“Hallo! Wie geht’s dir?” (Hello! How are you?). That sentence is the first thing that Mrs. Domizlaff, aka Frau Nessi, says as she welcome her club meeting attendees.

Clubs that revolve around world languages aren’t quite new to North. But what is new to North is the German club. “There used to be a German club, but it got discontinued as we went through a couple of German teachers. So then, Mrs. Swank and I got hired, and we’re only now this year officially we starting the club. So it (German club) is still in its first year as an official club,” German teacher and the club sponsor, Frau Nessi said.

German Club is a forum for German language enthusiasts and learners to hang out, have conversations and to have all German learners/class takers at North to come together. “We want to do a lot of sitting at a table and talk together, hanging out, not wasting time on the phone kind of thing. [Here is also] where we can have some sort of mentorship between the ages who are taking German, so German 1 through German 4. And this is really a place where I make a point of everyone needs to hang out with each other,” Frau Nessi explained. The club held its meetings once every month during tutorial period.

This club is also perfect for those who want to get deeper in German culture. “We used to do after-school session on Thursdays once a month, and we either watch a movie or do crafts and something like that. We wanted to do more of that in the future.”

Another important aspect of this club is the food. The food is served by Frau Nessi herself. And there’ll be always at least one type of food served in every club meeting, because in her opinion, the food is the thing that connects people together in this club.

One of the most notable members of this club is junior Hannah Bentz. 

She has regularly attended club meetings since the beginning of this year, and she taken German classes since her Freshman year. “[I’ve heard this] through class. Frau Nessi always talk about it in class, and I was like ‘Okay, I’ll do it’. And then I went to the tutorial scheduler and I was like ‘Oh, German club!’ and so then I just sign up for it,” Bentz said with passion.

Bentz also explained that occasionally the club has held field trips, although they’re outside school time and are not endorsed by the school. “Just like last semester, we all went downtown, and we all saw Krampus. And that was cool. So, we just do a lot of fun stuff here,” Bentz said.

Overall, German Club is something that is worth to check out, especially if you’re in German class and a German culture enthusiast. The other great thing about this club is, you don’t have to be in a German class in order to join.

“Yes, we want people to be taking German, but I never want someone to feel intimidated to come here. So I always say [to members] ‘Hey, if you want to bring a friend who’s not in German, bring them along. And [maybe] it gets them interested in foreign languages as well.” said Frau Nessi as she finishes.