CarlyD’s German/Spanish Log (Language Learning Log) Language Learning Forum

CarlyD’s German/Spanish Log
Tags: Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) \| German
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Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log

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Ccaesar
Triglot
Groupie
Denmark
Joined 3787 days ago
84 posts - 94 votes

Speaks: Danish*, English, German
Studies: Italian

Message 41 of 63

26 January 2015 at 11:38am | IP Logged

carlyd wrote:

@Ccaesar--thank your for the advice.

So it's something like 45 days since I started learning German. I went through the
"everybody's so much more advanced than me" stage, then the "everybody is learning
faster than me" stage. Got to hurry up!! Got to catch up!!

I've calmed down. My German journey is for the whole year of 2015. I don't want to
hurry to the next lesson, the next chapter, the next book. I want anything I learn to
be totally learned, never forgotten.

I've sorted out my learning-alone style. If I can hardly speak English in the
morning, why would I think I could leap up and do 5 lessons of Assimil before
breakfast?

Now I do quiet-time workbook writing early in the morning, textbooks and talking later
in the day. And a probably 3-month learning schedule spread out over the whole year.
I'm ok with that.

I'm doing pronouns right now. Nominative and accusative. They were easier in
Spanish--probably because I didn't know what they were called and it was just "this is
how you say it". Sometimes I think the Spanish books are a bit more user-friendly
than the German books. Or they seem that way to me.

I looked at the Deutsch im Blick website yesterday. I like the videos--very short,
interviewing several German people and then several German language students, all the
same questions. It gives the script in both German and English. I could understand
the language learners a lot easier because they spoke much slower but it gives you the
opportunity to play the videos over and over. I'll go there often just for that.

Their website: http://coerll.utexas.edu/dib/

It sounds like you have a structured plan, splendid! ;)

The German syntax can be a bit tricky, but it is actually quite good, because it
species everything. I think I have a table lying around with the basics about where to
put everything I'll see if I can find it and give you an example :)

finger rule: time place, the manner, cause.
z.B. "Heute, bin ich in der Schule gegangen, weil es Montag ist"

In most cases you have to think what might be the "direct object" in the sentence to
figure out whether it's akkusativ or not. (Some verbs and so so are the exceptions to
this rule- it's simply to learn those expressions by heart).

But like. Ich habe ihn gefunden. Ihn is the akkusativ of er(he) and is akkusativ
because I have "a direct object"

Viel Glück beim Lernen!
1 person has voted this message useful

carlyd
Groupie
United States
Joined 3981 days ago
94 posts - 138 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

Message 42 of 63

28 January 2015 at 9:19pm | IP Logged

List of Goals for the 6 Week Challenge--Feb. 1st to March 14th:

1. Finish the Complete Grammar Book--I'm on Chapter 8 now
2. Complete 6 to 10 chapters in the textbook
3. Duolingo every day
4. Babbel every day
5. Conversation practice--need to work this out.
6. Listening practice--20 minutes every day or at least 5 days a week.
7. Finish my first book--Café in Berlin--read and reviewed

Where I am now:

Know between 400-600 words.
Can't hold a conversation beyond "how are you"
Can't write a sentence of my own. I can tell you the duck is on the table, but not what I'm doing or planning to do.

Where I want to be March 14th:

Hold a simple short conversation--about anything.
Write a paragraph, again about anything.
Be comfortable with the case changes, verb conjugations for present, past, at least
Push past "I'm not ready" and start posting in German
Have a plan for the next 6 weeks and then the next challenge.

Progress meters so far:

Duolingo test 2 1/2 weeks ago: .85/5.00
Duolingo test today: 2.35/5.00 Much easier
German level test from www.languagelevel.com last month: A0--take it again March 14th.

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carlyd
Groupie
United States
Joined 3981 days ago
94 posts - 138 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

Message 43 of 63

01 February 2015 at 9:29pm | IP Logged

6WC--day 1

I finished chapter 5 in the textbook and started chapter 6--1:15 hours. Then :15 on Duolingo doing my 5 sections. I thought I was spending more time than that on Duolingo, I guess not.

Today's writing--totally horrible--I don't know enough vocabulary to say what I want to say, but I'm writing anyway.

Ich wohne in California. Heute ist "Super Bowl Sunday." Heute wird es nicht warm, aber es sonnig. Im Winter wird es nicht sehr kalt.

Edit: I forgot to add. Today when I went on Facebook, there was a post from Stickbär and I totally understood it. Yes it was short and easy, but it was "normal"--not easy for language learners. So progress there. The posts today and yesterday from Racheshop I didn't understand. I even put them through Bing Translate and even it didn't understand.

Edited by carlyd on 01 February 2015 at 9:34pm
1 person has voted this message useful

carlyd
Groupie
United States
Joined 3981 days ago
94 posts - 138 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

Message 44 of 63

03 February 2015 at 7:30am | IP Logged

6WC--Day 2

Favorite Sentence of the Day:

Lassen Sie Ihr Geld für Sie arbeiten. (Let your money work for you.)

Currently on prepositions that take the accusative and verbs that separate. I'm not happy with Duolingo right now because it wants to dump me into an area that's far from my textbook and grammar, so I'm just treading water there, reviewing everyday.

I'm doing a little more than 2 hours a day so far--hope to keep it up for the whole 6 weeks.

Off to get my sentences ready for tomorrow.

1 person has voted this message useful

carlyd
Groupie
United States
Joined 3981 days ago
94 posts - 138 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

Message 45 of 63

03 February 2015 at 9:17pm | IP Logged

NOT planning on updating every day of the 6WC, but this is Day 3.

Just finished Chapter 6 in textbook and took both chapter test and Chapter 1-6 Test and did excellent.

My textbook and grammar book (by same author) have been meshing well, but next up in textbook is past tense then dative. Next in grammar book is verbs that separate. I think I'll stick with just textbook for the next 2 chapters and finish past tense.

I don't have a favorite sentence of the day today, so I'll just go with:

Ich weiß nicht.
1 person has voted this message useful

carlyd
Groupie
United States
Joined 3981 days ago
94 posts - 138 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

Message 46 of 63

08 February 2015 at 8:47pm | IP Logged

6WC--Day 8

I have over 15 hours so far this month on the challenge, and I tend to run around #14 or so out of the 70? people involved.

I see progress--nothing magical, but day by day. Working on simple past tense now and building vocabulary.

I was reading Benny Lewis' article about forced immersion. Change your Facebook to German. Change your home page. I'm going to change my Facebook today. My home page does vary between English and Spanish but I don't think I know enough German to handle it. Not yet.

Edit: Ok, I changed my Facebook to German--it is WONDERFUL!!! It wiped out all the irritating ads since they're only in English and changed all the dates/times to German, which I seriously need practice on.

Edited by carlyd on 08 February 2015 at 8:56pm
1 person has voted this message useful

patrickwilken
Senior Member
Germany
radiant-flux.net
Joined 4525 days ago
1546 posts - 3200 votes

Studies: German

Message 47 of 63

08 February 2015 at 10:14pm | IP Logged

carlyd wrote:

I was reading Benny Lewis' article about forced immersion. Change your Facebook to German. Change your home page. I'm going to change my Facebook today. My home page does vary between English and Spanish but I don't think I know enough German to handle it. Not yet.

Yeah. Create a microclimate of German about you! I've managed to get rid of most English media - though I still hang out on HTLAL.
2 persons have voted this message useful

carlyd
Groupie
United States
Joined 3981 days ago
94 posts - 138 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

Message 48 of 63

12 February 2015 at 6:57am | IP Logged

I did so much German yesterday I think I burned something in my brain. I woke up at 2 am and my first thought was whether something was der or das.

Actually it was probably close to 5 hours. Today was Duolingo only and catching up with all the stuff I should have been doing yesterday. Tomorrow, back to normal.

When I had my Facebook set to English, I could use the "see translation" button if I got stuck. I didn't think about that I'd lose that when I reset it to German. Darn.

I was looking at a Facebook post from Latino singer Cheyenne about an upcoming concert tour and didn't understand a particular word. So I did the "see translation"--and got the message in German. LOL.

Continuing with simple past tense--there's three chapters about it in the text so I'm going to take my time with it. Lots of irregulars.

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