Old Firehouse Dog
The thing about the old, retired firehouse dog of course is that when the alarm sound goes off, he still tries to get himself up to ride on the front seat of the firetruck.
This post http://branna.livejournal.com/85662.html?nc=2 reminds the retired foreign language teacher (me) of two phrases I would mention to the second year German students when we finally reached the point of understanding the dative case (basically that's is the one used for indirect object nouns/pronouns and also after certain prepositions; no, English does not have this one). Phrase #1: The optional monosyllabic masculine and neuter dative "e." Phrase #2: "The mandatory dative plural "n." After I had repeated each of those phrases a few times so they could try to get them right, I would announce, "And the reason I have told you these two phrases is because it provides some justification for my having had to memorize them when I was a second year German student myself."
They were able to appreciate that, unlike my insistence that they be able to write out from memory something my own high school German teacher called the "Handy Dandy Chart" (of adjective endings). Why write it out yourself when it's in Appendix A of the German 2 and 3 textbooks? they wanted to know. "So you will know it and not have to look up everything you are trying to write." Not the right answer for today's kids. I suppose by now someone has created an app for the various sets of German adjective endings so that all one needs is a smart phone during a final exam.
This post http://branna.livejournal.com/85662.html?nc=2 reminds the retired foreign language teacher (me) of two phrases I would mention to the second year German students when we finally reached the point of understanding the dative case (basically that's is the one used for indirect object nouns/pronouns and also after certain prepositions; no, English does not have this one). Phrase #1: The optional monosyllabic masculine and neuter dative "e." Phrase #2: "The mandatory dative plural "n." After I had repeated each of those phrases a few times so they could try to get them right, I would announce, "And the reason I have told you these two phrases is because it provides some justification for my having had to memorize them when I was a second year German student myself."
They were able to appreciate that, unlike my insistence that they be able to write out from memory something my own high school German teacher called the "Handy Dandy Chart" (of adjective endings). Why write it out yourself when it's in Appendix A of the German 2 and 3 textbooks? they wanted to know. "So you will know it and not have to look up everything you are trying to write." Not the right answer for today's kids. I suppose by now someone has created an app for the various sets of German adjective endings so that all one needs is a smart phone during a final exam.