On March 12, 2019, the Austrian Embassy participated in the 5th Annual Embassy Day at McKinley Technology High School, a public school in Northeast Washington, DC. The event, organized by McKinley School Librarian Sarah Elwell, is aimed at fostering cross-cultural understanding and appreciation.
The Embassy wanted to leave the McKinley students with more than just impressions of Austria’s impeccable landscape and traditional fashion along the lines of the famed movie “The Sound of Music.” Thus, the Embassy created an activity to engage the students in learning very distinct Austrian words and phrases.
“That’s a tongue twister” was a recurring comment on some of the more difficult phrases, but in the end they all managed to pronounce the words correctly. One student even put his newly acquired vocabulary to immediate use: Having just learned that the Austrian equivalent to “sweetheart” was “Schatz” [say: SHU-ts], he turned to the girl standing next to him and confessed, “You’re my Schatz!”, which was met with giggles on her part.
#DCPublicSchools #EmbassyDay #FutureLeaders #EducationIsKey
Edited by: Franziska Riel