Einleitung — Introduction

Liebe UW-Studierende – Dear UW-Students,

This book was written for you by your instructors at UW out of the desire to create better, more flexible, no-cost learning materials. It was time for a change for German learners at the University of Wyoming, and part of that change has been to combine 1st and 2nd semesters of German into one multi-level course. While this change helps with enrollments, it, more importantly, emphasizes the necessity of repetition for successful language learning. Our multi-level first semester course, introduces you to a set of topics, which you will repeat and expand upon in second semester. You get the bonus of being able to learn from each other.

Since most of our students choose to learn a German in order to travel to or live in a German-speaking country, we chose topics that will allow you to connect with your classmates, colleagues, and neighbors. You will be able to have that first “getting-to-know-you” conversation about yourself, your family and friends, your hobbies and university studies, and your food and drink preferences.

There is a lot more to say about why we wrote the book the way we did, and you can read it below. For now, here’s the TL;DR: We wanted to write a beginning German curriculum that you will enjoy learning, one that we will enjoy teaching, and one that brings you success in your language learning. If we have not yet succeeded at these goals, this format allows us to keep trying.

Have a great semester!

Your Deutsch im Alltag team, Dr. Rebecca Steele and Stephanie Schottel
With considerable help from Ursula Adelt.

If you’re ready to start learning,
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Übung macht den Meister.  (= Exercise makes the master. [lit.]; Practice makes perfect.)

As we write this book, our goal has been to create a beginning German curriculum that you will enjoy learning, one that we will enjoy teaching, and one that brings you success in your language learning. We are continuing to work toward this goal, even as we surmount the challenge of creating this kind of curriculum that will work in a multi-level class, where both 1st and 2nd semester German learners can achieve their language learning goals, and that will work for both in-person and asynchronous online courses.

Once we decided that we wanted to cover the same small number of topics for both levels, we had to pick the topics (Themen). Our overarching learning objective was to provide you, the students, with language you could use to make connections in a German-speaking country. To that end, it made sense to think about the conversations we have, when we meet someone new. We generally first talk about simple biographical information and then perhaps about our families. Because many German learners have German heritage, we might say that to a German-speaker in our first “get-to-know-you” conversation. Depending on where the conversation goes, we may share what we think about ourselves (I’m sarcastic, but also friendly.) or how we are doing (I’m tired!). We may talk about our friends, how we met, and what we like to do for fun. If we are studying abroad, we will probably talk about our major and what courses we have. We may talk about what we do each day. If the first connection is via the internet, we may talk about what we look like. If we want to make plans with our new acquaintance, who may become a friend we may do that over coffee or a meal and then we will probably talk about where we want to eat, and then later what we prefer to eat and which foods we avoid. After imagining what kinds of things that first conversation(s) could cover, we had our list of topics for this book.

As we worked on Deutsch im Alltag, we developed several guiding principles:

– Recognition vs. Production:

It was important to us that we introduce you to a comprehensive set of words and phrases for each topic so that…

1) you can at least recognize those words and phrases within that context – even if you cannot recall the meaning of each word/phrase and

2) you can find the words and phrases that are most relevant to you among that set. These are the words we want you to learn.

You will see this principle when it comes to questions. In this first semester, it is more important that you can understand the kinds of questions people ask when getting to know each other and then be able to answer those questions with lists of words, phrases, and sometimes simple sentences. It is not important in the first semester that you also learn how to ask those questions. Never fear; you’ll learn an easy “magical question” that will allow you to keep a conversation going.

At the same time, we realize that because we do not want to give you every possible word for each topic in this book, you may not find the most relevant words for your particular situation. We have a solution for that! Talk to your instructor, who will gladly help. We recommend this over jumping onto the internet. Especially at the start of your language journey, it will be hard for you to know which word an online dictionary, translator, or AI gives you is the one that will make the most sense for you

– Needs to know basis

Keeping someone on a “needs to know” basis is generally negative, but for your language learning it should ease your ability to have a conversation in German from the start.

For example, during the first few weeks, the focus will be on teaching you how to talk about yourself, which is what we normally do when we first get to know a new person. If we start from this assumption, then you only need to know how to understand and say “I” and “you” when you are first learning German. Why muddy the waters from the start by teaching you all the pronouns? Naturally, you will learn how to say other pronouns, but not until you need them.

– Application over Explanation

The focus of this book is to give you words, phrases, and simple sentences that you frequently repeat until they become automatic, part of your language reservoir. There is little explicit grammar instruction in this book. This is by design for a couple reasons. One reason is that spending a lot of time explaining the grammatical rules behind “mir geht es gut” as a response to a German “how are you?” does not necessarily help you remember to say it this way and better (or faster) than having you hear “Wie geht’s?” (=how are you) and having you repeatedly respond “mir geht es gut“.  Spending the time with the rules does, however, mean spending a lot of time in English, a language you are not trying to learn. (Or trying to do this in German means you are learning lots of grammatical terms you will likely never need to actively say yourself.) Also, the more time you spend in English while learning German, the more likely you will resort to translating your English thought directly into German – which is not the same as speaking German.

Another reason for focusing on using the language (how to say it) instead of the grammar (why you say it that way) is that for many German learners, the language of grammar can become a barrier to learning the language. You do not need to know what a subject or direct object is or what the accusative case is to be able to learn to say “Ich habe einen Hund” (I have a dog).* And once you can confidently say “Ich habe einen Hund“, you will be able to build on this structure to talk about other things you have. Of course, if you want to know why a sentence works the way it does, talk to your instructor, who will gladly explain the grammar. You will find

– Balancing the needs of adult brains with “toddler/child” language skills

Our intention for this book is to encourage you to enter a kind of German mindset in class and as you go through the lessons here (and complete other tasks in Canvas). We have included some small reminders to “inhabit your German child persona” or “put on your German hat” as well to visualize yourself in a German mental space when you engage with German. This space is meant to help block out any English thoughts, which are not useful when speaking, thinking, reading, writing, and listening to German.

We picked “German child” because language-wise, you are a child. We hope you will view this in a positive way. Just like you would not expect a child to be able to have complicated conversations, you should not expect your German child persona to be able to say the same things in German – after just mere weeks of learning the language – that you have needed 18+ years to learn in English! It can be understandably frustrating to put your mind into a simpler state of language. This is why you will have models to work from. In addition, you will have opportunities to feed your adult language brain with conversations and debates about German culture and history in English on our Canvas discussion forums.

– Repetition, repetition, repetition

Studies suggest that a person must hear/read/say/write a word or phrase 50+ times (!) before it is committed to memory. Part of our challenge writing this OER was to come up with ways to help you repeat the same thing, but in slightly different ways.

As you work through the lessons in Deutsch im Alltag, you will first work through online exercises that help you recognize and then learn new words and structures. It is not feasible – nor desirable – to create such exercises to drill every word and phrase we present here. Why? Because the human brain can only learn so many new things at once, and we want you to focus on learning the vocabulary that is most relevant to you.

Since there is no way for us to create such individualized exercises, we have developed another way for you to repeatedly repeat the words and phrases most relevant to you. As you go through the lessons, you will frequently be prompted to write and/or record words and phrases in your journal by orange “Jetzt bist du dran” textboxes (=now it’s your turn). If you follow these instructions, you increase the likelihood that these words and phrases will become part of your active vocabulary.

To use this book successfully, you should have both a written journal and an audio journal. Studies show that hand-written notes are better for absorbing written information than typewriting (to be sure, typewriting is better than writing nothing down!). If you prefer typed notes, you can increase this effect by first writing things down by hand and then typing them up. By then verbally repeating these words and phrases, you will increase your ability to say and recall them. The key is to say the words and phrases as freely as possible, i.e. to avoid simply reading them aloud. As the “Jetzt bist du dran” instructions note, you can practice saying the words or phrases until you can say them without notes. Then record. Be sure to listen to your recordings and rerecord, if you are not satisfied. Sometimes that prompt will instruct you to either write or record your response. Doing both is even more advantageous for your language learning!

– German Immersion

The gold standard in learning German is to go to a German-speaking country and immerse yourself in German entirely. This is not feasible nor always practical for many people, who still want to be able to communicate in German. For students in class four days a week, you can get at least a small taste of being immersed in German with your instructor as your guide. For students in an asynchronous online course, it is that much harder to find moments of immersion. For those students especially, we have created Deutsch IRL. In these segments, you work on reading and listening to authentic German cultural products = products that are made for the native German speaker. By doing so, you get a taste of being immersed in the language. Don’t panic! Engaging with “real” German is not about understanding everything. In fact, the expectation is that you will understand very little, at first. After all, you are just starting on your journey to learn German.

The Deutsch IRL segments provide you with structured reading and listening/watching of authentic German-language cultural products to help you a) learn how to anticipate context, b) identify key words for understanding, c) become comfortable with not understanding every word or even most words, and d) use reading/listening questions to help you focus on what you need to understand from the engagement.

*Just in case you do love grammar like the authors of this book do: Ich = subject, einen Hund = direct object, so it’s in the accusative case. [Go back to what you were reading.]

Banner: Hauptbahnhof (Bremen), Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), Reichstagsgebäude (Berlin), Sächsische Schweiz (Rathen), Altes Rathaus (Bamberg), Ohrenbrücker Tor (Ingelheim am Rhein), Hundertwasserhaus (Magdeburg), Magdeburger Dom, Haus Troistorff (Monschau), Schloss Veitshöchheim, Neues Bach Denkmal (Leipzig), Brandenburger Tor (Berlin), Fachwerkhäuser an der Rur (Monschau), Frauenkirche (Dresden), Bremer Stadtmusikanten, Marienberg (Würzburg), Photo credits and banner design: Rebecca Steele, CC BY-NC-SA