Orenburg state university

Days of German culture at OSU: from exclusive readings to studying acting

On October 26–30, OSU hosted the Days of German culture. The event was organized by the Department of German Philology and Methods of German language Teaching and the German Language Center.

The project got the support from the Embassy of German in Moscow and put into the program list of the Year of Germany in Russia 2020/2021.

One of the brightest events was traditional “Author's readings” by Angelika Jodl, a writer and an author of many research papers on German studies and German literary, a German language teacher from Munich (Germany) and a long-time partner and friend of the university.

This year, the readings were special as Angelica presented passages from a new, not published yet novel “Laudatio auf eine kaukasische Kuh”. The book will appear on the shelves of the bookstores only in May 2021, but the German publisher made an exception and gave its consent to the author's readings in Orenburg.

In the “Workshop for Literary Translation” with Irina Solodilova, the Dean of the Faculty of Philology, students learned some special aspects of a literary text and how to translate it.

Students planning to apply for summer schools and study trips to Germany, and master's degree programs at German universities learned about current scholarship programs from Robin Roth, a lecturer from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The speaker also gave practical recommendations how to fill in applications and answered the questions from the audience.

Marie-Louise Tralle conducted a master-class “Theater techniques to assist future translators in their job”. Under her guidance the participants performed exercises to train memory and articulation. And the educator shared with many other tips from her personal teaching experience.

The online quiz was a series of questions in German about the life and work of Ludwig van Beethoven. More than 100 high school students took the quiz. The winners got the prizes.