2.4 Herkunft

Guten Tag!

Let’s warm um with our Tagesminiplausch und Wiederholung.

Wiederholung

In the previous lesson, you learned how to ask where someone lives, say where your family lives, ask someone where they are from, and say where your family is from.  Let’s review!

Jetzt bist du dran!

Wo wohnst du? Wo wohnt deine Familie? Woher kommst du? Woher kommt deine Familie? 

Answer the questions in your written journal and then record yourself in your audio journal.

Lektionsüberblick

In this lesson, we will talk about our family relationships, family origins, and German-speaking countries. In the end, you will be able to 1) say where your extended family’s ancestors are from and 2) list the German-speaking countries.

Was weißt du schon?

Before starting this lesson, you should be able to say where your ancestors are from, which language(s) you speak at home, and list some German-speaking countries. Practice your proficiency with these skills below. If you don’t feel confident, a link to material that will help prepare you is below.

Man smiling Hallo! Ich heiße Sandor. Ich wohne jetzt in Luxemburg. Meine Vorfahren kommen aus Ungarn.

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) Say where your ancestors are from

Where do your ancestors (Vorfahren) come from? Look at the list of some European countries. Find the countries that are important to your family heritage and listen to the how they are pronounced.

Länder (Countries)

Deutschland Germany Irland Ireland
Österreich Austria Schweden Sweden
die Schweiz Switzerland Norwegen Norway
Liechtenstein Liechtenstein Finnland Finland
Belgien Belgium die Türkei Turkey
die Niederlande
the Netherlands Ungarn Hungary
Luxemburg Luxemburg Bulgarien Bulgaria
Dänemark Denmark Estland Estonia
Frankreich France Griechenland Greece
Polen Poland Litauen Lithuania
Tchechien Czech Republic Lettland Latvia
Italien Italy Portugal Portugal
Spanien Spain Romänien Romania
England England die Ukraine Ukraine
Schottland Scotland
➡️ Don’t see the country you are looking for? ThoughtCo has an extensive list of countries and languages translated into German.

 

Now let’s practice!

Jetzt bist du dran!

Woher kommen deine Vorfahren? Woher kommen die Mutter und der Vater deiner Mutter? Woher kommen die Mutter und der Vater deines Vaters?
Where are your ancestors from? Look up the countries that are important to your heritage. Then compose complete sentences saying where your grandparents’ ancestors are from. You can use Sandor’s description as an example.
Now record this in German in your audio journal. If you can do it immediately without reading, that’s great! Otherwise, practice saying it a couple times before recording. Or rerecord, if you are not satisfied.

 

2) List the German-speaking countries.

Germany is the most well-known of the German-speaking countries and you’ve learned the other three countries, in which German is the official language (die Amtssprache). Look again at the chart. The blue-highlighted countries have significant German-speaking populations.

 

Deutschland Germany Irland Ireland
Österreich Austria Schweden Sweden
die Schweiz Switzerland Norwegen Norway
Liechtenstein Liechtenstein Finnland Finland
Belgien Belgium die Türkei Turkey
die Niederlande
the Netherlands Ungarn Hungary
Luxemburg Luxemburg Bulgarien Bulgaria
Dänemark Denmark Estland Estonia
Frankreich France Griechenland Greece
Polen Poland Litauen Lithuania
Tchechien Czech Republic Lettland Latvia
Italien Italy Portugal Portugal
Spanien Spain Romänien Romania
England England die Ukraine Ukraine
Schottland Scotland

Not all German is the same. In general, you are learning standard German in this class. However, like most languages, there exist different dialects (or variations) of German within Germany itself and in other German speaking countries. This means that the vocabulary, the pronunciation, and even the grammar might be different. Look below for some examples, and be sure to check out the videos that demonstrate the differences. Viel Spaß!

 

Region/Country Name of language  Example
Bavaria (Bayern) Bavarian (Bayerisch) You can watch this Easy German video that compares Bavarian to standard German.
Switzerland (die Schweiz) Swiss German (Schweizerdeutsch) You can watch this video from the Goethe Institute to hear some differences.
Austria (Österreich) Austrian German (Österreichisches Deutsch) You can watch this Easy German video about the various Austrian dialects.

There are most definitely other variations of German, and please don’t hesitate to investigate dialects that you might be drawn to. This is just ein bißchen of what is out there for you to discover.

 

Jetzt bist du dran!

In welchen Ländern kann man deutschsprachige Bevölkerungen finden? In which countries can you find significant German-speaking populations? Can you write them down without scrolling back up? See you many you can remember! Bonus points, if you remember the German name of the countries.
What variation of German are you most drawn to? Hochdeutsch (standard/high German) or another dialect? Take a moment in your written journal to connect with what dialect or even what aspect of the German language or culture that attracts you.

 

Zum Schluß

Now write out where your ancestors are from. Record this in journal audio journal. Then record as many German-speaking countries that you can that come to mind. You can then check your work. How did you do?

*As you conclude this lesson, don’t forget to check Canvas!*

 

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Deutsch im Alltag II (DE) Copyright © by Rebecca Steele and Stephanie Schottel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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