The annual Bundeswettbewerb Fremdsprachen competition is a renowned national contest that challenges the linguistic finesse of students in at least two foreign languages. In this year’s contest, I was fortunate enough to make it through the first two rounds and represent Schloss Torgelow at the Germany-wide final in Magdeburg, which was constituted by three separate parts.

First, a preselected group engaged in a discussion on a given topic about current social or economic issues with 30 minutes for preparation. Together with three other contestants I debated over the necessity of establishing a system where students shall all receive individualized education. We fully utilized the provided preparation time and came up with intriguing arguments during the 15-minute discuss. 

For the second part, contestants interacted with three interlocutors in form of a one-on-one discussion. I had a downright fascinating talk with the judges that started off with my music interest particularly concerning the violin and ended with the US Constitution and current international affairs. 

The third part, if not the most challenging one, required contestants to swiftly socialize with perfect strangers and present their findings in a keynote presentation about the past, presence and the future of the city Magdeburg. With only two days available for preparation, we worked in groups and interviewed citizens on the street and channeled our focus on depicting the city in its most natural appearance, all the while striving for uniqueness in content and simplicity in form. 

Looking back at this entire experience that all started at the beginning of last school year when I was accidentally informed about this competition during the tea break of English class, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to Dr. Hoot for prompting me to enroll in this competition and for taking an entire day's time out to supervise the second round which took place at our school and Frau Eisenbart for attending the closing ceremony in Magdeburg and troubling herself with the assignment of taking vividly wonderful pictures to capture the hefty festivities. My heartfelt appreciation, finally, goes of course to everyone who kindly offered me much needed support and well-intended advice along the way. Was it a lot of effort that went into attending this competition? Yes, from editing my texts for the first round over and over to being absent on more than one entire day of school traveling to Magdeburg, determination was curtained, demanded, and sacrifices had to made. But at the end of the day, I was more than content with myself for having been persistent the whole year through concerning this competition and was honored and proud to finally stand on the podium representing Schloss Torgelow along with the language elites in Germany.