The content for the proposed 9-week course for Beginner German was covered in just 8 weeks. Over 7 weeks the essentials of most aspects of grammar and vocabulary were presented in English.

The eighth session was mostly presented in German. Participants sang 3 songs in German, namely the German National Anthem, Muss i denn and The Happy Wanderer. In addition, a short story in German was read, testing comprehension skills. Each member participated in a role play in various daily situations, such as asking directions, ordering food and beverages at a restaurant and visiting the doctor.

Horst joined in delivering the last session. Gratifyingly, all 8 participants elected to continue to the main group. It was a solid effort by all and came together, as hoped, by the end. 

Pauline Bailey

As I write this, we have completed 4 of the proposed 9 sessions. The first lesson started with the alphabet and other sounds in German, as well as common abbreviations, and then progressed to conjugating various verbs in the present tense. Pronunciation was revised at the beginning of the next lesson and has been being perfected ever since.

In the second lesson, we explored German sentence structure in both simple and compound sentences, as well as pronoun changes from the subject to object, both direct and indirect. This was extended to nouns, including gender effect on the definite and indefinite articles, in the next lesson.

Lesson 4 gave us a break by looking at questions, number and time. Our knowledge of verbs was extended to the auxiliary (or helper) verbs.

It‘s been a cracking pace, but attendees are to be congratulated on their level of engagement. We are halfway to unlocking the language.
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Pauline Bailey

​This is the third year that Beginner German has been offered.  The delivery will again be different.  The aim is to cover all the fundamentals of pronunciation and grammar in a crash course over 9 weeks, after which you will be able to join the main group.  Homework will be expected.

If you would like to find out more, please contact Convenor Pauline Bailey on 0434 147 605.