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What are they, noodles? Dumplings?

It doesn't matter--it's SPÄTZLE!

I don't believe you've really had German food until you've had homemade Spätzle.

Maybe you've tried dried Spätzle noodles? They're ok. You can find them at ALDI several times a year here.

Spätzle at many Germanic restaurants here is usually pre-made and then reheated in a pan. They're ok but usually they dry out quickly and then they're tough to eat.

The best Spätzle are made at home. They take time, it's effort, and if you…

Diese Woche machen Privatkunden eine besondere Aktivität, anstatt den normalen Unterricht zu haben. Sie backen, kochen oder machen ein deutsches Rezept (oder ein österreichisches oder ein schweizerisches Rezept) und schreiben etwas darüber.

Deutsches Essen zu machen ist auch Deutsch lernen. :)

Und Sie dürfen diese Woche mitmachen!

Diese Woche lesen Sie hier drei Rezepte für typische, deutsche Gerichte und es gibt sogar Rezeptkarten, die Sie herunterladen und ausdrucken können. Alles ist auf D…

If you've seen the combinations A1, B2 or C1 on your German books but you don't know or understand what they mean, this post is for you!

There are six total combinations of letters and numbers: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2. These are simply guidelines for figuring out where you are in the German learning process.

The name for this straightforward scale is the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages or the CEFR.

Why the CEFR is so helpful

This scale is so clear, so helpful for Germa…

Ask any new German learner and they will say German has a million parts and a gazillion words and then you can add the words together to makes new words and...

Stop!

There are only six parts to learning German.

No one part is more important than the other, either, as they are all part of the same machine, if you will.

Think of it like a car.

Does a car function well if part of it is missing or broken? Not usually!

A couple of weeks ago my car battery died (I'll spare you the details becaus…

You could be at home, you could be in a park, you could be on your own balcony.

Every place is a good place to learn a bit of German.

Here are three new ways you can learn a bit of German in any of those places.

1. eine Wortsuche

A word search is a good way to engage with German over a bit of time, but it's not so much energy that you can't get started or keep focused.

In fact, that's exactly what one client said about the newest word search activity:

 "The word search was so entertainin…

The A1 or beginner's level of German is frequently underestimated in its importance for learning German.

Starting at the beginning is not only the only place to start, but it's the most important place to start to understand German grammar.

If you're my client you'll hear this often:

You can't build a house on sand, so build a strong foundation.

One of the hardest times for my A2 clients (or B1 or B2 for that matter) is when we start a new topic involving some kind of grammar and they di…

der Zungenbrecher = tongue twister

Heute können Sie einen Zungenbrecher üben! Hier können Sie das PDF herunterladen:

 PDF herunterladen

Dann schauen Sie das Video. Ich helfe Ihnen dabei, das /ts/ aussprechen zu können und den Zungenbrecher zu lernen. Viel Spaß dabei!

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auf Englisch:

Today you can practice a tongue twister! You can download the PDF here:

download PDF

And then watch the video. In the video I'll help you correctly pronounce the /ts/ sound and to learn the tongue twister. Ha…

Guten Morgen allerseits!

Heute habe ich ein Gedicht für euch. So können Sie das Gedicht lernen:

1. Laden Sie das PDF herunter und lesen Sie das Gedicht.

PDF herunterladen

2. Schlagen Sie Wörter nach, die Ihnen neu sind. Schreiben Sie einen Kommentar, wenn Sie eine Frage haben.

3. Schauen Sie das Video.

4. Schauen Sie das Video nochmal und sprechen Sie mit.

5. Sprechen Sie das Gedicht laut vor. Gut ist's!

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Good morning everyone!

Today I have a poem for you. Here's how you can le…

der Adventskranz = advent wreath

Do you know the difference between Advent and Christmas?

Growing up, I never really understood the difference. I even got an Advent calendar from my grandmother every year, but nobody ever explained to me the difference very clearly.

So you can imagine that it was a bit of a shock when I moved to Germany and found out: »Advent ist nicht Weihnachten!«.

No, Advent is *not* Christmas. It is the time before Christmas.

Here's how I learned the difference. I use…

Heads-up: this is a rant post.

A long time ago I used a German book for both classes and lessons that wasn’t a good fit for either population. I didn’t like the layout, I didn’t like the cartoons, the instructions weren’t always clear, and sometimes the workbook exercises differed from what was in the chapter.

That made teaching with this book difficult, and it created an excessive amount of prep work, which caused me a lot of stress, because it also didn’t answer my students’ many questions. …