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Schreibprojekt 4: Meine Stadt

For your next writing project, I’d like you to imagine that a friend from Germany is coming to visit you, and you need to make plans for what you’d like to do together. This friend will be visiting you in a town you know well -- Madison, if you like, or your home town or some other place that you’re familiar with. You should write a short note to your friend explaining what things you would like to do/see/visit with him/her, what s/he should bring along or wear, etc. You’ll need to use modal verbs (sollen, können, möchten, etc) quite a bit, and you may also want to use a few command forms (‘gehen wir ...’ or ‘bring deine Jacke mit’, etc). You may also want to ask your friend what s/he would like to see or do while visiting you. Here are a few questions you should answer in your note. You do not need to address all of these topics, but certainly make sure you cover a few of them, plus any additional information you would like to include. Was gibt es in deiner Stadt zu sehen? (Hier gibt es ein Museum, eine alte Kirche ...) Was wollt ihr sehen? (Wir sollen/müssen das Museum besuchen ...) Was wollt ihr nicht sehen? (Das Museum ist langweilig; wir müssen es nicht besuchen ...) Was soll dein Freund / deine Freundin mitbringen? (Bring eine Kamera mit! Du sollst einen Mantel mitbringen, im Winter ist es kalt!) Wo kann dein Freund / deine Freundin schlafen? (Du kannst bei mir zu Hause / im Hotel schlafen ...) Wo kann er/sie essen? (Wir können bei Paisan’s essen ...) Gibt es Konzerte, Filme, Theaterstücke oder andere kulturelle Angebote zu sehen? (Wir können den Film “Mystic River” sehen ...) Here’s a sample of what I would write for this assignment. As always, you should feel free to model your writing on this, but include your own ideas and phrasings whenever possible. Melanie, du besuchst mich in San Diego -- das ist wunderbar! Wir können vieles machen! San Diego hat einen großen Zoo, und wir sollen unbedingt den Zoo besuchen. Es gibt auch viele Museen in San Diego, und wir können sie auch besuchen. Der Strand (=beach) hier ist sehr schön -- wir müssen mindestens einen Tag am Strand verbringen. Bring deinen Badeanzug mit, denn das Wasser ist sehr gut zum Schwimmen! Du sollst auch gute Schuhe oder Stiefel mitbringen, denn wir können in den Bergen wandern. Du kannst bei meinen Eltern schlafen -- mach dir keine Sorgen, du musst nicht im Hotel bleiben! Es gibt auch viele Restaurants in der Stadt, und wir können jeden Tag ein gutes Abendessen haben. Ich freue mich so sehr, dass du kommst! There are a lot of good ‘city places’ vocabulary words in your vocab lists for chapter three (or in your textbook on p. 118-119). You can also look at the exercises on pp. 113-114 for some ideas as to how to phrase things you’d like to do. And although it’s far ahead in the textbook, the vocab on pp. 276-277 is easy to use and ideal for this assignment, so feel free to look at that as well. Below I’ve listed some additional phrases that you may want to use in your note. If there are other things that you want to know how to say, don’t hesitate to ask! es gibt ein(en) ___ (AKKUSATIV) hier................there’s a ___ here besuchen........................to visit bei mir zu Hause.................................................at my place sehen..............................to see bei meinen Eltern...................................at my parents’ place besichtigen...............to sight-see im Hotel...............................................................at a hotel verbringen.............to spend time im Restaurant ................................................at a restaurant unbedingt..................absolutely bei Walgreen’s / bei Bullwinkle’s.......at (store/restaurant name) toll / prima.......................great mach dir keine Sorgen!.......................................don’t worry! mindestens....................at least ich freue mich (sehr), dass..........I’m (very) excited/happy that   Like the previous assignments, this should be typed: please DOUBLE-SPACE your paragraph so that I have room for corrections. It should be approximately 60-70 words in length. As always, feel free to write more than that if you want to, although there’s no extra credit for longer work. Grading criteria: much of this assignment focuses on modal verbs, so do pay attention to the correct usage of those. In addition, you’ll probably need to use some commands, and any other verb forms that come up should be double-checked for accuracy. You’ll need to use the accusative case for many sentences (we should visit the museum, etc), so watch out for der--den changes. Finally, make sure to use some of the vocabulary from our current chapter, such as clothing and travel items. As always, spelling is important, so do proofread your work carefully, and be careful of typos!

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