"Willkommen!"

[music playing] Your instructor is James Pfrehm. Doctor Pfrehm is an associate professor of German and Linguistics at Ithaca College. He has taught at universities in Heidelberg and Münster, and is the author of a German language textbook. [music playing] Meine Damen und Herren: Hallo und herzlich willkommen! Mein Name ist James Pfrehm. Ich bin Professor für Deutsch am Ithaca College. Ich lebe in New York. Es ist wunderbar, dass Sie da sind. So then, or as we say in German: Also dann. For many of you that was probably your first real taste of German. For others, maybe it was a reminder of the German you learned way back when but have since forgotten. Either way, I bet you can already understand some or what I said. Here it is again. Meine Damen und Herren. Hallo und herzlich willkommen. Mein Name ist James Pfrehm. Ich bin Professor für Deutsch am Ithaca College. Ich lebe in New York. Es ist wunderbar, dass Sie da sind. And now, here's the whole thing, one last time. This time, just listen, and let the beautiful sounds of German flow over you. Meine Damen und Herren. Hallo und herzlich willkommen. Mein Name ist James Pfrehm. Ich bin Professor für Deutsch am Ithaca College. Ich lebe in New York. Es ist wunderbar, dass Sie da sind. Or as we say auf Deutsch, in German: Großartig! Great! Also dann. Let me welcome you again to this, the first step in our journey through the German language. By journey's end we'll have all the tools we need to use and understand basic German: from its sounds and grammatical structures, to the peoples and places that have made German the culturally vibrant language that it is today. Notice that I keep using the word JOURNEY instead of "course" or "class." Well, that's because over the years I've come to believe that learning a foreign language really is a journey. I mean, think about it: A journey has twists and turns. Milestones and mistakes. And most of all, journeys are full of surprises. Well, guess what? That's also what it's like to learn a new language. And so I've planned our journey here with two goals in mind: First, we're going to get a comprehensive grounding in how the German language works: its sounds, its words, and, of course, its fascinating grammar. Ja, Das ist richtig! That's right. I just used the adjective "fascinating" to describe German's grammar. Maybe, just maybe, some of you are like me. For one reason or another, we enjoy conjugational endings and word inflections. And so if you ARE a fellow grammarphile, you're in the right place! In our journey here we're going to learn all of German's grammatical cases, moods, aspects, and most of its verbal tenses. By the same token, though, if you're someone who finds less enjoyment in grammar, or if you've ever heard someone else say that German grammar is "really hard" or "hopelessly difficult", well, let me assure you: With me as your guide, your encounters here with German grammar won't be daunting. We're going to discover it bit by bit: With clear explanations, plenty of examples in both German and English, and always within a functional context, by which I mean that I'm going to work all this fascinating grammar into engaging exercises that also teach you key aspects of pronunciation, vocabulary, and culture. Alles klar? For the record: we will see quite a few tables showing inflectional endings and conjugational forms. After all, this IS German we're talking about. And these visuals really are helpful at times. Aber keine Panik! Our journey won't be cluttered by dozens and dozens of complicated charts and diagrams. Which actually brings me to our second goal: As your personal guide, I'm going to make sure that you get all this great content in a way that echoes the unpredictable and exciting journey of learning a language in a natural setting. Let's me show you what I mean. Los geht's! And just like that we're off to Vitznau, Switzerland, for a tour of the Rigi. The Rigi is a mountain massif in the central Alps. We climb aboard the Zahnrad-Bergbahn This is the oldest mountain railway in Europe. It takes us 1800 meters up to the Rigi's highest peak, Kulm. We stand in awe, taking in the valleys and lakes below, when a gentleman and his wife approach us, camera in hand, and begin talking. [MIA] Entschuldigung. Können Sie bitte ein Foto von uns machen? [ME] Gerne. Drei, swei, eins. [MIA] Vielen Dank. [ME] Bitte sehr. [RALF] Diese Aussicht ist schön, oder? [ME] Ja, sehr schön. [RALF] Woher sind Sie, wenn ich fragen darf? [ME] Ich komme aus den USA. [RALF] Sie sprechen aber gut Deutsch! [ME] Danke. Ich lerne Deutsch gern. Und woher sind Sie? [MIA] Wir sind aus Deutschland. Wir wohnen in Augsburg. [ME] Ach so. Wo ist Augsburg? And the next thing you know, Ralf and Mia are insisting that we come visit them in their home city of Augsburg. Schön, oder? Also dann. That little episode should give you an idea of what I mean when I say that on our journey here, we're going to get to know the language through real-world contexts, and not just through grammar tables, translation activities, and "repeat-after-me" exercises. Alles klar? Großartig! And this brings me to one last important note about our journey: If you haven't already noticed, this isn't going to be one of those language learning deals that promises you a full immersion experience, or that mimics the natural processes of child language acquisition. Warum nicht? Well, first of all, we're not children. In fact, if you think about it, it's kind of odd, even borderline patronizing, to treat someone like a child when they're trying to accomplish something as difficult as learning a new language. And second: Unlike a child, we're not passively acquiring a first language. We're adults, and we're actively learning a foreign language. What I'm getting at is this: Your journey here with me will be thirty straightforward and hopefully entertaining lessons, each one created for the purpose of showing you "This Is the German Language and This Is How You Use It." I'm going to explain the language to you; I'm not just going to bombard you with it and expect that somehow, miraculously, you soak it up like a child. Alles klar? All righty then! Are you ready for our journey to begin? Are you ready to start learning German? Großartig! Also dann meine Damen und Herren. Los geht's! We're going to jump right in with some basics on pronunciation. In German the word for pronunciation is die Aussprache. Oh, and also: Don't forget that this is a video. You can pause or rewind me as many times as you want or you can stand. What we want to do is get our mouth used to forming all these new sounds, and we can do this by forming the sounds again and again. Think of it as training your oral muscle memory. Alles klar? Which brings me to my second tip: Practice your pronunciation in a mirror, where you can actually watch what's going on in your mouth: with your lips, tongue, teeth, and throat. I always tell my students to prepare themselves, because in my course they're also going to get to know their mouth better. Also dann. Here's our first phrase: Guten Tag. It's the most important greeting in German. Guten Tag! It works in all the German-speaking areas, in the morning and afternoon. Listen especially to the vowel in the first word. Guten Tag. You'll notice that the [u] sound in guten is deeper, and has a purer tone, than English's u. The German [u] requires your lips to stay rounded, while your tongue rises and bunches up against the roof of your mouth towards the back. Uuuuuuuu, Guten, Guten Tag! Imagine that we're walking into a museum in Hamburg. How do we greet the person at the ticket counter? Guten Tag! Now picture us going to this museum first thing in the morning. Guten Tag! will work fine, but we can also say Guten Morgen! And now repeat after me: Guten Morgen. Guten Morgen. Now imagine that we're in the beautiful harbor city of Bremen. It's 8 in the morning and we walk into a Bäckerei. How do we greet the baker? Guten Morgen! And then, when it's evening time, well, we can wish the baker Guten Abend! Wiederholen Sie bitte. This phrase means 'Please repeat,' by the way: Wiederholen Sie bitte. You'll hear me say it a lot throughout our journey. So then: Wiederholen Sie bitte: Guten Abend. Now picture us walking up to a Diskothek in Düsseldorf, because we're never too old to dance in Düsseldorf, right? And when the bouncer looks at us, we say: Guten Abend. The 'bouncer,' by the way, that's what we call der Türsteher, which literally translates to "door stander." Tür meaning door. Steher means stander. Now, one of the things we'll see again and again is that German is a compound-friendly language. It loves to stick words and pieces of words together to make a new word. So, take the German word for 'refrigerator.' That word is Kühlschrank, literally a "cool cupboard." The word for 'mitten' is Handschuh, a 'hand shoe.' And one of my personal favorite German compounds is Wiederbelebungsversuche. You'd translate it as 'resuscitation attempts,' in the sense of doing CPR on someone. But the word itself, is actually made up of three smaller words: wieder, Belebung, and Versuche. Wieder means 'again.' Belebung literally means 'be-life-ing' as in to give someone the attribute of 'aliveness.' And Versuche is 'attempts.' So the fantastic word Wiederbelebungsversuche really means "attempts to bring to life again." Pretty cool, right? So, let's get back to die Aussprache. So far we've learned standard greetings for all times of the day, and the German vowel [u]. Guten Morgen. Guten Tag. Guten Abend. But we need to add something else here. In most countries around the world there are different greetings depending on where you live. Now if you're familiar with United States, think of "Howdy ya'll" in some parts of the US south. Well, the same thing applies in the German-speaking world. In Southern Germany and in Austria, speakers prefer to use another phrase for greeting each other. And this phrase is Grüß Gott. Wiederholen Sie bitte: Grüß Gott. Grüß Gott! Imagine us taking a seat in a Wiener Kaffeehaus, a Viennese café. And when the waiter approaches, we say: Grüß Gott. Listen closely to the vowel in Grüß. It's not a vowel we have in English. It's written as a u with two dots over it, called an umlaut. You've probably seen this pair of dots before, especially if you're a fan of the 80s hairband Mötley Crüe, or if you fancy Häagen-Dazs ice cream. Well, I hate to disappoint you, but those umlauts have nothing to do with the German umlaut. At least not in the sense of sound. The umlaut in German actually means that the [u] is more front-tongue-y. What I mean is, the vowel is pronounced with your lips in the usual rounded position, but your tongue moves forward. Say uuuuu, Now keep your lips rounded, but unbunch the tongue from the back of your mouth, and move it forward along the upper palate. In fact, put it in the same place as you do for the vowel [i]. And now pronounce the [u], keeping your tongue where you would for the [i]: üüüüü. That's it! Wiederholen Sie, bitte: Grüß, Grüß Gott! We'll meet another umlauted vowel in our next lesson. Also dann, meine Damen und Herren, now that we've learned a few ways to greet someone auf Deutsch, let's learn how to say goodbye. The first option is one you might've heard before. Auf Wiedersehen! Note that it's spelled with a 'w,' but like all German words spelled with a 'w,' it's pronounced as a [v]. Wiederholen Sie, bitte: Auf Wiedersehen. Auf Wiedersehen. So. Imagine once again that we're strolling into that Bäkerei in Bremen. How do we greet the baker? Guten Morgen! Or Guten Tag! And then, after we've bought a loaf of frisches Brot we say: Auf Wiedersehen! But what do we say at night, when we part ways with our dinner guests after a lovely, rounded meal of Bier, Sauerkraut, and Bratwurst? Well, we wish them Gute Nacht. Also dann, meine Damen und Herren, Wiederholen Sie, bitte: Gute, Nacht, Gute Nacht! Oh, there it is! Did you hear it? Ladies and gentlemen, We just encountered the most famous of German sounds: the [x]. Quick trivia question: Who was that masterful German composer of the Baroque period? You might recall his Toccata and Fugue in D Minor goes like this: Da-na-naaaaa,. Da-na-na-naa-naaa... You got it. The one, the only: Johann Sebastian Bach. Now, we say 'bock' in English. But you'll note that his name is spelled B-A-CH. And in German, if a CH comes after an [a] sound, it's pronounced [x]. So it's Bach. Not 'bock.' Bock is actually a malty style of German Bier. Yum! We'll hear all about deutsches Bier in another lesson. But as for Johann Sebastian, while you can sip a Bockbier while taking in one of his Meisterwerke, just remember: you're listening to Bach, not bock. Also dann. Wiederholen Sie, bitte: Bach. The tongue bunches up in the back of the mouth, and air gets pushed out and over it. The result is a low raspy sound: [x]. Now you try it: Bach. Nacht. Bach. Gute Nacht, Bach! Okay. So this is where I have to point out one unfortunate ambiguity in German spelling. Its spelling is actually really consistent, and we'll see this in our next lesson, when we cover the alphabet in more detail. But the ambiguity I want to point out now has to do with the CH spelling, as in the words Nacht and Bach. We just learned that this sound is pronounced in the back of the throat as [x]. Well, the CH can also stand for another sound, which is pronounced near the front of the mouth. And this sound is [ç]. Let me show you what I mean, using a phrase that everyone should know in German: Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch. Now, this phrase has three instances of the [ç] sound. Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch. It means "I speak a little German," and if you say the phrase right, you'll feel your tongue flatten up against the roof of the mouth towards the front, and not the back, as with Bach, it was in the back, Nacht it was in the back. This sound [ç] is in the front. Here's that phrase again: Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch. Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch. Don't worry if you struggle with this sound. It usually takes my students a while to get it. But one tip I can give you is to point out that English does, in fact, have a similar sound. It only occurs in certain sound environments, but our English-speaking mouth does produce it. Let me show you. Check out this name in English: Hugh. Now say it aloud: "Hugh." Do you hear the soft, hissy sound when I say the H and U sounds together? HHHUUUU. There it is! Now that sound is fairly close to German [ç]. Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch. All right then, meine Damen und Herren. It's time to put it all together, all the phrases we've learned so far. Here's the scenario that's going to help us do it. Imagine it's a warm summer day in München, that's Munich. We've just spent the afternoon visiting a few of its incredible museums and, understandably, we've worked up quite a thirst. Keine Panik! Just so happens München has about two hundred Biergärten. So we walk up to a friendly-looking pedestrian and we say: Guten Tag. Wo ist ein Biergarten? To which the friendly-looking pedestrian replies: Na ja, ich meine, es gibt einen tollen Biergarten gleich hier um die Ecke. Whoa! That's WAY more German than we can handle at this point in our journey. So we say: Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch. Upon hearing this, the friendly-looking pedestrian takes out their smartphone and shows us that, amazingly, there's a beer garden just around the next corner. Großartig! We exclaim, and wish them Auf Wiedersehen. And like that, we're on our way to a Munich beer garden to slake our thirst. Ah, Bier. Now give yourself a pat on the back. You've officially taken the first steps in your journey to learn German. Also dann. Meine Damen und Herren. I hope you enjoyed that little introduction to some of German's distinct sounds, and the handful of useful phrases too. Right now, however, I'd like to let you in on a lesser-known secret, about you, and me, and anyone else who knows English, whether as a native speaker or an advanced learner. Here's the secret: speakers of English are intrinsically suited to learn German. Wie bitte? What's that, you ask? Yes, you heard me right. Das ist richtig! English and German are what linguists call sister languages. If we went back in time, we'd see that English and German come from the same parent language. And so today, they have a lot of words and even alot of grammar in common. Let me show you what I mean. Here's another short paragraph about myself, all in German. I bet that you'll be able to understand much, if not all, of it. Here it goes: Hallo. Mein Name ist James. Ich komme aus Oregon. Ich habe einen jüngeren und einen älteren Bruder. Meine Eltern haben ein Haus in Oregon. Meine Mutter geht oft in gute Restaurants. Mein Vater liebt Hunde. You were able to understand a lot of that, right? The reason is simple: you know English. So let's take one more look at what I just said. Mein Name ist James. 'My Name is James.' Pretty straightforward. Ich komme. 'I come' aus - 'out of' or 'from' Oregon. Ich komme aus Oregon. 'I come from Oregon.' The English cognates for kommen and aus are 'come' and 'out.' You also heard the words Bruder, Mutter, Vater, Haus and Restaurants. I'm sure you can come up with the English cognates for those. Now, sometimes we have to reach a little to find cognates. Hunde, for example, is cognate with English 'hounds,' not in the sense of the particular breed, but rather all canines in general, that is, 'dogs.' Let's try it together. Another word you heard me use was oft. What do you think its English cognate is? Rightig! 'often.' I also said the word liebt. Liebt. If you guessed that it's cognate with English 'loves,' you're right on the money! Elsewhere in my monologue I talked about my Eltern. Eltern. Eltern. Any idea what it's English cognate might be? It's translated as 'parents,' but the English word 'parents' was borrowed from French a long time ago. Eltern. Okay, this one is a little tough. Eltern is actually cognate with elders. Do you see the connection? Those who are älter, or 'older,' are our elders. Eltern. Pretty cool, right? My point is this: English and German are close linguistic relatives. If you know enough English to understand this lesson, well then: you're in luck. You already have a head start on learning German. And speaking of learning German, why should you or anyone else learn it? Who speaks German and where do they speak it? Every semester I ask my students this same question. And I ask them, I say, "Why did you guys choose German from other languages that our college offers?" And without fail, I get a list that looks something like this: I have family in Germany, German is important for international business, I'm going to travel to Germany, It's important for what I'm studying, My grandma used to swear at me in German, and finally, my adviser is making me take German. Aside from the last one, these are all great reasons to learn German. What's more, they suggest that German is an important and useful language today. For starters, it doesn't surprise me that a lot of my students have memories of a family member swearing at them in German. On the last census in 2010, around fifty million Americans listed "German" as their ancestry. That's a whopping 15% of the entire US population. At the time of this taping, German ranks among the top five languages other than English spoken at home in the United States. And in sixteen states, German is the third most frequently spoken language at home, after English and Spanish. Worldwide, somewhere in the neighborhood of a hundred million people speak German as a first language, and more than 15 million speak it as a second language. When I talk to people about what I do, many of them are surprised when I tell them that German is spoken in a lot more places than Germany. Actually, I tell them, German is listed as an official language in six countries. And in another thirteen countries, German is recognized as an official minority language. In fact, the German language has a bigger international presence than many people realize. In terms of business and finance, it's well known that Germany's economy drives the European Union. German, Austrian, and Swiss companies employ millions of people, both at home and overseas. You might have heard of some of these companies: Mercedes, Siemens, Red Bull, GLOCK, Nestlé, Rolex. Sound familiar? Finally, as most of you will already know, German is also an internationally acknowledged language of culture and learning. Whether it's literature or politics, science or philosophy, music or history, some of the best and brightest minds have written in the German language. There are simply too many to name here. But I will tell you this much: by learning German, you're opening up an exclusive door to this trove of knowledge and beauty. Many of my students have taken German from me because they want access to that exclusive, higher level of learning. Now, I could go on and on with reasons to learn German. But what it really comes down to is this: You have to have your own reason. And it should be something that drives you deeply and personally. Whether you're seeking closer connections to family, planning a trip to a German-speaking country, or simply because, like me, yes, I'll admit it!, like me you just really dig grammar and words and foreign languages in general. Whatever it is, something should motivate you. The rest is my job. Also dann. Meine Damen und Herren. Are you ready for your journey? Are you ready to learn the ins and outs of the German language and German-speaking culture? Großartig! Los geht's!