Basic Preaching

What you need to know

I call this step “preaching” because you’ll repeat certain grammatical structures until you and all those around you believe yourself. It is basically a solid pattern drill with a gradual increase of difficulty. The video below will provide you with a general introduction to the technique. Throughout this course though I will provide you with everything you need to "preach".

UPDATE: Please watch the Preaching Update at the bottom of this lesson before writing anything anywhere.

How it is done

1 | Learn the gender of the given nouns properly with help of the Superhero technique which you have just got to know . You do not have to learn the German meaning of these words yet. Preaching is not a vocabulary exercise.

2 | Make sure to be in the clear about the Preaching pattern presented to you. For example the first preaching above follows this pattern:

1st trigger: Hund ← when preaching, you look at no other information other than the bare noun.
Ich sehe einen Hund (m).

2nd trigger: Lampe
Ich sehe eine Lampe (f).

3rd trigger: Handy
Ich sehe ein Handy (n).

3 | Start preaching by looking at the first trigger e.g. "Hund" and saying out loud: "Ich sehe einen Hund." Continue with the second word "Lampe" and say out loud: "Ich sehe eine Lampe." and so on. But just saying things out loud is not 100% useful unless you get some feedback about whether you said it well (enough). You can get such feedback in two ways:

A | The most efficient way would be to use speechnotes.co or an app that transcribes your voice like e.g. "Justpressrecord" for iOS (links are below). These tools are self-explanatory. yourself at least every once in a while.
B | You can record yourself with your mobile. Record all sentences at once and not sentence by sentence. Do not pause the recording before you are done.

4 | Check the transcribed sentences or listen to your recording and listen for mistakes. Initially you can look at the transcriptions that I provide you with in each lesson to check whether what you have said was correct. If available, get a German (speaker or learner) to listen to your recordings every now and then to spot mistakes that might have slipped your attention. But this is not a must at all.

5 | Repeat these steps until you can say all sentences without mistake.

6 | Once you can say out loud all sentences fluently, pick new words from your daily life or from the texts of this course.

Try it Yourself

Use the following words that I have taken from the video above.
Remember to first memorize their genders thoroughly!

1 | a cup - Tasse (f)
2 | a dishwasher - Spülmaschine (f)
3 | a floor - Boden (m)
4 | a ceiling - Decke (f)
5 | a shelf - Regal (n)
6 | a chair - Stuhl (m)
7 | a lamp - Lampe (f)
8 | a plant - Pflanze (f)
9 | a mobile phone - Handy (n)
10 | a car - Auto (n)

Transcription of the preaching

NEVER EVER read anything out loud in this course (unless explicitly instructed to do so)! These sentences are just there so you can check your own recording with the correct forms. Preaching is all about creating (!) sentences with help of as few words as possible. I call those few words "triggers".

1 | Ich sehe eine Tasse.
2 | Ich sehe eine Spülmaschine.
3 | Ich sehe eine Decke.
4 | Ich sehe ein Regal.
5 | Ich sehe einen Stuhl.
6 | Ich sehe eine Lampe.
7 | Ich sehe eine Pflanze.
8 | Ich sehe ein Handy.
9 | Ich sehe ein Auto.

Important Preaching Update

Summary of the Update-Video

While the first two preaching videos provide a clear insight into the preaching process, I've optimized the process further so that it becomes even smoother for you to use. The main points hat I talk about in the video are:

1 | Don't use flashcards or sticky notes. Use a note-taking app on your mobile phone or scribble the triggers down on a small sheet of paper (a used one will do the job). Or you could simply work with the triggers that I provide in this course and read them from the screen.

_{2 | Make sure to use speechnotes.co or record yourself at least once per day and of course check for mistakes or listen to yourself before redoing your preaching}

3 | Keep the gender out of sight when doing the preaching. Always make sure to first memorize the gender of the triggers you are about to use before preaching. Use the superhero-technique for that.

4 | Preach at least 2x 10mins per day or more often if you got a couple of minutes here and there. Observe how much time the preaching takes you and try to find the optimum preaching frequency for you. We all learn at different speeds. There is no right or wrong speed. Only when something takes way too long, you should consider contacting me via the comments of this course. Don't try to be a perfectionist but work properly.

5 | Master each new preaching pattern before moving on to a new one (which I introduce in almost every lesson). Mastery means either you are content with your recordings quality and speed.

6 | If you own an iOS device download the app "Just Press Record" (costs around 5 EUR). For Android there is the app Speechnotes which you can download for free here. Or you simply use the speech notes website here.

Share your Thoughts

Also try to explain in your own words what you have learned in this lesson.