Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette Elisabeth Mandl with a photo taken around 1940 that shows her on the right, pictured with her older sister, Irmgard, near their childhood home in Schwenninger in Germany's Black Forest region. Click photo for larger image.

Elisabeth Mandl didn't seem to mind a short interruption of her Colorado ski trip to talk about a completely unrelated subject -- teaching German language classes as part of her involvement with the local chapter of German-American National Congress or Deutsches-Amerikansishes National Kongress, or DANK.

The retired teacher and translator is a native of Schwenninger in the Black Forest region of Western Germany who now lives in McCandless. She said teaching the classes keeps her close to her roots, a goal that also plays a part in the decision of many of her students to learn the language.

"I think a lot of them have some German background," she said of the mostly adult members of her classes, which run 10 consecutive Saturdays at the Northland Library in McCandless. "It's the genealogy [that attracts them.] They want to look up old records [written in German.]"

Ms. Mandl came to this country in 1957 to live with an aunt while she boned up on English, her third language. She was already fluent in French. That was meant to be a temporary visit, but it didn't work out that way because, much to the surprise and chagrin of her parents, "I met my husband and never did go back."

But her native country remains with her to this day, partially as a result of her involvement with the Chicago-based Congress, which dates back to almost since the local chapter's inception in 1968.

The 400-500 member local chapter meets on the third Tuesday of the month at various locations -- mostly restaurants and churches -- around Pittsburgh.

"We used to be [permanently] housed in a Lutheran Church on the North Side," said Pittsburgh chapter president and national vice president Erik Wittmann, "but we found that it is too expensive to run an office."

Besides the language classes, the Pittsburgh chapter holds annual social events such as Rhineland Carnivale in the spring, the German equivalent of Mardi Gras, a Christmas party, a summer barbeque and, of course, Oktoberfest. It also sponsors the German Radio Hour on WPIT Radio at 4 p.m. Sundays and the works in philanthropic areas, providing scholarships for German language programs in high schools.

While the organization stresses German heritage and genealogy, the focus, according to Mr. Wittmann, is wider than just one country.

"We use the term 'Germanic,' which includes Austrians and Swiss," he said.

For her German classes, which began a new term on Feb. 18, Ms. Mandl -- who has also taught the language at the Berliz School and CCAC's North campus in McCandless -- takes a practical, rather than a technical, approach.

"I try to stress conversation as much as possible and leave out the complicated grammar," she said.

While German, as most other languages, has evolved over the centuries into a series of regional dialects, Ms. Mandl finds that teaching "vanilla," or pure German best serves her students. That dialect, she said, is generally considered to be the speech pattern of Germans in the Hanover area.