9:37 a.m., Oct. 22, 2010----James F. Weiher received the Federal Republic of Germany Friendship Award, which was presented by Honorary Consul Barbara Afanassiev during a ceremony Oct. 1 at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Delaware in Wilmington.

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The Friendship Award is given by the German ambassador, Klaus Scharioth, to recognize outstanding Americans who in their respective fields of academia, politics, media, culture and other areas, have had an impact in fostering positive German-American relations.

The presentation was made during the 30th anniversary celebration of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Delaware in Wilmington, which was founded as the Academy of Lifelong Learning.

The award has been in existence since 1981 and is given every year by the German Ambassador to thank extraordinary citizens for their outstanding commitment in promoting excellent relations between the two countries. These individuals come from all walks of life but they have one thing in common -- their desire to create mutual understanding and to continue the international exchange of thoughts and ideas.

Weiher coordinates the foreign language curriculum at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at University of Delaware in Wilmington and since 1996 has taught German, thereby providing opportunities for members to experience the German language and culture.

During his tenure as foreign language coordinator the extent of courses and number of instructors in the core curriculum (German, Spanish, French, Italian, Latin, ancient Greek) has increased and new courses in other languages have been added, among them Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Yiddish.

One of Weiher's interests is the introduction of new technology in teaching foreign languages to mature adults and he said he is gratified to see more and more instructors exploring and using such techniques and recognizing their benefits.

For his own German courses, Weiher said he laid down and follows a number of underlying principles:

Strive for a distribution of participants with language abilities from intermediate learner to native speaker to provide as much of an immersion experience as possible.

Use new material each semester that is interesting to both native speakers and language learners as well as being instructive for all.

Include diversified audio and video material on cultural and language topics with German texts available the week before to stimulate discussion and provide information.

Keep all instruction, conversation and written material in the German language as much as possible.

Include word games and other activities to stimulate participation and thinking in German.

In response to receiving the Friendship Award, Weiher said, “I am proud to accept this Friendship Award from the Federal Republic of Germany and for the opportunities here I thank the University of Delaware, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and the curriculum committee. Most especially I want to thank the many students who over the years who have so enthusiastically and actively participated in my German programs. It was they who made the programs successful and who made it all worthwhile. Thanks to you all.”