Is it just my German book or do we actually have to learn this?

Acid_Violet

I'm doing both French and German and the difference between the two as academic subjects is striking. In French, we prepare essays over whether we prepare the cinema to the telly. According to my German book 'Sprachschtaz', we're meant to be able to talk about the economy, war and European politics. I'm just 'shockiert' that we're genuinely expected to be able to discuss this. It has to be that my book is just crap, or can anyone tell me if I'm wrong?

Another thing. My French teacher always gives out great notes full of nice phrases and perpetually useful phrases, but my German teacher doesn't and the notes in the book are crap. Anyone can recommend a good website or book which has lots of nice expressions and vocab that's relevant to the course?

Danke.

Piste

I know there are certain themes you have to cover, and one is German history so maybe that's what the economics and war part is all about.

Also in French we're told to be able to talk about economics and war somewhat, but not in any great detail.

Drag00n79

Try the Longman A-Level German revision book. It's pretty good for handy phrases. It should be fairly easily gotten on eBay.

leprehaungirl

You dont actually have to learn off every bit of those sentances in sprachatz!!..There only a guideline as to what may come up in Aussurung Zum Thema (think thats how its spelt!)...However it is good to learn some vocab from it and i think the book is very good for that.

damienricefan

German is probably the most difficult of the foreign languages papers!

Italian is quite tough looking too, a novel has to be done!!! :eek:

aine-maire

I'm doing French and German too, and I totally agree!!

But I think that it's good that the courses are substantially different, it makes it less confusing
Sprachschatz is useless, I mean it has some good phrases but it's lacking in a lot of areas and it doesn't really prepare you for the actual paper...I think I'll get that A-Level book too!

PurpleFistMixer

That's odd, in my French class we prepared stuff on the economy etc... It could come up in the oral (one girl left her oral crying because the teacher asked her about the economy of the Phillippines), or the mini-essay-writing bit... Maybe German is the same? Probably doesn't have a specific section dedicated to it, but afaik the language courses are supposed to have you learn things about the culture/history of the relevant country as well.

K4t

PurpleFistMixer wrote: »

That's odd, in my French class we prepared stuff on the economy etc... It could come up in the oral (one girl left her oral crying because the teacher asked her about the economy of the Phillippines), or the mini-essay-writing bit... Maybe German is the same? Probably doesn't have a specific section dedicated to it, but afaik the language courses are supposed to have you learn things about the culture/history of the relevant country as well.

WTF?! That's ridiculous.

My French teacher is useless. He spends more time with ordinary level than he does with higher level. Two or three of us have still not got to practice our oral because he never gets around to us. We don't know if we're pronouncing the words correctly etc. :mad:

yay_for_summer

To be fair most of the weird stuff that comes up in the oral comes up because you give a link into it - my friend mentioned going to america for example so she was asked loads of stuff about obesity. Just be careful when mentioning things - the examiner could latch onto something you just throw in without thinking where it could lead you in the conversation.

PurpleFistMixer

K4t wrote: »

WTF?! That's ridiculous.

I should mention that the girl is Filipino, but still... pretty steep stuff. Particularly considering she only took French up in 5th year. Poor thing. Such a cruel examiner.

But yeah, the linking thing is true. What probably happened there was she mentioned (as was clearly evident) that she was Filipino, examiner then assumed she'd prepared loads on it, and asked her difficult questions. Though, in my oral I kept dropping hints about my boyfriend so she could ask me about him, but she just asked me about the Gaeltacht. Hearing one Irish word put me in Irish mode and it was downhill from there.

yay_for_summer

she just asked me about the Gaeltacht. Hearing one Irish word put me in Irish mode and it was downhill from there.

Ditto but the other way around, my Irish guy asked me about a French exchange I did. The confusion must've been fairly obvious though when I dropped in French words:o...so thankfully he moved on to tourism.

leesmom

has anyone elses german teacher not mentioned the oral exam yet? im repeating and my teacher has not once mentioned it, a month in to the school year. they are totally new roleplays, picture sequences etc and when a guy in my class asked her about it she gave out to him. im totally lost as to what to do:mad:

damienricefan

Our irish teacher , i'm doing pass, always tells us to not feed anyhting too specific to an oral examiner and that you should shut them down effectively and politely to progress and get marks in the parts you have prepared!

But Honours German Oral should be fun , dying to see after grinds etc. if I can concoct something marvellously creative but whatever the picture and roll play are easy enough so not too much sweat if general question are bad

aliqueenb

i'm only in 5th year now, we have sprachshatz book aswell and yeah our teacher said it wasnt too great. we he our first bildergeschite lernt though

gaybitch

K4t wrote: »

WTF?! That's ridiculous.

You'd think so, but I was asked the most random crap at the start of my Irish oral. They guy seemed really sound, but straight after I read my sliocht, he asked me the most bizarre and mean questions. I read the Biddy Early sliocht about fairies, and the first question he asked me was "Well, are there still fairies in Ireland today? Do people still believe in fairies today? And what about around your area? Are there any fairy stories around here? What do you know about the Phoenix Park? Wasn't there some sort of story with Cu Chulainn and the Phoenix Park?"

I looked at him blankly, just thinking "Ask me if I have any bloody pets or something normal you muppet".

Fuascailt

Spanish FTW. Easiest LC language by far. Hardest thing in the oral is the differences between Spanish and Irish culture.

-ME-

I do both French and German too and French is so much easier! French grammar is far more basic and the vocab is easier to learn.. Although, count yourself lucky with Sprachshatz we wasted the whole of 5th year on Lernpunkt Deutsch 3- a horrible, useless book! We're using Sprachschatz this year and I find it fairly good, the grammar is beginning to click and we're finally covering the course! I may also invest in the A- Level revision book though.

leesmom

i was told to get learnpunkt deutsch awsell, 30 quid on a crap book,when im repeating my leaving cert,you'd swear we were in first year learning the most basic useless rubbish, i reckon someone should remind my teacher that its the leaving cert we are doing not bloody primary school,its very frustrating ,sparchsatz is atually amzing in comparison,i bought it for myself to actually learn some leaving cert stuff

bhoy4life

Sprachschatz is such a bad textbook

leesmom

take a look at learnpunkt 3 and you'll see a big difference,it shouldnt even be a leaving cert book

aliqueenb

we had lernpunkt 2 for transition year, good fun

Dafydd Thomas

my german teacher is crap. So I just started geitting grinds three weeks ago. luckily i'm only in 5th year. In german germany and the germans do come up in the aural but thank god my grind teacher is giving me everything i need. Spracschatz is pretty bad and so is my teacher so I'm lucky i have the grind to fall back on.

europerson

If you're doing HL German, you're expected to be able to discuss light-hearted and serious matters, while displaying coherence, good grammar and spelling, broad vocabulary and interest.

Aoibheann

My advice would be to go through the papers, see what's come up in the Ausserung/letters/Schriftliche Produktion.. I know we prepared pieces on the economy and so forth and I'm sure I managed to work it in somewhere! We were amazingly prepared though, my teacher gave brilliant notes and tested us on written pieces in class where she expected us to give our own twist and not just regurgitate her notes back. It basically ended up with us having our own opinion on pretty much every topic that could feasibly come up on the paper, in good German!

I'm considering throwing my notes up somewhere, the stuff I have prepared for the oral and written pieces would possibly be useful if anyone's interested.. And if anyone needs a hand with the written stuff or anything else for that matter, I'm more than willing to help! Just throw me a PM or whatever.

hey!!!

we didnt even get a book cuz apparently all the l.c ones are pretty bad!!
im not so sure bout the economy topic but apparently a popular topic this year could be the recession........i havnt even got enough english vocab on that never mind german!!!???

ChiefBrody

For a bad oral topic in French just say 'il ne m'interessant pas'(I think). Apparently they'll let you talk about what you want, you just have to lead the way correctly...

Metamorphisis

Ah, Sparachschatz, I had that book in fifth year... seriously freaked me out about the level of german expected especially after spending ty doing absolutly no german (i was the only person in my class studying it)... i didn't find out untill after my psycho teacher went on maternity leave and we got a kickass sub that that the comprehensions and phrases and stuff in sprachschatz are very advanced... i find working from exam papers more helpfull... it helps understand exactly what they'll be expecting from you in the exam and to see what themes are usually asked on the ausserung and stuff...

topper8328

Hiya,

I can email you down some phrases in German if u like. If you are really stuck, I do grinds aswell, I'll give u a couple of free ones if u can make it to mullingar. I have a German degree.

Cheers Mike (086) 0308668

unknown13

Sprachshatz is an absolutely terrible book for German, how it can be used in amazes me

spurious

We didn't use a textbook at all when I did German, just German newspapers, radio programmes and magazines and a teacher who very rarely spoke English in class.

Saffy

I do french and I have to learn about the economy etc.