Items help students learn about the German culture

SAGEN EATWELL
December 19, 2007

As you might have read in the past, Sprague's German Club and class have been active in coming up with new and exciting activities to do to promote learning and enjoying the German language and culture.

Past events have included trips to the Rhinelander restaurant in Portland, a basketball tournament with the other foreign language departments at Sprague and an annual play at the end of the year.

This time German teacher Fritz Juengling has come up with something new, something unlike anything else that the German club has done in the past -- trading cards.

These German trading cards were created to help students learn about the German culture and grammar, as well as to have fun with and trade. Juengling has been working on their creation since the beginning of this school year, with many many of his own hours put in to it.

The cards consist of four parts, Juengling said. Each card has its own number, a picture, something written in German having to do with the picture, and finally a note at the bottom. The note is written about a German word or piece of text highlighted in writing above.

There are cards about everything from students, to grammar and culture; some have German historical figures, folk songs, places or songs made up in German class to help the students remember grammar points, such as prepositions.

The students seem to be enjoying the cards much, as 5,000 have been sold already. Sprague junior Rachel Peterson said, "I like them because it's really fun to try to get my friends' cards and it's also cool seeing the other seemingly random cards such as the two-way preposition card and the Martin Luther card."

The cards were first unleashed and made available at a release party on Nov. 29 at 2:50 p.m. More than 50 students and teachers showed up for the event, with a countdown until the time of truth and confetti being thrown when the clock struck 2:50.

Students then lined up to purchase their packs of 10 cards for 50 cents each, with all of the funds going toward the German club. Three hundred twenty packs sold, with 290 selling just at the release party.

The cards have been created with some being rarer than others. The rarest card is of Sprague literature teacher Kathleen McElliott.

According to Juengling, few pictures exist of McElliott, though she allowed one to be used for one of the trading cards. Only three exist out of the 3,200 produced.

More of the trading cards are in the process of coming soon, with the new batch hopefully coming out before Christmas break.

All of this excitement about the German trading cards has done well at Sprague to raise excitement for the German club, and to promote the learning of German culture and grammar. Who knows what this creative bunch, headed up by Juengling, will come up with next?

Sagen Eatwell is a junior at Sprague High. You may contact him at bassplayerzoot@yahoo.com