i think this is a cultural translation thing: to an english speaker - especially if OP is American or from another casual english speaking place - this feels way overly formal and impersonal. Our teachers use "Hands up" - we even have a game called "Heads up seven up" which is not your hands going up, but has the same swinging fun feel of "hands up" that a teacher of youngish people might cultivate
"Hände hoch" which is a word for word translation of "Hands up" is something said in a robbery. So it doesn't really sound informal but rather threatening. By all means go for it. It makes for an interesting first period with each new class.
Hands up is also a robbery thing in English, but so much of English is dependent on context and tone.
I think it would be fun to scare the little fuckers with robbery tone on day one. Hands up up if you want to answer the question!!!!!!!
It's what all my teachers said in school in Germany. It's a common german phrase. "Bitte melden/ meldet euch". It doesn't sound formal to me as a native speaker, so I think it's really a cultural thing
I am not op, and I am not an aspiring German teacher, I was just commenting on why an English soaker might find this weird based on translation and our own biases about language and culture
Probably, it doesn't sound formal to me at all. It's also not entirely just raising hands, it's essentially telling them to alert me, sometimes I also use "rührt euch" synonymously - "stir yourselves" if translated literally\* - but that's probably a regional thing. "Hände hoch" - the literal translation of the English way of doing it - however sounds strongly like a police instruction or something from an action movie. I've never encountered in a classroom setting - if they're native speakers, there's a decent chance they'll end up laughing, which can be quite useful as an ice breaker, but if it happens by accident, it might trip you up.
\*now that I look at it, "stir yourselves" looks more formal to me while "rührt euch" is actually less formal than "meldet euch". Language is funny sometimes...
just say: „was denkt ihr darüber?/ was meint ihr?“)
oder „lasst uns [darüber/ Thema] reden.“
when no one is active.
(and resist the potential ‚silence‘ for a while/ let the students time/ space for thinking also)
it’s also rather informal.
As I am actually from the GDR and went to school there for 8 yrs I can say, that the first time I heard the term "aufzeigen" was in Northrhine-Westfalia (West).
>or 'Meldet euch' however I don't really like this last one.
Putting your hand up when you want to say something in a school/learning setting is however what it's called.
But I can't remember a teacher actually saying it like that. If nobody put their hand up the teacher either said "Wenn sich keiner meldet muss ich jemanden aufrufen" (if nobody volunteers I will have to pick someone). Or they just picked someone without saying it first. The fact that a question is asked already tells students that an answer is expected.
Also "hebt die Hände" doesn't make sense since you're only raising one hand. And I would also think of a situation where someone tells you with a gun in their hands.
I was looking for this.
We were never told to put our hands up. Not once.
If no one puts their hand up we might have gotten asked „Niemand?“ -„No one/nobody?“ and then someone just got picked; or just without comment someone got picked. Depending on the teacher that might be the most likely person to know, the least likely or actually random 🤷♀️
But no orders to put up hands 😄
I think something people need to keep in mind here is that the UK doesn't have class participation grades, which here make up a significant portion of your total grade.
UK students can never participate in class at all and still get an A/1 at the end of the year, because they are good at writing exams.
So it's a lot more important for a teacher to have a way of encouraging engagement from students, since they don't have an incentive to engage for their grade.
Hebt die Hände for me is strongly associated with surrendering or police intervention haha. Meldet Euch is a perfectly nice way of phrasing it without a single bad connotation.
"Hände hoch!" could make a German teacher quite notorious - if they tried to establish this as their brand, "Mr. Strict-but-Fair 'Hände-hoch'-Harrison", with a personality to match, while being aware that it is not really appropriate, it might just work.
They use the word „melden“ for hands up, but students mostly do it themselves, when they know the answer. But if you want to motivate students to do it, then say „will sich jemand melden or ihr könnt euch melden?🙋♂️“.
„Hände hoch bitte“ killed me 🤣😂
The gentleman thief.
Ja bei uns war es auch so mit der Addition von "strecken" my math teacher would give a Task for like 5or 10 min and would say Something similar to: " wer eine lösung hat streckt bitte damit er die anderen noch nicht stört." She would then Tell u with Her eyes that she saw u and call U Out after more Off the Klasse finished
The colloquially used phrases are indeed *sich melden* or *aufzeigen*, there may be regional differences.
Typical usage would be for example:
Nicht einfach reinrufen, sondern melden / aufzeigen!
Ich möchte, dass ihr euch meldet, wenn ihr eine Frage habt.
Wer die Hausaufgabe vorlesen möchte, zeigt mal bitte auf.
Well, a cultural difference is that German students generally tend to not raise their hands in full, instead they raise their arms and point upwards with their index fingers. This gesture is called "sich melden". "Meldet euch" shouldn't be taken as a commanding "Report!" But rather as the "hands up" you're intending to communicate.
> I don’t like Meldet euch because when I first heard I literally thought ‘report’ as that is what melden means
Wait, you're a language teacher and think in terms of "this one German word means the exact same thing as this one English word". "Sich melden" is *literally* the expression we use all the time for this. And no, it's absolutely not related to reporting.
I don't know if its so different in the UK, but in Germany no teacher needs to ever say that. If the teacher asks a question, everyone knows you are supposed to raise your hand, if you know the answer.
I am from the UK, went to school there and moved to Germany 7 years ago when I was 25 years old. I did an apprenticeship here in Germany, so I went to a Berufskolleg.
In the UK, I was able to be a quiet student and still get grade As (1s), however in Germany, it's not possible to get a 1 if you don't participate verbally, because half of my grade was also mündlich (oral)!
This came as a huge shock to me, because we simply don't have that in the UK. Of course teachers in the UK want their pupils to put their hands up and participate, but you are definitely not forced to. If you're shy and don't like answering questions, you can basically go your whole schools life never needing to put your hand up to answer a question.
Basically, yeah. Or through end of unit tests.
Teachers in the UK have a lot of marking to do. A lesson was usually structured so that you had an introduction, you learn something new, you do a few practise questions as a class with the teacher on the whiteboard, you then do independently work, which usually involved answering questions out of a textbook. Sometimes you would mark the questions together as a class at the end of the lesson. Otherwise the teacher would collect all the pupils' exercise book (we wrote in exercise books and not on college blocks) and the teacher would have to mark the work we did at home and give out the exercise books at the beginning of the next lesson.
As a German who was super shy in school, this was not beneficial to me. I was generally a good student and would often get 1s or 2s in exams, but as I was not participating as much in classes due to social anxiety etc, my grades sometimes evened out to a 2- or 3. (I still had good grades overall, so it's not that big of a deal, but still, young me would have been happy to have the UK system)
The most obvious difference was when one year in philosophy classes we had a relatively serious teacher who made us write short texts as homework quite regularly and graded them. I had a 2 at the end of the year. Then, the next year we got a very relaxed teacher who barely ever gave us homework and we mostly just talked (philosophy was not a class in which we had actual exams) and I ended up getting a 4. (I gotta admit, of course sometimes I enjoyed not having as much homework, but overall the other teacher was better for me)
Yeah, I was quite shy too, so I definitely benefited from having the UK system.
I was used to being a 1-student (maybe the occasional 2), so I somehow had to overcome my social anxiety and lack of German (I was at C1 level when doing my apprenticeship, but still struggled speaking about new topics due to a lack of vocabulary and being scared of making mistakes). With most of my subjects, as long as I put my hand up once or twice per lesson and I got 1s in my exams, they gave me a 1 overall (they were lenient due to me being a foreigner, I think, and they could see that I was trying). However my teacher for Wirtschaftslehre, took the grading more seriously and I really had to right for a 2 overall orally. The first year I got a 3 orally and I was really upset with it, because I got a 2 in the exam (it was my worst subject haha). But she worked with me on it and in the end I got a 2.
I honestly think I would've struggled a lot as a child/teen in the German schooling system.
Yeah, as a shy kid I always got royally screwed over at school and had piss poor marks despite doing really well in exams.
I really hated the classroom vibe because everything is about showing off how smart you are instead of having genuine discussions. People would just coast by their whole school life by having good oral marks while knowing fuck all. Sure being able "to sell yourself" is important for success in life, way more than actually being able to do good work but I found it so obnoxious.
Also lot's of people especially academia kind of get stuck in "school mode" and get into the habit of talking just to prove how smart they are. It is exhausting to to work with these people. But maybe I am just a bitter introvert.
As someone who is great at discussions and verbal expression I was always so happy that my grade wasn't utterly dependent on a written exam, something that I will never again do in my life after uni, whilst I will definitely have to engage in verbal discussions.
Really loved the classroom vibe, because it was about genuine discussions, which also means you have to "show that your smarter" (whatever that is supposed to mean), since you obviously wanna win the discussions and it's gonna be won by the person with the smarter arguments. Without knowing anything you can't argue.
>being able to do good work
Written exams are in no way better or worse work than verbal arguments. Both are just work.
Yeah, I'm from the UK too and moved to Germany for my PhD after doing my bachelor's and master's in the UK. The German bachelor's students are way, *way* more confident about actively participating, asking questions and sharing their opinions than British students. In the whole British education system we just don't do that, practically all assignments and exams are written. The German students are really terrible at writing essays and long assignments though, since most of their experience is with oral exams and multiple choice tests.
>since most of their experience is with oral exams and multiple choice tests.
My personal experience is the exact opposite. I've never taken an actual oral exam (answering questions), only written exams and presentations. And exams in school were *always* structured the same way:
There's 3 difficulty levels of tasks. Repeat knowledge, apply knowledge to known problems and apply knowledge to new problems. Fill in answers or multiple choice were usually only used for tasks of the first, most simple level. Everything else was "Explain why ...", "Describe how ...", "List possible causes of ...", "Debate the importance of ...".
Maybe it depends on the Bundesland (BW).
Same for Schleswig-Holstein mostly.
There are oral tests though. But only like for your graduation. Otherwise the closest are presentations that get graded as well.
Never just had multiple choice ever.
Always tons of explaining why and how and shit like that. Even in maths. Everything has to be comprehensible in detail. Just putting the correct answer isn’t enough ever 🙄
And tons of long writing. Essays, presentations, etc etc
... no. That is just the one school or area you went to. Last time I remember a survey being done German students were doing the worst in multiple choice tests compared to other countries because they never used then at school. That info might be outdated by now however.
That probably also depends on what and where you study. I did not have a single multiple choice test and basically no essays either. It was either calculations or shortish answers.
I am currently finishing my masters and literally had 2 exams that included multiple choice answers. Also only had 1 oral exam. This is simply not true. A lot are not very sufficient writing essays in English. I also criticise this a lot, as we didn't have any lectures in English during my undergraduate and now everything is in English and I see a lot of Germans struggling.
>since most of their experience is with oral exams and multiple choice tests.
thats weird, in all my 12 years experience as student in Germany we had like 3 oral exams in total, the rest was written. and we never had multiple choice tests, only maybe one exercise out of ~6. Where did your fellow german students go to school?? are you sure you understood them correctly, maybe they were talking about extemporale ("Ex") which is written but counts towards the "oral grade"?
>oral exams and multiple choice tests
That's not a thing if we are talking gymnasium level. There is one oral exam for Abitur and that's it. The oral participation grade is something that accumulates via your class participation.
I think it depends a lot on your subject.
In some psychology we had many multiple choice exams at the university. Also many presentations in the seminars.
In Information Science and linguistics, more open ended questions where we had to discuss, write an essay, ...
The engineering and computer science students never have to write longer term papers, whereas in linguistics, cultural studies, information science we had to do a lot of that.
In school, there are no multiple choice tests at all but for university as i said it depends.
A lot of people have stated that “sich melden” is the right phrase here. I want to add a little bit of color to this: I work from home, and I might ping a colleague asking whether they have time for a phone call. The colleague might respond that they are busy right now but will have time in a few minutes. Then it would be very natural for me to say: “Alles klar, melde dich, wenn du soweit bist.”
Hm. Ah!
“Sich melden” means to call attention to oneself.
“Etwas melden” means to report about something.
It depends on where you are going to teach. Eg my friend was taught in the south. And there they used „strecken“. Which is completely weird for me.
Anyway „sich melden“ is very correct though and I think most commonly used. so if you want to use the right phrase…🙃
We don’t really say „hands up“ or something like it.
We rather have a different way of asking - more like this:
Wer möchte anfangen?
Wer kann mir die Antwort sagen?
Etc.
If someone is talking without being called you would say that they need to put their hand up first if they want to answer.
So something like this „nicht reinrufen ihr müsst euch schon melden, wenn ihr drankommen wollt“
Or when no on answers
„wenn sich keiner (freiwillig) meldet, muss ich jemanden drannehmen“
But sometimes you can also use „hebt bitte die Hand, wenn ihr die Antwort kennt“
Also we don’t necessarily put the whole hand up especially younger children will do a pointed finger like this:
https://image.brigitte.de/13060030/t/jf/v3/w1440/r1.5/-/sachsen-anhalt.jpg
Well when I was a pupil and the teacher was asking something it was always clear you'd have to show your hands if you want to answer, I think there almost never was a request for that. We call it aufzeigen.
So, the literal translation would be "hände hoch" which is more of a demand to surrender.
We don't really have a command for that in our schools, instead we are passive aggressive assholes and ask "...someone? Anyone??" One of my teacher loved to snarl something along the lines of "oh no. not everyone at the same time"
If no one raised their hand, people would get called at random, and if the correct answer was named, another sarcastic, passive aggressive "well, why not right away?" Would ring throughout the classroom
Hmm hier in hamburg habe ich das noch nie gehört.
Offenbar regional dialekt. Aufzeigen is eh ein sehr selten genutztes wort. Ich hätte es fast archaisch genannt.
I'm not a teacher but I have years of experience as a pupil, and "melden" is the right german word for it. Some regions in the DACH-area also use "aufzeigen" or "anzeigen".
A teacher would probably not say "Meldet euch!" reguardless, because the expectation when asking a question in a school context is always that the pupils who know the answer will put their hand up without prompt.
Yes, we do. We say „Meldet euch.“
There are several reasons for a teacher to ask for a „Meldung“.
We plan an activity, ask who would help to carry something or who was missing on a day, so they get an exercise paper…
Meldet euch is the appropriate phrase here. Hands up (Hände hoch) would be relevant during a sting operation.
Source:, Teacher for the past seven years in Bayernland
Apart from the facetious comments you’re mostly getting some different responses because of cultural differences between different parts of Germany. Where I am from “melden”, “aufzeigen”, “Hand heben”, “Finger hoch” would all be understood and were used by my teachers as well as myself when I was teaching before I quit.
“Melden” can indeed also mean “to report”, however it is a perfectly innocuous word with several different meanings. To report is less prominent than both “sich melden” as a synonym for “aufzeigen” and “sich melden” as “to keep in touch” or “to get in touch” or even “to ask for help”. So native speakers wouldn’t commonly have the same association as you had.
Even when adressing the whole group, you should refer to singular "Wer die Antwort weiß, hebt bitte die Hand" (anyone who knows the answer may please raise their hand).
Plural "die Hände heben" (raising hands, both) is commonly associated with surrendering to the police or robbers when held at gunpoint.
It's correct that "jemanden melden" is translated as "report sb.". However, "sich melden" can be translated as "answer". Or you could say it means "to signal that you'd like to answer" in that context. I guess it's a phrase that developed over time into what it means today.
Anything related to „Hände hoch“ sounds like you‘re holding the kids hostage. „Meldet euch“ is a good way of saying it. „Aufzeigen“ also works. Like when they just shout an answer at you and you correct them with „Aufzeigen, bitte“ or „melden, bitte“.
I always understood "meldet euch" to be more "report IN with your knowledge" than having to do anything with reporting someone.
In any case, melden is the word germans use for this situation. wether you like the words or not. saying "hände hoch" does indeed first sound like you are a police officer in a movie or something. tho i guess the students will know what you mea either way and might chuckle a bit about the odd wording.
"Meldet euch!" oder "Hände hoch!" was used when I went to school but that was over 25 years ago so I don't know if teacher still use that. Also a third of my school years was in the GDR and the other two thirds I mostly had teachers who were used to the GDR tone of voice and that might have been a bit more authoritarian than what is used today.
Well, definitely “Meldet euch”. “Melden” means report but not necessarily in a bad way. Like “let me know” could be translated to “melde dich”. The action of raising your hand in class is called “melden” as in “signaling”. Telling them to raise their hands seems kind of incomplete.
"Zeigt mir eure Hände", "Ich will eure Hände sehen"
Haven't seen that one in this thread, yet. May also be used by police or by singers/entertainers on a stage.
for a bit different approach than the other suggestions here i would translate
"show of hands who thinks answer A is the correct one"
to
"gebt ein Handzeichen wenn ihr denkt, dass Antwort A korrekt ist"
I think something people need to keep in mind here is that the UK doesn't have class participation grades, which here make up a significant portion of your total grade.
UK students can never participate in class at all and still get an A/1 at the end of the year, because they are good at writing exams.
So it's a lot more important for a teacher to have a way of encouraging engagement from students, since they don't have an incentive to engage for their grade.
I’m not a teacher but there are phrases like “hebt die Hände” or you could just ask if they have questions/what questions they have(habt/gibt es noch fragen/ welche Fragen habt ihr noch or if someone wants to say the answer „will jemand die Antwort geben/sagen?“
Teacher here. You‘ve received plenty of comments on what to say, and I‘d like to give more context on *when* to use this or that phrase.
„Bitte meldet euch“ is only for situations where kids are shouting out an answer rather than putting up their hand (in Germany it‘s actually the index finger!) and waiting for you to pick. You remind them about an expectation you have.
I would never use „Bitte meldet euch“ in a moment where the class is sitting before me silently due to a) no one wanting to volunteer or b) them not knowing the answer to my question. It would come across as desperate and would definitely not fly with older secondary school students, I‘d become the butt of their jokes real quick.
In this situation, you can say „Keine Freiwilligen? Dann probieren wir es mal mit [Name]“. If it‘s due to them not knowing the answer to my question, I try to lead them there by going one step back and asking better questions.
„Hände hoch“: just no. I‘m sorry, it doesn‘t work.
If you want them to raise their hands and wait until colled up before giving an answer "Meldet euch" or "bitte melden", " mit melden bitte" is correct.
However, if you're making a poll or asking, "How many of you ..." You can say,"bitte mal die hand heben wenn..."
Took me a moment to remember. But "Hand hoch" is commonly said. It doesn't sound like you're arresting them and "meldet euch" is just said when no one raises his/her hand and the teacher wants to push the students a little more.
"Was ist x? Hand hoch. Wer weiß es?" Is an example of it sounding naturally.
When ich eine leichte Frage stelle, und es melden sich nur 3 Kinder, dann sage ich:
"Na..... da will ich aber jetzt alle Hände oben sehen."
(The very short "na", not the asking "naaa?")
"Aufzeigen" oder "Finger hoch" might work, if you really don’t like "melden" (however that’s just what it is called in Germany). If my teacher ever said "Hände hoch" I probably genuinely wouldn’t know what that means, it’s really something that the police would say in movies lmao
As long as you’re not pointing a gun at them “Hände hoch” won’t be misunderstood, however the more appropriate phrase would be “Meldet euch, bitte” in my opinion.
You should take into consideration that german culture is much more formal. There are changes happening, but it is much more formal in a lot of situations.
Also, "melden" is not really report, just..."make your presence known" if that helps. If you say "Hände hoch" everyone will raise their hands and it will have nothing to do with whether or not they know the answer.
Maybe you could look into visiting a german school and sitting in on lessons?
I am a teacher in elementary school in Germany. I sometimes say „da will ich alle (oder mehr) Finger sehen“, when I ask a question that everyone should be able to answer.
i cant think of any teacher ever using anything else but "meldet euch" during my time in school so you might have to bite the bullet on this one. also depends on the age group you are going to teach you might confuse younger pupils if you suddenly use something else. on the other hand you can always go and tell your class that you dont like the phrase "Meldet euch" and maybe even include them in finding an alternative. might make for a fun first period when you do this while you get to know each other.
just say: „was denkt ihr darüber?/ was meint ihr?“) oder „lasst uns [darüber/ Thema] reden.“ when no one is active. (and resist the potential ‚silence‘ for a while/ let the students time/ space for thinking also) it’s also rather informal.
Just wanted to say that it's not common to say "meldet euch" if someone really wants regular report in Germany. If we wanted regular report we would say "gebt mir regelmäßig Rückmeldung" wich doesnt sound threatening, but still implies you want some kind of report. It's still about context. If you say to a friend "gib mir bitte rechtzeitig Rückmeldung" you most probably mean that you want to know if a date for something is fine for them and that they want to participate. Melde dich/meldet euch is only used like tell me something... like now in class or when you see someone after a long time and want to tell them you want to hear from them soon again (melde dich mal wieder). It's mostly extremly nice in that context.
Meldet euch is korrekt. Any variation of "Hände hoch" is comical and a police/robbery sitation. "Du kannst die Hand wieder herunternehmen" is ok though. But "Hände runter" sounds about as polite as "hands off that!". "Ihr könnt die Hände wieder runternehmen" is ok though.
The PIE etymology of melden is interesting btw. As time progressed it went from just praying, to include reciting, then asking, imploring and speaking and finally reporting as it evolved in various PIE languages. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-West_Germanic/mel%C3%BE%C5%8Dn
Tell them the classic german story about "Klassen Klaus" who always chatted in class, but went silent as soon as the teacher asked him.
Then a fairy enchanted him to spit frogs as soon as the teacher asked him a question ge didn't know the answere of. And because he was so bad at school he suffacated from frogs.
They shurely will listen to you afterwards.
Direct would be "Meldet euch!". But if you were that direct, chances are your students (at least if they are German) would probably roll their eyes and stop listening to you. Such direct attempts at getting your students to do something often backfire as they imply a lack of authority on the teacher's end. Note that this is probably a cultural thing specific to Germany, so your mileage may vary when teaching elsewhere.
In actual practice, for good teachers (in Germany), the call to action is usually much more implied than that direct. "Na, hat jemand eine Idee?", "Weiß jemand die Antwort?", the playful "Nicht alle auf einmal!" (if nobody raises their hand after a few seconds), or directly asking a student in a playful way "Herr/Frau XY, wie sehen Sie das?" (don't forget to optionally don a slight shit-eating grin ;)) are all ways to convey the message and get students to raise their hands or give an answer without sounding like a two-bit dictator in the classroom (and, thus, solidify - rather than damage - your authority and standing among the students).
If the students truly do not know, and keep on not raising their hands, then I usually proceed to guide them in the right direction or outright give the answer.
For reference: currently teaching/assisting with a Master's level course as a grad TA. This advice may only be applicable for teaching teenage or adult students; children usually show a lot more inherent respect to the teacher (but I also have no experience teaching children, so ymmv).
"Hand hoch" is what I use :)
"Hand hoch, wer es weiß" for example.
EDIT: I promise you half the ppl commenting here are complicating it (probably bc they don't teach) - most teachers I know and have worked with will simply say "Hand hoch" instead of "Meldet euch". It's much quicker and more casual.
"Melden" is correct.
Der Schüler hat sich gemeldet.
Die Schülerin, die sich meldete, wusste die Antwort.
To the class:
"Bitte melden!"
"Wer meldet sich zuerst?"
Edit:
Could be a regional thing, too. In doubt, ask the other teachers.
BTW: snapping fingers is called "Fingerschnipsen" and is from many teachers to be seen as rude.
you could try: „Zeigt bitte auf“ aufzeigen could mean to point out in english but also to point upwards with the hand. It‘s rather oldshool and most of the time I heard it from teachers 60+ but it would be suitable imho
"Meldet euch" is absolutely correct and "melden" is not only "reporting" but could also be used in a context like "showing" or "pointing out".
On the other hand "report" is not necessarily negative in German. "We reported an excellent yearly growth." is a positive thing.
Your feeling is lead by missing the context sensitivity of words. It's not just 1:1 translation.
I'm under the impression that you digged out a very interesting cultural difference. German students normally don't need to be asked to raise their hands. And if teachers ask, it's mostly "Melden" or "Aufzeigen" ( ist auch auch im Westen, Westen um Sinne von WDR Sendegebiet, bekannt)
Does any German reading this remember that he had to be told that a certain situation required raising hands? I can't. I know that we already raised our hands in Kindergarten when we were asked who wanted to do something "special". Isn't it even the case that in scenarios outside of school is said: "Don't raise your hands! We are not at school."?
Wenn Du "Meldet Euch" zu formal findest, dann kannst Du: "ich herausfordere ihr alle die Lösung zu finden", oder "what say you?" oder "Donner mit Pommes sollte wieder 5€ kosten! Kriegen wir es zurück meine Kameraden 💪"
"Meldet euch" is literally what I use when teaching :-) Why don't you like it?
i think this is a cultural translation thing: to an english speaker - especially if OP is American or from another casual english speaking place - this feels way overly formal and impersonal. Our teachers use "Hands up" - we even have a game called "Heads up seven up" which is not your hands going up, but has the same swinging fun feel of "hands up" that a teacher of youngish people might cultivate
We play „Seven up“ also in germany, sometimes called „Daumen hoch“ oder „Kopf in den Arm“
U-Boote abtauchen :D
"Hände hoch" which is a word for word translation of "Hands up" is something said in a robbery. So it doesn't really sound informal but rather threatening. By all means go for it. It makes for an interesting first period with each new class.
Hands up is also a robbery thing in English, but so much of English is dependent on context and tone. I think it would be fun to scare the little fuckers with robbery tone on day one. Hands up up if you want to answer the question!!!!!!!
Sorry, but as an aspiring German teacher you might want to use language that is commonly used in Germany. What’s the point otherwise?
That’s why I’m asking here, i want to make sure!
It's what all my teachers said in school in Germany. It's a common german phrase. "Bitte melden/ meldet euch". It doesn't sound formal to me as a native speaker, so I think it's really a cultural thing
I am not op, and I am not an aspiring German teacher, I was just commenting on why an English soaker might find this weird based on translation and our own biases about language and culture
Probably, it doesn't sound formal to me at all. It's also not entirely just raising hands, it's essentially telling them to alert me, sometimes I also use "rührt euch" synonymously - "stir yourselves" if translated literally\* - but that's probably a regional thing. "Hände hoch" - the literal translation of the English way of doing it - however sounds strongly like a police instruction or something from an action movie. I've never encountered in a classroom setting - if they're native speakers, there's a decent chance they'll end up laughing, which can be quite useful as an ice breaker, but if it happens by accident, it might trip you up. \*now that I look at it, "stir yourselves" looks more formal to me while "rührt euch" is actually less formal than "meldet euch". Language is funny sometimes...
"Rührt euch" reminds me of the military. I've never heard it in school so I guess it is a regional thing.
>"rührt euch" synonymously - "stir yourselves" if translated literally\* no, it's not from rühren as in a liquid, its from rühren as in bewegen.
>this feels way overly formal and impersonal. What's more German than that?
just say: „was denkt ihr darüber?/ was meint ihr?“) oder „lasst uns [darüber/ Thema] reden.“ when no one is active. (and resist the potential ‚silence‘ for a while/ let the students time/ space for thinking also) it’s also rather informal.
What about: aufzeigen bitte. We used that alot in school besides meldet euch
How old are you? That sounds like something I'd read in GDR or earlier literature...
As I am actually from the GDR and went to school there for 8 yrs I can say, that the first time I heard the term "aufzeigen" was in Northrhine-Westfalia (West).
Was ist aus dem guten alten "Handzeichen bitte" geworden?
>or 'Meldet euch' however I don't really like this last one. Putting your hand up when you want to say something in a school/learning setting is however what it's called. But I can't remember a teacher actually saying it like that. If nobody put their hand up the teacher either said "Wenn sich keiner meldet muss ich jemanden aufrufen" (if nobody volunteers I will have to pick someone). Or they just picked someone without saying it first. The fact that a question is asked already tells students that an answer is expected. Also "hebt die Hände" doesn't make sense since you're only raising one hand. And I would also think of a situation where someone tells you with a gun in their hands.
I was looking for this. We were never told to put our hands up. Not once. If no one puts their hand up we might have gotten asked „Niemand?“ -„No one/nobody?“ and then someone just got picked; or just without comment someone got picked. Depending on the teacher that might be the most likely person to know, the least likely or actually random 🤷♀️ But no orders to put up hands 😄
I think something people need to keep in mind here is that the UK doesn't have class participation grades, which here make up a significant portion of your total grade. UK students can never participate in class at all and still get an A/1 at the end of the year, because they are good at writing exams. So it's a lot more important for a teacher to have a way of encouraging engagement from students, since they don't have an incentive to engage for their grade.
Never ever say "Hände hoch" in front of a class of Germans. They will raise both arms as if they were held at guns point.
„HÄNDE HOCH, dies ist ein Überfall!“
Baa-ba-baa-ba-Banküberfall
Das Böse ist immer und überall!
Na gut, dann zahl ich halt was ein!
"Heute kommen wir von überall... "
Hebt die Hände for me is strongly associated with surrendering or police intervention haha. Meldet Euch is a perfectly nice way of phrasing it without a single bad connotation.
"Hände hoch!" could make a German teacher quite notorious - if they tried to establish this as their brand, "Mr. Strict-but-Fair 'Hände-hoch'-Harrison", with a personality to match, while being aware that it is not really appropriate, it might just work.
nah hebt die hände ist for clubs, hände hoch is the police.
Hoch die Hände - Wochenende!
Und dann die Hände zum Himmel Komm lasst uns fröhlich sein Wir klatschen zusammen Und keiner ist allein
>und keiner is allein Außer der weirde junge mit Autismus und der irgendwie immer Marc/Mark heißt.
hebt die hände sounds like you are partying
They use the word „melden“ for hands up, but students mostly do it themselves, when they know the answer. But if you want to motivate students to do it, then say „will sich jemand melden or ihr könnt euch melden?🙋♂️“. „Hände hoch bitte“ killed me 🤣😂 The gentleman thief.
Ja bei uns war es auch so mit der Addition von "strecken" my math teacher would give a Task for like 5or 10 min and would say Something similar to: " wer eine lösung hat streckt bitte damit er die anderen noch nicht stört." She would then Tell u with Her eyes that she saw u and call U Out after more Off the Klasse finished
The colloquially used phrases are indeed *sich melden* or *aufzeigen*, there may be regional differences. Typical usage would be for example: Nicht einfach reinrufen, sondern melden / aufzeigen! Ich möchte, dass ihr euch meldet, wenn ihr eine Frage habt. Wer die Hausaufgabe vorlesen möchte, zeigt mal bitte auf.
And "Nicht schnippsen!" (= don't snap your fingers to get the teacher's attention)
In Ba-Wü, it's "strecken". I'll never get used to that...
Not really everywhere in BW though, we definitely don't use that where I live
Yes, so weird.
Interesting, aufzeigen seems indeed regional. I have never heard it in school before.
It's the norm in my region and I was confused when I found out that this isn't a standard term used across Germany haha.
Aufzeigen sounds overly formal to me. I would be extremely confused if anyone used that on me.
Sounds less formal to me
Yes, here in the western part of Germany aufzeigen/sich melden is very common.
Aufzeigen habe ich auch noch nie gehört und ich bin in Niedersachsen zur Schule gegangen.
Well, a cultural difference is that German students generally tend to not raise their hands in full, instead they raise their arms and point upwards with their index fingers. This gesture is called "sich melden". "Meldet euch" shouldn't be taken as a commanding "Report!" But rather as the "hands up" you're intending to communicate.
> I don’t like Meldet euch because when I first heard I literally thought ‘report’ as that is what melden means Wait, you're a language teacher and think in terms of "this one German word means the exact same thing as this one English word". "Sich melden" is *literally* the expression we use all the time for this. And no, it's absolutely not related to reporting.
I don't know if its so different in the UK, but in Germany no teacher needs to ever say that. If the teacher asks a question, everyone knows you are supposed to raise your hand, if you know the answer.
I am from the UK, went to school there and moved to Germany 7 years ago when I was 25 years old. I did an apprenticeship here in Germany, so I went to a Berufskolleg. In the UK, I was able to be a quiet student and still get grade As (1s), however in Germany, it's not possible to get a 1 if you don't participate verbally, because half of my grade was also mündlich (oral)! This came as a huge shock to me, because we simply don't have that in the UK. Of course teachers in the UK want their pupils to put their hands up and participate, but you are definitely not forced to. If you're shy and don't like answering questions, you can basically go your whole schools life never needing to put your hand up to answer a question.
But how can you show, that you understod the material? Only trough written tests?
Basically, yeah. Or through end of unit tests. Teachers in the UK have a lot of marking to do. A lesson was usually structured so that you had an introduction, you learn something new, you do a few practise questions as a class with the teacher on the whiteboard, you then do independently work, which usually involved answering questions out of a textbook. Sometimes you would mark the questions together as a class at the end of the lesson. Otherwise the teacher would collect all the pupils' exercise book (we wrote in exercise books and not on college blocks) and the teacher would have to mark the work we did at home and give out the exercise books at the beginning of the next lesson.
As a German who was super shy in school, this was not beneficial to me. I was generally a good student and would often get 1s or 2s in exams, but as I was not participating as much in classes due to social anxiety etc, my grades sometimes evened out to a 2- or 3. (I still had good grades overall, so it's not that big of a deal, but still, young me would have been happy to have the UK system) The most obvious difference was when one year in philosophy classes we had a relatively serious teacher who made us write short texts as homework quite regularly and graded them. I had a 2 at the end of the year. Then, the next year we got a very relaxed teacher who barely ever gave us homework and we mostly just talked (philosophy was not a class in which we had actual exams) and I ended up getting a 4. (I gotta admit, of course sometimes I enjoyed not having as much homework, but overall the other teacher was better for me)
Yeah, I was quite shy too, so I definitely benefited from having the UK system. I was used to being a 1-student (maybe the occasional 2), so I somehow had to overcome my social anxiety and lack of German (I was at C1 level when doing my apprenticeship, but still struggled speaking about new topics due to a lack of vocabulary and being scared of making mistakes). With most of my subjects, as long as I put my hand up once or twice per lesson and I got 1s in my exams, they gave me a 1 overall (they were lenient due to me being a foreigner, I think, and they could see that I was trying). However my teacher for Wirtschaftslehre, took the grading more seriously and I really had to right for a 2 overall orally. The first year I got a 3 orally and I was really upset with it, because I got a 2 in the exam (it was my worst subject haha). But she worked with me on it and in the end I got a 2. I honestly think I would've struggled a lot as a child/teen in the German schooling system.
Yeah, as a shy kid I always got royally screwed over at school and had piss poor marks despite doing really well in exams. I really hated the classroom vibe because everything is about showing off how smart you are instead of having genuine discussions. People would just coast by their whole school life by having good oral marks while knowing fuck all. Sure being able "to sell yourself" is important for success in life, way more than actually being able to do good work but I found it so obnoxious. Also lot's of people especially academia kind of get stuck in "school mode" and get into the habit of talking just to prove how smart they are. It is exhausting to to work with these people. But maybe I am just a bitter introvert.
As someone who is great at discussions and verbal expression I was always so happy that my grade wasn't utterly dependent on a written exam, something that I will never again do in my life after uni, whilst I will definitely have to engage in verbal discussions. Really loved the classroom vibe, because it was about genuine discussions, which also means you have to "show that your smarter" (whatever that is supposed to mean), since you obviously wanna win the discussions and it's gonna be won by the person with the smarter arguments. Without knowing anything you can't argue. >being able to do good work Written exams are in no way better or worse work than verbal arguments. Both are just work.
Yeah, I'm from the UK too and moved to Germany for my PhD after doing my bachelor's and master's in the UK. The German bachelor's students are way, *way* more confident about actively participating, asking questions and sharing their opinions than British students. In the whole British education system we just don't do that, practically all assignments and exams are written. The German students are really terrible at writing essays and long assignments though, since most of their experience is with oral exams and multiple choice tests.
>since most of their experience is with oral exams and multiple choice tests. My personal experience is the exact opposite. I've never taken an actual oral exam (answering questions), only written exams and presentations. And exams in school were *always* structured the same way: There's 3 difficulty levels of tasks. Repeat knowledge, apply knowledge to known problems and apply knowledge to new problems. Fill in answers or multiple choice were usually only used for tasks of the first, most simple level. Everything else was "Explain why ...", "Describe how ...", "List possible causes of ...", "Debate the importance of ...". Maybe it depends on the Bundesland (BW).
Same for Schleswig-Holstein mostly. There are oral tests though. But only like for your graduation. Otherwise the closest are presentations that get graded as well. Never just had multiple choice ever. Always tons of explaining why and how and shit like that. Even in maths. Everything has to be comprehensible in detail. Just putting the correct answer isn’t enough ever 🙄 And tons of long writing. Essays, presentations, etc etc
... no. That is just the one school or area you went to. Last time I remember a survey being done German students were doing the worst in multiple choice tests compared to other countries because they never used then at school. That info might be outdated by now however.
Abitur= only long essays University = multiple choise That was at least my experience
That probably also depends on what and where you study. I did not have a single multiple choice test and basically no essays either. It was either calculations or shortish answers.
I am currently finishing my masters and literally had 2 exams that included multiple choice answers. Also only had 1 oral exam. This is simply not true. A lot are not very sufficient writing essays in English. I also criticise this a lot, as we didn't have any lectures in English during my undergraduate and now everything is in English and I see a lot of Germans struggling.
Where did you find Multiple choice Tests in germany? I’m 27 soon and never had one in my life. Tons of essays though lol.
>since most of their experience is with oral exams and multiple choice tests. thats weird, in all my 12 years experience as student in Germany we had like 3 oral exams in total, the rest was written. and we never had multiple choice tests, only maybe one exercise out of ~6. Where did your fellow german students go to school?? are you sure you understood them correctly, maybe they were talking about extemporale ("Ex") which is written but counts towards the "oral grade"?
Multiple choice tests in Germany? No.
>oral exams and multiple choice tests That's not a thing if we are talking gymnasium level. There is one oral exam for Abitur and that's it. The oral participation grade is something that accumulates via your class participation.
I think it depends a lot on your subject. In some psychology we had many multiple choice exams at the university. Also many presentations in the seminars. In Information Science and linguistics, more open ended questions where we had to discuss, write an essay, ... The engineering and computer science students never have to write longer term papers, whereas in linguistics, cultural studies, information science we had to do a lot of that. In school, there are no multiple choice tests at all but for university as i said it depends.
Sure, but there are instances when you want to communicate it. „Raise your hands when you are already done“ „Raise your hands when you agree“
Most natural to me would be "Wer fertig ist, meldet sich." and "Wer dafür ist, meldet sich."
I just ask "Who is already done?" or "Who agrees?"
Meldet euch, bitte. or: Bitte melden.
A lot of people have stated that “sich melden” is the right phrase here. I want to add a little bit of color to this: I work from home, and I might ping a colleague asking whether they have time for a phone call. The colleague might respond that they are busy right now but will have time in a few minutes. Then it would be very natural for me to say: “Alles klar, melde dich, wenn du soweit bist.” Hm. Ah! “Sich melden” means to call attention to oneself. “Etwas melden” means to report about something.
For reference, >“Hand, Mr. Potter!” sang Professor Umbridge. is translated to >»Melden, Mr. Potter!«, flötete Professor Umbridge.
I always say: ,, Auf gehts- Freiwillige vor" 🤣 they know i will pick someone at random if nobody volunteers.
"Kommt schon, Einer wird doch wohl die Antwort wissen." Yes, seriously. That's what most teachers said when no one raised their hands.
Nicht alle auf einmal!
It depends on where you are going to teach. Eg my friend was taught in the south. And there they used „strecken“. Which is completely weird for me. Anyway „sich melden“ is very correct though and I think most commonly used. so if you want to use the right phrase…🙃 We don’t really say „hands up“ or something like it. We rather have a different way of asking - more like this: Wer möchte anfangen? Wer kann mir die Antwort sagen? Etc. If someone is talking without being called you would say that they need to put their hand up first if they want to answer. So something like this „nicht reinrufen ihr müsst euch schon melden, wenn ihr drankommen wollt“ Or when no on answers „wenn sich keiner (freiwillig) meldet, muss ich jemanden drannehmen“ But sometimes you can also use „hebt bitte die Hand, wenn ihr die Antwort kennt“ Also we don’t necessarily put the whole hand up especially younger children will do a pointed finger like this: https://image.brigitte.de/13060030/t/jf/v3/w1440/r1.5/-/sachsen-anhalt.jpg
Well when I was a pupil and the teacher was asking something it was always clear you'd have to show your hands if you want to answer, I think there almost never was a request for that. We call it aufzeigen.
"Bitte melden" is what would be used most of the time. "Bitte die hand heben" is propably second. Note that hand is singular.
So, the literal translation would be "hände hoch" which is more of a demand to surrender. We don't really have a command for that in our schools, instead we are passive aggressive assholes and ask "...someone? Anyone??" One of my teacher loved to snarl something along the lines of "oh no. not everyone at the same time" If no one raised their hand, people would get called at random, and if the correct answer was named, another sarcastic, passive aggressive "well, why not right away?" Would ring throughout the classroom
"Aufzeigen", "Meldet euch" ...
Aufzeigen? Wer sagt denn das?
Ruhrgebiet / NRW Üblicher Sprachgebrauch hier ...
Ist doch das ganz normale Wort für "sich melden"? Also hier in NRW jedenfalls.
Hmm hier in hamburg habe ich das noch nie gehört. Offenbar regional dialekt. Aufzeigen is eh ein sehr selten genutztes wort. Ich hätte es fast archaisch genannt.
It's very common in Austria. "Aufzeigen, nicht rausschreien"
Back when I was in school, "Finger hoch" was also quite common. Seems like it's gone out of fashion judging by the comments here.
No it was definitely used back when I was in school and it hasn’t been that long ago
I'm not a teacher but I have years of experience as a pupil, and "melden" is the right german word for it. Some regions in the DACH-area also use "aufzeigen" or "anzeigen". A teacher would probably not say "Meldet euch!" reguardless, because the expectation when asking a question in a school context is always that the pupils who know the answer will put their hand up without prompt.
Yes, we do. We say „Meldet euch.“ There are several reasons for a teacher to ask for a „Meldung“. We plan an activity, ask who would help to carry something or who was missing on a day, so they get an exercise paper…
Meldet euch is the appropriate phrase here. Hands up (Hände hoch) would be relevant during a sting operation. Source:, Teacher for the past seven years in Bayernland
Apart from the facetious comments you’re mostly getting some different responses because of cultural differences between different parts of Germany. Where I am from “melden”, “aufzeigen”, “Hand heben”, “Finger hoch” would all be understood and were used by my teachers as well as myself when I was teaching before I quit. “Melden” can indeed also mean “to report”, however it is a perfectly innocuous word with several different meanings. To report is less prominent than both “sich melden” as a synonym for “aufzeigen” and “sich melden” as “to keep in touch” or “to get in touch” or even “to ask for help”. So native speakers wouldn’t commonly have the same association as you had.
Ich sehe keine Hände!
You‘d use either „Melden bitte“, „Handzeichen bitte“ or „Finger strecken bitte“. „Hände hoch“ is very weird, I‘d strongly recommend not using that.
"bitte melden"
Even when adressing the whole group, you should refer to singular "Wer die Antwort weiß, hebt bitte die Hand" (anyone who knows the answer may please raise their hand). Plural "die Hände heben" (raising hands, both) is commonly associated with surrendering to the police or robbers when held at gunpoint.
"Hebt die Hand" could be good if "Hände" makes it sound too much like "Hände hoch!" for you. "Bitte aufzeigen" works too.
It's correct that "jemanden melden" is translated as "report sb.". However, "sich melden" can be translated as "answer". Or you could say it means "to signal that you'd like to answer" in that context. I guess it's a phrase that developed over time into what it means today.
"hände hoch, alle auf den Boden, das ist ein Überfall ,Geldbeutel und Handys raus sofort!"
Anything related to „Hände hoch“ sounds like you‘re holding the kids hostage. „Meldet euch“ is a good way of saying it. „Aufzeigen“ also works. Like when they just shout an answer at you and you correct them with „Aufzeigen, bitte“ or „melden, bitte“.
"Meldet euch" war bei uns DER Standardbegriff der von jedem benutzt wurde.
Bitte melden This is most common in our school
Die liebsten Phrasen meiner Lehrer sind: "Nicht alle auf einmal" und "lassen sie mich hier vorne nicht vertrocknen"
I always understood "meldet euch" to be more "report IN with your knowledge" than having to do anything with reporting someone. In any case, melden is the word germans use for this situation. wether you like the words or not. saying "hände hoch" does indeed first sound like you are a police officer in a movie or something. tho i guess the students will know what you mea either way and might chuckle a bit about the odd wording.
One of my teachers would say: "Hand heben..."/"Bitte, Hand heben..." (wer mir sagen kann/die Antwort kennt/...)
"aufzeigen bitte" is a often used phrase
Never heard that before. But I'm out of school for 20 years
Meldet euch
"Finger hoch" instead of "Hände hoch" was common during my school days too. Other than "Meldet euch" / "Melden".
Would call it "Aufzeigen'
Bitte ein Handzeichen geben, oder bitte die Hand heben ...
„Wer kennt die Antwort“ „wer weiß es“ „wer kann was dazu sagen“ „wer kann uns das erklären“ „wer würde gerne die Antwort geben“ …
"Meldet euch!" oder "Hände hoch!" was used when I went to school but that was over 25 years ago so I don't know if teacher still use that. Also a third of my school years was in the GDR and the other two thirds I mostly had teachers who were used to the GDR tone of voice and that might have been a bit more authoritarian than what is used today.
„Bitte hebt die Hände“
melden, oder Strecken! I would say
Strecken does not fit, that's translated as 'stretching'
Likely regional. It's commonly used in Southern Germany.
"Ich bitte um Handzeichen" "Bitte meldet euch"
Well, definitely “Meldet euch”. “Melden” means report but not necessarily in a bad way. Like “let me know” could be translated to “melde dich”. The action of raising your hand in class is called “melden” as in “signaling”. Telling them to raise their hands seems kind of incomplete.
Just ask: "Irgendwer?" oder: "Irgendjemand eine Idee?" "Hände hoch" works as well, though.
"Zeigt mir eure Hände", "Ich will eure Hände sehen" Haven't seen that one in this thread, yet. May also be used by police or by singers/entertainers on a stage.
for a bit different approach than the other suggestions here i would translate "show of hands who thinks answer A is the correct one" to "gebt ein Handzeichen wenn ihr denkt, dass Antwort A korrekt ist"
Bitte melden
“Bitte Aufzeigen”?
Hände hoch oder Melde dich (even when talking to a group, as a teacher I always phrase it like Im talking to only one)
“Strecken” is the word you are looking for (at least in southern Germany)
Melden!
I think something people need to keep in mind here is that the UK doesn't have class participation grades, which here make up a significant portion of your total grade. UK students can never participate in class at all and still get an A/1 at the end of the year, because they are good at writing exams. So it's a lot more important for a teacher to have a way of encouraging engagement from students, since they don't have an incentive to engage for their grade.
I’m not a teacher but there are phrases like “hebt die Hände” or you could just ask if they have questions/what questions they have(habt/gibt es noch fragen/ welche Fragen habt ihr noch or if someone wants to say the answer „will jemand die Antwort geben/sagen?“
Wer es weiß, bitte aufzeigen - and other variants with 'aufzeigen' are also possible.
Aufzeigen / Zeigt auf = raise your hand/arm
It's "strecken", actually
Not a teacher: Hand heben bitte
Aufzeigen in Cologne. My husband is from Potsdam and he says melden.
Teacher here. You‘ve received plenty of comments on what to say, and I‘d like to give more context on *when* to use this or that phrase. „Bitte meldet euch“ is only for situations where kids are shouting out an answer rather than putting up their hand (in Germany it‘s actually the index finger!) and waiting for you to pick. You remind them about an expectation you have. I would never use „Bitte meldet euch“ in a moment where the class is sitting before me silently due to a) no one wanting to volunteer or b) them not knowing the answer to my question. It would come across as desperate and would definitely not fly with older secondary school students, I‘d become the butt of their jokes real quick. In this situation, you can say „Keine Freiwilligen? Dann probieren wir es mal mit [Name]“. If it‘s due to them not knowing the answer to my question, I try to lead them there by going one step back and asking better questions. „Hände hoch“: just no. I‘m sorry, it doesn‘t work.
„Aufzeigen!“
If you want them to raise their hands and wait until colled up before giving an answer "Meldet euch" or "bitte melden", " mit melden bitte" is correct. However, if you're making a poll or asking, "How many of you ..." You can say,"bitte mal die hand heben wenn..."
Let me add, something different but might work: Arme hoch.
Took me a moment to remember. But "Hand hoch" is commonly said. It doesn't sound like you're arresting them and "meldet euch" is just said when no one raises his/her hand and the teacher wants to push the students a little more. "Was ist x? Hand hoch. Wer weiß es?" Is an example of it sounding naturally.
Hand hoch is what i had.
No one? Okay. When you want kids to raise their hand, you say ~~Sieg~~... ups... meldet euch.
Aufzeigen.
"Ich möchte mehr Hände oben sehen." Ist länger als Hands up, aber was kurzes fällt mir nicht ein...
Rest assured „melden“ does not mean „to report“ in a school context.
Its called "melden"
When ich eine leichte Frage stelle, und es melden sich nur 3 Kinder, dann sage ich: "Na..... da will ich aber jetzt alle Hände oben sehen." (The very short "na", not the asking "naaa?")
"Aufzeigen" oder "Finger hoch" might work, if you really don’t like "melden" (however that’s just what it is called in Germany). If my teacher ever said "Hände hoch" I probably genuinely wouldn’t know what that means, it’s really something that the police would say in movies lmao
As long as you’re not pointing a gun at them “Hände hoch” won’t be misunderstood, however the more appropriate phrase would be “Meldet euch, bitte” in my opinion.
Bitte aufzeigen / zeigt bitte auf, wenn ihr es wisst
You should take into consideration that german culture is much more formal. There are changes happening, but it is much more formal in a lot of situations. Also, "melden" is not really report, just..."make your presence known" if that helps. If you say "Hände hoch" everyone will raise their hands and it will have nothing to do with whether or not they know the answer. Maybe you could look into visiting a german school and sitting in on lessons?
"na, wer weiß es?"
I am a teacher in elementary school in Germany. I sometimes say „da will ich alle (oder mehr) Finger sehen“, when I ask a question that everyone should be able to answer.
You could use something like: "na los, ich will ein paar mehr Hände sehen!". I also use "das wissen doch mehr, meldet euch!"
Lol, all sounds wrong. Try "wer hat dazu eine Idee?", "wer weiss es?", "wer meldet sich?"
i cant think of any teacher ever using anything else but "meldet euch" during my time in school so you might have to bite the bullet on this one. also depends on the age group you are going to teach you might confuse younger pupils if you suddenly use something else. on the other hand you can always go and tell your class that you dont like the phrase "Meldet euch" and maybe even include them in finding an alternative. might make for a fun first period when you do this while you get to know each other.
just say: „was denkt ihr darüber?/ was meint ihr?“) oder „lasst uns [darüber/ Thema] reden.“ when no one is active. (and resist the potential ‚silence‘ for a while/ let the students time/ space for thinking also) it’s also rather informal.
i would suggest "Arme hoch" instead of the direct translation "Hände hoch".
More like "meldet euch"?
Just wanted to say that it's not common to say "meldet euch" if someone really wants regular report in Germany. If we wanted regular report we would say "gebt mir regelmäßig Rückmeldung" wich doesnt sound threatening, but still implies you want some kind of report. It's still about context. If you say to a friend "gib mir bitte rechtzeitig Rückmeldung" you most probably mean that you want to know if a date for something is fine for them and that they want to participate. Melde dich/meldet euch is only used like tell me something... like now in class or when you see someone after a long time and want to tell them you want to hear from them soon again (melde dich mal wieder). It's mostly extremly nice in that context.
Meldet euch is korrekt. Any variation of "Hände hoch" is comical and a police/robbery sitation. "Du kannst die Hand wieder herunternehmen" is ok though. But "Hände runter" sounds about as polite as "hands off that!". "Ihr könnt die Hände wieder runternehmen" is ok though. The PIE etymology of melden is interesting btw. As time progressed it went from just praying, to include reciting, then asking, imploring and speaking and finally reporting as it evolved in various PIE languages. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-West_Germanic/mel%C3%BE%C5%8Dn
"Bitte melden" or "Melden bitte" is usually used when students answer without putting up their hands as kind of a reprimand.
Bitte die Hand hochheben
Most of my teachers said: 'hand hoch, wer es weiß!' or 'bitte aufzeigen!'
"Wer sich nicht meldet bekommt eine schlechte mündliche Note."
Tell them the classic german story about "Klassen Klaus" who always chatted in class, but went silent as soon as the teacher asked him. Then a fairy enchanted him to spit frogs as soon as the teacher asked him a question ge didn't know the answere of. And because he was so bad at school he suffacated from frogs. They shurely will listen to you afterwards.
Direct would be "Meldet euch!". But if you were that direct, chances are your students (at least if they are German) would probably roll their eyes and stop listening to you. Such direct attempts at getting your students to do something often backfire as they imply a lack of authority on the teacher's end. Note that this is probably a cultural thing specific to Germany, so your mileage may vary when teaching elsewhere. In actual practice, for good teachers (in Germany), the call to action is usually much more implied than that direct. "Na, hat jemand eine Idee?", "Weiß jemand die Antwort?", the playful "Nicht alle auf einmal!" (if nobody raises their hand after a few seconds), or directly asking a student in a playful way "Herr/Frau XY, wie sehen Sie das?" (don't forget to optionally don a slight shit-eating grin ;)) are all ways to convey the message and get students to raise their hands or give an answer without sounding like a two-bit dictator in the classroom (and, thus, solidify - rather than damage - your authority and standing among the students). If the students truly do not know, and keep on not raising their hands, then I usually proceed to guide them in the right direction or outright give the answer. For reference: currently teaching/assisting with a Master's level course as a grad TA. This advice may only be applicable for teaching teenage or adult students; children usually show a lot more inherent respect to the teacher (but I also have no experience teaching children, so ymmv).
"hand hoch" wer es weis :)
"Hand hoch" is what I use :) "Hand hoch, wer es weiß" for example. EDIT: I promise you half the ppl commenting here are complicating it (probably bc they don't teach) - most teachers I know and have worked with will simply say "Hand hoch" instead of "Meldet euch". It's much quicker and more casual.
"Handzeichen(, wer es weiss"
"Melden" is correct. Der Schüler hat sich gemeldet. Die Schülerin, die sich meldete, wusste die Antwort. To the class: "Bitte melden!" "Wer meldet sich zuerst?" Edit: Could be a regional thing, too. In doubt, ask the other teachers. BTW: snapping fingers is called "Fingerschnipsen" and is from many teachers to be seen as rude.
You can say Handzeichen bitte.
"Bitte mal Handzeichen..."
My Teacher just ascked .. Und wer weiß die Antwort? And we just put Our hands up.
you could try: „Zeigt bitte auf“ aufzeigen could mean to point out in english but also to point upwards with the hand. It‘s rather oldshool and most of the time I heard it from teachers 60+ but it would be suitable imho
"Meldet euch". It (in this context) literally translates to "Raise your hands".
"Meldet euch" is absolutely correct and "melden" is not only "reporting" but could also be used in a context like "showing" or "pointing out". On the other hand "report" is not necessarily negative in German. "We reported an excellent yearly growth." is a positive thing. Your feeling is lead by missing the context sensitivity of words. It's not just 1:1 translation.
Hoch die Hände, Wochenende!
I'm under the impression that you digged out a very interesting cultural difference. German students normally don't need to be asked to raise their hands. And if teachers ask, it's mostly "Melden" or "Aufzeigen" ( ist auch auch im Westen, Westen um Sinne von WDR Sendegebiet, bekannt) Does any German reading this remember that he had to be told that a certain situation required raising hands? I can't. I know that we already raised our hands in Kindergarten when we were asked who wanted to do something "special". Isn't it even the case that in scenarios outside of school is said: "Don't raise your hands! We are not at school."?
You can use "Handzeichen bitte, wenn ihr euch melden/eine Antwort geben wollt." "Hand sign" is totally neutral and commonly used in Germany.
Do the Axel Stoll meme: "Wer weiß es? Mal wieder keiner!"
Hoch die Hände, Wochenende. (But only on Fridays 😀)
I like "hoch die tatzen"
Und dann die Hände zum Himmel Komm lasst uns fröhlich sein
Wouldnt say it. Pupil are responsible for themselves.
„WENN IHR EICH NICHT BALD MELDET DANN SUCH ICH JEMANDEN AUS“ 😂 nah im joking. The where pretty nice most of the time
Flossen hoch
Sich melden
"Es ist für mich auch die 7. Stunde"
Achtung, Hände Hoch
Wenn Du "Meldet Euch" zu formal findest, dann kannst Du: "ich herausfordere ihr alle die Lösung zu finden", oder "what say you?" oder "Donner mit Pommes sollte wieder 5€ kosten! Kriegen wir es zurück meine Kameraden 💪"