After a long delay, this year's speech competition was held on 26 November 2021. Selected as best in class, 9 speakers from grade 9, and 6 from grade 11 qualified for this day during the distance learning phase.
The jury of three comprised Ulrike Beck (wife of the current German ambassador), Peter Deselaers (Deutsche Welle, Windhoek) and Helga Falk (DaF- teacher at DHPS) and decided about this competition´s outcome.
The sponsors of generous prizes were Arbeits- und Fördergemeinschaft der deutschen Schulvereine in Namibia (AGDS) and the German Embassy Windhoek.

Grade 9 learners could choose from 4 different topics:
1. Who and what am I actually?
2. Mother-tongue as an inner home?
3. Distance learning, home schooling, Montessori or Waldorf?
Almost all learners chose the topic “Who am I?” Particularly exciting for the audience were the very personal insights into the life, thinking and feelings of the speakers. The jury chose Oskar Trusch as the winner, ahead of Lukas Neuhaus and Tiffany Ahrens.

The grade 11s had 4 topics to choose from:
1. No one is an island ...?
2. Hemp as the solution for Namibia?
3. 17 goals for a better future?
4. Life against ism?
In this age group, all topics were chosen. Particularly impressive here was the free style of presentation and the aplomb displayed by the winner Desirée Kollmitz. Second place went to Arthur Trusch, third place was shared by Kaya San and Aileen Louw.

“The speech competition is a special opportunity to deploy language skills, juggle with language and scrabble for formulations. Rarely does school offer such a good chance to apply what you have learned and to exercise your talents," says Thomas Wegener, coordinator for German as a foreign language at DHPS. "Especially in a year like this one, when we once again had a two-month closure that deprived the learners of many events and opportunities to put into practice what they had learned in class, this competition was one of the few moments when we could experience linguistic talent at the school."

The high standard of the various speeches in this year's speech competition reflects DHPS learners’ particular strengths with these forms of linguistic expression. We are looking forward to a new round next year.