Although the book I am using to teach German is only 6 years old, it is in some ways outdated. The current lesson talks about writing postcards from holiday destinations. People, and particularly the kind of people I am teaching don’t write postcards (and probably have never written postcards) but they do write text messages and send pictures with it. So I gave the homework that they have to send me a photo with a short text like: “Hello there, I am in … It is beautiful here. The weather is not bad. Here is a photo of … Bye!” And to give them an example I took my phone and snapped a few photos. It was already late and close to sundown but here is what I sent to them:


Hello all, I am in Weinheim. It is beautiful. It is getting dark. There are castles in Weinheim. There is also a tower in Weinheim. Bye Elke.
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This is a very good 21st century take
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We try 😊
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😄
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A fabulous idea Elke. I hope some are amusing or do they have to copy your text?
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They should be using the text as they are not yet good enough to speak/write freely. But they are always good for surprises.
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What a great idea! (Echoing Brian’s note.) On our recent road trip, we stopped at a few places where there were racks of postcards to purchase, and I wondered at the time how many are sold anymore.
Your project brings the genre into the Gen-Z age, growing up with smartphones, social media, and streaming platforms.
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Thanks John. We have to change to keep up with our students, no doubt.
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Beautiful postcards!
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Thanks, Ludwig.
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What a great idea. I do miss postcards though.
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Yes, to some extent I do, too.
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I prefer receiving to writing them though.
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Love your work. Elke, my youngest sprung on me that he might be moving to Heidelberg for a year next year. He does not speak German.
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He’ll learn soon enough. But he should stay away from Germans who do speak English, he needs to be forced to speak German. In Heidelberg, being a university town, there are lots of schools, independent or affiliated to the university that teach German. Let me know when this happens and if he wants to meet an old … well, whatever, I’ll be happy to show him around.
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His partner might be doing some astronomy research. I am sure he will learn quickly. He seems to have a facility for languages. It is amazing how much Japanese or Korean he has learnt from television. I will mention your offer to him. You’re not old! Thank you, Elke.
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