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Adventures in German and beyond... | ||
Tags: German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| pandorasighs Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4053 days ago 15 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 23 20 January 2014 at 12:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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My primary language endeavour for 2014 is the improvement of my German skills. I learned German at the Goethe-Institut over several years, and now that I've completed the C1 level it is time to consolidate everything that I've learned. I'd describe my grammar as 'shaky', my reading as approximating C1, writing as approximately a B2 standard and speaking skills as wildly inconsistent!
This year I would like to sit the C1 GI exam in June, read at least 6 novels in German to gain confidence, revise all my grammar points, write at least one essay or a 2 entries a week on my German blog to practise writing. Hopefully I'll be able to attened exam classes or at least a conversation class. I'll be visiting Leipzig for the umpteenth time in June, and probably Berlin and Duesseldorf later in the year. My aim for the end of 2014: Confident C1 skills in reading, writing, grammar and speaking. Other languages I'm due to visit Madrid for the first time in 5 weeks, and having never visited Spain before and having no previous knowledge of Spanish. I'm looking forward to learning a few phrases and useful vocabulary for the next few weeks. I don't intend it to become one of my main languages this year, because I'm a terror for starting languages and not pursuing them in the long term - too many other gaps to fill.I aim to spend about 15 hours a week acquiring basic Spanish in order to maximise enjoyment of my visit. The one obstacle is that I'm awful at 'R' sounds in other languages (Italian, French and Russian to name three) so I'm doubtful I can master the accent in any way, shape or form within such a short space of time. From March onwards hopefully I can resume French. I'd like to take some instruction during the summer months, but in the meantime I have oodles of French materials to work with at home. I've never had a particular fondness for French. Perhaps it's because I had to learn it throughout school. However my reading standard is about B1 (I read regularly through French) and my basic grammar is ok, but I haven't spoken or written the language in years. Aim: Solid B1 Other than that, I'd love to resume study of Italian; truly love it, but gave it up to focus on German; I'm only an A1 standard; and finally get around to learning some Dutch. I'm interested in Dutch as I have several acquaintances form Belgium, and think I might enjoy it as an interim language to English and German. But...for the time being let me see where I can get with with German and Spanish... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4475 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes  Studies: German | Message 2 of 23 20 January 2014 at 12:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Good luck with your studies. I am self-learning German here in Berlin (I'm about B2 listening/reading and B1 speaking/writing). I am looking forward to following your blog.
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| pandorasighs Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4053 days ago 15 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 23 20 January 2014 at 7:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thank you! I feel I must 'activate' German now, which is ceratinly something you can only motivate yourself to do. One of the first things I can do is actually make a big effort to use German in Germany. I constantly fall into the pit of speaking to German friends in English through embarassment facilitated by the basis that our relationship was founded through English. Edited by pandorasighs on 21 January 2014 at 4:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4475 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 4 of 23 20 January 2014 at 7:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
You have a different relationship to Germans than me. Apart from my wife (!) they all seem to want to talk German. :) Even among university graduates - who use English professionally - people were much more comfortable speaking German than English at parties or wherever. Perhaps this is more a East/Berlin thing. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ElComadreja Senior Member Philippines bibletranslatio Joined 7180 days ago 683 posts - 757 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Cebuano, French, Tagalog | Message 5 of 23 21 January 2014 at 4:11am | IP Logged | |||||
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So what are your listening skills like? or is that included in the speaking? :)
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| pandorasighs Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4053 days ago 15 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 23 21 January 2014 at 4:10pm | IP Logged | |||||
That's rather good news from my perspective; I'd quite like to take a career break to work in Berlin for 3 or 4 months. I've had the majority of my speaking practice around Dresden and Leipzig, normally amongst strangers. But admittedly I could have had more with a tad more effort and lack of self-consciousness.
My listening skills, like my speaking, vary wildly. :-) For example I can can cope reasonably well with Deutsche Welle C-level podcasts, basic news bulletins and TV shows such as Wild Germany and Tatort to name too. However, watching a variety of movies reveals how patchy my skills are. I find some movies/dialogue impenetrable I've passed plenty of Goethe B2 listening tests without difficulty, however I'm aware they're part of a classroom situation and not a true indication of the real world. Edited by pandorasighs on 21 January 2014 at 4:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| pandorasighs Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4053 days ago 15 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 23 21 January 2014 at 4:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
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This week I have three aims. The first is to continue reading Homo Faber by Max Frisch. I've had this on loan from the library for rather a long time. I cam be quite lazy with reading novels in German, given that they require that extra effort of level and concentration. 50 pages in I understand approx. 85% of the vocabulary, though a glance at certain constructions emphasises the fact that I badly need to revise my grammar as an aide to writing.Hopefully I'll finish this novel within a week. I try to stop every 25 pages to make a note of words/phrases I don't understand and subsequently use dict.cc or PONS to revise them.
The second aim is to make inroads into my copy of Hueber's Em Uebungsgrammatik: Deutsch als Fremdsprache . Over the next 3 months I literally want to complete every exercise in this book (some, such as those relating to the Passiv) for the third or fourth time. Then I'll use each topic to create my own practice exercises/ pieces of writing. My third aim is to begin my Spanish studies whenever my copies of Colloquial Spanish and Teach Youself Get Talking Spanish in Ten Days arrive. I usually keep a spreadsheet where I log the hours I spend studying each language. I don't usually included speaking or movies or tv, unless it's really dedicated practice or I'm taking a lot of notes and following them up. Hopefully by Monday I will have spent 10 hours on German and 5 on Spanish. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4475 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 8 of 23 21 January 2014 at 5:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
How are you finding the book? I only recently moved into more 'adult' territory. I am just reading translations of books I wanted to read recently. I had a quick look at a copy of Homo Faber and thought I might read it if you could recommend it. Berlin is great in the summer. Let me know if your plans firm up. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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