German Language Support Package August 2014 Dear Parents and Students of Goethe International Charter School, Welcome to a new and exciting school year of great learning experiences and success! The key to success in German Language Arts is consistent exposure and practice outside of the classroom, in the playground, in the home and within our local community. This will help your child to view mistakes as part of the learning process and develop confidence and a positive attitude towards the language. If you offer games and real language settings German becomes than just a part of school but a fun part of your child s life - the ultimate goal! To help with homework assignments and reading practice, we have put together this language support package which contains online resources and information on: 1) Websites and Software for Research and Language Development: enclosed is a list of German children s websites and suggestions for language learning software. 2) Dictionaries: enclosed is information about leo.org, an excellent online dictionary. If you have no access to a computer or prefer a paper dictionary we suggest Langenscheidt s German/English dictionaries. Please note that the smaller paper versions contain less language information. All students should have access to a German dictionary at home. 3) Basic German Grammar: enclosed are basic German grammar rules for non-german speaking parents to help students with homework assignments and projects. 4) Books: Each classroom has a classroom library from which students are highly encouraged to check out books. German books and other items can also be purchased at our bi-annual book fair. Reading and reference material will be available for all grade levels. Bookstores and online stores also offer German children s literature as well as the library of the Goethe Institute in Los Angeles (http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/los/enindex.htm - extra charges may apply and are not related to Goethe International Charter School). Have a wonderful new school year! Your GICS German team 1
1) German Websites for Kids: 1. www.blindekuh.de research Great website for 1 st graders and up. The website offers activities, articles, stories, short video clips and music on almost every topic: from culture to math to science The links have an age rating so you can see if the links are appropriate for your child s age level (S = 6-9 years, M= 9-13 years) 2. www.fragfinn.de research Great search engine for children to find age-appropriate information and links. 3. www.helles-koepfchen.de research Great search engine for children to find age-appropriate information and links. 4. http://www.sowieso.de research German newspaper for children in grade 3 and up. A selection of local German and world news. Just click on the icon to get to the articles. 5. www.kindernetz.de research You can find short articles, video clips and children s shows here. 6. http://kinder-tierlexikon.de reference An online animal encyclopedia by children for children. 7. http://www.nationalgeographic.de reference 8. www.kidsweb.de research News, projects and games 2
9. www.labbe.de reading and reference Online stories for advanced readers, sings, craft store and more. 10. www.wdrmaus.de activity Popular German children s show: Sendung mit der Maus Short educational video clips and texts. 11. www.kiraka.de webradio It is a children s webradio with news, reportages, audio books etc. Provided by German Western Public Broadcasting (WDR). 12. www.kika.de television Children s televsion network provided by German Public Broadcasting 13. www.wasistwas.de reading and reference Popular children s reference book series 14. www.lego.de activity An example of how kids favorites can also be viewed in German. 15. www.quia.com/shared/german/ vocabulary and grammar Teacher created vocabulary and grammar exercises. 16.www.goethe.de/en/spr/ueb.html Goethe Institute s links for language support language exercises 17. http://vorleser.net/kinder-jugendliche.html podcasts Audio books and podcasts for children for free 18. http://www.podcast.de/podcast/774/ podcasts Podcasts for children for free 19. http://hoerstern.de/index_hoerstern_podcast.php podcasts Apps - ilearny - Kurz der Kicker - ABCLand - German - Erstes Schreiben, erstes Lesen - Erstes Zählen, erstes Rechnen - die Waldfibel (for free) - Woxikon Dictionary - Letter Jungle - Bubbling Math (choose German language setting) - AbcTiger 3
Books and DVDs www.alphabet-garten.com/ www.amazon.de If you order German language DVDs, please remember that they are encoded by region. Germany is region 2 while the USA are region 1. You can find after-market region-free DVD players online or you can make your home computer region 2 by exclusively playing region 2 DVDs on it. For example, Apple lets you change regions for a certain amount of times before it is locked into a region. German Language Learning Software If you are looking for a fun language program to support your kindergarten to 1 st grade student we would like to suggest a DVD language course called MUZZY Early Advantage from BBC. With a little research and patience you might be able to find a bargain online. The award winning, BBC MUZZY program is the most respected language course for children in the world. MUZZY creates a total learning environment using a brilliant mix of multimedia including 4 DVDs, Muzzy at the Seaside Interactive CD-ROM, an Audio CD, as well as an Activity Book. Combine this with scientific fact that during childhood the human brain is naturally predisposed to learning languages and your child cant help but succeed. This acclaimed BBC course uses the award-winning video character MUZZY, compelling stories and delightful songs to bring language to life. Its fun and it works. Almost like magic, the proven *see-listen-and-learn* technique engages kids natural ability to learn language. For our older students (grades 2-5), the Rosetta Stone Language Learning software (levels 1-3) might be an additional resource. http://www.rosettastone.com/learn-german These are recommendations - we do not expect students to purchase those materials. They can be used as a home resource to practice German! Please note that all of these websites and resources have been selected and previewed by the best of our knowledge and accessibility. However, it is crucial that you support and guide your child when using the computer, internet and other devices to prevent misuse and access to inappropriate web contents. 4
2) German-English/English-German dictionaries online (free): Go to http://www.leo.org/ and choose Deutsch-Englisch. On the next page enter your word in the white field with the cursor and hit GO. You do not need to choose a language direction; the dictionary engine will figure out the source language. The dictionary will also provide basic forms of verbs, adjectives and nouns if you enter them in an inflected form. The example shows gegangen which is the present participle of the verb gehen. 5
The website also offers word inflections. You need to know if the word is a noun, a verb or an adjective. Lets continue with our example gehen which is a verb (to go). To look up word inflections (which are very important in German), click on the blue i for information. Click on the Flexionstabelle - Verb (table of inflections - verb) to display the infinitive inflection of the verb. The website offers you the verb inflections in the different grammatical tenses. 6
3) Google Translator and other online translate services Google Translator and other online translate services are very popular with students. Complex English sentences are easily translated into German. However, several problems occur. First of all, Google Translator and other online translate services are just computer programs that translate the text word by word. They do not know about meaning and complex grammar. Very often, the sentences do not sound correct, do not carry the intended meaning or, even worse, are simply incorrect and incomprehensible. Second of all and most importantly, using Google Translator and other online translate services does not show your child s German proficiency. In writing assignments, every student should show what they are capable of and also see those assignments as a way to improve their German. By using Google Translator and other online translate services, your child does not need to think about how to express their thoughts with the German available to them. Of course, they are encouraged to use dictionaries to learn new words. But building and writing the text still needs to be done by them and not a computer program. However, Google Translator and other online translate services are good ways to support your child if you need to understand the text or assignment and to then help your child working with the text or assignment. 4) Basic German grammar a) German nouns Nouns are always capitalized. Nouns have a grammatical gender. The grammatical gender is indicated by the definite article. There are three articles: der [masculine], die [feminine] and das [neuter] (the). The plural is always die (the). e.g. der Hund - die Hunde the dog - the dogs die Katze - die Katzen the cat - the cats das Buch - die Bücher the book - the books The indefinite article is ein [masculine and neuter] or eine [feminine] a. All nouns with the definite article of der or das become ein. All nouns with the definite article of die become eine. e.g. der Hund - ein Hund the dog - a dog die Katze - eine Katze the cat - a cat das Buch - ein Buch the book - a book To use the correct article is not easy. You have to remember and learn the article with every new noun. However, there are a few hints for using the correct article: Most female people have the article die and all male people have the article der. e.g. die Mutter (the mother), die Tante (the aunt) der Bruder (the brother), der Sohn (the son) Exceptions are: das Kind (the child) und das Mädchen (the girl). 7
Usually, nouns ending with an -e, -ion, -heit, -keit, -ung use the feminine article die e.g. die Katze (the cat), die Lampe (the lamp), die Schokolade (the chocolate), die Situation (the situation), die Freiheit (the freedom), die Krankheit (the disease), die Entschuldigung (the apology). However, there are exceptions to the nouns ending with an -e: e.g. der Affe (the monkey), der Hase (the rabbit), der Name (the name), das Auge (the eye) The Use of Personal Pronouns Personal pronouns are used instead of the noun. As in the English language, there are three singular 3 rd person pronouns. Nouns with the article der are referred to as er (he). e.g. Der Hund ist klein. The dog is small. Er ist klein. He is small. Nouns with the article die are referred to as sie (she). e.g. Die Katze ist klein. The cat is small. Sie ist klein. She is small. Nouns with the article das are referred to as es (it). e.g. Das Buch ist klein. The book is small. Es ist klein. It is small. b) German Verbs Correct verb forms - conjugation Regular verbs (the verb endings shown below (-e, -st, -t, -en, -t, -en) are always the same for regular verbs and most irregular verbs) e.g. spielen (to play) ich spiele du spielst er/sie/es spielt wir spielen ihr spielt sie spielen (I play) (you play) (he/she/it plays) (we play) (you play) (they play) irregular verbs haben (to have) sein (to be) ich habe (I have) ich bin (I am) du hast (you have) du bist (you are) er/sie/es hat (he/she/it has) er/sie/es ist (he/she/it is) wir haben (we have) wir sind (we are) ihr habt (you have) ihr seid (you are) sie haben (they have) sie sind (they are) 8
For more information on German grammar please visit the websites www.deutschseite.de/inhalt.html or www.canoo.net 9