[Ownaginatios]

German 1Z06 is a first-year two semester long course (hence the 06) that teaches the basics of German grammar and some common conversational sentences. Units covered include easier things like the numbers, telling the time and learning how to pronounce stuff. More difficult units include giving directions, the three grammatical cases and past perfect/simple past tense.

Overall, I didn't find this class to be that bad. The work load was pretty light and consisted of a few exercises every other day out of the text book, which can literally take 30 seconds. There were also a few short one paragraph writing assignments and maybe 10 quizzes total spanning both semesters.

As to German itself as a language... it's kind of complicated. Unlike French, there are three grammatical genders (Masculine, Feminine, and Neuter), which aren't exactly intuitive. For example, a boy is masculine, a woman is feminine, but a girl is neuter.

Also, a lot of the grammatical constructs depend on whether the object in question is in motion or not. For example, take this sentence - the car has come. In German this would be "Das Auto ist gekommen". This literally means "The car is came". Now take this sentence "Die Katze hat gegessen". This literally means "The cat has eaten". The difference is because to be coming you have to be in motion and to be eating, you can be stationary... ya it's kind of confusing. I often found myself confused with some verbs (i.e. You would use the 'is' form with the German verb "Bleiben" meaning "to stay"). So basically, if the verb can be applied to a vector, you use it. This isn't consistent either... bleiben becomes the "have" form when you're talking about where an object is...

... So you practically need to understand some vector math to speak this language .

There is also a special imperative verb form used specifically for yelling at people or giving them instructions... but I won't go into that :p.

Anyway, the course breakdown is like this:

- Class Preparation, Attendance and Participation (incl. Homework) 25%
- Quizzes 10% 2 Tests (1 per term) 10%
- 4 Writing Assignments (2 per term) 10%
- Mid-term Test 20%
- Final Exam 25%

There is also a single one hour tutorial per week. It wasn't anything difficult... we mostly played word games or did dictation type things.

The professor for this course is Nikolai Penner, and I'm pretty sure he teaches at least 80% of the German courses offered at McMaster. He's a pretty cool guy and knows pretty much everyone in the class by name. He also tends to mark things and answer questions on webCT ridiculously fast.

Don't let my review scare you away from this course, it's actually a lot easier and more interesting than it sounds. I pulled an 11 while nearly being in a comatose state due to the early morning classes.

I took this course when I was in first year with Dr. Melnykevych and had so much fun! The classes and tutorials were a little laid back, interactive and fun to attend. As long as you do your practice and get help whenever you are confused about something, you should be able to do well.

How is your German after taking the course, in terms of both conversation and reading comprehension?

Weird, I didn't even notice this post.

With reading (as long as whatever it is I'm reading is in no way technical), I would say I can understand most of it.

In terms of speaking, I would say I'm good enough to have a basic conversation. I can also understand the majority of German dialogue if it's targeted at a younger audience (by which I mean again, no technical terms).

I'm in no way fluent though, lol.

Excellent review, thx. I was considering taking a language course this year and seems like german may be the easiest since I already took vector calc =P

are you gonna keep on taking german through 4th yr?

I would like to, but unfortunately since I'm in engineering, my required courses always interfere :(.

yeah same......

i only have 3 units this year for electives and all the language beginner courses are 6 units .......e ven so im not sure it's worth overloadinh or w/e if i can't become decent at it by grad

What is the average class size of this course?

Originally Posted by ShikabaneMai

What is the average class size of this course?

Roughly 30 to 40 people.

I'm almost done this course and OMG. The first term wasn't bad. I did well on the midterm but the final exam was a killer. Such a big leap from the midterm and all quizs and homework throughout. The second term has been horrible. The prof only speaks in German now and it has become very very difficult for an elective. Practically consumes all my time. Unfortunately I have other required classes to worry about. I wish I would have taken it in the summer when I have more time.

From this class I would say my written German isn't half bad and same with reading. But listening and speaking is horrible. In a class of 28 I only get small opprotunities to speak outloud. I wish this class still had tutorials as that may help.

Overall I loved the prof, he is an amazing teacher and very patient. If your willing to put in a LOT of time then I say go for it.

I am finishing the course right now.

As for reading, since you will be reading four short novels throughout the course, so you will basically understand many common words in German, and some basic grammar. You would be able to read something like newspaper or websites in German, but you need dictionary for some words.

For writing, according to the professor, we would be able to write basic sentence, I think like what a grade 6 kid in German could write. (I am not quite sure about this)

For listening and speaking, since the prof will speak a lot of German, especially in the second term, you will be able to understand some basic daily conversation, and be able to conduct basic conversation. But it really depends on how much attention you pay during the class. Moreover, for the novels I mentioned in the reading section, the prof asked some upper year student to record the entire novel, so by listening and repeating with the voice records, your speaking and listening skills will be greatly improved (as well as vocabulary, reading, and writing, since you will pay much more attention to what you are reading if you repeat and read it out load).