German in Schools

[beautiful_soul]

I think that it is awesome that German is being taught in schools! It really broadens kids learning. Since my mother was full blood German and my grandparents came over from Germany, I think its awesome, something different to Spanish. Don't get me wrong, I love Spanish, but I believe I had more fun in school when the activities were German, and since it was my culture I could relate to it. Sine my family is German, I had no problem speaking or writing the language.

Anyone have any input on this?

[triedandtru]

German was not taught in my elementary school, or High School. I am having to try and learn in college now, and it is very difficult. I do not feel like children have enough access to enough of a variety of languages here in the US, and it puts at great disadvantage.

[Hesse]

I had German language classes in my school, and I really liked it. Taking German is a real good way for us to learn the language of our distant relatives and restore lost traditions. I think it helps us identify with our culture better. It also teaches a little about the history of Germany as well. Overall it was my favourite class. Its good to hear that you have it in your school.

[SaxonPagan]

I was a German Teacher for many years but, sadly, it got phased out of a lot of schools and even those that still do it do not teach it properly. By this I mean that it's become very PC and teachers have little choice in the content - they have to strictly follow a curriculum based on environmental issues and "combatting racism" etc.. etc..

Furthermore, if you try and teach anything even vaguely academic such as grammar then OMG ... your trendy colleagues (UK education is full of them!) think you're some kind of Fascist. Role playing is all the rage right now, which most pupils over the age of 12 find rather patronising.

It's all part of the dumbing-down process!

[ChaosLord]

German was an elective class offered in middle school and high school when I was enrolled in school. I don't know if it is nowadays since I no longer live in Illinois and have been out of high school for nearly a decade. However, the college I attend has a German class, but it hasn't been open for enrollment for nearly two years. Emphasis is put more into Espanol and Arabic...ack.

[jacktheknife]

Howdy,

I am so old and was so dumb in grade school
I don't even know if foreign language was taught.
However, since then I have learned {Spanish}
or "perfect Mexican" as my therapist in rehab said.
{not drug rehab, I was in a wreck}
and with the accent of the geographical center of Mexico
San Luis Potosi.
I learned it installing lawn sprinklers and roofs for 30 years.

Then driving 30k a year finding the jobs to do
I learned a good bit of Arabic as they all work at gas stations.
Then there's the Chinese restaurant 'The Great Wall'
the owner was teaching me numbers and ordering ect.
I love learning languages, especially since my piano wore out.

Since 911 the roofing business went to hell.
I got murdered 3 times in the last 9 years and am disabled and home all the time.
My parents both had German in their families.
'James von Dorn' was my mothers grandfather and his wife was named 'Stroup' Belgian I think.
Dad has the 'Peelers' as grand parents.

James von Dorn moved to Emory county Texas in the 1800's.
No one spoke German and his German was lost.
I don't know any one either, but met this guy...
An much older dude on a forum who asked if any one wanted to learn German and we wrote back and forth for a year.
"Now, Jack speaks German and Donar's got a dog".
A friend on the Sheriffs dept. said to a friend.
It is a profoundly difficult language but fun to learn and interesting in the extreme.


Tschüß


J. Winters von Knife

[frippardthree]

German was offered at my high school, along with French and Spanish. My student advisers advised me to take Spanish. I took my advisers' advice. Now, I regret not taking German. Some of the post and resources on this board have been helping me to learn some German.

[SaxonPagan]

German isn't so tough for us English speakers Frippard

You can get to a reasonable level fairly quickly but to become really good you'll need to learn all those word-endings. This can be demoralizing but if you hang in there it all falls into place eventually!

I remember that here in the UK, circa 1990, there was a huge demand (mainly by business people) to learn Japanese. Then when their economy started to fizzle the demand disappeared again as quickly as it had begun and hasn't reemerged since. This taught me to beware of "fads".

Another one was to learn French when they were building the Channel Tunnel because it was clamed that from 1992 onwards almost everyone in Southern England would "need to speak French to get a job". This was great for me personally in my line of work as a French Teacher, but really too daft for words

[jacktheknife]

Y'all,

The most important thing about the 'German language
I learned last year was 'Genders'.

'English' has a neutral 'the'.
'Mexican' has masculine and feminine 'the's'
El and La.
ie. El Toro and La Cocina. {kitchen}
German has all three! Neutral, masculine and feminine.
Das, Die and Der.
And there are rules,
but no,
there aren't any rules
but this one...

You must learn the gender with the word.
If every animal on earth was listed in German,
all the genders would be mixed up.
Some like chicken are neutral 'das Hunchen'
Dog, masculine 'der Hund'

There are only 'basically' three genders
and the only way to learn which is correct
is to learn the gender with the word.


Tschüß


J. Winters von Knife
http://jacksknifeshop.tripod.com/

[StormjaerKommando]

German had all three! Neutral, masculine and feminine.
Das, Die and Der.
And there are rules,
but no,
there aren't any rules
but this one...

You must learn the gender with the word.
If every animal on earth was listed in German,
all the genders would be mixed up.
Some like chicken are neutral 'das Hunchen'
Dog, masculine 'der Hund'

There are only 'basically' three genders
and the only way to learn which is correct
is to learn the gender with the word.

Its not as simple as that , the Nominativ forms change according to Akkusativ, Dativ and Genetiv grammar rules, and then there are Relativpronomen which also result in a change of the normal der-die-das Nominativ forms according to Akkusativ, Dativ and Genetiv. There may be more changes that I'm not currently aware of or I can't remember .

I've had the most difficulty in my grammar with these as well as the verb changes in the Präteritum and Plusquamperfekt tenses during my 3 years I’ve studied German at university.

It’s easier learning German for Afrikaans speakers (as well as Dutch and Flemish for that matter) then it is for those speaking English seeing as the sentence construction and a lot of the words are similar. Although certain blunders may also occur because of this, for example instead of 'the' or der-die-das we only have 'die', so effectively we say 'die man' (der Man), 'die vrou' (die Frau) and 'die kind' (das Kind). I did not have German at school but it was the only European language my school taught along with french . Despite the difficulties learning it as an adult I do enjoy taking German immensely .