East German Club attends annual Sprachfest festival Sprachfest: a German language and culture competition that German students and schools across New Jersey compete in.
This year, the Cherry Hill High School East German Club attended the festival on March 2. Held in Washington Township, Sprachfest gives high school students the opportunity to participate in German contests and activities, and interact with other German students.
“At Sprachfest, students can present different German published works, write skits or perform pieces of plays, participate in a vocab competition for different levels and participate in a spontaneous storytelling game. There are also artistic competitions and baking and cooking contests, truly all kinds of things,” said Mr. Andrew Graff, Cherry Hill East German teacher and German Club adviser.
Sprachfest is an annual event, and this year around 15 to 20 students attended. In addition, students from the German Club competed.
East started participating in Sprachfest several decades ago, but did not attend last year. This year, the theme was technology, cars and inventions.
“There are also other fun events: Sprachfest always has a baking portion and students can bring in German recipes, which is always fun,” said German Club president, Nancy Awad (‘24).
Sprachfest is annually organized by a few South Jersey teachers, Graff being one of them, and is open to all students in the area. Students from North Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware high schools attended. Additionally, although it was a German language-based event, any student was allowed to attend.
“It gives students an outlet to see that there are other kids that are learning German,” said Graff.
“[Sprachfest] is kind of the biggest German language competition that German students at East can participate in,” said Awad.
In addition to Sprachfest, the German students also take annual trips to the Christmas Market in Philadelphia, New York City, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Overall, East’s German students enjoyed their experience attending the 2024 Sprachfest.
“I think this event is especially important to German students at East because it gives us the opportunity to utilize our skills in competitions, and also meet other German students in New Jersey. We’re able to experience German culture through the different German foods, music,traditions, and overall it’s just a very fun time,” said Awad.