Interjections, the little words like 'oh' and 'hm', carry a lot of meaning in oral communication in all languages. How often do we focus on them in our teaching? For German, I recently read the poem 'empfindungswörter' by Rudolf Otto Wiemar. It impressed me with its simple juxtaposition of various interjections with the words 'the Germans'. It really has to be read aloud with appropriate intonation for full effect.

empfindungswörter
aha die deutschen
ei die deutschen
hurra die deutschen
pfui die deutschen
ach die deutschen
nanu die deutschen
oho die deutschen
hm die deutschen
nein die deutschen
ja ja die deutschen

Relevant links that might be of interest:

• Wiktionary has a collection of interjections in each language: German and English To find this in other languages, go to the main page of the Wiktionary in that language, and then look for an index of categories.


• The Canoo website has information and examples in German.


• The German Wikipedia site has even more information.

The Goethe Institute has a lesson plan on stereotypes that incorporates the poem by Wiemer.

Labels: all languages, English, german, inter-cultural language learning, lesson plan

The Goethe Institute has a simple boardgame using a number of Bauernregeln (farmers' proverbs). It is called Bauernrallye and the website has the gameboard as well as worksheets and other teaching suggestions.

My own Bauernregeln collection has over 800 proverbs arranged by months and other themes. They are great for cultural discussions in the classroom as they are short insights into attitudes and practices. Here are some more teaching ideas using Bauernregeln.

Labels: farmers' proverbs, games, german, links, teaching ideas, website

Looking for a entry point into the German music scene? The Step into German website offers videoclips, songtexts and extensive worksheets for many of Germany's current bands.

If you are a soccer fan, check the archive for materials from the World Cup in 2006.

Labels: german, links, promotion of languages

I find Sudoku puzzles, particularly the hand-crafted rather than computer-generated ones, to be an addictive form of intellectual entertainment. The delight of seeing a solution unfold can be comparable to seeing a new vista with each step in a Japanese garden.

Logic is the key to solving Sudoku puzzles, and hence they can be a good class activity to combine simple language with higher-order thinking skills. Project or draw one on the board and encourage students to suggest where numbers can be placed.

For German-only classrooms, the words Zeile (row), Spalte (column), Block/Bereich (3x3 block) will be useful, as well as oben/unten, links/rechts. Rules and tips in German are on Janko's excellent puzzle site. For hand-crafted puzzles, go to the Guardian newspaper's collection.

Labels: all languages, games, german, japanese, teaching ideas

My Palm PDA goes almost everywhere with me, and one of its wonderful features is the ability to carry vast amounts of data, including many dictionaries. Sure beats the days when I would carry book-versions of dictionaries with me when travelling, and I like being able to look up words when out-and-about rather than having to wait until I get home or to a computer.

My currently installed dictionary for German is the one from Ultralingua. It has a reasonably clean interface and an excellent database of about 350 000 words. Some technical words are missing, as well as names of some trees and birds, but otherwise, I have found it to be adequate to my needs. It has a fairly extensive range of phrases associated with headwords, which is something that a number of competing mobile dictionaries did not offer. My purchasing decision was based on the database as well as their payment options, as I prefer using Paypal to credit cards online. My only other concern with the software is that the search feature is rather slow, and it is sometime quicker to use the Palm OS Global Find rather than the dictionary's own search.

Of course, if you are near an Internet-connected computer and want access to German dictionaries, then please make use of my collection of online German dictionaries.

Labels: dictionaries, german, software, website

Being able to function in another culture requires so much more than just knowing the language. A colleague recently lent me "Die Deutschen Pauschal" by Stephan Zeidenitz and Ben Barkow, originally published in English with the title "The Xenophobe's Guide to the Germans". It is a sometimes serious, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, but generally insightful look at what makes the stereotypical German tick. I was amused by the entry on attitudes to animals and thought I might share it with you.

Tiere
Sehr beliebt bei den Deutschen sind auch ihre Haustiere, die in zwei Formen vorkommen: Schäferhunde und absonderliche kleine Pudel mit gestrickten Jäckchen und Schleifen im Haar.
Ihre Aufgabe besteht darin, gehorsam und treu zu sein (Schäferhunde) beziehungsweise teure Schokoladenpralines zu fressen und überall hinzupuhen (Pudel). Eine auch nur ansatzweise kritische Äußerung über den vierbeinigen Liebling zu wagen, kann einen Kopf und Kragen kosten. Alle Hunde sind wunderbar, und alle deutschen Bürgersteige sind ihr Hundeklo.
Katzenliebhaber treten in der Öffentlichkeit weniger stark in Erscheinung, zumal ihre Tiere eigentlich zu eigenwillig und unberechenbar sind, als dass sie in das deutsche Denkschema passen.
Eine allseits uneingeschränkt beliebte Gattung sind hingegen die Gummibärchen, die gerade in Deutschland ihr natürliches Habitat haben.
Besorgte Tierschützer protestieren aber gegen die Massentierhaltung von Gummibärchen in großen Plastiktüten und fordern Freigehege oder zumindest den Zweierpack. Eigentlich müssten diese süßen Tierchen vom Aussterben bedroht sein, da sie täglich zu Tausenden verspeist werden, aber irgendwie können sie sich immer wieder ausreichen zahlreich fortpflanzen.

Labels: german, inter-cultural language learning, review

The last sentence of my previous post generated some comment, so I thought I'd open up the topic to any words that look like they come from English, but are actually not used in that language.

From the sphere of technology, we have a Handy for a mobile phone, a CityCall for a local phone call, a Beamer for a data projector and Cracker for computer hacker.

Some other words I've come across include Showmaster for the presenter a TV program, Catcher for wrestler, Antibabypille for contraceptive pill, Oldtimer for veteran car, Textbuch for a book of songs or scripts, Body-bag for a cross between a handbag and a rucksack and Mobbing for bullying.

If you other examples you would like to share, please contact me.

Labels: german, linguistics

Fashion is something that is constantly changing, and languages sometimes need to create new words for items of fashion. Don't get any idea that I'm a fashion guru - I'm not! However, I was recently exploring some of these new words and thought I'd share a few that were particularly interesting.

(Arm)stulpen are knitted tubes worn on the lower arm, sometimes with a thumb hole. Sort of a cross between a long glove and a leg warmer, as in the picture above. BTW, putting the word into a Google Images search is a great way to check the meaning of a new word if it refers to an object.

A Crashrock is one of those gypsy-style skirts with the permanently crushed-look fabric. This word is linguistically fascinating, because it is an example of what looks like a loan word, but the German spelling reflects the sound of the English word, rather than the spelling of the English.

A Ringelshirt is a T-shirt or other style of shirt with horizontal stripes. Thick or thin, or even a mixture, but they have to be horizontal.

Loan words from English are often extrapolated when they have become accepted in German. The Sweatshirt has now been joined by the Sweathose, the Sweatanzug and even the Sweatrock! And then there are the "loan words" that are unknown in their original language: Pullunder, Partnerlook and Dressman to name a few.

Labels: german, IT tips, linguistics

I've incorporated a couple of new German dictionaries into my German translation page. The Redensarten-Index is excellent for idioms and phrases and the Mundmische slang dictionary is a good way to find some phrases that don't tend to turn up in other reference works. There's also a link to the University of Leipzig's Wortschatz-Portal.

On a personal note, as I hinted at in my last post, I have resigned from WMAC to take up a new position in curriculum development. The About page has also changed to reflect this.

Labels: dictionaries, german, website, what-is-new

I'm back from Germany and have started to sort out the photos. I thought I might do a series of blog entries about some of the places I visited.

Xanten is on the Rhine river, quite close to Wesel in Nordrhein-Westfalen. The Altstadt is surrounded by a wall, however, only one original gate, the Klevertor, remains. It is known as the birthplace of the Nibelungen legend; however, unless you visit when the Siegfriedspiele are on in May, the only major hint of this is the names of the windmills, the Siegfried and Kriemhildmühlen. The latter is operational and runs tours as well as selling bread from its own bakery.

Of much more historical significance are the Archeological Park and Roman Baths of Colonia Ulpia Traiana. The buildings in the park are reconstructions, but the explanations (in German only) give an insight into Roman town life. Unusually, the Xanten Roman ruins lie outside of the present town, and this has been a major factor in their preservation, as they haven't had layer-upon-layer of buildings over them in the intervening centuries. The park is children friendly, with a games house with Roman games explained and ready to play, and a large Roman-themed playground, currently under renovation.

The St Victor cathedral is very impressive. Begun in 1263, it is considered to be the "small brother of Cologne cathedral". Xanten has long been a site of pilgrimage and St Victor was a 4th century Roman legionnaire who became a Christian martyr.

To see some more of the photos I took while in Xanten, have a look at my Xanten Facebook album.

Labels: german, photos, travel

I'm off to Germany for a couple of weeks, so my next blog update may well be on my return. While there, I hope to learn more about Roman history in Germany by visiting Xanten, Aachen and Trier.

Labels: german

This is a new free download for German. (Scroll down to Grammar charts.) The chart shows the key pattern for endings and how this is applied to articles and adjectives. This learning technique will appeal to those who like easy memorisation tools, analysis or overviews.

Labels: german, grammar, website, what-is-new

This is the title of an excellent puppet show in German by Mana Puppets, who came and did a show for many of my students last Thursday. It is an up-beat and very interactive version of the classical story and the preparatory materials made it easy for the students to participate. Students also have the opportunity to try out using the puppets at the end of the show.

We followed this with Bratwurst from Schultes Meat Tavern at Plainland, west of Ipswich and Brezeln from K & K Austrian Bakery at Sinnamon Park. The students loved both of these, but very few tried the Sauerkraut that was also on offer!

Labels: german, promotion of languages, review

Some online dictionaries (like LEO) offer audio files of words and some phrases. Atip's Proser is the synthesiser that is used by LEO, and by going to their website, you can also create audio files of whole sentences or short paragraphs. The pitch and speed of the various voices (three German, two American, one Turkish, one French) can be customised.

Some Australian speakers have an ingrained habit of having a rising intonation at the end of sentences. If transferred to a language like German, this has the effect of making them sound unsure of what they have said, or constantly in need of affirmation by the listener, as a rising intonation is more generally a marker of questions. I think that listening to a synthesised sentence with different voices and pitches could help students to become more aware of the falling intonation that is preferable at the end of sentences in German.

While not yet a true substitute for a native speaker, the technology behind synthesised audio files is improving, and this makes them useful for checking the pronunciation of unfamiliar words.

A much more frivolous (but fun) use is to put in a long tongue-twister. Challenge yourself or your students to beat the synthesised voice on "extreme fast"!

Labels: English, german, IT tips, teaching ideas

When was the last time you used a joke in German in class? Check out the collection of over 250 jokes that I've put together. All are suitable for classroom use - unlike most of the collections that are online.

Labels: german, jokes, website

The school where I teach German (and other subjects), ran a "Celebration of Languages" incursion for grade 8 students today. These students learn German, Chinese or Japanese, or have English Support classes.

We had about 170 students participating in three 20 minute activities. Two of the activities were craft based - badge (button) making and paper fan decorating - and the students were encouraged to utilise their chosen language/culture in their designs. I ran a quiz competition as the third activity.

The number of students in each group meant that we ran the quiz in two rooms. This meant that while I was in one room, I had to have another teacher (who doesn't teach a language this year) running the quiz in the other room. The success of the quiz can be attributed to the organisation that was done in advance:

• Quiz questions from the three languages/cultures on small cards, with answers


• Instruction sheet for the other teacher to back up the 5 minute "This is what you have to do" run-down.


• Great quiz game controller (from Teacher's Discovery) set up with furniture arranged in groups for the team numbers that were anticipated.


• Prizes (also from Teacher's Discovery - we just don't have a company here with their range of products!) already packaged in labelled bags for the teams that came 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc.

Please let me know if you would like any of the files I created for the quiz.

It was a fun morning and the students were really competitive. We'll certainly be making this event part of our annual calendar. It is a pretty packed time of year for us (in Australia) though, so we would probably hold it in either term 1 or 2 next year instead.

Labels: chinese, german, japanese, promotion of languages

This new website www.hausgemacht.tv has short "How to" videos, offering advice on many aspects of daily life: House and garden, Food and drink, Health and fitness, Family and pets, Sport and free time, Auto and technology, Saving and DIY, Rights and law, Job and career. The videos are uploaded by users, and are accompanied by a written summary.

This site offers lots of potential for listening practice or language extension in bite-size chunks. Some videos have a very polished look, others have a more "home-made" feel. Check out Oma Luzie's cooking for a particularly nice example of the latter.

Depending on your school's attitudes towards suitable content, this is, at least at the moment, a fairly safe browsing site for students. There are a few cocktail recipes, but most other potentially non-suitable content is not permitted.

Labels: german, links, teaching ideas

3500 Time is money! If you have spent more than an hour online looking for suitable German exercises for your students, or yourself, then you may have been much better off with a subscription to the Internet's largest index of interactive exercises.

With over 100 topics, it is easy to see what exercises are available online. Every exercise has been categorised by complexity and has been given a description so that you know what sort of exercise it is, who wrote it, and whether you will need extra software to make it work.

A year long individual subscription is AUD29.95 (approximately USD25.65, EUR18.85, GBP12.75) and renewing subscribers have a 10% discount.Almost 3500 exercises (or many hundreds more if you include where I have linked to a group of exercises on a theme) can be accessed through the index.

Labels: german, subscribers, website, what-is-new

I've added some more links to the German cartoon page. As with all external links, however, I can't be responsible for the content on these linked sites. Some have a commercial emphasis, and humour is fraught with the potential to offend. Nevertheless, if you enjoy humour, there may well be something here that will amuse you. Happy exploring!

Labels: german, website, what-is-new

A new resource on the Free Downloads for German page is the set of three domino games. These have the same vocabulary as the bingo games. Full colour and ready to print and cut out! These games may be freely distributed, as long as they are not modified in any way.

Use as one station in a "learning stations" lesson, or make multiple copies for whole class use. The cards can be used as a domino puzzle, where teams compete to finish first. As a game, the cards can be divided among the (2, 3, 5 or 6) players who take turns to place a card if possible. Any card can be used as the starting point.

Labels: games, german, teaching ideas, website, what-is-new

The German translation and English dictionary pages have been given a facelift. There are new tools there and I encourage you to try them out!

Other minor changes have been made throughout the site, including fixing an omission in the English version of the fruit bingo game. See the ESL Free Downloads page for more information. Just a reminder if you teach other languages - these bingo games only have words on the calling cards, so the sets can really be used for all languages.

Holidays are coming soon, and a major update of resources is planned. Check back regularly, and if you have your own website, please feel welcome to link to any of the html pages.

Labels: all languages, English, german, website, what-is-new

The German word Zungenbrecher translated literally means tongue-breaker. Is this an indication that tongue-twisters in German are worse than they are in English?

I'll let you evaluate that for yourself! But more seriously, tongue-twisters are a great way to practise pronunciation, particularly with sounds that are similar, or words that differ only by a letter or two. I have German tongue-twister collections for vowels and consonants.

More fun though are the tongue-twisters where a word is repeated, often with double meanings. These are called battologisms. A particularly German genre of tongue-twisters or rhymes is the Schüttelreim (shaken rhyme). These consist of pairs of lines in which the initial consonants of the last two stressed syllables in the lines are swapped, creating new words. There's some similarity with Spoonerisms here. My page of "special" tongue-twisters has a collection of almost 100 Schüttelreime and battologisms. Just don't get your tongue in too much of a knot!

Labels: german, teaching ideas, website

Here in Brisbane, the lack of rain is one of the easiest conversation openers. Summer temperatures persist and any attempt at gardening is hard work. I had a passionfruit vine seedling come up in one of my few surviving herb pots and since I love eating passionfruit and the stubborn thing had resisted being eaten by the possums so far, I thought it deserved a chance to live. Digging a decent hole in clay is always hard, but when I'd made an indentation, I tipped rinse water from the washing in to soften the soil. Like putting water into a concrete bucket! An hour later, and the water level had still barely gone down. Anyway, I chipped away at it over the course of the afternoon and hopefully the pile of compost I mixed in will help the keen plant to make a go of living.

Farmers' proverbs offer us wisdom from the other hemisphere. Looking at this month's collection, this one rang particularly true: "Erst Mitte Mai ist der Winter vorbei." These pithy sayings are generally made memorable through the rhyming words in the middle and end. Apart from advising us in our farming/gardening pursuits, how can they be used in the classroom?

Pronunciation practice, analysis of rhyming syllables (particularly with different spellings, like in the example above), dictation races, cultural comparisons, vocabulary development (particularly for months and weather words), lesson openers while taking a class roll, lesson finishers if there are five minutes spare - Do you have ideas to share?

Labels: farmers' proverbs, gardening, german, inter-cultural language learning, teaching ideas, website

The Obst-Bingo game (1482KB) now opens in full!

Labels: games, german, website, what-is-new

The bingo games for fruit are here! Thanks to those who made suggestions for improvements. Just go to German Free downloads or English (ESL) Free downloads to see preview screenshots and download the game sets in pdf format.

Labels: English, games, german, teaching ideas, website, what-is-new

The update includes the new features of free printable bingo games and worksheets for German and ESL as well as a full link check across the site. Many new links have been added to the German Exercises Index, bringing the total number of exercises and worksheets to well over 3200. Many other minor changes have been made as well.

Labels: ESL, german, website, what-is-new

The school where I teach has a "Swap Day" for grade 8 students. If the student can convince one of their parents to come to school in their place, they get to help out in the Junior School, in the grounds or at the farm. The parents have to go to classes, find the right classrooms on time and bring the right books etc.

As a teacher, we face a class, half of which is our normal students, and half of which is parents. We have to teach something meaningful that fits in with our standard curriculum and yet is accessible for parents and won't disadvantage the students who are out for the day. For language classes, this is a particular challenge, because most of the parents don't know German.

My 75 minute lesson plan solution:
1. Introduce myself and mark roll.
2. Teach numbers 1-10 and play a round of "Elf", holding up my chart of numbers to help the parents.
3. Teach numbers 11-10 and play a game of Bingo based on the numbers so far. I use a simple piece of Bingo software to create unique game cards.
4. Teach numbers 21-30 and give the class a simple Maths quiz.
5. Teach words related to telling time: past/to, half/quarter/o'clock etc.
6. Do a puzzle to match up clock faces and the time written out as words.
7. Do interactive exercises about telling time on the Internet selected from my index.

Pretty much the whole lesson, including giving directions, is in German, with a short debriefing section in English at the end.

I've had great feedback from parents, and I enjoy seeing the students and parents working together. It is a fast-paced and fun lesson.

Labels: german, lesson plan, promotion of languages

If you are able to have students email you work for feedback, there are a number of ways you can do this using MS Word (and presumably, many other word-processors):

1. Insert menu | Comment
Advantages: You can write as much as you want, pointing out the correction to be made and explaining why the correction is needed.
Disadvantages: Students need to be shown how to remove the comments if they are going to re-edit the document.

2. Tools menu | Track changes
Advantages: You correct the student's work and the word processor will show where changes have been made. This can be printed as well, or turned off if a "clean copy" of the document is desired.
Disadvantages: Students might not get the opportunity to learn why the changes were neccessary.

3. Tools menu | Compare and merge documents
Advantages: Like track changes, the word processor will show where changes have been made and what was there before the change.
Disadvantages: You need to remember to save a copy of the student's work as a new file before you start.

4. Use a marking toolbar (macros)
Advantages: Very fast way of indicating to the student where and what type of corrections need to be made. Makes the student review their own work.
Disadvantages: Needs to be installed. This can be tricky, but once set up, is as easy as selecting a word or phrase and clicking a button. This then highlights the text and inserts a comment about what type of error the student has made. See http://iteslj.org/Articles/Holmes-ComputerMarking/index.html for examples and downloads.

Some of these ideas I use in my own teaching, a couple are thanks to a colleague at a workshop yesterday.

Labels: chinese, ESL, german, indonesian, IT tips, japanese, teaching ideas

Some of my students find this song a memorable tool to work out which case to use for common prepositions in German:
(to the tune of "She'll be coming round the mountain")

Dative Preps are: aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu.
Accusative Preps are: durch, für, gegen, ohne, um.
An, auf, hinter, neben, in,
über, unter, vor und zwischen
take the dative when they say where something is
and the accusative when they say where something goes.

It's not my original idea. I'm sure I got it from one of the many wonderful people on the AATG list. I thought I'd share it though because I introduced it to yet another class today. Even those students reluctant to sing still find it useful.

If you are interested in more on the use of German cases, please have a look at http://www.germanteaching.com/ger-tip-cas.htm.

Labels: cases, german, grammar, prepositions, songs, teaching ideas