Deutsch IRL – Anleitung

Being able to communicate with native German speakers is not just about being able to understand the words someone is saying and knowing the appropriate vocabulary and structures to respond, it is also about knowing the culture of native German speakers. Throughout this course, you will engage with such culture in a couple different ways. This guide is for engagement with authentic German-language 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 – what we are calling Deutsch IRL – is not about understanding everything. In fact, the expectation is that you will understand very little, at first. After all, you are only just starting on your journey to learn German. Would you expect a child to understand everything?

The Deutsch IRL segments provide you with structured reading and listening/watching of authentic German-language cultural products to help you 1) learn how to anticipate context and identify key words for understanding, 2) become comfortable with not understanding every word or even most words, and 3) use reading/listening questions to help you focus on what you need to understand from the engagement.

A Guided Deutsch IRL: Speed Dating in German

As you read through the pre-engagement steps, be sure to take notes in your journal in English, German, or a mixture.

1) Anticipate context – When you anticipate context, it means you start to shift your frame of mind to the expected topic, which should increase your comprehension. If you find a video called “At the Zoo”, you will probably hear and see animals. To increase your understanding, you can think about what language will likely be used to talk about animals, e.g. animal names, where they live in the wild, what kind of habitat they live in, how much they eat daily, whether they prefer to live alone or with others, etc. By contrast, if you start to think about sailing, you will have a much harder time understanding, since you will not likely hear about wind conditions, parts of the ship, etc. in a video about the zoo.

The first video you are about to watch is called “TINDER in Reallife” and is being presented under the heading “Speed Dating in German”. You can think about what you know about Tinder and what it might mean for Tinder, an app on your phone that let’s you swipe left or right on images of singles depending on whether your are romantically interested in them or not. You can think about speed dating, a method in which a person meets many new people for the first time in the hopes of making a romantic connection. What kind of language would you expect to hear?

People will likely be introducing themselves by saying their names and ages. They may also say something to pique the conversation partner’s interest such as telling a joke, naming a hobby, making a romantic comment, etc.

You can also pick up on context clues from the image for the video. For the video below, you can see a cardboard cut-out with “swipe” labeled at the top and three symbols (an x, star, and heart) underneath with several guys looking through the cut out on the left and a laughing woman with the x and heart symbols above her head on the right. You could guess that this woman will be “swipe” right or left on the men in the cut-out.

Identify key words – Once you’ve put yourself in the right frame of mind (speed dating!), you can begin to list all of the language you already know for this context. Since people will likely be introducing themselves, you may hear “Ich heiße…” You may hear other ways of saying one’s name that you haven’t learned but have encountered such as or “Mein Name ist…” It is possible that you will hear yet other ways of saying one’s name that will be completely new, but since you are anticipating an introduction, you will be able to understand that the person is saying their name, even if you cannot understand this individual words. This is an incredible important skill when learning a language. You do not need to understand every single word to understand what is going on.

Since we assume that people will say their ages, we may hear “Ich bin [number] Jahre alt” or some similar version. We can remember that German numbers past twenty state the ones before the tens, which means that the second part of the number will be the more relevant part. E.g. If you hear, “Ich bin achtundzwanzig Jahre alt”, then the second part of the number “zwanzig” will give you more relevant information than the first part “acht”. The “und” in the middle can help you find that second part. Of course, since you are watching a video, you can also see the person introducing themselves, which can provide additional clues. A 58-year-old person will not likely look like a 28-year-old person.

Other key words we may need could be related to the process of swiping. We might need right and left. If we do not know these words yet, then we may learn them in the video by hearing them in connection with a positive or negative statement. It’s possible that we could hear a simple yes or no in German.

If you have more experience with German, you can think about other key words related to potential jokes, naming of hobbies, or romantic comments. If not, no worries! You may be able to understand the general idea from the body language and reaction of the listener and speaker.

As you identify potential key words, you may come up with some in English for which you do not know that German counterpart yet. If you look at your list, you can focus on the words you think may be essential for your comprehension and look those words up. If you do this, you should also think about how they are pronounced or find the pronunciation (most German-English online dictionaries provide audio) so that you are set up to hear them.

2) Become comfortable with not understanding every word or even most words. Before you start watching, you can also give yourself a little talk reminding yourself that these materials were not created for German-language learners, or even for children, whose cultural products can be easier to understand for language learners. Start to sit with your discomfort. The more engage with German, the more you will be able to understand. And the more your prepare in your engagement by anticipating context and identifying key words, the more you will be able to understand.

3) Use reading/listening questions to help you focus on what you need to understand from the engagement. Some of the Deutsch IRL assignments will have specific reading/listening questions, which can help you focus on certain content for comprehension.