German declamation contest: Students demonstrate their outstanding oratory skills

The audience gave standing ovation at the end.

ISLAMABAD:

Students of the Department of German Language at the National University of Modern Languages (NUML) demonstrated outstanding oratorical skills in a German language speech contest held on Monday.

The contest was arranged in collaboration with the German embassy.

DAAD Centre Director Ursula Saarbeck, German Embassy Assistant Defence Attache Stefan Ruppel and former president of German Alumni Association Prof Dr Khalid Rashid were judges, while German Embassy Cultural and Press Attache Dr Dan Tidten was the chief guest.

NUML Rector Maj-Gen (retd) Masood Hasan, German department head Dr Anwer Mehmood, faculty members and a large number of students were also present.

In the first round of the competition, students of certificate and diploma classes delivered impressive speeches in fluent German.

After going through a very tense atmosphere of competition and judges’ meticulous scrutiny, they also had a chance to display their feelings and ideas through theatrical performances on the stage.

Though the theme and story of the play was derived from all times hit “Anarkali” and a German film “Goethe in Love” the idea, script, dialogues, plot, characters and climax were given the touch of a melodrama and not a tragedy.

The beautiful juxtaposition of Mughal and German royal courts in the dresses, stage setting and make up, the performance was highly appreciated by the audience.

The audience gave standing ovation to the writer and actors who translated a tragic love story into a fulfilled melodrama and presented a beautiful refreshing treatment of literature and language by blending two different cultures of the East and the West.

Moreover, students sang different German songs, played musical instruments and rendered a colourful presentation of different cultures of Pakistan.

Dr Dan Tidten and Maj-Gen (retd) Hasan distributed prizes among the winners.

Afshan Rafique Malik, Ebramhi Bin Najam, and Shumail Tanveer won the first, second and third prizes respectively for diploma category while Farhan Shahid, Kiran Abdullah and Savera Rehman won the first, second and third prizes respectively for the certificate category of speech contest.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2014.