Aliana Littlejohn echoed Jenn’s sentiments “I learned a lot of new words and I felt like I could speak the language much better.” “For several days after [the immersion weekend] I would find myself thinking in German or hearing German spoken in random places” Justine Carnegy remarked. Among other things the Wiener Schnitzel- prepared on-site by the students – and the homemade Kuchen were big hits!

The next German Immersion Weekend will take place April 25th -26th. Any interested majors or minors should contact Chronister at nchroni@ksu.edu The German Immersion Weekend is funded in part by the department of Modern Languages at K-State, and in part by participants’ contributions.

A group of german students and professor making Frikadelle (meat dumplings)
A group of german students and professor making Frikadelle (meat dumplings)
One thought on “Spätzle und Spaziergänge: Camping with K-State’s German Section
  1. This looks like a wonderful idea for all involved. Perhaps you’ll consider doing this with the German alumni at some point. It could be a refresher for their little used skills that they’d like to reactivate. Immersion is a great way of doing this.

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