5.1 Was studierst du?
Hallo alle zusammen.
Zum Aufwärmen machen wir unseren Tagesminiplausch und eine Wiederholung.
Wiederholung
In the previous lesson, you learned how to ask how often someone engages with a hobby and how to respond to the question. Let’s review what you have learned.
Imagine you are talking with a new friend while on your study abroad. You learn that this person likes to play cards with friends. How do you ask how often they do this activity? Write this question in your written journal and record yourself asking it aloud.
Lektionsüberblick
The first question you generally get about college is regarding your major (and minor). In this lesson, you will be introduced to a large number of majors (and minors). As with past lessons with larger lists of vocabulary, you should focus on committing to memory the words and phrases most relevant for you. In the end, you will be able to 1) ask someone where they go to college, 2) ask someone what their major is, 3) say what some of your friends are majoring in, 4) ask someone where they are in their studies, and 5) say whether you are working on your Bachelors or Masters.
Was weißt du schon?
Use these activities to check your skills before moving on.
Read the description and choose the field of study being described.
| Noch nicht start klar?
Du kannst immer auf die gleiche 1010-Lektion zurückgreifen! |
Not confident about starting this lesson?
You can always review the same Lektion from 1010. |
1) Wo studierst du?
Asking someone where they go to school or college is a common conversation topic. Pay attention to how this question sounds. Listen and repeat.
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Let’s practice.
Jetzt bist du dran!
2) Was studierst du?
Now let’s work on asking somewhat what they are studying. Read and listen to the comic below.
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Let’s practice.
Jetzt bist du dran!
3) Was meine Freunde studieren
Read and listen while Yasmin explains what her friend Timo is studying.
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Mein bester Freund heißt Timo. Er ist 23 Jahre alt und studiert deutsche Literatur, das heißt, Germanistik. Ich kenne ihn von der Uni, und er wohnt auch in München. Mit Timo gehe ich gern ins Kino oder ins Konzert, denn er weiss viel über Musik und Film. Sein Nebenfach ist Kommunikationswissenschaft. Wir diskutieren oft über Filme und Bücher als auch über Politik. Timo belegt einen Kurs über Weltpolitik dieses Semester. Er findet ihn sehr schwer aber auch interessant. Das ist sein Lieblingskurs. |
Now answer the questions about what you read and heard.
What do your friends study? Take a look at some possibilities below.
Be sure to click through each slide and listen to the audio.
Jetzt bist du dran!
4) In welchem Semester bist du?
Do you remember how to answer these questions? Think about what your answer would be and then listen to the audio examples.
| In welchem Semester bist du? | |
| In welchem Jahr bist du? |
Kleiner Hinweis
Do you remember that German speakers count the time in their degrees in semesters instead of years. Because of this discrepancy, you are learning how to answer in the German and American way. When you are abroad, you will most likely hear the question about semesters from German speakers and the question about the year from other learners of German or German speakers intimately familiar with the US system.
Remember, too, that because German speakers count in semesters instead of years, there are no equivalent words for freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior.
When you are talking to a German speaker, you should ask the semesters question.
Let’s practice!
Jetzt bist du dran!
5) Bachelor, oder mehr?
Explaining where you are at on your educational journey definitely comes up in conversation. Read and listen to these statements. Based on the first two statements, can you guess what the last one might mean?
| Ich bin im Bachelorstudium. | ||
| Ich bin im Masterstudium. | ||
| Ich promoviere. |
Let’s practice.
Kleiner Hinweis
If you would like to state these as goals, you can use the word you learned in Lektion 4.5. Here’s how those goals would look:
| Ich will einen Bachelor machen. |
| Ich will einen Master machen. |
| Ich will promovieren. |
Jetzt bist du dran!
Bonus info: Was studieren die Deutschen?
Take look at the infographic below. What do you notice about the changes over time of the most popular subjects?
Österreich im Blickpunkt – Higher Education
Austrian institutions of higher education vary widely in terms of educational offerings, size, and structure. In Austria, one can attend a public university (eine staatliche Universität), a private college or university (eine Privathochschule oder -universität*), a university of applied science (eine Fachhochschule), or a teacher training college (pädagogische Hochschule). For EU citizens and locals, public universities are mostly free for a specified period of time, but students may pay a small student union fee of around 25 Euros. For non-EU citizens, tuition is typically higher. Of the almost 390,000 students** at Austrian institutions of higher education (in 2023), 76% are at staatlichen Universitäten, 3.5% are at Privathochschulen oder -universitäten, 15% are at Fachhochschulen, 5.5% are at pädagogischen Hochschulen.
For fun, you can explore the Universität Wien website to get a feel for the types of programs that they offer. Was würdest du studieren? What would you study?
*The Privatfachhochschule offers BA and MA degrees. The Privatuniversität additionally offers a Ph.D.
**Unlike post-secondary education in the US which largely centers a college degree for many or even most jobs, German-speaking Europe offers a robust and often well-paid alternative path through apprenticeships. In 2023, there were 108,000 apprentices in Austria. This may seem like a small number compared to almost 400K students, but apprenticeships are generally completed in 2-3 years vs. a college degree.
Zum Schluß
*As you conclude this lesson, don’t forget to check Canvas!*
Media Attributions
- make-beliefs-comix (42)
- Image of Yasmin from Grenzenlos Deutsch, GD Yasmin-223×300, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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