Goethe German A1

General discussion about learning languages
Online
User avatar
tastyonions
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1572
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 5:39 pm
Location: Dallas, TX
Languages: EN (N), FR, ES, DE, IT, PT, NL, EL
x 3853

Re: Goethe German A1

Postby tastyonions » Thu Apr 27, 2023 12:01 pm

I'll contradict Gary to say I quite enjoyed Assimil German (the newest course) as someone completely new to the language and didn't find it moved too quickly. But as others mentioned if you're shooting for a specific CEFR exam you might want something pointed more directly at that.
1 x

jeffers
Blue Belt
Posts: 848
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2015 4:12 pm
Location: UK
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Hindi (A2-B1)

Learning: The above, plus French (A2-B1), German (A1), Ancient Greek (?), Sanskrit (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=19785
x 2774
Contact:

Re: Goethe German A1

Postby jeffers » Thu Apr 27, 2023 1:07 pm

tastyonions wrote:I'll contradict Gary to say I quite enjoyed Assimil German (the newest course) as someone completely new to the language and didn't find it moved too quickly. But as others mentioned if you're shooting for a specific CEFR exam you might want something pointed more directly at that.


It's all about how you use the course. For the A1 exam you need to be able to understand basic speech and basic writing. You need to be able to write and you need to be able to speak. Many A1 specific coursebooks claim to do this sort of thing, but most of them have very little audio. If you were to use Assimil in the way I suggested (which, by the way, I think I got from tastyonions back when he was starting French), then you would be practicing 3 of the 4 skills.

Regarding YouTube, I wish I had looked for exam-specific YT videos much sooner. I suspect the people on this thread putting it down haven't tried to find specific revision resources on YT, but it's pretty easy. I'm prepping for the French DELF A2, so I put that into the YT search and got many very useful videos, including walkhroughs of the listening tests, and of the speaking tests, led by teachers who are also DELF examiners. My DELF revision guide is okay, but these videos are golden.

EDIT: here's an example of the type of video I'm suggesting. In it the instructor tells you what the listening test actually looks like, and how to prepare for it.
1 x
Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien (roughly, the perfect is the enemy of the good)

French SC Books: 0 / 5000 (0/5000 pp)
French SC Films: 0 / 9000 (0/9000 mins)

calmactive
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2023 5:44 pm
Languages: Native English speaker
Learning German
x 6

Re: Goethe German A1

Postby calmactive » Thu Apr 27, 2023 5:00 pm

I live in South Africa, and it's a requirement to get an A1 certificate from Goethe to apply for a visa to be an Aupair so that's why I asked. And the Assimil was given to me, I did not buy it but I will look for the Themen Aktuel. Thank you all for the advice
6 x


Return to “General Language Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: emk, tastyonions and 2 guests