THS welcomes Directors of German from Cambridge and Durham Universities

Thursday 09 October 2025 | By Erin McKeown

We were delighted to welcome the Directors of German from Cambridge University and Durham University for a morning of linguistic and cultural discovery with our Year 9 and 10 German students recently.

The importance of German

The morning began with an assembly about the importance of languages and how studying German can give students the edge in the jobs market. Germany is the UK’s biggest trading partner within the EU and our second largest trading partner after the USA on a global level. It was also really interesting to learn how the study of languages at GCSE or A-level makes you stand out to universities and colleges no matter what subject you want to study, as someone who is good at communicating with others, resilient, open minded and tolerant of others.

Finally, we heard from a third year student of German and Portuguese from Cambridge who is currently on his year abroad studying at the University São Paulo in Brazil. It was really useful to hear first-hand experience of studying languages at university and how by studying one language can open the door to studying languages that we don’t have the possibility to learn at school.

German Roadshow with Cambridge and Durham Universities

We then had two workshops led by our visitors. Dr Charlotte Lee from Cambridge University ran a workshop about the Tag der Deutschen Einheit (German Unity Day). This year is the 35th anniversary of the official re-unification of Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall and we looked at how Germany came to be divided into two countries and the dramatic events that led to re-unification. We learnt about life in the former German Democratic Republic and the challenges that re-unification brought with it.

Dr Alexis Radisolgou from Durham University ran his workshop about putting language under the microscope and examining it in different ways, using the Grimm’s fairytale of Little Red Riding Hood. We examined the choice of language and why the authors chose certain words and locations for their story. I for one will never read a fairytale in quite the same way again!

Thank you so much to Dr Lee and Dr Radisoglou for their time and giving us an insight in German beyond the classroom and the opportunities that learning a language can bring.

Frau Butterfield