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German
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[edit] Main Contents

Introduction

Lessons

Level one lessons (Introductory lessons / einführende Lektionen)

Level two lessons (Grundlegende Lektionen)

Level three lessons (Zwischen-Lektionen)

Level four lessons (Erweiterte Lektionen)

Level five lessons (Review lessons / Überprüfungs-Lektionen)

Grammar

Appendices (Anhänge)

Contributors

GFDL

[edit] Introduction

A Textbook on Five Levels

The question arose early in the development of this textbook as to precisely who
would be the target audience. Although intended to be a "beginning" textbook on
German, many felt that the early lessons were too difficult for younger students
with very limited or no experience with German and, perhaps more importantly,
limited skills in English grammar. For this reason a textbook on three levels
was conceived. Beginning German (Level I) puts more emphasis on building
vocabulary around subject matter interesting and useful to young students. Basic
German (Level II) emphasises grammar, and assumes a greater knowledge of English
grammar more typical of an older high school or a college student. If you are
just beginning to learn German or attempting to teach yourself, you may wish to
try both approaches and see which works better for you, since some people
require a strong structural approach to learning a new language while others
find this "structure" only impedes progress by adding another layer of
complexity. Intermediate German (Level III), which requires even more knowledge
of English, is for college students, preferably for sophomores or juniors. With
even more complex lessons, grammar and vocabulary comes Advanced German (Level
IV), which with the most complex and difficult parts of the German language, is
for late college students (Seniors) and college graduates. The last level, which
is a review level, but also has cultural facts and the history of the German
language, is Reviewed German. (Level V). An existing, separate text, German/Grammar,
may eventually be merged into the lesson modules or developed into useful
appendices as a grammar reference. At present, however, German Grammar is an
expanding, significant contribution to the textbook; it provides an important
reference on German language grammar rules useful to the student working through
any of the three levels.

[edit] The German Language

German (Deutsch) is a member of the western group of the Germanic languages. It
is spoken primarily in Germany, Austria, the majority of Switzerland,
Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Südtirol (South Tyrol) region of Italy, the Opole
Voivodship of Poland, the eastern part of Belgium, parts of Romania, the Alsace
(Elsass) region of France and parts of Denmark. Additionally, several former
colonial possessions of these countries, such as Namibia in Africa, have sizable
German-speaking populations. There are German-speaking minorities in several
eastern European countries including Russia, and in the United States as well as
countries in South America like Brazil and Argentina. Over 120 million people
speak German as their native language. German is the third most popular foreign
language taught worldwide, and the second most popular in Europe. Continue
reading about the German language.

[edit] German and English

If you are an English speaker unfamiliar with German, you may be surprised to
learn that English and German are closely related languages and share many words
that are very similar. Such words are called cognates. This is particularly true
for everyday words in English that are Anglo-Saxon (that is, Germanic) in origin.
Consider the following list of English words followed by their German
counterparts:

arm ~ der Arm

book ~ das Buch

cat ~ die Katze

father ~ der Vater

finger ~ der Finger

wagon ~ der Wagen

house ~ das Haus

hand ~ die Hand

June ~ der Juni

man ~ der Mann

mother ~ die Mutter

mouse ~ die Maus

name ~ der Name

son ~ der Sohn

garden ~ der Garten

lamp ~ die Lampe

bush ~ der Busch

baker ~ der Bäcker

net ~ das Netz