Hey there fellow learners!
My main interest is to find out with what goal people learn German and which topics are the most interesting to them. With that info I intend to create customized language packages. Let me know and message me if you're interested in learning about as well as with me.
Looking forward to making progress with you!
Rose J.
Hallo Rose,
My answer to why I learn German would be: 1) I love learning languages hahaha; and 2) I am almost a chemical engineer and German is a very important language for engineers. I lack a little bit in the technical part in German, for example, scientific vocabulary and/or terms. So I would like very much to see a German language package that is all about technical vocabularies aiming to chemistry, physics, biology and so on...
I hope my answer was good for you :)
Hi Rose,
I'm a teacher of English living in Germany (I've also taught German to English-speakers) and most of the learners I've run into want to know how best to deal with everyday life situations in Germany. This may sound boring or something everybody covers, but honestly, what textbook tells you how to say 'Sorry, you've given me the incorrect change', or 'I'd like to exchange this Batman underwear for the Spiderman underwear'? What about telling somebody to politely mind their own business and take their Schimpffinger elsewhere? How do you get Germans to move aside and let you past...when ENTSCHULDIGUNG isn't working? How can I learn to "meckern" like a German -- not because I want to, but because they all seem to do it? How can I...after I ask for something simple like Asprin in an Apotheke... answer the barrage of intimate and prying questions the Apotheke lady will ask me as a part of a misguided 'customer service' attempt?
Things like that. Very practical, very 'every day annoyances' type of thing that are quite linguistically challenging even for advanced learners (like me) but are only covered superficially -- and inadequately -- by standard materials. (especially the finer art of Meckern...a social survival skill !)
Internationally speaking, people really only learn languages for 1) job and career 2) personal interest. So, you can guess that if you do a business German module, you'll get interested learners. Telephoning in German. Simple business letters. The complicated process of applying for a job (Mappe? Why do I need an expensive Mappe? Won't a letter and CV in an envelope do?) Things like that.
Personal interest you will never be able to guess. *Everybody* is different there. You just have to ask, no way around it.
Hopefully this has given you some ideas.... :-)
I'm interested in learning basic grammar and vocabulary right now and moving on to becoming fully fluent in time.
