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Intermediate German: Understanding spoken German
Intermediate German: Understanding spoken German

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4.1 Watching without sound

You will start this activity with a bit of an unorthodox viewing method, to test how you absorb information from a video.

Activity 15

Before you start to watch the video, make sure the subtitles are turned off, and turn the sound off too. You can do this by muting your computer, or using the volume slider in the bottom of the video player, which looks like this:

Described image

Watch the video with the sound and subtitles switched off, and while you are watching it, see which of these questions you can answer about Stefanie Korte. It doesn’t matter if you can’t answer them all - at best, the video will probably give you clues to two of the answers.

1 Where does Frau Korte live?

2 What does she do for a job?

3 What would her friends say about her?

4 What is the unexpected thing you find out about Stefanie Korte?

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Activity 16

You may have worked out some of the answers in the previous activity. Now watch again with the sound turned on. Can you now answer any of the questions more easily?

Download this video clip.Video player: ol_l113_vid003.mp4
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Answer

Without the sound, you may have worked out the answers to the first and fourth questions (that she lives on a farm and that she has a pet snake). Understanding some details in advance can help you to pick out these pieces of German vocabulary when you come to listen to the clip with the sound on.

As for the other two questions, her friends would describe her as a fun-loving person, and say that she's always funny and friendly. And you will have noticed that she works with animals in some way - you will find out a bit more about this in the next activity.