AIRA’s German class is taught every Saturday (10:15 ~ 11:45) at a meeting room of the Abiko Civic Plaza or other public facilities. Last Saturday (Dec. 19),the students learned German Christmas events including folding Santa Claus with origami paper. The following is the report of the class contributed by Mr. Masakuni Koyama, the class leader. (No. 20-12)

The Special Class for the Christmas in the AIRA’s German Beginners and Intermediate class
The students have learned 14 times out of the scheduled 18 times for this semester since the early August without any troubles at all .(as of Dec 19)
In the hard time of COVID-19, the German class dealt with Christmas topics from the end of November to the middle of December.
The students could learn the language as well as the culture of the German speaking region through Christmas events, which were unfamiliar with Japanese. The series of the class is very helpful for us to make better understanding of the culture. I will give a broad outline of the class.

Speaking of Christmas, we usually associate it with Christmas trees, Christmas presents, Christmas cake on the Christmas Eve. But the students learned Adventskranz (Advent wreath), Adbenskarender (Advent calendar) , and Adventsbakerei (Advent cakes), other Christmas events and details and historic background of them, by using pictures and an audiovisual program titled “Der Advent und seine Tradition” of Deutsche Welle (German international public radio services).

Additionally, the students did a bingo related to the events mentioned above. Ms. Bilik Eva gave easy-to-understandable answers and showed the real things to the questions the students asked. Therefore, the students could understand those events and the culture deeply.

In the class on Dec. 19, the students learned more practical things, as shown in a picture. Hearing songs likes “Stille Nachts. Heilige Nachts” (Silent Night), “O Tannenbaum” (O Christmas Tree) and others, the students practiced to dictate the songs in German. Furthermore, the students folded Santa Claus, following instructions given in a workbook, “Arbeitsblatt: OrigamiWeihnachtmann”. While reading the instructions, the students could learn and experience many verbs such as hinlegen (put), klappen (bend), umklappen (fold) knichen (crease), umdrehen (rotate), falten (fold), überlappen (overlap), kleben (paste) and others.

Ms. Bilik Eva gave each student a slice of Christstollen*, a Christmas cake, and Christmas card with a polite massage. At the end of the class, she introduced us the following proverb which inspired me to keep on studying harder.

Christstollen*: It is a fruit bread of nuts, spices, and dried or candied fruit, sprinkled with icing powder. The taste of bread changes gradually because of absorbing flavors of the ingredients.

“Ich weiẞ nichit, ob es besser wird, wenn es anders wird. Aber es muss anders werden, wenn es basser werden, wenn es besser werden soll.“ By G.C. Lichtenberg (1742-99, German Physicist, Author)

(Translated by Ms.Hitomi Koyama)