Wann? Montag - Donnerstag, 2-5

Wo?

Im LRC: suchen Sie das "Deutschlabor" Schild: es hängt von der Decke [=ceiling]. The German Lab actually just consists of a big table in an alcove equipped with a computer, and there should be an instructor sitting there eagerly waiting to help you :)

What kinds of questions is the German Lab designed to answer?

ALL of them

• There is only one thing the instructors at the German Lab are NOT supposed to do, and that is proofreading your essays. In view of the way the essays are graded, it would be unfair to the other students if some of you have a tutor or other German speaker "proofread" your essay for you. ==> It is OK for you to ask specific questions about how to say something, but you should only ask three or four such questions. Please ask your instructor if you have further questions about this policy.
• You can ask for help with your homework. For pedagogical reasons, we'll never just tell you the answers, and may at various points ask you to continue work on your own while we sit there to see if you've gotten the point(s) being practiced--but we'll help you as much as necessary so you can get the assignment done.
• You can ask for advice on how to study. We may not have all the answers in this respect, but we'll help as much as we can.
• You can ask about general or specific grammar points you don't understand. The more specific your questions, the more helpful we can be, but even if you come and say "I don't understand the accusative" or "Verb tenses confuse me" we'll try to help you focus your questions so that we can help you find a realistic approach for coming to grips with such larger questions.
• You can come to ask for "more practice." Often you'll have understood what the textbook says about a certain point, but you'll just feel that you need more practice. We'll try to find or come up with exercises to help you get that practice, and to work through them with you.
• You may be having trouble with a text you're reading for homework, or for your 102/103/231 free reading. We'll help you--although here again, the point of the assignment is more to teach you to read by yourself than to teach you to understand that specific text [we want to teach you to fish at the German Lab, rather than just giving you the fish...], so we'll try as much as possible to help you help yourself--but we'll help you as much as necessary.
• You might just want to talk some German. We'll be glad to do that with you at the German Lab anytime.