Reading - Warm-up

DURATION: 10-15 MINS


This first step is never about understanding everything at all. Just take everything in. Don't worry about not getting the full meaning of every sentence. That's not expected of you at this stage of your learning. This course will take care of all everything you need as you proceed. Do not look up any word yet. All you got to do is to listen to the audio while reading along. The first 1-2x times that you listen to the audio, you can and possibly also should pause the audio very frequently to give your brain some time to take in the new information. Finish this exercise by listening through the full audio without pausing no matter whether you understand anything.


A Little But Important Task For You

Note in % how much of the text you already understand. Don't worry if that's 0%. At the end of this first lesson you will read this text again. When you get there, write down the percentage of your understanding again like this: 0% - 50%. That's a solid start. If you get less than 50% at the end of this first lesson you've possibly been rushing a bit through this course and need to read my instructions again. Simply redo the lesson. There's no shame in that. Take your time and you'll reach your goal.

In the reviews you might find that your understanding at first is a bit less than before. That's perfectly normal. The more you work with this course the easier things get.

Do this comparison - understanding at the beginning vs end - for every lesson until lesson 10.


AUDIO

Please note that the vocab tool does NOT work in any "Reading - Warm Up" lectures but only in the ones called "Reading - Comprehension" coming right after this one.

Gastfreundschaft

Als Deutschland 2006 das Gastgeberland der Weltmeisterschaft war,
herrschte ein reges Treiben.
Es wurden diverse Sicherheitsvorkehrungen getroffen
und zahlreiche Bauarbeiten getätigt.
Bestehende Stadien wurden umgebaut und sicherer gemacht.
In München, Leipzig, Köln und Hamburg wurden neue Stadien gebaut.
Die Infrastruktur im Umkreis der Stadien wurde verbessert.
Denn die Deutschen lieben es,
als besonders organisiert bejubelt zu werden.
Man plante die Fassaden ganzer Städte von ihrem alten Grau zu befreien und,
ähnlich wie im freundlichen Italien,
alles in warmen Pastelltönen zu streichen.
Man lockerte die Auflagen für Cafés und Kneipen,
so dass auch in trüben Ecken mancher Städte
in den frühen Abendstunden ein lustiges Treiben zu sehen war.
Ja, Deutschland hatte endlich einmal die Chance so zu tun,
als wäre es fast so entspannt wie seine südlichen Nachbarn.