# Teaching Notes

## User profile

- Native English speaker, living in Heitersheim (Baden-Wurttemberg), Germany
- Works at cn-mobility GmbH — German-language workplace
- Children in German schools — wants to be part of their lives more fully
- B1.2 at Goethe Institut Freiburg, 2x/week
- 30-60 min/day for self-study
- Has a detailed weak-spots document from prior practice; that document should seed early lessons

## Known weak spots (from their self-assessment doc)

Priority order:
1. V2 word order after fronted elements (~40% of errors) — highest leverage
2. Verb conjugation: *ich habe* not *ich hat*
3. Noun gender and adjective endings (especially tech vocab)
4. Possessive pronouns (*sein-* vs *ihn/er*)
5. Missing prepositions (*an* with task work)
6. Compound noun splitting (*Datenbank kopie* → *Datenbankkopie*)
7. Partizip II — inseparable prefix verbs take no *ge-*
8. du/Sie register slips in formal messages
9. Subordinate clause verb-final (*weil, dass, ob, wenn*)
10. Meaning distinctions: *ob* vs *wenn*, *fur mich* vs *bei mir*, *eingestellt* etc.

## Teaching preferences / approach

- Goethe class already handles systematic grammar — complement, don't duplicate
- Ground all lessons in real-life contexts: cn-mobility work, Heitersheim community, children's school
- Interleave listening + reading + writing practice, not just grammar drills
- Space repetition of weak-spot patterns across lessons
- Vocabulary scope: everyday German life, NOT just tech. Priority contexts: Zahnarzt, Kinderarzt, Friseur, Zahnreinigung, restaurant reservations, Ölwechsel, TÜV — the admin and social interactions of living in Germany
- Sometimes prefers chat-based quizzing over HTML lessons for diagnostic/testing sessions
- Cannot identify which case (Nominativ/Akkusativ/Dativ/Genitiv) to use — raised explicitly as a Goethe class struggle. This is the root cause of recurring accusative ending errors.
- Do NOT use specific DW article URLs — they 404. Only ever link to learngerman.dw.com itself. Never describe specific navigation paths or sections on external sites without verifying them.
- Preferred resources: yourdailygerman.com (subscription), germanforenglishspeakers.com (ignore SSL). Prioritise these over DW for grammar explanations in lessons.
- yourdailygerman.com sitemap has been scanned — verified URLs are in RESOURCES.md. Always use URLs from that list, never guess new ones.
- German for English Speakers is hosted at https://git.sometimescode.com/cgsmith/German-for-English-Speakers — always link here, never to germanforenglishspeakers.com. Fetch content via raw URL: /raw/branch/main/{path}.md. Link to rendered pages via: /src/branch/main/{path}.md. Full URL list in RESOURCES.md.