Short spoken accounts
Thirty to ninety seconds of connected German, with questions about what was said.
A single sentence you can hold in your head. A paragraph you cannot — which is why connected listening is its own skill, and why it is the last thing A2 asks of you.
Listen for the shape first: when, what happened, why, what now. The details come on the second listen.
German is generous here, because the signposts are loud and near the front of the clause: zuerst, dann, danach, deshalb, weil, als, aber. If you catch nothing else, catch those — they carry the structure of the whole account.
Do not try to translate as you listen. Translating uses the same attention you need for hearing the next sentence, and you will lose both. Let it run, then answer.
Stopping to work out one word you missed.Letting it go and catching the next sentence.
One missed word almost never costs you the answer. One missed sentence usually does.
Words from this topic
- die Antwortthe answer, the reply
- die Auskunftthe information
- der Empfangthe reception desk
- sich beschwerento complain
- klappento work out, to go well