Hi guys! Monday’s back (it’s yet another holiday for me here) and this week we’re moving back to the topics that will come up on your GCSE exam. It’s a fun one, too, this week – you get to learn and talk about your holidays!
This is another one of those topics that will yield a lot of useful vocabulary for the future; everyone always wants to talk about what they did on holiday and people want to know, too. As usual: there’s going to be a few things for each skill. Enjoy!
Listening
BBC Bitesize – Holidays abroad [foundation] [higher]: It’s worth practising both of these, particularly if you know you’re going to sit the higher paper. Both have useful vocabulary at first and then the listening activity with the answers as a follow up. There’s also another listening called Travelling to Germany in with the higher level activities. (Don’t forget! BBC Bitesize also have activities for all the other skills!)
YouTube – GCSE German – Higher Listening (Holidays): So this video is about two minutes long and it’s a guy talking about his holidays. There are questions at the end (nine of them, in English) and he suggests that you try and translate what he says. What I think is good about this one is that though it may seem a little intimidating at first, the text is on the video as he speaks, so you can follow along and it’s easier to look up words.
Reading
deutschdrang.com – Practice Texts for German Reading Comprehension: There are a few texts on this page and they download as .doc files – but the one I’m particularly interested in for this topic is titled Eine Reise mit dem Flugzeug. It has a lot of airport and travel vocabulary for you to learn.
yr11revision.com – Holidays – Foundation and Higher Reading Questions: So this is kind of like you’ll get in the exam – therefore, it may not be the most interesting, but if you practise with things like this, then you will feel a lot better when you come to actually sit the thing. There are foundation and higher questions here, so do the ones you feel comfortable with – and then try the ones you don’t. Chances are you’ll surprise yourself with how much you can understand!
Deutsch Perfekt – Reisetipps: This isn’t just one article this week; it turns out that Deutsch Perfekt have a whole host of articles giving Reisetipps (travel tips) and most of them aren’t very long. Try reading one or two – it might give you ideas about where you’d like to travel to in the future, or it might tell you about somewhere you’ve already been.
Writing
nthuleen.com – Schreibprojekt 5: Eine Reise: This is a pretty standard activity you’ll come across for this topic – write about a holiday you’ve been on or a trip you’ve taken. This page tells you to try and use the subjunctive mood, but you don’t really need to worry about that too much. Just try and write as much as you can; 10 sentences is a good start there. Then try and find someone who can check it for you – a friend, a teacher, or even someone online!
toothill.notts.sch.uk – GCSE German Speaking Test Topic: Ferien (Holidays): So this worksheet does seem to be to prep for the speaking exam, but I think it will work just as well for writing – there are lots of different activities for you to practise here.
Speaking
S-cool – Exam Practice: If you scroll down a little (there’s a listening exercise on this page, too) then you’ll find a list of questions to practise your speaking. There are some answers underneath, but try answering them yourself first.
Everything Else
languagesresources.co.uk – German Holidays: There are a load of worksheets and powerpoints on this page that should help you learn more for this topic. I’m having trouble opening the powerpoints, but the worksheets look pretty good, so if there’s something you’re particularly struggling with or something you want to know more about, then head this way and see if it can help you.
FluentU – 134 Super Useful and Common German Travel Phrases: Okay, so these might not be all that helpful if you’re just talking about your holidays, but they’ll be useful if you do travel to a German-speaking country and they might be useful for the listening exam. Have a quick look through and see which ones you already know or which ones you might find useful for the future.
marathonsprachen.com – im Urlaub oder auf Urlaub? Urlaub vs. Ferien – Vacation and Holidays in German: Some information (in English) about the difference between the words Urlaub and Ferien (with some extra vocabulary) and the grammar related to these words, with a reading exercise at the bottom!
Well, that’s this week done too! There’s a little more than I expected, but I hope it’s useful for you. See you all next week!