The Department of German at the University of Malta last Saturday opened an exhibition of selected contributions to the competition “Spot German in Malta” in the foyer of the Sir Temi Zammit Hall at the University of Malta, Msida Campus.
The competition was launched last January in collaboration with the German-Maltese Circle and the German Academic Exchange Service and was supported by the German Embassy in Malta, ProMinent, the Goethe-Institute, BDL and Merlin Library.
The idea of spotting German in Malta appealed to many young students of German and other members of the public: "Through this competition I realised that upon looking closely we have a variety of German things and aspects in Malta", one of the participants commented. The competition was designed to highlight exactly such pleasures of intercultural encounters and language learning. From January to April more than 100 photo contributions were sent in and the Facebook-Group “German in Malta”, where the pictures were posted, grew to over 2,000 members.
At the opening of the exhibition by Prof. Mario Vassallo, head of the Department of German, the winners were awarded prizes by Hubert Ziegler, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, by Petra Schneebauer, Austrian Ambassador to Malta, by Arthur Ciantar, president of the German-Maltese Circle, and by DR Ralf Heimrath of the German Academic Exchange Service. The attractive prizes included an iPad mini, an iPod as well as picture books and German DVDs.
“It is a great pleasure to see this variety of discoveries by the many participants,” Professor Vassallo emphasised. Some participants arranged creative collages, including their own drawings, displayed together with German art products. Others spotted German road signs and house names, showing that there are, for instance, several roads in Malta named after German scholars who researched Maltese history and culture. One of the participants even managed a photo with his dog acting as model reading a German magazine.
Inspired by this lively participation, the members of the Department of German designed a brochure presenting a selection of the photographs and detailing institutions for German in Malta. Members of different entities, such as the German-Maltese Circle, the Junior College and Secondary Schools, contributed short texts giving information on possibilities of learning and studying German in Malta, applying for scholarships for language courses and studying abroad. The publication of this brochure was made possible through the support of the EU Commission Representation in Malta, Playmobil and Hotset.
The broad interest in and support for this initiative makes it clear that there is a large variety of Maltese-German connections, and that there is a growing interest in the German language, as one of the most widely spoken languages in the EU.
The exhibition can be viewed until 31 May at the foyer of Sir Temi Zammit Hall at the University of Malta, Msida Campus. After that it will move to the German-Maltese Circle in Valletta.