39 - Restart and Conversation
From Break to Breakthrough: Revamping Better German with Community and Conversations
2024-11-21 20 min Susanne Schilk-Blümel
Description & Show Notes
In Episode 38 of the Better German podcast, host Susi Blümel returns from a break to introduce the Better German Community—a new space created for German learners. The community offers a range of resources, including live Zoom classes on vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, conversation, and fluency, along with a MatchUp feature to connect learners for practice. In this episode, Susi dives into the importance of conversation practice in learning German, sharing practical tips on how beginners can start with a study partner. She also emphasizes the value of keeping early conversations correction-free to build confidence and make learning enjoyable. Additionally, Susi invites listeners to join one of her free Zoom conversation classes to put these skills into action. The next episode will focus on German pronunciation—stay tuned!
Introduction
Welcome back to the Better German podcast! In this episode, Susi Blümel returns after a short break to share exciting news about the launch of the Better German Community—a place where learners can connect, practice, and improve their German skills together. The main focus of this episode is on the art of conversation in learning German. Susi shares practical insights to help beginners and intermediate learners build confidence and integrate conversation practice into their language routine.
Key Topics
• The Better German Community: What it is and how it helps learners.
• Why conversation is essential for learning German.
• How to get started with conversation practice as a beginner.
• The benefits of practicing with a study partner.
• Tips to keep early conversations correction-free to build confidence.
• An invitation to join free Zoom conversation classes.
• Sneak peek at the next episode on German pronunciation.
Links
• Join the Better German Community: bettergerman.info/community
Special Offer for Podcast Listeners: Use the promo codes below to get an additional month free!
• Promo Code for First Tier: Podcast24
• Promo code for Premium Tier (including the German Beginner Course): Podcast24Premium
• Free Zoom conversation classes: bettergerman.info/conversation
• Listen to past podcast episodes: podcast.bettergerman.info
• Follow Susi on social media for updates and tips
• Instagram: @bettergerman
• Facebook: Better German
Let me know if there’s anything else you’d like to add or tweak!
Looking for a place where you get support, can ask all the questions about German and get actual answers, find other learners and get weekly live German lessons? Then the Better German Community is for you. Check it out!
I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please subscribe and share the podcast.
I would love to stay in touch, so for news, new courses and books, subscribe to my newsletter.
Do let me know, which subjects you would like covered!
And watch out for the next episode!
I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please subscribe and share the podcast.
I would love to stay in touch, so for news, new courses and books, subscribe to my newsletter.
Do let me know, which subjects you would like covered!
And watch out for the next episode!
Transcript
Welcome to the Better German podcast.
My name is Susi Blümel, and I will teach
you German and everything around the
language , the countries and the culture.
Hello.
Welcome.
It's so good that your back and
it's so great that I'm back.
it's been a long, quite long
break that I haven't been here.
And it actually turned out to be a little
longer than I had planned originally.
I'm very sorry for that, but I'm back now.
So as there was this break, I would
like to take the opportunity to tell
you why I was on such a long break.
So basically I had to take some
time off, or some time off from
doing the podcast, because I was
working very intensively on a project
that is very close and dear to me.
And it was the launch of
the Better German community.
So what's the Better German community
or how did I even get into it?
basically the Better German community
is a place, it's a platform or a
membership, it's a place where you
can really find anything you need,
it's your home to learn German.
So you have channels there, which
means they are places where you can
communicate and exchange yourself
with others, it's a little bit
like, I don't know, Facebook or.
Or X, but in your own closed
community with like-minded people
that want to learn German, like you.
And you can ask questions.
You can ask questions about different
subjects, you can look for answers
there, and you can even, you can find
other community members to practice
with and we will help you with that.
There's a system that is going to be
in place there, it's called Match-Up.
So it's not mandatory, but if you want
to, you will get different members of
the community to practice with you.
They're a weekly live
classes, zoom classes.
about vocabulary, about
pronunciation, about grammar.
About, conversation and about fluency.
So every week there is one class
and this is just for community
members about one of these subjects.
there is in the premium tier you get an
entire course or actually many courses.
You can start from nowhere in
German and it will bring you
to where you can speak German.
So German part one course or level one
course is there, ready for you to jump on.
And you will see the dates where the
next courses are going to be released.
What else do you have?
You have a resources place,
where we add resources weekly.
And if you, if you're missing
something, you just tell us
and it's going to be added.
Resources where you find information
about vocabulary, about what
to do, how to learn and so on.
And, you also will find
recordings of the live classes.
So if you miss a live class, you can
find the recording there as well.
And I've been a little busy doing this
and setting this up, so that's why I took
a break from the podcast for a while.
It's also a very dear project to me.
Because I want to help anyone who
wants to learn German, to learn German.
Including you.
So the podcast is an important
thing, important part of all of this.
Why did I even come up with
the Better German community?
Well, basically, I've been teaching German
in different settings for a while now.
and before I've been, I originally
started teaching English, by the way,
I haven't stopped teaching English,
but this one is about learning German.
So I'm going to talk about this.
There are courses that I can take
and give, But it's a little hard
sometimes because You have to get all
the people that want to the course
into the same place, whether it is
online or not, at the same time and
when they miss a lesson then it's hard
and it's hard to catch up and so on.
And then, when you have
pure online courses.
you don't have a place where you can ask
your questions and then there's something
you don't get, and then you're lost.
And I've seen that, too.
I wanted to make something, where you
have a combination of everything, the
best of all the worlds of learning.
So it's a place where you can learn,
you can learn anything, you can learn
intensively It's going to answer all
your questions and you have a place
where you can still have a community
and meet other people and ask other
people for support and things like that.
That's why I created this community.
And it there now, it can be
reached now, you can join it.
I'd love for you to join it.
You can join the Better German community
on, bettergerman.info/community.
And I'm going to have a
special just for the podcasts.
Listeners.
So if you click the link in the show
notes, you are going to get a discount.
For everyone it's free for the
first two weeks, and if you click
on the discount there, it's going
to be for free for the first month.
So that's a link in the show
notes, you can find it there.
And you can also find it
If you go on better german.info/ 39.
You will find your voucher for one
month free in the Better German
community, so you can try it out.
Back to the Better German podcast.
Now, the podcast is back now.
I'm going to release episodes regularly,
it's not going to be weekly, it's
going to be once or twice a month.
So there's going to be an new
episode once or twice a month.
If you find the podcast now, and that's
your first time or your second time you're
listening to me, then I highly suggest
to you to go back to the beginning and
listen to the episodes from the beginning.
because if you actually listen to
them, from the beginning, there
is going to be a sort of a course.
built into the podcast.
All right, this week's
episode is conversation.
So, what do I mean with conversation?
So, conversation you could say, of
course, is just talking to people.
And, that's basically, probably
the most important thing of why
you would even learn German, right?
I mean, I don't know.
Maybe you are learning German because
you want to read German literature, okay.
So, I guess that would be
a very valid reason, too.
There's a lot of great German
literature and I love it.
And I, one of the reasons why
I do teach German is because
I don't want it to be lost.
However, usually most people that
want to learn German want to be able
to communicate with other people, and
most communication with other people
is done by talking to other people.
And that's what conversation is.
Now, when I talk about conversation,
in the sense of like German
classes, I'm basically referring
to conversation practice, like,
how do we practice this, how do we
learn to actually talk to people?
And first of all, I want to
clarify a few things here.
So first of all, obviously you
do not start your very first.
German class by practicing conversation,
because you obviously have nothing to say,
you have no vocabulary and no idea how,
even if you knew some words, how to put
them together and make them a sentence.
So there is not going
to be a conversation.
So, what does that mean?
Does it mean conversation is
only for very advanced students?
No, absolutely not.
Conversation definitely
starts much, much earlier.
in my courses, typically the first
conversation practice we have in the.
fifth unit.
So every unit, has maybe 10
lessons, short lessons in it.
And then in the fifth unit, you have the
first conversation practice that would be
typically, it would take you if you take
that course, maybe let's say 20-30 hours.
If you really start from scratch and
you do every single lesson and you do
every single, verbal exercise and written
exercise, it shouldn't take you longer
than 20 or 30 hours that's actually
quite a lot, so it could be 15 hours.
and then we started with
the first conversation.
And so basically what you
need to do before, if you're
not in one of my courses.
Of course, I'm welcoming you very much,
if you want to take a course with me,
you go to bettergerman.info/community
and you sign up for the community,
and then you will be in a course with
me, and, you will also get to see me.
But if you are not in a course with
me or you're doing a course somewhere
else, okay, you have to know a
little, some of the words and the
little, some of the Sentence Patterns.
You could even start going to
the beginning of the podcast and
listen to every episode there.
And you wouldn't need so much more
to start your first conversation.
So basically, before you start
your first conversation, you need
to have some vocabulary, and some
basic idea of how to say a sentence.
So for example, I would suggest
you could learn numbers.
And you could learn, there's an episode
about numbers by the way, a podcast
episode about numbers, you should
learn words about, Your family members.
And.
Maybe some words about occupations.
There's a podcast episode about
occupations as well, and some very simple
sentence structures and then you're
good to go for your first conversation,
because then you could already say
something about family, typically that's
for example, something we start with.
So that's what I suggest, but
most of you will probably not be
complete total and utter beginners.
And even if you are now, at some
point in the future, you won't.
So let's look at how can you
practice conversation and that
can be super, super, super simple.
You just get another person, ideally,
another student like you, who is
on the same level, and you pick a
subject, and then you just talk.
I give you an example, the first
conversation that we do in class
would be: "Tell me about your family.
Tell me more."
So: "Erzähl mir über deine Familie.".
Tell me about your family.
Tell me more is: "Erzähl mir mehr."
So one student asks the other:
Erzähl mir über deine Familie..
Tell me about your family.
And the other person will do.
as best as he can.
And by that time, he will be able
to say something and actually,
and that's the important part:.
Mostly, you will be surprised
what you can say already.
You could say something like:
Meine Familie ist groß.
My family is big.
Meine Mutter ist Maria
(My mother is Mary).
Sie ist 53 Jahre..
She is 53 years.
Meine Schwester ist Anna.
Sie ist 35.
Sie ist Lehrerin.
So, my sister is Anna, she's 35.
She's a teacher.
And so on and you just
keep saying, tell me more.
Meine Familie ist in Wien.
(My family is in Vienna)..
Oder (or): Meine Familie ist in
Frankreich (my family is in France).
And so on.
So whatever it is at that level at
the level you are, you can say it.
And, your partner has the job
of listening, understanding
what you're saying.
And, tell you "tell me more".
You do a few things, and then you switch.
So, what does your partner do or what
do you do when you are a partner?
When you tell your study
partner for the moment.
"Erzähl mir über deine Familie", you
listen, you listen carefully and you
understand what the person is saying.
What is not your job is to correct.
So you listen to him or her.
And you understand, and you get
what he wants to say and you
get to tell him to tell more.
So we do not correct as part
of conversation practice, why?
We, I mean, there is a place
for correction and it's not
there because what happens, it's
hard in the beginning to speak.
Maybe you're even shy and it's
even harder, but it's not easy,
no matter if you're shy or not.
If you are, learning a
new language, to speak.
So you will, in a real communication,
if the person tells you the thing
and you understand that that's
a real communication and that's
all what we want at this point.
But it's very important that if you don't
understand what the person says, you ask.
And you get it.
explained..
Ideally in German, if not then in any
other language that you have in common.
Because what we want to practice
here is real communication.
So that means the person tells
you something, you understand it.
And so if you don't understand
that you have to ask.
So, that's the way to learn conversation
and it's so simple, but it's really,
really powerful, if you keep doing that.
Pick different subjects.
Like, from the point where you've
started, like in almost every lesson or
every second lesson or unit of lessons,
you should do one conversation class.
So what can you do if you
are learning by yourself?
Then find yourself another
student that is approximately
the same level and just do that.
If you live in a German speaking country,
then just find anybody who you can talk
to and maybe tell them, okay, good, fine.
Let me practice that.
But let's, maybe you can get him to listen
to this episode, but it's important at
this point in time, to not do all the
corrections, because if you get all these
corrections, it will introvert you and it
will stop you from actually communicating.
It could be like, you will
say, okay, "Mein Name ist....".
And then if the person says.
No, no, no - it's not meine it's mein.
And then you go, oh, okay.
Mein Name ist .... And then you will
start thinking about grammar nonstop.
And that's not what we
want at this point in time.
What the other person can do, if
he notices there is a particular
mistake, you keep repeating
or something, he can note it.
And after you finished practicing
this one, He can take it up with you.
And help you practice, each point.
Anyway.
So not, correcting at this point in
time, when you practice conversation,
and that's an important point
because it will introvert you,
it will keep you from speaking.
There are points in time when
obviously you might need corrections,
but that's not right there.
That's my tips to learn conversation.
If you want to see this in live action.
I have
conversation.
classes on zoom that are completely
free, where you can take part.
And I will go over this with you and
you will have partners and you can
practice together and yes on zoom,
you can do that together, you will
be in, a little separate room for.
the time periods where you practice this,
but you will still have access to me.
It's possible, We will
start out as a group.
I will explain things to you.
You will get demonstrations.
We'll go through some words that
can be helpful for the subject that
we're going to talk in that lesson.
And then you're going to be separated with
a partner and you're going to be in it
in an extra room to practice, and I'll go
around, so you can ask me questions and
then I see what you're doing and so on.
So these are
conversation.
classes I have.
I have them.
Couple of times, like every now and then.
So go to bettergerman.info/conversation,
and you will see the next
date for the next class.
you will also find the other
free classes that I offer there.
I offer classes regularly.
Like once a month, there
is a free class on.
Either pronunciation
conversation, grandma fluency.
So there is every month there is
one or vocabulary is the fifth.
subject that I do regularly.
Good.
So that's this for this lesson.
I hope it helps you.
You can absolutely do And I highly suggest
to you to do that and to do that a lot.
I have, seen students.
That had learned a little bit in German.
And, but not much.
And never practiced and just
doing these conversation classes.
helped them to just start speaking.
And so it can do that for you as well.
Okay.
Talk to you see you later.
See you in the next step.
So by the way, the next episode.
It's going to be about pronunciation.
And how you can like a little bit
about the German pronunciation.
If you.
tips about typical word combinations that.
Sometimes are not so easy to understand
if you haven't learned German yet.
And yes, so tune in
and I'll see you there.
Bye bye.