Author Archives: Emma Capponi

Deutsch Akademie homework

Vocabulary learning at Deutsch Akademie

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?

My German class at Deutsch Akademie

Introducing my class!

German class 1 German-class 2 German class 3

Today we were working on directions and prepositions (over, under, beside, etc.). It was challenging, we had to give directions to our Partners based on little maps in our textbooks. Turns out, giving directions is hard When You’re so trying to speak German Correctly! The German Words Took up all the room in my brain, so things like ‚left‘ and ‚right‘ were pushed out.

While today was fun, it got even better later on in the evening When I actually got lost. I was Trying to find the swimming pool entrance and I stopped some German kids. I was so proud of myself, I had my question all planned out, and I would for once be able to understand Their directions. So I went and asked them – excuse me, where is the swimming pool?

And They answered in English.

Trying to learn German in Berlin has its very own set of challenges – like everyone speaking English. But, next time I get lost I want to know how to Correctly Ask for Directions!