A bus ride from the arctic circle, Oulu schools are teaching German – and for good reason. The language of Einstein and Goethe is the most spoken in Europe, after Russian, and the third most taught worldwide. But this Deutsch business isn't easy. Author Mark Twain called the tongue “slippery and elusive...one is washed about in it, hither and thither, in the the most helpless way.” German has ten parts of speech, he said, and they are all troublesome. Its nouns have three genders, four cases, and enough compound morphology to stutter a politician.

Knowing this, you'd think the last thing German tutors want, after a day's work, is to be arranging more lessons. Nonetheless, with spring upon us the teachers at the Oulu University Language centre announce a “Spring Festival of The German Language” for the second year in a row. Their mission: to encourage local school-children's language skills, with help from native speakers, Finnish students, the Oulu Germany-Finland Association, and writers circle The Prisoners. Timo Roth rushes off to lend a hand, and finds out just how much fun an Oulu Saksankieli lesson can be...

100 Finnish pupils, ages five to fifteen, gather in the Oulu University School at Linnanmaa on  a sunny Friday afternoon. They're there for German language games and activities, what the organisers have affectionately called  “Spielend Deutsch Lernen,” or“ Learning German Through Play.” And there's another purpose: to say goodbye to the Finnish winter and welcome spring and summer, through activities like sports outside the school.