Gymnasium
You already know that the school systems in German-speaking countries are not the same as ours. It might be possible to say that one or the other of them is "better" for a given student's needs, but there is no way to compare them across the board. It would be like the proverbial "apples and oranges" comparison. The elementary schools don't differ that much, but after about 4th grade, there is much more "tracking" in Europe. The kind of secondary school we focus on in this course is the Gymnasium, or university preparation school, since most of you are probably also following a college-prep curriculum.
Schriftliche Aufgabe For more information on German schools in general (and on exchange student programs for Germany, Austria, or Switzerland), see the sites listed at the end of this unit.
Right now, let's look at the website for a very special school: The John F. Kennedy Schule in Berlin. Go to the website: www.jfks.de and report the following information to your teacher.
When and why the school was founded
The quote from John F. Kennedy on the opening page.
How much the school costs
About what percentage of the students are American? German? Other nationalities?
How much German language ability American students must have in order to enter
Why you think you would (or would not) like to attend this school
Diese Aufgabe hat 12 Punkte.
Was liest du? One of the major activities connected with school is reading (lesen), which you remember is a stem-changing verb.
"Stem-changing verbs" are not complicated; you just need to remember two things:
The stem changes always apply to the du and er,sie,es forms only.
There are only two groups: those that change "a" to "ä" and those that change "e" to "i" or "ie."
(Sometimes there is also a consonant change, as in nimmt, but these are very common verbs and thus easy to learn.)
In the first group are verbs like: fahren, tragen, schlafen, laufen. Fill in these charts as review:
a > ä
schlafen
laufen
ich du er,sie,es
schlafe schläfst schläft
wir ihr sie,Sie
schlafen schlaft schlafen
ich du er,sie,es
laufe läufst läuft
wir ihr sie,Sie
laufen lauft laufen
In the second group are verbs like geben, nehmen, sprechen , essen (e>i) and lesen, sehen (e>ie).
Now complete these charts:
e > i
geben
nehmen
ich du er,sie,es
gebe gibst gibt
wir ihr sie,Sie
geben gebt geben
ich du er,sie,es
nehme nimmst nimmt
wir ihr sie,Sie
nehmen nehmt nehmen
e > ie
lesen
sehen
ich du er,sie,es
lese liest liest
wir ihr sie,Sie
lesen lest lesen
ich du er,sie,es
sehe siehst sieht
wir ihr sie,Sie
sehen seht sehen
Practice this vocabulary in this practice activity. WordWeb
Diskutieren wir
Go to the Discussion Board and using different verbs reviewed on this page, ask a classmate (=du) four questions. Then ask all your classmates (=ihr) two questions, also with verbs from this page. Diese Aufgabe hat 12 Punkte.
Gymnasium
Schriftliche Aufgabe
Practice this vocabulary in this practice activity.