"Übung macht den Meister"--courtesy of Deutsche Welle!

Here's a website that I've found both useful and interesting that I think our American Blog members might like to check out.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,1595,8030,00.html

Its a link at the Deutsche Welle TV and radio site that allows you to listen to (or download as MP3 files) daily, 10 minute radio news broadcasts in German. The very cool thing is that these broadcasts are designed for non-native German speakers and the newsreaders speak SLOWLY! I've been downloading the files onto my MP3 player--this works extremely well. These news reports are not all that easy to follow in spite of the nice, slow, speed as they are not "dumbed down" in terms of vocabulary, syntax, or grammar. Nevertheless, they can make for good practice exercises and, at the very least, provide a sense of the "sound" and rhythm of German speech.

Latest news!

We've had our first pre-trip orientation back on March 8 and it was great to have the whole group of 13 students together for the first (but not the last!) time. Jennie Barr (Study Abroad) handed out a packet of information on Germany, Europe, travel and financial aid and we had a chance to chat with the group a bit about what they should expect once they get to Duesseldorf. We stuffed ourselves with pizza in preparation for the serious eating planned for Germany and I can report that I got very good vibes from everyone there.

We're into Texas A&M's spring break right now but will be having our second meeting in early April when Jim Herman and I will present programmatic material, show some pictures and maybe bits of last summer's student video journals. I've actually got a version of about a 20 minute journal edited and burned to DVD (I used material from Ogden McGowan's tapes) and I think its a pretty good start on what I'm trying to accomplish with the video journal project. In other video journal news I'm pleased to report that my department (VTPP) has come through with additional funding for the purchase of 8 more Sony handycams! That means, that this summer, we'll have a camera for each of the 13 students. No more excuses that "I couldn't make a video journal entry for 3 weeks because so and so had the camera!" Yes!

I'll also be adding some new team members to the Blog in the next week or so. Willem and CJ and Olaf certainly and then I think I'll go ahead and add the students before the end of our spring semester. This will give them a chance to sign up and post a test message and make sure we've got the bugs worked out before we leave. I'll be leaving for Germany early, around June 25 as I've registered for a "superintensive" week-long German course at the Goethe Institute in Duesseldorf. If I survive, I think my German language skills will finally reach the intermediate level!

"Frankenwein ist Krankenwein!" Wurzberg wine cellar. 

Meercats at the Cologne Zoo 

Welcome

Hello all! Just wanted to say that I'm excited about the trip you are about to take. The feedback from last year has been outstanding and I think you are about to embark on a horizon-blowing experience! I'll be keeping in touch with everyone as the trip planning progresses and while you are in Germany. Have fun! Elizabeth