GERM 1102 - Beginning German Language and Culture II

1. Converse in German on a basic level and in the present tense on topics such as school, home, leisure time and cultural activities, sports, travel and daily routines and comprehend spoken German and brief readings on those topics.
2. Employ idiomatic expressions and circumlocution as communicative strategies in written and spoken German to convey a message rather than relying on word-for-word translation.
3. Differentiate between direct and indirect objects by analyzing syntactical structures of sentences.
4. Pronounce words with a near-native accent in German, differentiating subtleties as well as more obvious differences between English and German pronunciation of letters and phonemes.
5. Conjugate verbs in the present tense indicative and the imperative moods, and in the past tense indicative (Perfekt and Imperfekt) and future tense.
6. Recognize a greater variety of morphological cues such as prefixes and suffixes as well as borrowed words and cognates derived from common languages (such as Latin) to guess the meanings of unfamiliar words in English and German, and recognize the relation between English and German.
7. Empathize with the difficulties any non-native English speakers, minorities, and immigrants face in learning a second language.
8. Identify additional cultural distinctions and linguistic variations between Germany and the German-speaking countries and among the regions within these countries.
9. Identify some cultural differences between English-speaking and German-speaking societies, particularly with regard to travel, housing, national holidays, leisure and cultural activities, sports and health care.
10. Reflect on the political, social, economic, cultural, and linguistic influence and contributions from Germany and Germans who immigrated to the American continent. Consider also family names, place names, daily customs, science, architecture, and music.
11. Identify examples of vocabulary and grammar borrowed from other linguistic groups into German through historical events.
12. Label the German-speaking countries and regions on a map and discuss the economic role German-speaking countries play within the European Union and in relation to the United States.
13. Consider the role religion has played in the history of Germany and the German-speaking world, and the role it plays in present society.
14. Reflect on the issue of immigration and understand some of the historical and political dynamics within Germany that caused it. Compare and contrast immigration groups and patterns in the United States and in German-speaking countries.
15. Consider the cultural and linguistic influence of countries such as the United States, as well as neighboring countries with which Germany had historical ties, on Germany and German-speaking countries.

1. Formal and informal commands
2. Expressing “to know” with wissen vs. kennen
3. Two-way prepositions
4. Direct and indirect object pronouns used separately and together
5. The genitive case, and prepositions used with the genitive, and noun and adjective agreement
6. Der- and ein-words
7. Reflexive verbs
8. Infinitives with zu
9. Da- and wo-compounds
10. The narrative past (Imperfekt) vs. conversational past and past perfect
11. Comparison of adjectives and adverbs
12. Basic geography of the German-speaking world
13. Cultural themes and vignettes through readings, class discussions, videos, and multimedia presentations