TalkTime German: A Beginner's Guide to Communication

By Dr. Jyoti Sharma, Ms. Charu Waliyan (Teaching Assistant) | Banaras Hindu University

Learners enrolled: 1493 | Exam registration: 60

ABOUT THE COURSE:
This course is intended for those, who are eager to learn German language with a strong emphasis on developing effective communication skills, whether someone is a student with or without prior knowledge of German or a traveler, a professional looking to enhance language skills for work, or simply someone interested in connecting with German speakers or learning German as a hobby. The instruction language of the course is Bi-lingual (Hindi and English). Our German lessons will give you the confidence to write and speak in German from day one. You will learn German with a continued sense of progression and achievement.

INTENDED AUDIENCE: This course is designed for beginners seeking to learn and practice German language with a focus on communication skills, ideal for students, travelers, professionals, and language enthusiasts aiming for conversational fluency.

PREREQUISITES: Open to all; anyone can start afresh. The minimum age for certificate exam registration is 13 years.

INDUSTRY SUPPORT: This course will be in line with other equivalent A1 level courses taught at various institutes and universities e.g: at Goethe Institute, at JNU, DU, BHU and so on.

Summary

Course Status :	Completed
Course Type :	Core
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	12 weeks
Category :	Language
Credit Points :	3
Level :	Undergraduate
Start Date :	22 Jul 2024
End Date :	11 Oct 2024
Enrollment Ends :	05 Aug 2024
Exam Registration Ends :	16 Aug 2024
Exam Date :	25 Oct 2024 IST
ALERT ON EXAM DATE :	Exam date is subject to change.

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

Page Visits

Course layout

Week 1: Themes: Giving Introduction; Grammar: Personal pronouns- Nominative, Introduction to Verbs, Verb conjugation, W-questions. Interviewing each other.

Vocabulary: Professions, Basics of German pronunciation and greetings, Formation of simple sentences and questions.

Week 2: Vocabulary: Family, languages. Focus on essential verbs, nouns, and adjectives. Grammar: yes/no questions, possessive articles. Dialogues: Introducing family, describing activities.

Vocabulary: Furniture, price, numbers, opposite words. Grammar: definite articles, adjectives. Dialogues: Emphasis on dialogue practice for real-life situations.

Week 3: Vocabulary: colours name, filling a form with personal details, Grammar: indefinite articles, negative articles. Role-playing exercises to enhance communication skills.

Vocabulary: Workplace, Telefon, SMS and E-mail communication. Grammar: singular and plural forms, Accusative case. Dialogues: Building on sentence structure: subject, verb, object.

Week 4: Vocabulary: Hobbies/leisure activities, Giving and accepting compliments. Grammar: Modal verbs. Dialogues: Interactive scenarios to apply learned vocabulary and grammar.

Vocabulary: weekdays, time, making appointments, sending and accepting invitation. Grammar: verb position in sentences, prepositions related to times and days. Dialogues: Understanding cultural gestures and expressions, Discussing German holidays and traditions.

Week 5: Vocabulary: food and drinks, Groceries, Menu-card. Grammar: Modal verbs (möchten). Dialogue: Ordering food in Restaurant and cafes, talking about different meals and eating habits.

Vocabulary: Travel, means of transport. Grammar: separable verbs. Dialogue: Making travel Plans, Language integration through cultural context in real-life situations.

Week 6: Vocabulary: Daily routine, Planning a day/week. Grammar: Past tense, prepositions. Dialogues: Asking about the last week/weekend.

Vocabulary: Festivals in Germany, Making Holiday plans. Grammar: Past tense and other prepositions. Dialogue: Recap of pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar.

Week 7: Vocabulary: Places in the city, giving directions, asking for help. Grammar: Changing prepositions: Dative

Vocabulary: Apartments and Houses, describing a house, giving ads for house search. Grammar: Possessive article- Accusative.

Week 8: Vocabulary: Sightseeing places, living in a certain city. Grammar: Verbs and personal pronouns in Dative

Vocabulary: Hotel, to take appointments, time concept, making plans. Grammar: some more prepositions.

Week 9: Vocabulary: Making plans and expressing your desires. Grammar: Modalverb ‘wollen’

Vocabulary: Health and Bodyparts, sickness, visiting a doctor, dialogues, giving suggestions. Grammar: Modalverb ‘sollen’ and Imperative sentences.

Week 10: Vocabulary: Appearance and describing a person. Grammar: Präteritum war/ hatte (past tense)

Vocabulary: Household activities, making requests and orders. Grammar: Revision of Imperative sentences.

Week 11: Vocabulary: Travel and rules, expressing one’s opinions. Grammar: Modalverbs: dürfen, müssen (what is allowed/ prohibited etc.)

Vocabulary: Clothes and accessories, speak about choices and preferences. Grammar: Komparativ/ Superlativ

Week 12: Vocabulary: Weather, describing the weather, weather intercultural. Grammar: Prepositions and Conjunctions.

Vocabulary: Learning to accept and respond to invitations, congratulating someone.

Books and references

1. Menschen Deutsch als Fremdsprache (Hueber Verlag 2020)

2. NETZWERK Deutsch als Fremdsprache A1(Goyalsaab, New Delhi, 2015)

3. Studio d A1 Deutsch als Fremdsprache (Cornelsen Verlag 2008)

Instructor bio

Dr. Jyoti Sharma

Banaras Hindu University

Dr. Jyoti Sharma started learning German as a foreign language at Delhi Public School R K Puram from Standard VIth. Thereafter her journey with German language continued and is still going on. She studied German at Jawaharlal Nehru University and did B.A.(Hons.), M.A., M.Phil and Ph.D in German at the Centre of German Studies, JNU. Alongside, she learned German language from Goethe Institute (Max Mueller Bhavan), New Delhi and completed Levels A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2 and Oberstufe. In the year 2008, she did a Diploma (2 years) in Teachers Training from Goethe Institute, New Delhi and Munich. She has taught German as a foreign language in Goethe Institute, Jawaharlal Nehru University and MDI, Gurgaon prior to joining BHU. In the year 2015 she joined Banaras Hindu University as an Assistant Professor and has been continuing here since then. She has been to Germany several times on different scholarships including DAAD Fellowship for M.Phil and Ph.D Research as well as scholarships provided by Goethe Institute. Her areas of interest are German Didactics, i.e. Teaching and learning German as foreign language, Translation, Linguistics, Intercultural Communication and Diaspora Studies (Migration). In the year 2021, she translated a German book of short stories from German to Hindi titled 'Spannende Kahaniyan' along with her research scholar, mainly for her students. She is a trained German language teacher and her aim is to make German language easy and interesting for her students through lots of interactive exercises and videos.

Ms. Charu Waliyan (Teaching Assistant)

Ms. Charu Waliyan began learning German in 2011 at the Goethe Institute (Max Mueller Bhavan) in Delhi. Following this, she completed Advanced Diploma in German from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University. She earned her M.A. in German from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and successfully cleared the UGC NET exam. Her teaching experience spans several prestigious institutions, including Delhi University, Amity University, Aligarh Muslim University, Symbiosis Law College Noida, and the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU). Currently, she is pursuing her Ph.D from BHU. In 2021, she was awarded a DAAD one-year fully funded scholarship to conduct research in Germany. Teaching and learning German has always been, and will always be, a passion for her.

Course certificate

The course is free to enroll and learn from. But if you want a certificate, you have to register and write the proctored exam conducted by us in person at any of the designated exam centres.

The exam is optional for a fee of Rs 1000/- (Rupees one thousand only).

Date and Time of Exams: 25 October 2024 Morning session 9am to 12 noon; Afternoon Session 2pm to 5pm.

Registration url: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.

The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published. If there are any changes, it will be mentioned then.

Please check the form for more details on the cities where the exams will be held, the conditions you agree to when you fill the form etc.

CRITERIA TO GET A CERTIFICATE

Average assignment score = 25% of average of best 8 assignments out of the total 12 assignments given in the course.
Exam score = 75% of the proctored certification exam score out of 100

Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score

YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR A CERTIFICATE ONLY IF AVERAGE ASSIGNMENT SCORE >=10/25 AND EXAM SCORE >= 30/75. If one of the 2 criteria is not met, you will not get the certificate even if the Final score >= 40/100.

Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of BHU and INI.

Only the e-certificate will be made available. Hard copies will not be dispatched.

Once again, thanks for your interest in our online courses and certification. Happy learning.

- INI team