Guten Tag; German

[Miranda Florin]

Miranda shrugged at his admittance, not at all surprised. She listened to his own story with interest, it seemed like quite the strange mixture, and now he was here, teaching them German. She wondered briefly if he would go over the differences between the two languages that he'd listed, but then, she could always look it up on the wonderful web instead.

Asked about greetings, Miranda was about to offer one when Anna spoke. Smiling at the other girl, Miranda kept her hand down, unsure of whether it would be okay or not to repeat the one he had used for them at the door, and deciding to keep quiet about it just in case it wasn't. After all, he'd already greeted them with it.

She watched the words being written on the board, copying them down in her own notebook, including their phrases, and their informal or formal use, as was appropriate. When they were told to begin practicing saying the words, she paused, then began speaking, “Guten Tag.” She thought she heard someone saying the word with a 'ch' rather than a g, but it was written with a g on the board, and so she pronounced it, “Guten Morgen. Hallo.”

[Deleted]

While only one student volunteered a greeting when Matthias asked, at least they all seemed to be listening when he explained a few simple ones. Or, at least he hoped that they were listening. While he would try his best to keep things interesting and interactive, he couldn’t do everything himself. For that to work he needed participation from students, especially ones who were keen to learn. Hopefully, now that it was time to practice the few greetings he had given, he would see a bit more student participation. Before he moved among his students he turned to the board, adding alongside each greeting he had written how you would pronounce them. Truthfully, he should have written that up at the beginning, but he hadn’t thought of that at first. A silly little mistake, he would have to be a bit more careful in future. It wouldn’t be good to forget things like that all the time.

The student earlier that had caught his attention earlier, again caught his attention as he heard her speak. Not only the simple ones he had given, but continuing into other greetings, using words he hadn’t intended on teaching quite yet. Not only that, but from his time living in Germany she sounded like a native speaker to him. Clearly, she certainly wasn’t a beginner at German. Especially that last greeting he overheard her say, which wasn’t really a greeting as such. Maybe, if there was time he would talk to her at the end of the lesson. If she was a more advanced speaker, then he thought it might be worth seeing if he could find her something a bit more advanced to do. ”Sehr gut!” he said, figuring that it was likely she might understand those words without him translating. For now he didn’t say any more, only that to give her that praise and a smile. If he had time, he definitely thought it would be worth keeping her aside for a couple of minutes at the end of class.

Then he walked among the rest of his student, giving each student a little time. He was quick to praise them for things they were doing right and offer a bit of constructive feedback as to things they could improve. When he got to the girl he remembered as Miranda he took the time to speak the words with her, listening for her to say them back to him. Once he did he again praised her effort before offering a little feedback about her pronunciation.

Then once he was satisfied that all his students had practice speaking he moved back to the front of the classroom, writing a few more words on the board. Next to each word he wrote not to pronounce it and whether the work was formal or informal.

”Now, I will go over a few more greetings you can use. Along with Guten Morgen, you have Guten Abend, which means good afternoon, and Guten Nacht which means Good Night.” After each word he paused, Encouraging the students to practice saying the words, before he moved on explaining what they meant. ”Those are more formal words, but for a more informal greeting you can just use Morgen, Abend or Nacht. Just like you might say ‘Morning’ or ‘Afternoon’ in English. You can also use just Tag.” Before moving on he again encouraged his students to have a go at pronouncing the words, praising them for saying things right and offering a bit of advice if needed.

”Next, I will go over a few Greetings which may not be as common. First there is Grüß dich, which means I Greet you or Hello. This only tends to be used among family and friends, and you will only tend to hear in in Austria and Bavaria.” Again, he paused and encouraged the students to practice the word. ”Next there is Grüß Gott, which means hello or greetings, and again is only usually heard in Austria and Bavaria. Another saying you might hear among friends and family in Austria and Bavaria is Servus. Servus can mean either Hello or Good bye.” He paused, encouraging students to practice speaking the words, both to him and each other.

”Now, are there any questions about what you’ve learned so far?” There might not be any, but he asked once all the students had a decent amount of time practicing the words. There might be something, it couldn’t hurt to ask. If there was no questions he would move on.

[Katja Eder]

Katja glanced up as the teacher spoke, not having noticed him approaching, but after she'd recovered from the momentary shock, she grinned, “Dankeshoen.” She should be more careful... Not all teachers were as forgiving of going off task. She reprimanded herself, and then turned back to the words that they had been assigned, referring to the list on the board and not allowing herself to deviate any more.

When Mr. Stoltzfus began writing on the board once more, she watched, stopping her 'practice' as the teacher began to speak once more, and listening to the next words that he wanted them to practice. When he paused to allow them to repeat after them, she did so, and forced herself to listen to his explanations for the common words, just in case there was anything specific he would want them to know for tests... Teachers were sometimes funny that way.

She listened to the next few words, some which she knew and occasionally used, one which she technically knew, but no one used in Thuringen. That was more for the actual southerners... Sometimes the TV brought up some differences between the dialects, and sometimes, it was barely recognizable. But then, she didn't speak High German either, that would be silly. When asked about questions, she shook her head quietly, although she did listen should any other students have them.

[Miranda Florin]

Miranda looked up from her desk as she was practicing, grinning at the pronunciations that had appeared there, obviously written by the teacher while she was looking down. It made it far easier to practice more, and as Mr. Stoltzfus came over to repeat the words with him, she smiled, breaking in her repetitions to say, “Thank you.” His praise made her smile, and she set about her work as he walked away, using the suggestions he'd given her.

When the teacher started writing on the board once more, Miranda looked up and read what he was writing, although she was glad when he began speaking about what the words were, in more depth. When he paused, she repeated the words he had gone over, writing down the words as neatly as possible into her notebook. When they were asked about questions, she paused, thinking, then shook her head, going back to practicing the words quietly.

The words were clear enough, and while she might not remember the correct response for each situation yet, that was nothing that lots, and lots, and more practice wouldn't solve. That was the root of it, she mused, as she continued going through the words. Everything would get better with practice and application.