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Lesson 2

Introducing Myself

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Hallo! Willkommen zurück.

In our last lesson, we learned how to recognize German greetings and farewells. You can now tell if a conversation is just starting with a "Hallo" or "Guten Tag", or ending with a "Tschüss".

Today, we will take the next step. Once the greetings are over, people often introduce themselves. Our goal for this lesson is to understand simple spoken statements where a person introduces their name, age, residence, and origin. We will focus only on listening and understanding, which is the first and most important step before you start speaking yourself.

The Key Phrases for Introductions

Imagine you're at a new school and you meet other students for the first time. They might say things like this. Look at the picture below and pay attention to what the children are saying in their speech bubbles.

German Self-Introduction Worksheet
A German worksheet showing children introducing themselves with key personal details in speech bubbles.

These speech bubbles contain the four key pieces of information we're focusing on today. Let's break them down.

Here are the most common phrases you will hear:

  1. To say your name:

    • Ich heiße... (My name is... / I am called...)
    • Mein Name ist... (My name is...)

  2. To say your age:

    • Ich bin ... Jahre alt. (I am ... years old.)

  3. To say where you live (your city/town):

    • Ich wohne in... (I live in...)

  4. To say where you come from (your country):

    • Ich komme aus... (I come from...)

For now, just focus on recognizing these phrases and listening for the important information that follows, like the person's name, age, or city.

Listening to an Introduction

Now, let's put this into practice by listening to a short conversation. In the following video, you will hear two people, Emily and Michael, introduce themselves.

Your task is to listen carefully and try to find the answers to these four questions about Michael:

  • What is his name?
  • How old is he?
  • Where does he live?
  • Where does he come from?

Don't worry if you don't understand every single word. Just focus on catching the key information.

Introducing yourself - KS3 German - BBC Bitesize

Watch this short video and listen to the conversation between Emily and Michael. Focus on understanding the information Michael gives about himself.

Play the video under the heading 'Test yourself' titled 'Emily and Michael'. Listen to the dialogue at least once before checking your answers below.

How did you do? Let's check the answers.

Here is the transcript of what they said:

Emily: Hallo. Wie heißt du?
Michael: Ich heiße Michael, und du?
Emily: Ich heiße Emily. Wie alt bist du?
Michael: Ich bin vierzehn Jahre alt. Und du?
Emily: Ich bin sechzehn Jahre alt. Und wo wohnst du?
Michael: Ich wohne in Aberdeen, aber ich komme aus Deutschland. Und wo wohnst du?
Emily: Ich wohne in Brighton. Ich bin Engländerin. Tschüss!
Michael: Bis bald!

So, the answers are:

  • His name is Michael.
  • He is 14 years old (vierzehn).
  • He lives in Aberdeen.
  • He comes from Germany (Deutschland).

Notice how he uses the exact phrases we just learned: Ich heiße..., Ich bin..., Ich wohne in..., and Ich komme aus....

Another Listening Challenge

Let's try one more listening exercise. This time, you'll hear a different person introducing themselves. The goal is to listen to the audio file and identify the person's name, age, and where they live.

Online-Aufgaben Deutsch als Fremdsprache - Sich vorstellen

This online exercise from Schubert-Verlag will test your listening skills. You will hear a short audio clip of someone introducing themselves.

On the webpage, click the speaker icon next to 'Text hören' to play the audio. Listen and try to identify the information for 'Vorname' (First Name), 'Alter' (Age), and 'Wohnort' (Place of residence). Don't worry about the other fields for now. You can check the solution by clicking the traffic light icon.

This type of listening activity, where you have to extract specific information, is an excellent way for your students to build confidence in their comprehension skills.

A Quick Note for the Teacher in You

As you're experiencing this lesson as a student, think about how you could adapt it for your 11-year-olds.

  • Comprehension First: Notice we haven't talked about grammar rules yet. We are focusing entirely on understanding. This builds a strong foundation before students are asked to produce sentences themselves.
  • Key Verbs: The phrases we learned use four very important verbs: heißen (to be called), sein (to be), wohnen (to live), and kommen (to come). Your students will see these verbs again and again. In a future lesson, you would start breaking down how these verbs change, but for now, recognizing them in context is enough.
  • Scaffolding: We started with simple, isolated phrases shown on a worksheet, then moved to a guided dialogue with specific questions, and finally to an independent listening task. This gradual increase in difficulty helps build learner confidence.

Conclusion

Toll! You have successfully learned to understand the basic building blocks of a German self-introduction.

Here are our key takeaways from this lesson:

  • You can now recognize the key phrases used to state a name (Ich heiße...), age (Ich bin... Jahre alt), residence (Ich wohne in...), and origin (Ich komme aus...).
  • You practiced listening for specific information within a short conversation.
  • You've seen how visual aids and audio exercises can be combined to teach listening comprehension effectively.

In our next lesson, we will shift our focus from understanding the answers to understanding the questions. We'll learn how to recognize question words like Wie? (How/What?), Wo? (Where?), and Woher? (Where from?), so you can understand when someone is asking for your name, age, or where you live.

Bis bald