SPEAK GERMAN

WITH CONFIDENCE
Speaking German with strangers
can be quite intimidating but if you
apply the Elephant Technique,
you will soon become a confident
German speaker. If you haven’t
heard of the Elephant Technique
yet, it is based on the answer to
the question: How do you eat an
elephant? Bit by bit
To gain confidence in speaking German you must experience
success in real life. Success in German is “Er.folg”, literally:
that what follows. That means that you will be successful if
you prepare yourself nicely before confronting the world
with your ambition to be recognized as a worthy German
speaker.
Preparing your conversation
It’s relatively easy to prepare everyday conversations. All you
need is Google translate and a bit of life experience. Daily life
in Germany isn’t that different from what you already know.
E.g. if you are asking for a coffee in a bar, you’d possibly do it
in a similar way whether you are born in the United States or
in Saudi-Arabia. In Germany you’d possibly hear a dialogue
like this one:
 CUSTOMER BARISTA

Hey Hey

Ich hätte gern ’n Flat White. Mit normaler Milch?

I’d like to have a Flat White. With normal milk?

Mit Hafermilch bitte. Gerne.

With oat-milk, please. With pleasure.

Warte mal. Was für ne Marke habt Ihr denn? Wir haben die von Alpro.
Wait a moment. What brand are you using? We use the milk made by Alpro

Nee. Die schmeckt nicht. Dann lieber normale Milch. Okay. Wie du magst.
Naw. That doesn’t taste well. Then rather normal milk. Okay. As you like.

Was kriegste dafür? Das macht 3,30 Euro bitte.

What do you get for that? That’s 3,30 Euro please.

Machste 3,50 (dreifünfzig)? Danke Dir.

Make it 3,50. Thank you.


Mach’s gut. Du auch.
Take care. You too.
You’ll find a bit of colloquial German (machste, kriegste) in
here and also something rather Berlin specific (flat white,
oat milk) but all in all what happened is that someone
ordered a coffee, got asked what kind of milk he wanted
and in the end paid for it leaving a small tip. It is unlikely
for you to predict 100% of such a dialogue but that’s also
not necessary. All you need is a prototype which you’ll
then optimize as you go and learn.
Reality

 Check
1| So how would a dialogue in a coffee bar look like where
you come from if you asked for a coffee? If you don’t know,
grab a few gold coins, go to a bar and record yourself
speaking to the barista and transcribe the dialogue in your
mother tongue and share it with us
(barista@smartergerman.com). And don’t forget to enjoy the
coffee.

$
2 | Once you have the dialogue laid out, go to Google
translate and translate it sentence per sentence (not word
per word) and write it down like I did above.



3 | If you have someone who can check your dialogue, let
her check it for mistakes. If not, don’t worry. You’ll learn
quickly from your mistakes.

4| Then write that dialogue on a simple sheet of paper.

The customer parts on the left side and the barista ones on
the right side.
5 | Fold the paper in the middle and start practicing.
Initially you are allowed to peak at the translation and at
the hidden parts but your aim should be to memorize this
short dialogue quickly.

TIP 01: Actors do so by first reading later speaking

the sentences out loud and then adding more and
more emotion to it. You don’t have to become a
barker like this one but we usually express our
feelings when we communicate with others. That
might seem obvious to you but you wouldn’t believe
how difficult this is to do that in a language that we
are not yet fully comfortable in.
5 | Fold the paper in the middle and start practicing.
Initially you are allowed to peak at the translation and at
the hidden parts but your aim should be to memorize this
short dialogue quickly.

TIP 02: You could also create a short course on

Memrise which you could then use to prepare even
when you are commuting or travelling. Memrise is
free of charge and easy to use. Record the audio
yourself if you don’t have a German at hand. That’s
good enough for your prototype conversation.

Now once you are familiar with your coffee-bar-dialogue it

is time to find out whether your training pays off.
6 | Buy a plane ticket to any bigger city in Germany,
enter a coffee bar and get it going. Start with: “Hey!”
and if you wait a bit too long the barista will lead the
conversation and say something like “What can I do for
you?”
If you haven’t predicted that in your prototype, it’s now
time to remember the baristas question. That’s easier said
than done so maybe you simply ask her whether she could
write that down for you as you would like to learn German
and promise that you’ll use it with her the next time you
grab a coffee at their place (who doesn’t like a returning
customer).
The Wurst that can happen is that they say sorry, I’m a bit
busy right now (and then you also try to remember that
expression if she said that in German).
TIP 03: What some learners do, is they hold their
smartphone in their hands during their order and
simply record their interaction. Of course I can’t
recommend this due to privacy laws over here. But
to ease your moral concerns: the recording would
be completely anonymous, for private use only and
there would be no personal secrets exchanged
anyhow so you might not end up in jail for trying to
improve your German. If you are holier than the
pope, you can also just ask the barista if it was okay
if you recorded your order dialogue. But I fear that
might get more embarrassing than speaking broken
German.
WHAT’S NEXT?
After your reality check, write down any variations that you
have noticed during your short conversation. Add those to
your sample dialogue (=the prototype from above) and
practice them. Repeat this experiment a couple of times
within a short period. You can easily practice 3-5 dialogues
of this kind per week. I can’t tell you what kind of
interactions you should practice as I don’t know how you
spend your day. I can only share some examples from my
life.
With whom to interact?
- The receptionist at the dentist and the dentist
- The salesperson at the cinema
- The waiter at the restaurant (fast food / nice food)
- The employee and the cashier at the supermarket (mainly
asking for goods -and paying)
- The teacher of my son
- I want to purchase a used bike via Ebay Kleinanzeigen /
Craig’s List
Preparing situations like these is very helpful to get you
started and to make you feel confident when using your
German. They will provide you with quick and easy success
experiences and you’ll feel like on a high once you manage
the situation entirely in German at one point.
Not living in Germany?
That’s a pity but no reason to let all hopes go. If you are so
lucky to be able to work with a tutor or a language exchange
parter (=Tandem), you can simply role-play with them. The
advantage of working like this is that you can take both
positions in the dialogue. If you have put yourself in the
other side’s shoes a couple of times, you will be more
prepared in a real life situation. Hence, you actually have a
little advantage over someone who has to deal with real life
right away.
Want more?
There are a couple of other very nice techniques you might
want to take a closer look at. Check out my Everyday
German Online course (A1-B1) which will keep you
motivated and help you growing your German. It’ll guide
you step by step through a compelling criminal story until it
is time for you to prepare your everyday conversation skits
that we discussed in this paper.

Check it out here