On October 19, the 12^thGerman Debate for German Majors in Colleges and Universities Nationwide was held in Jinan, Shangdong Province. Under the guidance of Zhu Rui (instructor of German in theSchool of Western Languages), JISU students Shi Jiayang and Cao Pusen received the National Second Prize in the competition. Their performance in the competition caused JISU to be one of the top eight universities to enter the finals.

Shi Jiayang(fifth from the left) and Cao Pusen(fourth from the left) received awards

The 12^thGerman Debate for German Majors in Colleges and Universities Nationwideis a professional discipline competition co-supported and organized by the German Branch Committee of the Foreign Language Committee under the Ministry of Education,Goethe Institute, the German Embassy in China, the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (FLTRP), and Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. It is one of the most historic competitions, with the highest quality of certificate, among national German professional competitions. It has become a platform for college German major students to show their best performance.

During this competition, there were many excellent participants representing 48 colleges and universities from all over the county. These universities include comprehensive universities like Peking University, Fudan University, Nankai University and Tongji University. This also included foreign languages schools such as Beijing Foreign Studies University, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Sichuan International Studies University and Xi'an International Studies University.

In the preliminary round on Oct.19, two participants from our school joined the first competition. The first debater, Shi Jiayang, pronounced correctly and fluently in German and had unique thinking. The second debater, Cao Pusen, articulated his logical thinking and responded quickly without hesitation. With their outstanding performance, they won the unanimous affirmation of the judges and other college instructors, and entered the top 16 knockouts. On the second day, they passed the quarter finals. In the finals, they debated with players from Ocean University of China, which fully showed JISU students’ performance.

Eventually, Peking University and Tongji University respectively won the First Place and the Second Place; Beijing Foreign Studies University and Ocean University of China received the first prize; Jilin International Studies University, Fudan University, Nanjing University and Anhui University received the second prize. The above schools are the top eight universities entering the finals.

Zhu Rui, the instructor (First from the left),and Frank, the foreign teacher(First from the right) took a photo with JISU players

JISU and the School of Western Languages attached great importance to the competition.The professional teachers, Zhu Rui, Wang Xin and Frank, the foreign teacher spent their time after-class discussing affairs related to the contest, which greatly helped their preparation for the event. Shi Jiayang said, “The process of preparation is more important than the competition. After a dozen days, I felt that our German improved greatly.”

The competition proved the high-level teaching of our German major teachers and demonstrated our effective talents cultivation. It showed that intensifying major construction in turn benefits students. Cao Pusen said: “I appreciated that JISU offered a better platform for us to vie with our counterparts in other universities. Through this competition, we broadened our insight, enriched ourselves, made acquaintance with other students and accumulated valuable experience, which laid a more solid foundation for learning German.”