German-Learning/NOTES.md

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.