Enrich the German language classroom with an authentic practice that is as much linguistic as it is cultural! This project takes as its starting point “(Non-)Words of the Year,” chosen by committees in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. Those words capture the public discourse and tackle terms from politics, pop culture, and–increasingly–the environment. Instructors can guide students in researching, contextualizing, and comparing these words to similar concepts in their language(s). As a creative extension, a class might select its own “(Non-)Words of the Year.” The instructor can cater to different learner levels by adjusting the scaffolding.