NOTES ON THE "ABSPRUNGTEXT" ("DIE BESTE UNI FÜR MICH"):

• Be sure to read Brennpunkt Kultur, Seite 304-5, which will help you understand the text!
• Jessie is trying to decide between three universities (in Passau, Jena & Berlin) and between two subjects (Betriebswirtschaft & Psychologie). She's chosen two of the universities based on their rankings, and one because she likes the city.
• Near the beginning of the paragraph about Passau, the "dafür" in "Dafür steht man an der Mensa lange an..." means something like "But on the other hand" [i.e. it does not have its "literal" meaning "for that"]. Man steht lange an = one stands in long lines.
• She seems to have a problem with men wearing pink shirts.
• The first paragraph about Jena tells us various things Jessie liked there. The second paragraphabout Jena begins by telling us that she had little interest in the city before her trip, and originally came only because of the ranking ("Eigentlich hatte Jessie keine große Lust..."), and then specifies some of the reasons for the good ranking.
• The section on Berlin is introduced by a short paragraph telling us some other things Jessie cares about. We then find out that Jessie doesn't mind the mediocre rankings of the Psychology dept. there, because she wants to be in Berlin ["Mag ja sein, dass die Humboldt-Uni im Fachbereich Psychologie nicht immer in der Spitzengruppe landet -, aber Berlin macht vieles wett" = "It may be true that the H.U. doesn't always land in the top group in the subject area of Psychology -but (being in) Berlin makes up for a lot"] - but since many others think like her, she'll need a very good GPA to get a spot there [in practice, Numerus Clausus means the minimum GPA required for admission in a particular discipline].
• Most of the last paragraph is actually not about Jessie's opinions about Berlin, but rather about what she learned from her trip: what she needs to pay attention to ("worauf ich achten muss"), and that the subject she chooses to study will not in itself determine her future ("Ein Studium ist keine Einbahnstraße," i.e. a course of study is not a one-way street leading to a predetermined goal).

8-44: This is practice of the prepositional verbs listed on pp. 320-1 in Vorsprung. This means that you should choose the prepositions solely on the basis of which preposition goes with the verb in the current clause. Thus, if the verb is "sich verlieben," then the preposition you choose will be "in," because in German, one falls in love "in(to)" a person, and not "with" a person. Very few of these verb + preposition combinations make sense based on what happens in English: every language has its own way of combining verbs and prepositions, because there are so many cases where there is no obvious logical answer. Thus, you need to actually memorize (or learn through habit) the verb + preposition combinations listed on pp. 320-1. What we've done and will do in class will hopefully help you do that, and so should this exercise and W8-R.

If the list of prepositional verbs looks too long and you're tempted to just give up, focus on learning that "über" means "about" when combined with verbs (==> sprechen/reden über), and on learning the distinction between sich freuen über [=to be happy about] and sich freuen auf [=to look forward to]. Apart from that, look through the list and just pick one or two others that you're really interested in learning. Click here for a detailed explanation of prepositional verbs.

W8-E ein Kommilitone/eine Kommilitonin = a fellow student; Hänschen = a diminutive of the name "Hans" that would normally only be used by a parent speaking to a small child. You can figure this out just based on the meaning of the statements, but the du/Sie distinction should also be helpful.

W8-R: More prepositional verb practice. See the notes on 8-44 above!

L8-G: Stefan is proposing a solution to the bathroom problem. In the first half of the text, he makes a suggestion which isn't quite OK with Barbara ==> while it's good for you to listen to this in order to be prepared to understand the solution they come up with, you won't hear the correct answers until the second half of the audio clip, when Stefan says "Gut. Also:..." and then explains what they will do. He speaks very clearly, but a little quickly, so you'll probably have to listen a couple of times in order to get everything.

L8-I: Although the statements in this exercise are almost all about a trip to Prague that will happen in the future, only some of the sentences actually use the future tense (i.e. a form of the verb werden + the infinitive of the main verb). The other sentences either

• include a time expression that indicates the future (like "nächsten Monat"),
• or are questions or statements about what someone wants to do (rather than what he will do) (Like "Willst du..." or "Ich will..."). These are trick questions in the sense that the German "will" sounds like the English future tense ("I will...") - but in German, only the various present tense forms of the verb werden indicate the future (ich werde, du wirst, er/sie/es wird, wir werden etc.)
• or the speaker just uses the present tense because it's clear from the context that he's talking about the future

==> You need to listen for the various present tense forms of the verb werden (ich werde, du wirst, er/sie/es wird, wir werden etc. - used together with the infinitive of another verb) in order to decide whether the statement uses the present tense or the future tense.