German Home Immersion School

Herzlich Wilkommen! This is the German Do-It-Yourself Home Immersion School Project!

To get a quick intro, watch the welcome video here (beta version)! [1]

The aim of this project is to help you build your own German Home Immersion Environment

by connecting you to the best language resources and community to help you achieve your language goals

while spending little or no money!

This project is currently curated by

Jon michael swift (discuss • contribs) 17:45, 18 May 2016 (UTC)

Introduction (Einleitung)

By taking part in this project you will learn how to immerse yourself in German language without going to a special school!

You can do it at home, on the road, anywhere you can access the internet!

This project is about harnessing the power of the internet to connect you to other people who share your passion for German language and culture!

When amazing feats of language learning seem to be happening everywhere, this is a resource that will help you bring the best tools together!

If you are new to learning German, let me suggest a few warm-up exercises, just to give you a taste of what's at your fingertips.

These exercises foreshadow a lot of the techniques we'll use in this project while starting to developing your sense of initiative!

(If you know a bit of German already, you can skip to "Immersion Exercises" or "Warum Sprachbad?")

All of them use totally free and fun resources and should be fairly easy, but feel free to write the course curator and ask for help!

Feel free to do all, some, or none of these exercises. They are simply here to get your German learning jump-started. Watch the Welcome Video if you need help!

Structure of the Project (Lehrplan)

This project is designed to be entered by learners at any stage. Look for a page that interests you and jump in!

Beginner Lessons

Warm-Ups for Beginners (Übungen für Anfänger)

German Immersion Lessons

Immersion Exercises (Sprachbadübungen)

The Immersion Challenge! (Die Sprachbadherausforderung!)

Lessons (on Grammar, Subject Vocabulary, etc. Deutschlehren)

Working with German Immersion Teachers

The Immersion Challenge! (Die Sprachbadherausforderung!)

Contrary to popular belief, you can be good at German but bad at immersing yourself in it...

If you don't think you're good at either...that's why we have this project, now isn't it!?

There are so many great ways to learn German; this project focuses a tool we call the Immersion Challenge! We'll explain how to do this now.

In short, an immersion challenge is made up of...

1. A goal that is interesting and meaningful (Bedeutende Ziele)
2. Your Immersion Environment (Sprachbad-Umfeld)
3. Completing your immersion challenge and telling us about it when you're done! (Ziele erreichen und davon berichten)

This can be an exhilarating adventure, but it's also fairly easy to screw it up and wind up empty-handed.

Or even worse, you accomplish your learning goal but it doesn't have the effect you wanted!

This is why right off the bat we recommend finding a teacher. This course has at least one teacher who is willing to help anyone who is interested!

If you want to get started right away with your Immersion Challenge, I would recommend one of two Immersion Lessons

The first is on German Language Resources. German Language Resources

If you're ready to start designing your own Immersion Challenge, visit the lesson on planning them.

Why Immersion? (Warum Sprachbad?)

Here's a video that summarizes this section, which is designed to help you understand why this project exists.

If you're not concerned about reasons and just want to get down to business, skip to the next section entitled What we do (Art und Weise) or go to Immersion Exercises

There are lots of reasons to do an immersion school. I'll list a few here...

• You're looking for a challenge and you want to learn a language in record time e.g. Benny Lewis's challenge of Fluent in 3 Months
• You are moving to a German speaking country and don't want it to be a cold Sprach-shower when you get there!
• You are looking for a cultural enrichment experience for yourself of your child but can't afford an immersion school
• You have relatives or friends who speak German and you want to be in-the-know!
• You've tried to teach yourself German before and failed...you need a new method!

There may be many other reasons why you're motivated to do an Immersion school, but in case you wondered about some of the benefits, here's a list!

• It's widely argued if not proven that Immersion is the best way to learn a new language, given that it mirrors how all humans naturally acquire language!
• The intensity helps break down blocks of resistance and build new habits!
• The Immersion environment breaks old habits and helps you replace them with newer, better ones!
• The excitement of language Immersion will draw you into closer relationships with your learning partners, which makes learning even easier!
• The increased concentration of language input reinforces new ideas before you can forget them, which cumulatively increases the pace of learning!
• The adventure of taking language learning into your own hands will empower you, build your self-management skills...and teach you German!

That being said, language immersion can be a challenge. It takes energy and dedication and a good method to succeed.

A couple challenges you can expect to face are...

• The frustration of feeling overwhelmed by information
• The feeling that learning a language takes a long time, even in total immersion!
• Ups and downs in your relationships with language partners (they're still people, ya know)
• Conflict with your non-immersion life which will seem to constantly break your focus

If you're still reading, it's probably because you know on some level that you need a new and better method to learn German with the resources you have.

This is a project that will help you go as far as you want with as little as you have, and make the world a better place while you do it!

What We Do (Art und Weise)

This project exists to help you use the vast resources to the internet to the best effect possible.

There are five main things that we do:

1. We collect the best German lessons/resources into a nice tidy package
2. We build lessons to teach you how to use the resources to the best effect possible
3. We build community and connect you to people who will learn with you and help you if you get lost
4. We help you do your own immersion project!!!
5. We study the process of language learning and improve educational resources

Unfiled Notes/Lesson Notes

/Everett

/Connor

/Jennifer

/Yoojin