AMD Ideen

Here are some ideas to use as a starting point...but quickly you will find something that is unique to you and allows you to explore German in accordance with your particular interests. Try something new each time, or stick with something you love. As you scroll through the list you should start to get the idea that the possibilities are endless (even if you're just starting in 101!)...

  1. Borrow ideas from other students: Scroll through the blog to see what other students are doing! Maybe something will inspire you! You can also look at other sections (see the links on the bottom right sidebar to other sections' blogs). 
  2. Find an Email/Chat conversation partner: You won't have a hard time finding someone who would love a chance to practice English, and you can work out a system of writing/chatting half German/half English. Try Livemocha, Tandem, or The Mixxer Language Exchange which works via Skype - or try this link to find German speakers near Ann Arbor. 
  3. Attend a Kaffeestunde or Deutschtisch: Speak German with other UofM students and Max Kade house residents. Write about who was there, what you talked about, and new words you learned. 
  4. Do anything you like to do, but do it in German: Go out to lunch with a friend who speaks German, go longboarding, go jogging, whatever you like, and speak German while doing it! Maybe see if anyone in class has similar hobbies, or someone in another section, and make this a regular thing! 
  5. Watch a German movie with subtitles: Write down a few things that happened, and some words/expressions you noticed. Please try to find and post a trailer on the blog! You could also add some brief comments (perhaps in English) about interesting things you noticed about German culture as you watched the movie, as well as your general reactions to the film. Give the film a star rating so other students can decide whether they might enjoy it as well! Finding German films: Click here to see the great selection of German films on reserve at the Language Resource Center, including dubbed versions of films like The Big Lebowski or the original Star Wars trilogy, from which you can learn a lot. Click here to see highlights of the great collection of German films you can check out from the Askwith Media Library in the UGLi. Many German films are available via Netflix and Hulu.
  6. Read one of the recommended "AMD books" (102 and 221/231 students):  Find the titles and descriptions of these in the "Kursinformation" for your course and find the one you like best at the campus bookstores or online. A popular choice is Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen (ordered for 221/231, but accessible for 102 students too). If you're in 102 and struggling with reading, try Crossgrove's Graded German Reader, which starts at the 101 level and systematically works itw way up.
  7. Watch German TV:  For example, every South Park episode is available in German! You could watch the 20:00 Uhr Tagesschau (German news). And through the ARD website, Tatort (a famous and beloved German Krimi show), or soap operas: Verbotene Liebe (forbidden love). Find more "Unterhaltungsserien" under this link (including quiz shows, cooking shows, etc). German "late night" talk show: Harald Schmidt. If you want to try watching a brilliant soap without subtitles, look for Türkisch für Anfänger on Youtube.
  8. Listen to German music, learn to sing along:  Check out the site stepintogerman.org and click on "Music Videos". Often these videos have links to the lyrics at the bottom of the page; if not, Google the lyrics. Scroll through various artists on the right. After listening to a song you like, bring up the lyrics and try singing along (this is great speaking practice!!). If you are feeling especially brave, lip synch with a friend and post the video as your post :) Or if you are a talented singer, record your own version!
    Another music option: check out the German mtv.de and look through the music videos or charts. Listen to a few of the German-language songs you can find, and post a link to the coolest one on your blog post.     Look up the lyrics if you're interested and see if you can understand anything. The MTV site uses lots of English so it's easy to navigate!
    Here are even more music links if you are interested in classical music, German rap, alternative pop, or other German bands, Swiss country music, how to find lyrics...Post a music video on your post and let other students know what good stuff you found.
  9. German Art: Go to the University Art Museum (it's free, beautiful, and a great place to study!) and ask a docent to show you some of their more than 600 pieces of German art, such as Emil Nolde's Frisian landscape and Max Beckmann's Begin the Beguine. Look one of the artists up online afterwards and post some info about him/her, and some images you liked. Or skip the museum and find a German-speaking artist you like via these art and architecture links, then post some info and images.
  10. Cook or bake something German: Or just read recipes and plan an elaborate menu for an imaginary (or real!) party! Here is a great site for looking for recipes: Chefkoch.de. They also have fun guides such as "Tipps fürs Grillen" and "Biergartenfeeling für zuhause".  More food ideas here. 
  11. Work on your vocab (or grammar): Make learning vocab fun! Take time this week to make up silly or interesting sentences using new vocab you want to learn, or record yourself saying the words. Type the word into the PONS widget at the top right of this page and write down some useful example sentences/expressions that come up. Or practice new grammar  the same way: make up silly or interesting example sentences, record yourself saying them, etc. This is always an option if you feel you would enjoy it, or that you really need it! 
  12. Follow German Sports: Want to know whether anyone plays baseball in Germany? Or who the biggest soccer (Fußball!) teams are? Here are links to some of the best sites for exploring topics on German sports. 
  13. Read something fun and silly (101 students): Once you know a bit more German, perhaps for your third or fourth blog post, you could read the recommended text available at the bookstores: Prinzessin Horst. It's a short, fun book about what happens in an imaginary kingdom when a princess is born, but the king, who had absolutely counted on his wife giving birth to a boy, decides to go ahead and give her a boy's name anyway and names her "Horst." The book is a cute parody of a tabloid format, and the kingdom is quite modern; this is one of those children's books that adults immediately love. The German is very simple, and you should be able to figure it out with the help of a dictionary and the pictures in the book.
  14. Explore a Cultural Topic: Follow up on the culture readings assigned for homework (or any other cultural topic that interests you!) by finding some additional information on your own, and write about what you found.  Your post can also include some of your reactions to what you read for homework, but it should not just be a summary of what you read for homework and your reactions (the grade for that would be a "check minus"): it should also include some additional information you found. Or check out these fun blogs (both in English ==> especially good for 101): http://www.exberliner.com/  and http://www.ichwerdeeinberliner.com/
  15. Explore German Literature in translation (especially recommended for 101): Find an English translation (or, better yet, a Dual Language edition!) of a novel or a short story by a German author who interests you, read it for 45-50 minutes, then write in English about what you read for 10-15 minutes. You can find translated German literature in the UGLi in the "PT" call numbers, and translated and untranslated German literature in the Grad Library in the 838 call numbers on floor 3 South.  Here are a few possibilities just to get you going. Or ask your instructor for a recommendation!
    • the great classics: Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther, or Faust  
    • any collection of stories by Franz Kafka.  The Metamorphosis (sometimes included with the stories, sometimes published separately as a novella) will get your attention right away.  If you get hooked, you may want to try one of his three famous unfinished novels (The Trial, The Castle, America)
    • Hermann Hesse: Demian, Siddartha or Steppenwolf (all great books for college age readers; very popular in the 60s and 70s)
    • East German author Christa Wolf: Cassandra (a provocative alternative perspective on the Trojan War - ideal if you're a Great Books student!) 
    • Bertolt Brecht: The Good Woman of Sezuan, Mother Courage or Galileo, or look for some of his poetry
    • Thomas Mann: Death in Venice, or, if you're ambitious, The Magic Mountain (people who love to read often list this as one of their favorite novels)
    • Friedrich Dürrenmatt: The Visit or The Physicists (dark comedies) 
    • Max Frisch: Andorra, The Fire Raisers (both famous plays) or Homo Faber (made into a movie starring Sam Shepard)
    • Heinrich Böll: The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (this novel will make you think twice about reading another tabloid paper) 
    • Any collection of Wolfgang Borchert's simple, sad stories about World War II
    • Günter Grass: Cat and Mouse, or, if you're feeling ambitious, his famous novel about a little boy with a toy drum in Danzig in the years before and during World War II, who willfully stops growing at age 3: The Tin Drum
    • Bernhard Schlink: The Reader. Bestselling novel (and Oprah Book Club Selection) which begins with a 15 year old boy's affair with an enigmatic older woman.  When he finds her again years later, she is being tried as a Nazi criminal. Film version in 2008.
    • If you're interested in science and exploring: Daniel Kehlmann's Measuring the World 
    • Any of E.T.A. Hoffmann's somewhat dreamy, sometimes magical, sometimes dark novellas
    • Any of Heinrich von Kleist's breathless historical novellas, such as Michael Kohlhaas (Coalhouse Walker in Doctorow's Ragtime is based on Michael Kohlhaas) or The Earthquake in Chile
    • A translation of the Nibelungenlied (on which Wagner's opera cycle is based)
    • Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet or The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
    • Friedrich von Schiller's William Tell (in which Tell shoots the apple on his son's head)

  16. Learn more about German culture, politics, history (especially recommended for 101): Find an English book about German culture, politics or history, read it for 45-50 minutes, then write in English (use German when you can!) about what you read for 10-15 minutes.  Here are a few possibilities just to get you going (most books are available at the library):

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