„Netzwerk Deutsch“ (Network German) Meeting

On Friday, 2 January 2011, the members of “Netzwerk Deutsch” held their annual meeting at the Goethe-Institut in Wellington.

The conference was opened by German Ambassador Thomas H. Meister and the Director of the Goethe-Institut Wellington, Bettina Senff. Silke Röfer, new German Deputy Ambassador since Juli 2010, and Waltraud Schiedermair from the Swiss Embassy also attended this year's conference.

The “Netzwerk Deutsch” is tasked with supporting the learning of the German language in schools and universities and coordinating as well as exchanging views on different campaigns to promote German. The Goethe-Institut New Zealand, German-New Zealand Science Coordinator Dr. Frank Bruhn, the DAAD and the Germany Embassy gave progress reports on their projects from 2010, followed by reports from the GANZ representatives on development in their regions.

It was noted that the number of German language learners in the regions is still constant or even slightly rising. New Zealanders teaching and learning German are very enthusiastic about their subject and even in Samoa, 15 students successfully passed the language exams. Three of these students (along with 6 from the two partner schools in NZ) are now visiting Germany on a scholarship and are seeing snow for the first time in their life.