German Cafe feeds students’ hunger for language

Foreign language students took a trip to Germany on Thursday, May 28, at the high school via the annual German Café. German teacher Frau Baird started this tradition about thirty years ago when she noticed her students enjoyed going to cafés when visiting Europe.

“I would take kids to Europe and one of the funnest things we did was to sit in cafes, eat cake, talk, relax. Something we don’t do here very often,” Frau says.

The point of the German Café was to simply eat cake and speak German to one another. “The German Café is about eating cake,” Frau explains, “But more importantly it’s about speaking German and having a cultural experience.”

During the German Cafe, German students brought in a pastry of their choice as part of the café. Throughout the day, the students would either work in the café, where they would serve the customers their cake and beverages or they would act as a customer and simply eat cake and talk to one another. However, the catch is that they have to speak entirely in German while in the café.

Frau Baird explains that the point is for the students’ German to “flow more freely instead of grammatically,” as well as have them not worry about grammar and for them to “just sort of talk and that’s the goal of taking a foreign language.”

All students taking a German class were required to work in the café for a grade. Unlike many of their other final projects, German students were actually looking forward to the German Café and saw it as a fun experience.

Freshman and Passport to Germany student Mia Taylor had a great time at the café. “We get to eat in class and that doesn’t happen everyday,” she says.