Dr Klaus Bung
68 Brantfell Road
Blackburn BB1-8DL
England

© 2011 Klaus Bung

002

Lesson 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Lesson 2 of:

Klaus Bung:
Passport to Europe: German
Learn German
with the IDYLL® METHOD™,
which ensures 90% retention

Part 1:
German is easy
Deutsch ist leicht

Naming conventions for sound files

L001-B1 = Lesson 1, Block 1

L001-Ex01 = Lesson 1, Exercise 1

L001-RT01 = Recorded Talk

Note for web users, In order to learn properly with these exercises you have to print them out. You do not have to print the explanations, but Block 1, Block 2, Block 3 and Exercise 1 will work only if you have them in front of you on paper and do the exercises with pen and paper. You learn much more intensively if you write rather than type the exercises. That is the reason why we are not presenting them through a computer program, but as plain text ready for printing.

We have therefore uploaded this entire file and the scoring sheets as pdf files. Click here to get them.

If some of the phonetic symbols do not display properly, e.g. if you find little squares in the text where there should be characters, check in the pdf file, which does not mess up the display.

Lesson 2

Resources for this Lesson

pdf file for Lesson 2
(Only the pdf file will display all phonetic symbols correctly.)

Sound file for Block 1

Sound file for Block 2

Sound file for Block 3

Recorded talk: The ich-sound

Recorded talk: Kamel

Sound file for Exercise 2

Recorded talk: Collected words of this lesson

Block 1

1	the ship das Schiff
2	the hair das Haar
3	the blood das Blut
4	the net das Netz

Tasks

• Practise Block 1 in writing with the Folding Paper method, as described in Lesson 1.
• Practise the spoken Block (LASPEX-Basic), as described in Lesson 1.
• Read the Notes for Block 1.

Notes for Block 1

Schiff: The English sound of "sh" is written in German as "sch". In IPA this sound is /ʃ/.

Haar: "aa" in German is always a long "a". This sound is written /a:/ in IPA. In IPA a colon indicates that the preceding vowel is long. The vowel in English "calm" is similar. "calm" is /ka:m/ in IPA. The "r" in "Haar" is sounded. Therefore we have "Haar" /ha:R/.

Blut: "u" in "Blut" is a long vowel. It is similar to the vowel in English "doom". In IPA a long /u/ is written /u:/. Therefore we have "Blut" /blu:t/.

Netz /nɛts/. German "z" is always pronounced /ts/. "tz" is pronounced the same.

Block 2

5	the knee das Knie
6	the light das Licht
7	the camel das Kamel

Tasks

• Practise Block 2 in writing with the Folding Paper method (PAPA-Basic), as described in Lesson 1.
• Practise the spoken Block (LASPEX-Basic), as described in Lesson 1.
• Read the Notes for this Block.

Notes for Block 2

Knie: The "k" has to be articulated. It is not silent as in English "knee". The "e" after the "i" is a marker to indicate that the "i" is long. It is always used for that purpose. Whenever you see the letters "ie" in German, immediately think of the sound /i:/ in English "bee". Therefore we have: "Knie" /kni:/.

Licht: The "ch" in "Licht" also occurs in German "ich", which means "I". It is similar to the initial sound in English "hue" /hju:/. IPA for the German ich-sound is /ç/. Therefore we have "Licht" /liçt/.

Kamel: "Kamel" is a foreign word, imported from Arabic /'ʤamal/. In Egypt and some other countries the letter /ʤi:m/ is pronounced as /g/. Egyptian camels are therefore called /'gamal/ and that gives us the English and German words for "camel". Camels are highly intelligent and do not suffer fools gladly. When they meet one, they spit at him to show their contempt. But they are gentlemen and therefore never spit at a woman, to say nothing of a lady. Perhaps they know that a woman cannot possibly be foolish or wrong. By comparison, Germans are stupid (and, not being English, they cannot possibly be gentlemen). Therefore Germans think that camels are stupid, and if they want to call someone an idiot, they say "Du Kamel". Egyptian camels have, of course, heard about this, regard it as libellous, and when they meet a German tourist, they refuse to shake hands but spit at him.

Recorded talk:

The ich-sound

"I" in German is "ich",
"not" is "nicht",
"light" is "Licht".

Kamel

If you want to insult a person by calling him stupid, you can call him "du Kamel!" (you camel). Make sure you stress "Kamel" on the last syllable. Otherwise the idiot in question will not understand and not be offended. You do not want to waste your efforts, do you?

"Kamel" is a foreign word, imported from Arabic /'ʤamal/. In Egypt and some other countries the letter /ʤi:m/ is pronounced as /g/. Egyptian camels are therefore called /'gamal/ and that gives us the English and German words for "camel".

You can also use "du Kamel" as affectionate banter. My mother used to call me that regularly. Perhaps I deserved it. But you must not use the familiar form "du" to adult strangers or to people who are not close friends. You will cause embarrassment - for yourself and your reputation.

(end of recorded talk)

Block 3

8	the paper das Papier
9	the crocodile das Krokodil
10	the telephone das Telefon

Tasks

• Practise the written Block (PAPA-Basic).
• Practise the spoken Block (LASPEX-Basic).
• Read the Notes for this Block.

Notes for Block 3

In this Block we have three foreign words (words of non-German origin). Such words are more likely to be stressed on the last syllable than pure German words.

"Papier" /pa'piɐ/: Note the "apostrophe" which indicates that the following syllable is stressed. The final "r" is articulated not as a consonant but as a vowel; see the note on "Wasser" and "Wetter" in Lesson 1, Block 3. The "ie", as always, denotes a long /i:/ as in English "bee"; see the note on "Knie" above.

"Krokodil" /krɔ ko: 'di:l/ The vowel in "Kro" is short and open. It is similar to the sound of British English "got" /gɔt/. In IPA this sound is represented by /ɔ/.

"Telefon" /tele'fo:n/

The complete IDYLL®exercise

Exercise 2

1	the ship das Schiff /ʃif/
2	the hair das Haar /ha:R/
3	the blood das Blut /blu:t/
4	the net das Netz /nɛts/
5	the knee das Knie /kni:/
6	the light das Licht /liçt/
7	the camel das Kamel /ka'me:l/
8	the paper das Papier /pa'piɐ/
9	the crocodile das Krokodil /krɔ ko: 'di:l/
10	the telephone das Telefon /tele'fo:n/

Tasks for this Exercise

• Practise the written Exercise (Items 1 to 10) (with PAPA-Basic).
  Target: 10 items correct in succession, i.e. 100%, i.e. mastery.
• Practise the spoken Exercise (with LASPEX-Basic).
  Target: 100% correct twice running, i.e. 10 ticks in two adjacent columns on your scoring sheet.
• Do Revisions
  R1 (after 15 minutes),
  R2 (after 1 hour)
  and R3 (as late as possible before going to bed).
• Enter the revisions R4 to R11 into your Revision Diary as specified in Lesson 1.

end of Lesson 2

© 2011 Klaus Bung