The Goethe Society Orals is a much respected competition within the NZ Schools’ Languages calendar. The competition has been happening for more than 50 years. It is a wonderful, slightly competitive way for students of German to measure themselves with student from other schools. With over 100 students involved from across Auckland, the Dio girls performed superbly.

In the exams, the students are tested on what German language proficiency they have acquired at that point in the four skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. While reading, writing and listening comprehension are tested at school, the speaking component is done at the University of Auckland on a Saturday in August. There, the students are examined by members of the Auckland Goethe Society committee, many of whom are either native speakers of German or teach German at the University of Auckland or both.

These Dio students participated this year, and received the following awards

Seniors

Year 12

– Sophia Zheng: Highly Commended

Year 11

– Lilly Lang: 1st place as advantaged speaker

– Juliet Nasrabadi: 1st place at her year level

– Lucy Xu: Distinction

Juniors

Year 10

– Lucy Kilgour: Gold

Year 9

– Maria Derold: Gold

– Jacqui Nasrabadi: Gold

– Joanna Chen: Gold

Year 8

– Amelia Avery: Silver

– Laura Bowden: Gold

– Manea Heeney: Bronze

– Hannah McIntosh: Silver

– Mielene Schuetze: Gold

Congratulations to all of our participants.