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- Category: German learning methods
Heads-up: this is a rant post.
A long time ago I used a German book for both classes and lessons that wasn’t a good fit for either population. I didn’t like the layout, I didn’t like the cartoons, the instructions weren’t always clear, and sometimes the workbook exercises differed from what was in the chapter.
That made teaching with this book difficult, and it created an excessive amount of prep work, which caused me a lot of stress, because it also didn’t answer my students’ many questions. But that wasn’t even the worst part.
das Schlimmste ~ The Worst Part
The worst part was: often, the book would give beginning German students trick questions. At first I thought it had been a mistake, that somebody hadn’t properly checked and a few wrong answers went into the answer key, because I couldn’t understand asking trick questions of a beginner who could barely say “I’d like a coffee, please,” or “Yesterday I went to the bakery and bought two loaves of bread.”
It was mind-boggling.
And then it happened again. And again. And again.
We talked about it in the German class I was teaching then and my students and I realized trick questions were the norm for this book.
I was appalled.
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- Category: German grammar
"Geheiratet." Nein. "Verheiratet." Ich weiss es nicht!
I know how it goes, these two can be really tricky, however they are similar enough to English that you can learn a couple of associations to help you keep them apart in your mind.
Sometimes you simply need rote memorization, and sometimes you need a way of remembering which one is which. Sometimes this is an Eselsbrücke (a "donkey-bridge" or a mnemonic device), sometimes you need an association, and sometimes you need a picture in your mind.
Read on to learn a few techniques to tell "geheiratet" and "verheiratet" apart and keep them apart!
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- Category: German vocabulary
When you're at the A1 level, "Verkehr" and "Stau" can be tough to differentiate. Most people say "It has something to do with cars!!" If you said that, you're correct! But what's the difference?
The difference is essentially the same as in English, but one use of "Verkehr" might trip you up.
Read on to learn the difference and how not to get tripped up by the one use of "Verkehr"!
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- Category: German learning methods
das Firmenjubiläum = company anniversary
Being an entrepreneur means you have a different view of how things should work, that things should develop quickly because things needn't stand in your way, and also that you can create what I call the culture of your business. The culture of my business is very different than other German classes and lessons and that starts with making this a professional venture.
Here I want people to learn to speak German, not just talk about it. Week after week, month after month I hear story after story of people who learned to read German literature in college but they can't hold a conversation in German. Folks show up for tutoring who are in a beginning German class and they're being asked to learn something that's actually at an intermediate level. Das macht mich wahnsinnig! If you are paying your good, hard-earned money (or your valuable student loan money!) to take a German class, you better darn well be acquiring skills for communicating in German.
I'll get off my soapbox now.
HERZLICHEN DANK FÜR ALLES!
~Ihre Frau Warner
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- Category: German grammar
If you learned German in college, chances are you learned both “woher” and “wohin” at the same time. Do you ever drive in reverse and forwards at the same time? I didn't think so. Why so many US textbook authors think this is a good idea is beyond me. In drivers education, first you learn to drive forwards, you get a feel for the car, and then you learn to drive in reverse.
It's not that hard, textbook authors!
*Nicole facepalms and sighs with exasperation.*
That's a really good way to get permanently tripped up. Im Ernst jetzt!
Here’s how to fail miserably at learning these two question words (or anything else, for that matter):
Step 1: Learn them both at the same time.
Das ist alles. (That’s it.)
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