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WORKING WITH STORIES & SCENES
If you're looking for a fun and effective way to learn new vocabulary and proverbs in your new language, try working with stories and scenes! I love working with topic related scenes and short dialogues and I incorporate them quite frequently into my classes.
Short videos with subtitles can be a great tool for practicing your listening and reading skills, while also introducing you to new vocabulary and cultural knowledge. As you watch and analyze the scenes, you'll start to recognize common phrases and idioms that are useful in everyday conversation. And if you're feeling adventurous, you can even play out the scenes yourself or make up your own scenes together with your teacher or language partner.
By immersing yourself in the language and culture in this way, you'll not only improve your language skills but also have fun while doing it.
There are plenty of fun and engaging resources available online to help you improve your language skills. From TV shows and movies to YouTube videos and language learning apps, there's no shortage of material to choose from. And the best part? Many of these resources provide subtitles or transcripts to make it even easier to follow along.
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CHECK OUT MY MATERIAL & LINKS SECTION!
RECOMMENDATIONS
You can find a variety of German language learning videos on DW's Website and Youtube Channel. The programs use exercises and quizzes with interactive tools to create an engaging learning experience for German language learners.
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DW's Nicos Weg (A1-B1): It consists of 100 episodes, each about 3-4 minutes long, and follows the story of Nico, a Spanish student who moves to Berlin to study and has to navigate different scenarios.
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DW’s Jojo sucht das Glück (B1/B2): The series consists of 26 episodes, each about 15 minutes long, and follows the story of Jojo, a young woman who leaves her hometown in search of happiness.
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DW’s Das Bandtagebuch (B1/B2): The program has a documentary-style approach to teach learners about German culture and music and follows in episodes a band on their journey, showcasing their experiences and the music they create. It includes German and English subtitles to help learners understand the interviews and lyrics.
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Ladykracher is a German sketch comedy show and is considered a classic of German comedy. It is known for its unique, unconventional and often very absurd kind of humor. Watching the sketches can be a fun and effective way to learn German, as they are memorable and showcase German humor and culture.
Wie war das Sprichwort noch: Wer sich nicht im Regen nass machen will, der wird nie das Meer erreichen?
Dann müssen wir wohl oder übel auch ins Nass, sonst geht Bello allein in den Urlaub!
Ok, Schirm weg und los! Regen bringt Segen!!
GERMAN SERIES & MOVIES
GERMAN SERIES
DARK
A mind-bending sci-fi thriller that follows four families in a small German town as they unravel a supernatural mystery
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BABYLON BERLIN
A crime drama set in 1920s Berlin that follows a police detective and a young stenographer as they navigate the city's underworld
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HOW TO SELL DRUGS ONLINE (FAST)
A dark comedy that follows a high school student who becomes a drug dealer after his girlfriend breaks up with him
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TÜRKISCH FÜR ANFÄNGER
A comedy series that follows a German-Turkish blended family as they navigate their cultural differences
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DAS LETZTE WORT
A comedy-drama that follows a woman who starts a business as a professional eulogist after her husband's sudden death
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DOGS OF BERLIN
A gritty crime drama that follows two detectives as they investigate the murder of a famous German-Turkish soccer player
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TATORT
A long-running and popular German crime drama series that follows various police teams across different regions of Germany as they investigate and solve crimes
UNORTHODOX
A miniseries that follows a young woman who leaves her Hasidic Jewish community in New York City and moves to Berlin to start a new life
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GENERATION WAR
A miniseries that follows five young German friends during World War II
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ÜBER WEIHNACHTEN
A comedy-drama miniseries that follows a musician who returns home for Christmas after a decade of living abroad
GERMAN MOVIES
COMEDIES
FACK JU GÖHTE (1-3)
A former criminal becomes a high school teacher and tries to connect with his rowdy students
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ER IST WIEDER DA
A satirical comedy about Adolf Hitler returning to Germany in modern times and becoming a media sensation
DER SCHUH DES MANITU
A spoof of Western movies set in 19th century America
MANTA, MANTA
A comedy about a group of young people obsessed with fast cars, racing, and street culture
ALMANYA - WILLKOMMEN IN DEUTSCHLAND
A comedy about a Turkish-German family's journey to Turkey to connect with their roots
FRIENDSHIP!
A comedy about two friends, one German and one Turkish, who go on a road trip to Turkey to find the latter's father
OH BOY
A comedy-drama about a young man's aimless day in Berlin as he tries to find meaning in his life
KLEINOHRHASEN
A romantic comedy about a tabloid journalist who must do community service at a Kindergarten
ZWEIOHRKÜKEN
The sequel of Kleinohrhasen about challenges of parenthood while dealing with unexpected revelations from their past
KOKOWÄÄH
A romantic comedy about a single father who discovers he has a daughter he never knew about
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TONI ERDMANN
A dark comedy that follows a father who tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter by posing as a life coach and inserting himself into her life
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MISSION ULJA FUNK
A family comedy in which the 12-year-old Ulja is more interested in space than in her bizarre Russian-German family and their religious community, when her research instruments are taken away from her, she runs away
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ZWEI WEIHNACHTSMÄNNER
A comedy about an unequal duo - a lawyer and a pool toy representative - stuck far from home in snowy Czech Republic, facing obstacles and hauling a corpse in the trunk, just two days before Christmas
GERMAN MOVIES
DRAMA, THRILLER,
HORROR
DAS BOOT
A claustrophobic thriller about the crew of a German U-boat during World War II
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DER UNTERGANG
A portrayal of the last days of Adolf Hitler and the collapse of Nazi Germany
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ALS HITLER DAS ROSA KANINCHEN STAHL / WHEN HITLER STOLE PINK RABBIT
A historical drama film based on the autobiographical novel of the same name, which traces the experiences of a Jewish family fleeing Nazi Germany and their struggles to adapt to life as refugees in Switzerland and France
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LORE
A historical drama about a young girl who must take care of her siblings in the aftermath of World War II
GOOD BYE, LENIN!
A tragicomedy set in East Germany where a son tries to shield his mother, who wakes up from a coma after the fall of the Berlin Wall, from the shocking news of the reunification of Germany
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DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN - THE LIVES OF OTHERS
A drama set in East Germany that follows a Stasi officer who becomes increasingly conflicted about his job as he spies on a playwright and his girlfriend while getting fascinated by their lives
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DER GROßE TRAUM / LESSONS OF A DREAM
This sports drama tells the story of an unconventional young schoolteacher who brings soccer to Germany in 1874 and overcomes societal barriers to coach a group of underprivileged students.
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DIE WELLE
A drama about a high school teacher who creates a social experiment to demonstrate the dangers of totalitarianism which gets out of control
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LOLA RENNT
A thriller that follows a woman who has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 Deutsche Marks to save her boyfriend's life
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DIE FETTEN JAHRE SIND VORBEI - THE EDUKATORS
A drama about three young activists who break into wealthy homes to rearrange furniture and leave messages, but things take a serious turn when they accidentally kidnap one of their targets
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EIN NASSER HUND / WET DOG
A drama about a Jewish teenager hiding his identity in order to join a Muslim youth gang after he moved to Berlin with his family
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VICTORIA
A crime thriller that follows a young Spanish woman who gets caught up in a bank robbery while out partying in Berlin
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FUNNY GAMES
An Austrian psychological thriller about a family who is taken hostage by two young men
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ANATOMIE
A horror-thriller about a medical student who uncovers a conspiracy at her university
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ICH SEH, ICH SEH - GOODNIGHT, MOMMY
An Austrian horror film about twin boys who suspect their mother has been replaced by an imposter after she returns from cosmetic surgery
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M - EINE STADT SUCHT EINEN MÖRDER
A psychological thriller from 1931 about a child murderer who is hunted down by both the police and the criminal underworld
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DAS CABINET DES DR. CALIGARI
A silent horror classic from 1920 about a sinister hypnotist who uses a sleepwalking slave to commit murders