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By Haajar Boutafi
With this hopeful opening statement and within the framework of celebrating knowledge wherever it is and promoting the learning and use of German as a second foreign language in Morocco, The Moroccan Association of the Teachers of German (AMPA) in collaboration with the Goethe Institute organized a study day in Fez on the current position of German among languages in Morocco.
60 teachers coming from all over Morocco attended the study day to share their experiences in teaching, and be updated on the current status of the language in Morocco and the latest methodologies used in teaching.
The study day started with an opening speech by AMPA President Ben Brahim Laarbi, welcoming teachers for their sincere responsibility towards the association and for their presence.
Then he welcomed Thomas Weich, the cultural Attaché at the German Embassy, Gigela Gibtner and Reinhard Köckritz from Goethe Institute and Mustapha Ben Ghanem, a professor of German in the ENS in Rabat.
The opening session was meant to honor Gibtner, Köckritz and Ben Ghanem for their valuable work and contribution in the widespread knowledge of German through the Goethe Institute, making it a lighthouse for spreading, knowledge, cooperation, and team work.
Although German language is facing many difficulties in Morocco beginning with the low number of students applying for Germanic studies at the university level, the lack of specialized Moroccan teachers in the field of linguistic, literature and translation studies and the position of the language as being adopted only by four departments namely Casablanca, Rabat and Fez.
In addition to King Fahd School of translation, teachers face inadequate conditions of German work throughout Morocco, besides not having classes to teach when first appointed.
All this made of the Goethe Institute in the person of its presidents in Casablanca and Rabat, and represented by all the teachers of German in the country be it middle school or high school teachers work hand in hand on the promotion of the language with determination as their only means of struggle to guarantee a prominent status for the language inside the country, paving the way– though scholarships, exchange programs, seminars, cultural days and study days – towards preserving it along with its culture as part of the Moroccan intercultural and multilingual diversity.
