Vocabulary learning at Deutsch Academy

Deutsch Academy gives homework as part of its course. This is important for a number of reasons. It cements the knowledge you’ve learned in class, it gives you a chance to practice the concepts on its own, and it reinforces the grammatical concepts you’ve learned. In A1.2 we do not get anywhere near as much work as the higher level, and most of what we get is in our workbooks or our course books, and I wanted to do a little bit more.

I need my German to improve quickly as we have a new housemate coming to live in our WG, and she does not speak much English. So, I’ve started a system similar to what some of the higher classes do in order to expand my vocabulary faster. Also, I’m a bit of a nerd, and I actually really enjoy things like this.

Every time we get new vocabulary, or if I ever have to look up a word, I write it in the back of my book. The German word is written in the column on the left, then either an example in a sentence, or a direct translation is written on the right. You can include things like common usage, the plural form of the word, or other quirks that particular word has eg. If it takes a particular case after it. I also like to colour code the word like our workbook does to make the gender of the words easier to remember – something I particularly struggle with.

Do you have any hints for faster learning?