LEARN GERMAN WITH STORYTELLING

Why the storytelling method?

I have been teaching German for more than a decade and over the years I have adapted my teaching method several times. I am someone who is actively looking for new methods. And today I would like to introduce my most used method by far.

It is the method to learn languages with little stories. Actually, this is what children do to learn their mother tongue. When we are small, we are surrounded by stories and everyone tells them to us constantly.

The beauty is that at any age you can learn languages with stories. But let’s see what possibilities we have with stories.

Example of a German mini story?

Let’s assume that this is our story:

Hallo, mein Name ist Loro. Und ich bin ein Papagei.

Ich wohne mit meiner Familie in Südamerika.

Ich lerne Deutsch, weil ich nächstes Jahr nach Deutschland fliege.

Of course it is important to have the story not only as text, but also as audio. Because you learn a language with your ears and not only with your eyes. Why? Then have a look at my following video.

2 LANGUAGE LEARNING SECRETS

Add questions and ask for the story

Now you can hear the story so often until you know it by heart. But we go one step further and make the story even more interesting. We add a few questions for each information.

Hallo, mein Name ist Loro.
Wie ist mein Name?
Loro. Dein Name ist Loro.

Und ich bin ein Papagei.
Und was bin ich?
Ein Papagei. Du bist ein Papagei.

Ich wohne mit meiner Familie in Südamerika.
Wo wohne ich?
In Südamerika. Du wohnst in Südamerika.
Mit wem wohne ich dort?
Mit deiner Familie. Du wohnst mit deiner Familie dort.

Ich lerne Deutsch, weil ich nächstes Jahr nach Deutschland fliege.
Was lerne ich?
Deutsch. Du lernst Deutsch.
Warum lerne ich Deutsch?
Weil du nächstes Jahr nach Deutschland fliegst.

The questions serve for repetition and enable us to practice grammar playfully. Because in the answer I no longer have to use “I”, but “you”. And this also changes the ending of the verb. We also learn the question words, prepositions and much more.

Before you listen to the story with the questions many times, it is important that you understand everything. If you want to translate, I recommend a word by word translation. More info in this video.

BIRKENBIHL WORD BY WORD TRANSLATION

Practice actively

If you have listened to the story with the questions so often that you understand them without problems, then it is time to actively answer the questions yourself. So a friend, classmate or teacher asks you the questions and you try to answer them.

If answering the questions works without problems, then you can try to retell the story. And here you can change the perspective. For example, you tell the story in the 3rd person. Or maybe in the past or in the future tense.

Of course it would be helpful if the different perspectives of the story were also available as audio. In my courses, every student finds the appropriate audio and can listen with intensity to prepare even better. Because in class, my students should speak for themselves and not just the teacher.

Grammar is optional

Grammar is only explained by me if my students actively ask me about something they don’t understand or if I find it important to help them.

That was all about the topic “Learning German with Stories”. How do you like my approach? And how do you learn the language? And if you are a teacher, how do you teach the language? I am always interested in new methods. And I always find it great to learn something new.

Best regards to everyone and good luck and have fun to learn German with storytelling.

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Have fun and all the best!