Winners of German Language Olympiad Awarded at Goethe Institute

On March 1, 2020, the Goethe Institute of Georgia, the Ministry of Education and Science and the National Center for Assessment and Examinations hosted the winners of the German Language Olympiad.

The official award ceremony was attended by the invited guests: German Ambassador to Georgia Hubert Knirsch and the Deputy Director of the Goethe Institute Sasha Fabri, who awarded the winners. 

The winners of the National Olympiad in German were Ketevan Kalandadze, a student of #1 experimental public school and Elene Mindiashvili of #195 public school. On behalf of Georgia, they will travel to Germany, Dresden, to participate in the International Olympiad of German Language, which will take place from July 26 to August 8, 2020.

Students of Robert Schumann European School, Tamar Goliadze and Ketevan Kipiani awarded travel packages to attend youth gathering titled 'We Are Future' in Weimar, while a student of Komarov Public School #199, Mate Gvinjilia, was awarded the gift card for a German language course at the Goethe-Institut.

The International German Language Olympiad is the largest German-language competition in the world, held every two years in Germany and draws students from 75 countries across five continents. Winners of the National Olympiads compete internationally in language skills, teamwork and communication. The International Olympiad of German Language aims at enhancing the interest and tolerance of young people in the German language, introducing them to German cultural diversity and civil society.

In recent years, the International Olympiad was held in Dresden (2008), Hamburg (2010), Frankfurt (2012,2014), Berlin (2016) and Freiburg (2018).

"I am pleased to attend this event at Goethe-Institut where we have awarded the winners of the German National Olympiad. We selected the most successful students who study German and two of them will go to Germany for the International Olympiad. When we see them competing in the German language competition, it motivates us to learn foreign languages, too. I think a lot of young people here were very enthusiastic about it and they had the motivation to win this Olympiad," said Hubert Knirsch, German Ambassador to Georgia.

"The International German Language Olympiad is one of the big and very important competitions held every two years. Dresden will host this year's Olympics, with schoolchildren from 75 countries, including two from Georgia, and I am particularly pleased that we have two winners and two extraordinarily good girls at the National Olympiad. The theme of this year's Dresden Olympics is to be together - this theme has its own Olympic content as young people work together as a group, make friends and create such a diverse multicultural environment. In the final round of the German Language Olympiad, 62 best students of German-speaking public schools in Tbilisi and Georgia participated in the final round of the Goethe-Institut International Olympiad. I was very pleased with their presentations and overall preparation. In this case, in addition to students' linguistic knowledge, their creativity and critical thinking skills were assessed. At the final stage, they took part in a test corresponding to step B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages," said Sasha Fabri, Deputy Director of the Goethe Institute. 

The final round of the German Language Olympiad was held at Goethe Institute in two rounds: written and oral exams. After the written exam, 20 of the 62 students made it to the oral exam stage.

The oral exam consisted of public group presentations. The jury of the final stage of the National Olympiad was composed of representatives of the Goethe Institute, the German Embassy, the German International School and the German Language Teachers' Association.