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During this task, you will have to apply for a job and write a motivational letter to the employers.
You will have to analyze a job-advert, formulate possible questions and write a job-application.

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If you search for a job, you often come across different job-offers. These offers can be detailled descriptions of the position needing to be filled, or it can just be a sign at a pub-door saying "help wanted!". In any case, the first task of any jobseeker is to figure out what kind of person the employers are looking for with their job-advert.

Tasks:

1. Read the job-advert.

2. Analyze the advert and write down what type of person the employer might be looking for.

3. Collect other attributes a person would need for this kind of job.

-----------Job advert-----------

Chef Wanted

Are you an experienced Chef in German Cuisine?

Are you a hard-working, ambitious person, ready to be a Head Chef in a famous German restaurant?

If you answered “yes” to these questions, then you are in Luck!
Münchner Schnitzel Mühle in Sydney is seeking an experienced Chef to fill their position of Head Chef.

All applicants must speak fluent English and German and must have the right to work in Australia.

Please call 02 2803 7653 to arrange an interview.

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This task is all about improving your speaking skills, by practicing pronunciation and speaking carefully.
You will have to pick a song, re-interpret the songtext to fit into a more formal setting, and present your version as a video or audio recording.

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Here is an example of how your final product could look like. The creators of "Deutschrap neu interpretiert" took the lyrics of a rap-song, and transformed it to sound more serious and formal.

Watch the video, pay close attention to the speaker, and take notes on these questions:

How does he recite the songtext?

How does his appearance, facial expression and the setting support the more serious approach?

When and why does he use speaking-pauses?

When and why does he raise or lower his voice?

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Deutschrap neu interpretiert - Boomerang von Bushido

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During this task you will be able to test your listening skills and your creative writing skills.

You will have to write a dialogue based on two people speaking "gibberish English". This can help you expand your vocabulary and improve your writing.

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This task is about practicing your writing skills. During our course we discussed how to write comments, and this task will allow you to practice that.
You will have to find out what the term "gap year" means, read an opinion piece and give your own opinion on the topic by writing a comment.

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Pick a song for you to recite that meets the following criteria:

1. The lyrics must be in English.

2. The lyrics should consist of at least one or two verses.

3. Adult language is fine, but the lyrics should not be considered offensive to anyone. If you are unclear about the language in your song, please check back with me.

Print out the lyrics, or write them down so you can analyze them in the next step.

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In order to re-interpret the lyrics of the song, we must first try to get a grasp on what the song is about.

These steps can help you analyze your song:

1. Read the songtext silently, marking any word you are unfamiliar with, and look up the word in a dictionary.

2. Read the songtext aloud. You might want to read the text aloud several times so that you do not stumble over a word or rhythm.

3. Underline any phrase in the songtext that you do not understand and take a guess at its meaning.

4. Scan the songtext to get the rhythm of the text. Now that you have the text without the music and rhythm of the song, you may find that the phrases form a different structure than before. Try to mark possible points for pauses in the text.

5. Read the songtext out aloud again. Try to speak slowly and carefully and build in pauses to emphasize certain passages of the text.

Once you have re-interpreted the song, you can work on your presentation in the next step.

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To discuss a topic, we must first find out some background information. So in order to find out what the term "gap year" is all about, your first task is to summarize the following text:

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Task 2: Examples of how to spend a gap year.

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Task 2: Examples of how to spend a gap year.

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In the above text, you already came across one example on how to spend a gap year. Of course there are many more possibilities on how to spend some time after graduation, and it is hard sometimes to find the one best suited for each student.

Tasks: Imagine you are leading a advertisement-campaign to inform students about gap year possibilities:

1. Read through the following three gap year examples.

2. Write down what kind of students you would recommend these different gap year possibilities to?What kind of prerequisites (Voraussetzungen) should students have for each of these gap year possibilities?

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There are people who consider a gap year to be a waste of time. Rather than travelling the world, students should go to university and focus on getting jobs.

Tasks:

1. Read the following article.

2. Comment on the article, and (based on what you know) discuss whether or not a gap year is a waste of time.

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Your final task now is to present your re-interpretation of your song.
You can do this in two ways:

1. You can do a video-presentation like the one in the example video.

2. You can simply record a reading of your re-interpretation.

If you do a video-presentation, make sure you find a suitable background and outfit for your reading. Be creative! There are no wrong ways to do this here.

Both ways are fine, but I would encourage you to do a video presentation, as it is simply more fun. :)

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As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me via lernsax:

kingjacob@tmg-oschatz.lernsax.de

Have fun!

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As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me via lernsax:

kingjacob@tmg-oschatz.lernsax.de

Have fun!

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Imagine you are the owner of the "Münchner Schnitzel Mühle" in Sydney. You have posted and advert and soon you will have to conduct job interviews, to find a suitable head chef for your restaurant.
In order to prepare for the interview, you will have to come with questions to ask the potential jobseekers.

Tasks:

1. Read the employer rolecard, to find out what requirements the potential jobseekers have to meet.

2. Prepare at least 10 questions to ask the jobseekers in the jobinterview.

Remember! Jobseekers will try to exaggerate (hervorheben) their strenghts and downplay (runterspielen) their weaknesses, so your questions will have to make them reveal, if they are really a good fit for the job. You will have to come up with open questions that give the jobseekers the opportunity to reveal enough of themselves, so you can make an informed decision.
(Check out the additional help for this task on the following slide:)

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This task is supposed to help us finish what we started before the Corona-lockdown.
You will have to conduct some research about countries where English is a primary language, and present your findings in a promotional text.

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Task 1: Listening - "wtf are they saying?"

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Task 1: Listening - "wtf are they saying?"

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Watch the following video, and try to understand what the two people in the scene are saying.

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How English sounds to non-English speakers

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The key to getting as much information as possible out of your jobseekers, is asking open questions. These allow the jobseekers to reveal more about themselves and talk about their strengths, and it also helps the employers to find out more about their potential employees (Mitarbeiter).

Let us have a look at some examples:

"Are you a team-player?"

This may seem like a good question to ask during a job-interview, but it has a flaw: This is a yes-or-no type question.
Of course most jobseekers would answer yes to this question, to make them a more desirable choice, but the interviewer would not get any more insight.
To find out if the jobseeker really is a team-player, employers would need to formulate an open question, aiming at the same topic. Here is an example:

"You see two co-workers arguing. What would you do?"

This kind of question will still let the interviewer find out if the jobseeker is a team-player, but it will also make the jobseekers reveal more about themselves.

Try to keep this in mind when coming up with questions for Task 2.

Check out this example job-interview to extra help. (Focus on what they are saying, their outfits are obviously hideous :) )

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Now that you have questions for the job-interview, it is time to meet the jobseekers. Choose two out of the six jobseekers, analyze their rolecards and do one of the following tasks:

1. Write down answers for the 10 job-interview questions you came up with. Try to stick to the rolecards as close as possible, but feel free to add extra background information if needed.

2. Write a motivational letter to the owners of the restaurant, stating why you would be the perfect choice as head-chef. Try to stick to the rolecards as close as possible, but feel free to add extra background information if needed.

Do one of these tasks for two of the jobseeker rolecards, and decide who would be the best choice as head chef for the "Münchner Schnitzel Mühle". Give reasons for your choice!

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As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me via lernsax:

kingjacob@tmg-oschatz.lernsax.de

Have fun!

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This task is about getting an insight into a sub-culture that exists in the USA, at which end you will have to write down your own opinion on the matter.
You will have to watch a series on Netflix, write a short episode-guide and write a comment at the end.

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This task is aimed at improving your speaking skills through immitation. It is an advanced practice opportunity for yourself. You will not have to hand this one in.

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Watch the video and follow the instructions. The method used in the video may feel strange at first, put it is a really good way to improve your fluency, intonation and pronunciation.

If you do this task, I would like you to post your experience underneath this video in the comment section.

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Advanced speaking practice: English Imitation Lesson

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Tiger King is the insane true crime story about Joe Exotic.
The seven-episode series is directed by Eric Goode who also features in the documentary.
He is a wildcat enthusiast who owned numerous tigers, lions and other large animals that he kept at the G.W. Zoo in Oklahoma.

But this isn't just what the series is about. But what is it about? Lets find out:

Tasks:

1. Watch the episodes 1-7 of the Netflix show "Tiger King" (In German it is called "Großkatzen und ihre Raubtiere").

2. Write a brief summary for each episode. (No more than five sentences)

3. Write down three questions for each episode. Focus on what aspects of each episode were strange or shocking. What is odd (seltsam) about the lives of the protagonists of the show?

You should try to watch the show in English, but turn on subtitles. Most people in the show have a pretty heavy accent and are hard to understand at times.
If you find it too hard to understand, you are free to watch the show in German.

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Many people have tried to explain how this show has gotten so big. Maybe it simply was released during the perfect time, when everyone was staying at home because of the Corona-lockdown, but this fact alone cannot explain the huge success of this show.

There are two ways of looking at this. Either Tiger King achieved the filmmaker's goal, of shining a light on animal cruelty happening in the USA, or its just a shocking reality TV show, that crossed so many lines, that people just "had to see it to believe it".

You can read arguments for both sides here:

https://www.nytimes.com/article/tiger-king-updates.html

https://medium.com/@white.nathan17/tiger-king-why-are-we-so-drawn-to-dumpster-fires-e664d6bb9a28

Now I would like to hear your opinion:

Can you explain the show's popularity? Do you believe the show achieved a greater goal here, to raise awareness to captive wild cats in the US, or is Tiger King simply a really shocking reality TV show, that people watch to feel better about themselves?

Tasks:

1. Write a comment about the show Tiger King.

2. Use your questions for each Episode as a starting point. What was most striking to you while watching? Were you entertained or shocked or both?

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As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me via lernsax:

kingjacob@tmg-oschatz.lernsax.de

Have fun!

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You probably did not understand a lot of what the two people in the video were saying. That is, because they are in fact not talking English, but instead simply utter sounds that are meant to sound like English.
This video is supposed to show us how the English language would sound like, if we could not understand it at all.

Our task now is to imagine what they could be saying and to fill their conversation with actual words.

Tasks:

1. Watch the video again, but turn off the sound. Imagine what the story behind the scene could be.

Where are they?

What are they doing?

What are they wearing?

Try to read how the two people are feeling by the way they are looking and acting.

2. Watch the video again, this time with sound, and see if you can make out any words at all.

Try to interpret words into the sounds that you are hearing.

If you understood something, pause the video and write down the word you understood and the time of the video where you paused it.

3. Try to piece together a story for the video using your analysis of the scene and the different words you understood. Write down some ideas about what they could be talking about.

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As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me via lernsax:

kingjacob@tmg-oschatz.lernsax.de

Have fun!

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Before school was suspended due to the Corona-lockdown, we started to work on presenting different English-speaking countries of the world. This task will pick up where we left, and make sure we gather some insight into these countries. As we will not be able to do the presentations or work in groups, you will have to do a modified way of presenting your research.

Tasks:

1. Choose a country you would like to present out of the following:

USA

Canada

Australia

Great Britain

New Zealand

South Africa

(You can pick the one we agreed on before the lockdown, but you can also pick a new one if you like.)

2. Research some information about your country. Focus on the following questions:

How does life in that country differ from life in Germany?

Is that country a good travel destination? Where would you go? What would you see?

What is life like in that country? Could you imagine living there? What difficulties could one face while living there?

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After you finished your research, you will have to present your findings, and here is how you should do this:

Task:
Imagine you are the minister of foreign affairs of your country and you want to shoot an advertisement, on why people should come and travel or live in your country.

Write a speech on why you think your country is the best and why everyone should visit or live in this country.
Use your research to work some facts into your speech, and try to sell your country to people all over the world.

(Your text should be at least 250 words)

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As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me via lernsax:

kingjacob@tmg-oschatz.lernsax.de

Have fun!

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Now that you have an idea what the story is about, it is time to write it down. You can do this task in two ways:

Task Option 1: Dialogue
You can simply write down the dialogue of the two people in the video. You can either give them names, of refer to them as "woman" and "man". Use your findings from task 2 to come up with a fitting dialogue for the scene.

Here is a link to a sample conversation transcript.

https://kayedacus.com/2008/10/02/say-what-transcribed-dialogue-assignment/

This is a good example for the right format which includes non-verbal hints aswell:

"Jocelyn: Hey.
Sis: [pause] Hey!
Jocelyn: Whatcha doin’?"

Task Option 2: Subtitles
Rather than writing a normal dialogue, you could add subtitles to the video using Windows Movie Maker or any other video-editing tool you have.
You can download an mp4 videofile via the following link:

https://we.tl/t-xPP4mPvjPu

You will still have to think of a fitting dialogue for the scene, but you can add the lines directly into the video. Here is a quick tutorial on how to add captions/subtitles to a video using Windows Movie Maker:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hGipvPAgVc

If you are using a different tool, you will surely be able to find a tutorial like this on youtube.

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As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me via lernsax:

kingjacob@tmg-oschatz.lernsax.de

Have fun!