Guten Tag; German

[Deleted]

Today was finally the day when classes would start and Matthias could finally get into teaching. Although he had spent time planning what they would do, he had to admit that he was still nervous about his first day. Hopefully things went well, and his students went away having learned a little something. That was one of the reasons he decided to get into teaching; so that he could have the opportunity to introduce someone to something new. And German was a language he had always been interested in and enjoyed speaking, after all he had studied it at College, so it was only natural that he ended up as a German teacher.



On the day of his first classes he woke up early, as he wanted to go for a run before he had to be in the classroom. Physical exercise was always something that he enjoyed, and he felt that it was quite the right thing to get him going for the day. So dressing in a pair of cotton track pants and a t-shirt, along with a cap in his running shoes, he was off. While he decided not to venture off the grounds of the school, he still had plenty of space to run and it was a hour later when he got back to his little apartment, sweaty and tired, ready for a shower, breakfast and then to teach. So a nice, hot shower was followed by breakfast, basic but good and nourishing. Cooking wasn’t a forte of his, but he could manage well enough to keep himself fed. He washed his breakfast down with a hot cup of coffee.



Then it was time to head down to his classroom, and he got there early, which was what he wanted. Today he was dressed nicely but plainly; in a navy suit and jacket with a blue dress shirt, with the first couple of buttons undone.. His black shoes were nicely polished, and his hair had been brushed tidily into place. So with his classroom set and ready, he sat down at his desk, pulling out his notes and a few other things he wanted before putting his bag under the desk. Now he just had to wait for the students to arrive.


His Apperance

@anna

@maeve

Miranda Florin

Katja Eder

[Deleted]

    Anna's foreign language skills were good, but she had no training in German. Her parents had enrolled her in French and Mandarin Chinese as a young child, but she'd had no exposure to German. When she'd seen that it was offered at Blue Ridge, she'd signed up, knowing that it would good on her college applications, and that her experiences in language learning would hopefully make it a bit easier for her. Hopefully it would be a small class, since that would the best way to learn in language classes, with lots of interaction, and no choice but to speak, even if you weren't too confident.

    After her breakfast and swim practice, Anna headed to her first German class, rather interested in how it would do. Entering the classroom, she was sort of surprised to find that she was the first one there, and found a seat at one of the desks. She pulled out her notebook, a pen, and her planner, where she'd been organizing everything she had to do. While waiting for the class to begin, she drew out spaces in her planner to note her homework for each class, and on the bottom, noted other things she needed to do.     

[Deleted]

    Maeve had kept busy during the summer with working and Ella, but the school year introduced unprecedented craziness. Not that she didn't like it. If Maeve wasn't busy, she found a way to be, as doing nothing just seemed to be a waste of time. She was sure that it wouldn't be long before she settled into the routine of the school year. For the first couple days she'd decided to not go to the barn in the morning so that she could have time to learn where all her classes were and get a schedule down, but after those first few days, she planned on helping out in the barns whenever possible in the morning. 

    After getting ready for her classes, Maeve found her way over to the academic building. It took a bit of searching to find the elective department, but once she was there, it didn't take long to find the German room. Having found it, she entered and smiled at the teacher before finding a seat and readying herself for class to begin, pulling out all of her materials. She had no experience in German, but she'd always been interested in it, so she had snapped up the opportunity to take the class.     


OOC: Hello Mikko, I have moved my other character, Jeanne-Claire Augustin, to another class, so she will not be attending. 

[Katja Eder]

Many would have asked why Katja had chosen to take German, German of all things, as one of her electives. After all, there was very little she could hope to learn from the lesson, but her thought process hadn't been on what she was supposed to learn. She would get credit for the class either way, even if she didn't learn anything. No, this way, she would at least have an hour-long period where she wouldn't have to focus on trying to make herself understood, and if it was easy, so what? At least it was one class that was easy for her.

Entering the class, she smiled at the professor, then chose a seat in the front row, pulling out her bound notebook and trusty fountain pen. After writing the date at the top of the page, she capped her pen once more and looked up at the teacher, examining him as she waited for the class to begin. He looked like he would be nice enough, although Katja hoped that he wouldn't allow any nonsense in his classroom, like most of her teachers back home. When people were off track, it made it harder to lea

[Miranda Florin]

Miranda was excited to meet the new German teacher. She'd officially been in the class for all four years of her time at the academy, but with the class always having a rotating teacher, she'd never gotten much more than the basics, so she definitely hoped that this one would stay! She spotted Othello coming out of one of his classes and waved to the male, then made her way towards the classroom she was looking for, a bounce in her step.

She dodged her way through the hallways, although most students ceded their space as they recognized her. It wasn't something that Miranda was used to, nor actually wanted, but then, working with the equine vet at an equestrian school, it lent her a certain status... Strange as that might be. However, she wasn't complaining, as it made it easier to get the the elective wing and enter the classroom, smiling broadly.

"Good morning!" After greeting the teacher, she looked around at the other three girls, spotting Anna and approaching her before sitting down next to the underclassman, "Heya!" She dug out her own notebook and pencil, setting it on her desk space before looking forward at the teacher.

[Deleted]

While he waited for his students to turn up, Matthias quickly went over his list of students, thinking that it was good that this was a small class. It meant that each student had more opportunity for help and interaction, and that they were also going to have to speak whether they wanted to or not. As each student turned up he greeted them with a smile and a happy ‘Guten Morgen!’ For a German class, he thought it was appropriate to greet them in German, even if they hadn’t learned how to yet. Hopefully, if all his students were eager and willing to learn he thought that they should have a good chance to learn the language.

Once all his students had arrived it was time to start the lesson. For the first lesson he wasn’t planning much, a little bit of an introduction and an overview of what he was hoping to teach them, along with a few greetings. So he stood up and moved away to stand in the middle front of the room. ”Guten Morgen everyone, willkommen to German. I am your new German teacher, Matthias Stoltzfus.” he said with a smile, and it would be apparent immediately that he both enjoyed his job and was one of those people who used his hands a lot when he was talking.

”I hope to be able to teach you all German, and while I will do my best to make this an enjoyable experience for everyone, I just want to lay out a few rules.” Laying out a few extra rules might not be the way most people started their first class, but he wanted to make a few things clear. While he would do his best to indeed make learning German an enjoyable experience, he needed some co-operation on their part as well for that to happen. ”No doubt you know and have heard these before, so I will make it quick. Please make the effort to respect everyone here, listen to who is talking and if you want to say something out of turn, please just raise your hand. If you have to criticize someone, please do it constructively. Please try and practice what you have learned in class outside of class, and lastly just try and have fun.” The more they spoke German the more likely they were to learn it, so he meant it when he asked for them to practice.

”Now, before we get into German, I want to take the time to do a few introductions, so we can all get to know each other.” No doubt, if they were anything like he had been as a teenager he had hated introducing himself; But that had probably been because he had always been a bit of an outsider because he certainly hadn’t been a ‘cool’ kid, and they knew if they pissed him off enough he would hit them. ”When it is your turn, would you please be able to stand up and say your name and a little bit about yourself. Would you like to go first?” His attention turned to the student that sat nearest to the door. When they were all done, which shouldn’t take too long, he would introduce himself, say a little bit about his background. It was only fair, he thought, seeing as he was asking them to introduce themselves.

[Deleted]

Dorothée didn't understand why her parents chose German for her foreign language. She could easily ace the French class with no problem. There was nothing she could learn from taking French and being stuck with a bunch of freshman. It would've been an easy class to get good grades in. Of course her parents had to chose German though. 

She walked into the German classroom and said a soft hello to the teacher. Dorothée took a seat next to a blond haired girl in the front row. The teenager opened up her German notebook and dated the paper with a black pen. She looked around for the cap of the pen that she'd just taken off. She found that the cap had been under her notebook. Grasping the cap of the pen she put the cap back on the pen and set the pen down next to her notebook. Her backpack was next to her desk but it wasn't in the way of the desk that wasn't occupied. She turned her attention to the teacher as the teacher stood in front of the room and began to speak. She listened with rapt attention as the teacher began to go over a few rules.

After a few seconds the teacher, Mr. Stoltzfus, said they'd do introductions before they got started on German. The introductions went quickly and soon it was Dorothée's turn. She stood up. "My name is Dorothée Forissier. I just came to the United States two days ago from France." She said introducing herself. Dorothée took her seat again. She had said where she came from because she didn't feel like saying that she was well-known in the equestrian world back in France. Of course if her peers followed the equestrian world competitions they would've likely heard of her anyway. She just didn't want to announce it to the world though. 

[Deleted]

    Anna watched the rest of the students filed in and was pleased to find that, as she had hoped, the class was small. All of the students were female, which was interesting. Anna remembered reading an article on the linguistic skills of females versus males. It was suggested that girls' language skills were slightly more advanced than that of their male counterparts, due to their linguistic abilities, and skills involving abstract concepts. Though these studies focused on children at young ages, it was suggested that this may carry through adolescence and adulthood, and Anna wondered whether this had any impact on the the turnout in her German class. Regardless, she pitied their new teacher a bit, who was now faced with a classroom of teenage girls. She smiled bemusedly at the thought, and was then greeted by Miranda. "Hello!" she responded, "I didn't know you'd be here. What a lovely surprise!"

    The few German words he used to begin the class were fairly simple cognates, easily figured out, and Anna listened, interested. His rules were simple, and he seemed reasonable. She was glad that he hadn't taken the route that her previous French teachers had taken, beginning their classes by speaking only in French until their students caught on, realizing that they wouldn't get away with any English. 

     When her turn came to introduce herself, Anna stood up, at ease (this was her element), and introduced herself. "Hello, my name is Anna Edwards, and I'm a sophomore. I come from Cape Cod in Massachusetts, and I'm a swimmer."         

        

[Deleted]

    As Maeve waited for the class to begin, she got a little nervous, wondering if these other students had any background in the language. Upon enrolling in the class, she'd been assured that they weren't expected to know any German, but languages weren't her strongest point, so she was still concerned. Her nerves rose when the first words out of her teacher's mouth were definitely not in English, but she was soon chiding herself, a bit embarrassed that she'd failed to recognize the similarities at first notice. She'd just have to relax.

    Listening to the rest of his introduction, Maeve was glad that he set ground rules for them, even if they were very elementary. It wasn't as if she would have broken any of them, had they not been said, but she did like rules, and the more structured, the better. She couldn't help but wish that they'd been a bit more specific, but ah well.

    When it came her turn to speak, Maeve thought for a moment before standing and introducing herself. "Hello, I'm Maeve Gallagher, and I have an addiction to coffee" Most of her life was focused around horses, but in an equestrian school, noting anything in relation to that would be quite bland. Sure, maybe coffee wasn't much better, but she expected that a few of the other students here may have a similar problem. Besides, why not take a stab at humor and introduce herself support group style? Who knows, maybe she'd end up in one someday for her caffeine dependency. Yes, Maeve's sense of humor wasn't usually prominent, but it did make a rare appearance once in a while.     

[Katja Eder]

Katja smiled as the man began the lesson already throwing German words into his sentences, although she knew that it would be unfair for her to expect anything much higher level, especially since the class didn't require any experience with the language... Although she far exceeded that part.

As Mr. Stolzfus began talking about the classroom, she listened intently, although none of them were surprising to her. Although, she mused, perhaps she should spend the time practicing her English rather than her German, but she would be fine. There were enough instances where she would practice her mother tongue during the year, what with calling her family.

The students were asked to introduce themselves, and Katja debated for a moment, biting her lip as she looked around. She didn't want to hide her knowledge, but at the same time... She didn't want to stick out, either. Enough students would figure it out on their own eventually. When it came her turn, she had made her decision and rose. Luckily she wasn't the only one that had chosen to forgo her place of origin, “I am called Katja Eder. I love drawing in my free time, but I do not enjoy working with paints.”

[Miranda Florin]

Miranda grinned and shrugged at Anna's surprise, “I float around. I have to take some sort of elective, don't I?” She had realized that she was the only upperclassman in the class, but that didn't throw her off too much. She hadn't wanted to put in another class change request, and what with a new teacher, hopefully she would actually learn something.

When the class started, she was amused to realize that the teacher switched back and forth from German to English, although they were simple words to decipher even if she hadn't been able to understand them. His rules seemed reasonable, and she realized that she was lucky to have Anna in the same class. They could probably work together to practice, should the younger girl wish to. Otherwise, Miranda had no problem prattling on to Zagg, although the gelding might not be as interested, or as helpful with her pronunciation.

When it was her turn to introduce herself, Miranda stood, smiling, “My name is Miranda Florin. I'm from Texas, Mineral Wells, to be exact, although no one usually knows where that is, inclusive of when they end up in front of the store lost.” She grinned, then added, “I work as a vet student with Dr. Carr around campus, I guess that counts as a fun fact.” Sitting back down, she turned to the last girl to speak, smiling slightly as she heard that she was international, from France, although she did wonder about the choice of language slightly. Well, maybe it made sense to learn something from a class.

[Deleted]

As each student stood up and listened, Matthias made sure to look at each student as they spoke, giving them his attention. There were five students, which was a good size. All of them were female, but hopefully that shouldn’t be much of the problem. While it would have been nice to see a couple of boys, it didn’t bother him all that much that he only had teenage girls. After all, that was all part of teaching, especially in an elective subject which fewer people would choose.

In regards to the introductions he had decided not to make them say a lot, and instead let them say just what they wanted to. He didn’t want to force them to say things they might not be comfortable with sharing. Most kept their introductions quite brief and short, which was fine with him. His first student Dorothée said she had just arrived two days ago from France, and Matthias briefly wondered how she would do considering that was at least going to be a third language for her. Already knowing two languages would either help of hinder, and he hoped that it would help her. ”Thank you Dorothée, welcome to the United States and I hope that you enjoy your time here.” he said with a smile. He did his best to pronounce her name like she had, but as his accent had quite an Amish tilt to it, it likely wasn’t completely perfect.

His attention then shifted to the next student, who introduced herself as Anna Edwards. ”Thank you Anna. I can’t say I’ve ever been to Cape Cod, nor do I particularly like swimming, but I hope you do well with that.” He could swim enough so that he wouldn’t drown, but that was about the limit to his abilities. The next student was Maeve Gallagher, and he chuckled a bit when she said she had an addiction to coffee. While he drank it, he certainly wasn’t addicted to it. He still preferred water or raw milk, although he didn’t exactly have access to raw milk here. ”Thank you Maeve, and I’m sure you are not the only one here with that addiction.”

When Katja spoke, he couldn’t help but notice her accent, and that it did sound probably German. But then, he didn’t quite see why someone who was from Germany, who by all accounts could already speak the language, would chose to attend a German class aimed at beginners. Unless they wanted an easy class that was. But she didn’t mention where she came from which was fine with him, and he chose not to push anything. ”Thank you Katja. I am glad that you have a hobby like drawing to enjoy.”

The last student to introduce herself, Miranda, was the one who spoke the most. He had to admit, he had absolutely no idea where Mineral Wells was, but it didn’t sound like he was alone in that one. ”Thank you Miranda. I would be one of those people who have no idea where Mineral Wells is, but then I’ve only visited Texas briefly.”

With all those introductions done, it was time to introduce himself. He would go a little more in depth than they had, so hopefully they would be a little interested. ”Well, as you all should know by now I am Matthias Stoltzfus, and you are welcome to call by my first name should you wish.” he didn’t mind either way if the used his first or last name, but that option was open. ”I am from Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, in a place called Big Valley. My mother was a nurse, half German half Finnish. My father was born and raised in the ultra-conservative, rather misnames, Nebraska Amish. So my life growing up was a rather odd mixture of modern and very old fashioned; We only had electricity and running water in the house because of my mother. In regards to languages, I first learned German and Pennsylvania Dutch, really a dialect of German, and didn’t learn English until a bit later along with a little Finnish. ” Those two things were thought of as pretty basic necessities by most people, and one of the benefits for Matthias was that he could live without both if he had to. ”I learned to drive a buggy long before I learned to drive a car. I studied German and Teaching at University, and lived and worked in Germany for a year and a half in between. In my spare time I enjoy running, and sitting down with a good book at the end of the day. I don’t watch a lot of TV, so it’s no good talking to me about the latest TV programmes, and I can’t stand fast food.”

That was a lot more in depth that they had gone, but he thought it would be nice for them to know a bit about him and his background. And now that was done, they could start with a little German. ”Now all the introductions are done, we can start with some German. For today, we are going to start off with something basic; Greeting and introductions. Now, has anyone know a German Greeting?” They might not know, but the chances were than someone had heard a greeting in German somewhere. If not, he had used one when they came in so one of them should at least mention that one.

[Deleted]

    Though many teachers and students had led lives far away from Blue Ridge Kentucky before coming to the academy, Mr. Stoltzfus's past had a slightly more unusual twist. Interested, Anna listened carefully, pleased that they were given such reasonably detailed account of the teacher's past. If was, of course, none of her business, but she did like to have a background to work with, when possible. Mr. Stoltzfus's was fascinating, and his introduction was surely far more interesting than that of her and her fellow classmates.

    It was no surprise that they would be starting with greetings and introductions, and this, at least, Anna knew a little about from her childhood with her parents. The lifetime academics had greeted their child in a different language every day, repeating after a while to test her on what she remembered, and sometimes giving variations of the greeting to see if she could figure out what language it was. Many of the greetings had stuck with Anna, and she knew the most basic for German. Raising her hand, she spoke when acknowledged, "Guten Tag translates to the greeting good day." It was similar to the words for good morning that he'd greeted them with, but at least it was a little different.
      

[Deleted]

His students were quiet as he spoke about his past, which Matthias didn’t mind. At least now they knew a bit about his past. He thought that it would be good for them to know about his past, to know a bit about how he ticked and how he saw the world. If nothing else, surely his unusual background would be of interest to at least some of them. Then when that was done, it was on to start learning German.

Starting off with Greetings and Introductions was probably rather basic, and easy, but he thought it was a good place to start. It was better to start off with something basic that they could easily pick up, rather than something complicated that might scare them off. He was confident that they should be able to walk away from this lesson at the very least knowing a few greetings. Maybe they could even introduce themselves. Everyone learned at different paces, so no doubt some of his students would pick more up than others. But hopefully they should at least pick something up.

When he asked for his students if they knew any greetings in German there was mostly silence. Only one lone hand went up. He had to admit that he was a little disappointed, he would have hoped for more student participation, but at least one person had spoken. Matthias acknowledged the student he remembered as Anna when she raised her hand, and she spoke of the basis Guten Tag, that it translated to ‘good day’. ”Thank you Anna. Guten Tag does indeed mean good day, and it is a pretty standard greeting throughout Germany.” He moved over and wrote the word up on the board before turning around again. ”Another word you will hear simple, Hallo. Now days Hallo is used just like you would use Hello in English. It is an informal word, something you would use with friends. Then, there is the greeting I used to greet you all this morning, Guten Morgen. That translates to Good Morning.” He turned around and wrote the two words up on the board in tidy, clear letters. ”Now, I want you to all practice saying those words. Go ahead, don’t be afraid.” He moved among them, conversing with them and adding a polite correction when needed.

[Katja Eder]

Katja inclined her head at the teacher's thanks. She enjoyed her hobby as well, although she hadn't gotten to do much of it since coming to Blue Ridge. She would have to take some time soon. When Mr. Stoltzfus began speaking about his own history, she listened, quite interested to hear about his path in life, something far different from what she was used to.

She listened to the man as he began teaching, but didn't raise her hand, despite the fact that she definitely knew so many. Guten Tag, guten Abend, guten Morgen, just Tag, Morgen, Abend. Hallo, Hi, grüß dich, wie geht's, grüß Gott. There were so many ways, but Katja couldn't bring herself to speak any of them, for fear of being kicked out of the class. Later in the year, maybe, when it was too late to change to something else, she hoped.

As one of the other girls spoke, Katja nodded, although it had never been very typical for her. But then, she'd never really had reason to be formal except in school, and that was the only time she really used it. She listened to the teacher's explanation of the other common greetings, speaking them quietly when bidden to, her voice instinctively falling into the flatter tone of German, “Guten Tag (Tach), Herr Lehrer. Hallo, Anita. Guten Morgen, Vater.” Pausing, she continued, throwing in a few more for good measure, “Grüß Gott, wie geht's? Hi!” Chuckling, she remembered what one of her best friends had always done at the latter, “Hai?! Wo den?”

OOC;: Oops. My apologies, Mikko.
Good day, good evening, good morning, 'day, 'morning, 'evening, hello, hi, I greet you, how's it going, greet God. | Good day, Mr. Teacher. Hello, Anita. Good morning, father. | Greet God, how's it going? Hi! | Shark?! Where?