Deutsch 101 AMD 2

Instructions and MANY ideas are in the pinned posts at the top of the “Discussions” page:

Was ist ein AMD? provides a general description of this assignment. In brief: find something you enjoy that has to do with German, do it for 45-55 minutes, then post to the blog about what you did.
MANY ideas for what you can do are in the AMD-Ideen and Beispiele: Sample Posts posts. You can also scroll through the discussion to see what others have done.
You may also want to look at the Resources and Links post.
Before you write your post about what you did, take a quick look at the Content Guidelines post. Look for useful phrases and other ideas in the Beispiele: Sample Posts post.
Make sure you follow any additional guidelines mentioned in the AMD-Ideen, such as posting a trailer if you watch a movie, or a video if you listen to a song, and including some useful phrases you learned from your activity.
If you can’t find anything you’re enthusiastic about doing, please talk to your instructor so s/he can try to help you. This assignment will be much more effective if you enjoy it

Additional idea for AMD 2 [please email Hartmut if you find broken links on this page!]:

There are lots of ideas on the blog pages mentioned above for things you could do. Here are two additional specific idea for this AMD:

[Highly recommended if you didn’t already do this for AMD 1. Definitely worth doing again if you did do it for AMD 1!] Watch the pronunciation videos in the first bullet point here. Repeat the sounds after the speaker; pause the video(s) as needed. Write about what you noticed.
[Don’t choose this option if you already did this for AMD 1!] In your Facebook account settings, find the “Language” tab and set the language to “Deutsch.” Now click around a bit, see what things are called; use Facebook like this for a while, and write about what you learn. What do you click on to say that you “like” something?
Read Mark Twain‘s essay(s) “The Awful German Language” and/or “The Horrors of the German Language,” and write about what it teaches/they teach you about contrasts between German and English. Of course Twain is having fun in these essays: when he writes, for example, that “Surely there is not another language that is so slipshod and system-less, and so slippery and elusive to the grasp,” he certainly wants us to think of English. What makes “The Horrors of the German Language” such a marvelous text is that Twain wrote (and delivered) the speech in excellent German, and also translated it literally word-for-word into English. Already now [=schon jetzt], and especially once you’ve learned a little more German, reading through the parallel columns of this text can be a great activity for expanding your vocabulary, and getting a feel for German grammar and syntax, and for some of the differences between German and English — though Twain is of course also using a somewhat older form of the language, and manipulating it to suit his purpose.
Read this article on Duden’s “Words of the Decade” volume for 2000-2010. Duden publishes the authoritative dictionaries of the German language: when a word is included in the Duden, it’s “officially” a word. A few samples to get you interested: Castingshow, Googeln, Gangsta-rap, El Kaida, Falafal, Manga, Sudoku, Hüftgold [=fat stored on the hips (Hüften)], Gammelfleisch [=rotting or unclean meat], Dudelfunk [=a radio station which only plays German folk music], Ampelmännchen [=the cute little walk/don’t walk men from traffic lights in former East Germany].