Welcome to SPACE, our adult continuing education program which offers interactive monthly courses for personal enrichment! Learn more here.

Language Sector > Module > Iteration
Discussion-based
This 8-session introduction to German is intended to give the students a basic acquaintanceship with the German language and enough information for further study. This first module covers the alphabet, basic verb conjugation, important verbs like Haben and Sein, pronouns, grammatical gender, nominative vs. accusative cases, forming questions, and giving dates and times. Some specific vocabulary content is given in the session breakdown, but the individual entries are not meant to be either restrictive or exhaustive.

Session Breakdown:

1. The alphabet and sounds; the present tense of regular verbs; colors and numbers

2. Haben und Sein; nominative pronouns; noun gender; Was studieren Sie (what do you study?) and Wo wohnen Sie (where do you live?);

3. Fragewörter (question words) and forming questions; yes/no questions; “Interview” game

4. Coordinating conjunctions; describing your field of study; the verb mögen (to like)

5. Die Wochentage (days of the week); Die Uhrzeiten (time); Der Wochenplan (weekly schedule)

6. Planning a meeting with a friend (combination of Der Wochenplan and the “Questions” from Session 3); negation (Nicht and Kein)

7. The accusative case; description of rooms (Ich habe/Es gibt); accusative pronouns

8. Accusative prepositions; general review

Note: This list is not meant to be exhaustive and can change depending on student wishes.

Required Texts

The online (and free) German textbook Deutsch im Blick developed by the University of Texas (https://coerll.utexas.edu/dib/) serves as the basis for our course. This textbook is used mostly for structuring purposes, since a lot of material will be developed by the instructor before each session. So that you have material for conversation practice, each session will be accompanied by a short, one-page vocabulary list in the form of a PDF document. The online dictionary for the course is Leo (https://dict.leo.org/german-english/).
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Days and Times

Meeting Mondays and Wednesdays at 7:00 PM Eastern for eight 1-hour sessions, with classes scheduled for Jan 4, 9, 11, 16, 18, 23, 25, 30

If you have any questions about the SPACE program, please reach out to [email protected].