| Unit name | Business German |
|---|---|
| Unit code | GERM20029 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. Fricker |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites | |
| School/department | Department of German |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit serves as an introduction to the language and culture of commerce and industry in the German-speaking world. It focuses both on economic issues themselves and on a young person’s interaction with aspects of German economic life.
Students will enhance their communicative skills in German -- writing, speaking, listening, and reading -- while learning about the training, workday life, and goals of German businesspeople, and also about the various organizations in which they work. Students will become familiar with German standards for a variety of business documents, and will learn to interact confidently in professional situations, not least by developing an active command of specialized vocabulary and staging in-class role play exercises.
2 hours weekly
This unit is conducted in German and aims to maximize in-class communication. The instructor’s role will be restricted to introducing topics, formats, and terminology; students will then be encouraged to use them in discussions, presentations, role plays, and essays. In order to give students an opportunity to both apply the knowledge they gained through the course and put into practice their new communicative skills, the instructor will organise two skype conversations with (young) German enterpreneurs.
Writing: A total of four pieces of written homework will comprise short essays introducing, in no more than 500 words, a particular topic, and exercises in one of the business-world formats studied in class (e.g., component parts of a business plan). (35 %)
Reading and speaking: A 15-minute class presentation on either a region (Standort), a company, a business leader, or a particular government policy. Presentations should be comprehensive, clear, and based on reliable sources. Presented in fluent German, they should engage the entire class and tie in with materials covered earlier. (30 %)
The 1.5-hour final exam will include reading comprehension and writing exercises. Its aim is to assess whether students have mastered essential vocabulary, the various genres, and basic information on both economic structures and business life. (35 %)
Landeshauptstadt München, München: Der Wirtschaftsstandort, 2012. (pdf online) DIHK, Mittelstandsreport, 2012 (pdf online) tagesschau dossier, Zehn Jahre Euro: Jubiläum ohne Jubel, 2012 (online) tagesschau dossier, Energiekonzerne nach der Atomwende, 2012 (online) Ilonka Kunow, Hans-D. Litke, and Heinz Schulz-Wimmer, Projektmanagement, Freiburg 2006
Current magazine and newspaper articles (taken from, e.g., faz.net, manager-magazin.de), as well as the websites of actors impacting on the economy (companies, interest groups, political parties), will facilitate a better understanding of the business culture shaping Germany today.
