On Oct. 1, Gunn High School’s German language program held its annual Oktoberfest on the senior quad. With lots of carnival games and food, this event immersed the Gunn High community in aspects of German culture.
Gunn High’s Oktoberfest began 12 years ago when German teacher Claudia Schroeppel first arrived at Gunn. What started as a small lunchtime celebration outside the language classrooms, exclusively for German students, has since grown into a large festival for the entire school community.
Planning for the event began weeks in advance with collaborations between the German classes, with students from each class participating: German 1 came up with fun carnival games to host, German 2 focused on cooking recipes, German 3 created invitations for the event and AP German Language learned to prepare kaiserschmarrn — a fluffy German pancake — to serve at the event.
Gunn High freshman Elijah Shahraz was running the beanbag toss, where he got the chance to teach everyone who participated a little more about German culture.
“It’s important to connect and make this school recognize [German culture],” Shahraz said. “Most people don’t know about Oktoberfest or how important it is, so when they come to Oktoberfest at Gunn, they can learn about the culture and tradition.”
Schroeppel believes it is very important, especially when learning a language, to experience the culture to gain a better understanding of what you are learning. The event highlighted the importance of celebrating and how you can bridge cultures by connecting them in events like these.
“One of my favorite moments was when our campus supervisor put on a full Bavarian outfit and ran around all school day before the event,” Schroeppel said.
Walking away from the event, Schroeppel wanted the community to have learned about German culture and to have experienced an event purely dedicated to celebration, with no competition involved.
“We live in a very multicultural society, and it’s definitely something that we have to celebrate,” Schroeppel said. “[I enjoy] seeing that you can bridge cultures with cultural events and make it accessible for every culture to participate and enjoy it with each other.”
