Preface
Welcome to the world of professional German. This program will present you with German that you can use in the professional world in any of the German-speaking countries: Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and today very often in Eastern European countries as well.
This program has been set up in two parts: the main text, Deutsch im Berufsalltag, and the Web site. The main text consists of five Segmente, a grammar section, and a section for practical exercises. Each Segment is organized into at least four Abteilungen. Each Abteilung provides the learner with essential business culture information that helps the foreign office worker successfully complete his or her job. This information contains necessary cultural tips, vocabulary, and grammar. An Abteilung can consist of as many as seven parts:
- Aus Erfahrung
- Hörverständnis
- Dialoge
- Kultur-Aspekte
- Aktivitäten
- Grammatik-Spot
- Aus der Betriebspraxis.
The Aus Erfahrung section introduces the learner to possible cultural points of conflict and explains why a cultural item could develop into a point of conflict, or verifies the necessity for awareness of the item in order to be culturally successful at the workplace. This section refers back to the author's 15 years of work experience in the German business world or to experiences students have acquired while completing internships in Germany.
The Hörverständnis section is intended for listening practice. It introduces the learner to a real-life situation or trains the learner to understand spoken German in various kinds of business-related situations.
The Dialoge introduce real-life situations and topics for the Abteilung and are in colloquial German in contrast to the Kultur-Aspekte and aus der Betriebspraxis that are in a more formal written style. This provides the student with practical knowledge of both styles of German he or she could encounter in a real-life office situation. In addition, the characters in the Dialoge discuss and explain cultural differences in a manner that is informative and funny, yet true-to-life.
The Kultur-Aspekte complement the Dialoge with background information on the topics covered, and they contrast German and North American habits and mannerisms.
The Aktivitäten offer the learner the chance to work with the material that has been introduced in Dialoge and the supplemental infor-mation found in Kultur-Aspekte. The activities have been conceived to provide the learner with ample opportunities to be communicative in such learning situations. These activities consist of role-playing, discussion groups, questionnaire activities, and others.
The Grammatik-Spot brings the learner's attention to a grammatical point found in the Hörverständnis, Dialoge, or Kultur-Aspekte. It provides a short English explanation of the grammar point, examples of this point, and where a more detailed explanation and exercises can be found at the back of the book. The grammar points selected for review throughout this book have been chosen for their relevance to the workplace (in the author's opinion) and are always presented in context.
When appropriate there is also a part called aus der Betriebspraxis, which provides information on German business practices that are different than in the United States or Canada.
Realia have been used to provide the learner with real life material that supports the topics being discussed in each Abteilung. These can be found for any of the above-mentioned parts of the book. The Kultur-Aspekte and aus der Betriebspraxis are realia or adapted parts of longer pieces of realia that provide authentic cultural material that any native speaker of German would have access to. At the time of publishing, various pieces of realia still use deutsche mark (DM) instead of the euro. This is because these pieces of realia were printed during the transition period.
Grammatik-Bausteine follows all the Segmente found at the beginning of the book. It is a review of grammar points presented in the Segmente. Each Grammatik-Spot in the Segment is numerically referenced to the appropriate place in this section. First an explanation of the grammar rule is discussed, and then various grammar exercises are presented using situations and vocabulary relevant to the office situations covered in the Segment.
Praktische Übungen comes after the Grammatik-Bausteine and provides students with additional cultural information and exercises dealing with various cultural items covered in the Segment.
Characters
The cast of characters provides a true-to-life context for the presentation of culture, vocabulary, and grammar. The people appearing in the pictures, activities, dialogues, and grammar exercises of Deutsch im Berufsalltag belong to two groups of characters:
Daniel Walker, an American intern, and his friends
Daniel Walker and his colleagues at work
From the very beginning, the story line develops around Daniel Walker and his desire to find an internship in Berlin. Through Daniel's eyes the learner is able to see and experience what working in a German company can be like. By using an American intern, the learner is provided cultural information that he or she can use for a possible internship in the future. In the material, the general use of "American" refers to citizens of the United States, even though some Germans would refer to "Americans" as "US-Amerikaner."
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