8 Summary of Week 1

We hope you’ve enjoyed the first week of the course. You’ve learnt some key language for shopping in-store and online and how to ask for help when buying clothes. You’ve also learnt how to ask permission, apologise and say what you like.

There was a lot of new vocabulary, too. Did you try any new vocab learning strategies this week? Were they helpful? Make a note in your language notebook. Whichever method you use to memorise vocabulary, remember to always learn the gender (der/die/das) with a new noun and any irregular endings with a new verb.

With so much vocabulary introduced every week, you may need to be selective and focus on language that is important to you. For example, if you always wear trousers, don’t bother learning der Rock or das Kleid.

Take a look at your own wardrobe. Do you know the German for your clothes and their colours? Try to recall them when getting dressed.

Next week’s topic will be television – what you like to watch, when and some statistics about how long Germans spend in front of the TV. You’ll also start working on separable verbs – a new area, but not completely. For example, anprobieren is a separable verb.

Before moving on though, reflect a little on what you’ve been learning. In the box below, note down what you’ve found easy, useful or fun, and what was more difficult this week.